Analysis Of The Stonewall Uprising

Freedom is a basic right for all people living in America. It’s what we stand for and what we aim to protect, by all means necessary. Imagine a time where that freedom was taken away from you and you were left feeling confused, angry, and hopeless. Those feelings of heart-break and despair are the same ones that millions of homosexual people felt throughout the first half of the 20th Century. These helpless people were treated like animals: abused and unloved. With no place to call their own, and being considered social outcasts by a majority of the population, they were forced to keep their homoerotic desires to themselves in order to try and live a normal life. They were not allowed to “come out” if they wanted to protect themselves and
This riot wasn’t lead by affluent and opulent people who felt sorry for homosexuals, this riot was lead by young street kids who felt as though their home, the one place they could be themselves, was being torn out from beneath them! These kids had no reputations to be tarnished, no money to be taken, and no family which could be threatened. They would lose nothing from this riot, but instead gain something that had been denied to them for so long. Their inexhaustible passion for standing up for themselves and the people around them led to one of the biggest movements of all time. The fact that these kids realized they didn’t deserve to be treated like worthless pieces of trash simply for their sexuality, and acted on this, created what is known as the “Rosa Parks movement for
Everyone, homosexual or not, knew that these riots were wars waged between society and its outcasts, and that they would affect generations to come. This was a moment that is equally as influential as the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. and the integration of the “Little Rock Nine.” The Gay Liberation Front created the first parade to mark the anniversary of Stonewall. This parade was a giant success, and it was during this moment that people began to truly realize how far the gay rights movement had come. The Stonewall Uprising showed that homosexuals are people, and that they do have a voice in the world. They have the right to speak up for what is wrong and should not have to live in constant fear of the government and their peers. Stonewall paved the path to one of the most liberating movements in the history of the United States, and it all started with the simple, little word: