Stonewall By Martin Duberman

Student’s Name Course Instructor Date Unit Paper 1 The article by Martin Duberman on Stonewall is very enlightening as far as LGBTQ rights are concerned. The article clearly outlines the struggles that gay people in particular have faced over time in an attempt to be accepted and recognized in various communities. Through the article, it is quite easy to understand how the government, especially in the United States blindly supported the suppression and repression of the gay people in the past years. The work by Duberman has undoubtedly helped me have a different perception of the world particularly through the analysis of its historical events. In essence, life in today’s world is still being affected largely by the historical events at Stonewall as seen by many minority groups often trying to fight for their rights through Pride Marches. In cases where these rights are violated, it usually leads to riots like in the case described by Duberman. By looking into this, there is no doubt that gay rights had been ignored for a long time and that the revolutionary resistance at Stonewall played a major role in setting the pace for the liberation of the gay people. In many ways, the mentioned reading has both affirmed and challenged what I knew before this unit. To begin with, it has affirmed the fact that gay people have always been violently repressed or in other cases openly denied their rights. Most people, especially the straight ones often see them as queers or “faggots” and therefore think that they have little or no rights at all. That explains why those in power stepped on any efforts by them either to be recognized or engage in businesses like any other individuals. In the case described by Martin Duberman for example, we are told of the police being used to forcefully shut down a local gay bar that had been allegedly carrying out its operations without a proper license. There is also the mention of the bar patrons and a number of the customers being arrested by the police (Zinn & Arnove). It is surprising that the police would go to such an extent of beating innocent people when all they wanted was to operate peacefully just like the other people in the community. In the confrontation between the police and the people, one person is heard asking them, “What you got against faggots? We don’t do you nuthin’!”. By stating this, the author clearly shows that the gay individuals were being treated with undeserving violence unlike their straight counterparts. It is even surprising that instead of the government trying to listen to the plight of the people, it opted to send reinforcement in form of the TPF in an obvious attempt to silence the gay people. All these confirm my prior thoughts that indeed, some factions of the government are yet to accept gays or the idea of gay rights. Fortunately, a number of researches have begun focusing on the fact that gay rights and human rights cannot be separated (Ronald). In another way, the article challenged my belief that magazines and newspapers always support gay rights. As seen in the given case however, renowned newspapers and magazines of the time such as The Post, and Times barely gave their support for the gay rights. It is no wonder that one of their agendas was to �...