Before and After Stonewall

 

 Watching “After Stonewall” after having viewed “Before Stonewall” during our class felt like a concise explanation of queer politics and life from as far back as the 20’s up until the late 90’s. I knew limited information about queer politics and social issues during these times, so it was a great opportunity to get informed. In order for our twentieth century views regarding queer folks to exist, many hardships had to be endured by the LGBT community before and after the Stonewall riots occurred. “Before Stonewall” displayed the struggles of being closeted, and not only the fear of coming out, but the violence and struggle that it promised as well. Stonewall itself was an event that would prove to be the catalyst for the queer liberation movements to come afterwards, and the power it breathed into queer people is evident when reflecting upon the movements that followed it which are shown in “After Stonewall”.

Queer people have always existed even if it was in silence and discretion. To see movements and coalitions form, and for large groups of gay, lesbian, and queer folks to publicly band together however is what I found to be astonishing. Before Stonewall, finding a group of people like yourself as a gay person proved to be a challenge for most people. There were codes when it came to identifying a queer person in straight or cis spaces, and even in secrecy queer people were still prosecuted and labeled as absolute threats to society. We can see this perpetuated during the times like the Red Scare. Gay people were labelled as threats to American life and were treated as such. We can see that this culture did not disappear, but that it evolved.

Music was and always will be a freeing agent for oppressed peoples, and we can recognize this when watching “After Stonewall” and listening to how disco music was very much rooted in gay code. The way in which queer spaces operated in comparison to straight ones were highly different. When I consider the struggles that queer folks were faced with and still are faced with, I like to reflect upon how this altered communal spaces for each group. I believe that a yearning for a queer utopia or a space where one feels accepted is what brought gay spaces their glow. After being deprived of a safe space for so long, every space that was created after Stonewall was an embodiment of queer joy. I think that every queer communal space that was shown in "After Stonewall" such as the gay proms, or the firehouse parties, or even the queer clubs was beautiful to see as people finally felt that they had a safe place to be themselves.

 To be yourself even if it risks your own comfort, well being, reputation, or life is an occurence that really alters your character. Every trial and tribulation that the community faced only proved to make queer folks stronger as people. While some returned to a closeted lifestyle, there was an overwhelming amount of people who remained undaunted by the threat of violence and persecution. A threat to existence demanded not only defiance and retaliation, but reform. Once these people had found their space, they were not willing to give it up or pretend to be people they were not. Coalitions and organizations grew to be movements that would ensure that queer people would receive basic human rights. This was an effort that occurred even before the Stonewall riots, but the energy of this time made it so that more queer people felt empowered and safe to participate.  

What is most interesting and particularly beautiful in my opinion, is how each major crisis for the gay community brought differing groups of queer people together. There would always be differences between lesbians and gay men, as well as queer folks of color and white queer folks, but major crises such as the AIDS epidemic caused a lot of people to put their differences aside and band together. I enjoyed hearing how lesbians and queer women were able to assist gay men fighting against oppressive healthcare systems and being advocates for those dying of AIDS. After Stonewall, support groups for queer folks and queer activist organizations were created, but a lot of lesbians felt unsupported within scenes of certain gay men still. To see human beings that are fighting for the same cause be pitted against one another is almost as horrifying as seeing human beings only recognizing the differences in one another and feeling threatened and even violent about this. Despite threats to dampen the growing spirit of queer joy and acceptance, queer people still found ways to create spaces and organizations or coalitions that they felt would truly serve them. This displays the overwhelming sense of liberation that Stonewall truly represented. It is hard to say that things like the Gay and Lesbian National Lobby, or gay religious organizations would exist if not for the strength of queer people on the night of the Stonewall riots. Fighting back against oppressive systems that had been perpetuated for decades was the catalyst for queer people to find their true voice and advocate for a life of equal opportunity, treatment, and understanding.