Being a Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies major I was already introduced to some of the history of the infamous Stonewall Riots. I remember taking Queer Theory a couple semesters back and we talked about this event and its significance to the Gay Rights Movement. Although I don’t have a first-hand account of what actually took place I do have a pretty good overview. I knew that the riots took place at a popular Gay bar and that the crowd was majority transgender and people of color. Although this movement was made so popular by the efforts of people of color, it was mostly white cisgender males and lesbians that took advantage of this movement as recognition of the suffrage. This exclusion of specific minority groups drastically effected the progression of the movement as a whole because it placed people into categories against one another. Turning a movement of progression into a movement of segregation.
I feel like one of the biggest shocks to me was learning that other riots took place before Stonewall. I always pegged this movement as the first one because it is the most popular. Looking back on it now, I can see how that notion is completely flawed. Just because something become famous doesn’t mean that it was the first of its kind. Learning that distinction made me question how many other riots took place before this and why were they concealed so heavily within mass media. Considering this as well, it makes sense to consider that the reasoning behind these policies raids was to dissipate the collective gathers of drag queens, gay, and transgender people from public domains. Its a sad moment when you have to consider the level of scrutiny that these people faced on an everyday basis. If you were a person of color in addition to being one of the other types of people, I would imagine it being even harder. On one hand, people that were white and gay or trans didn’t seemed to be pegged harder than individuals of color. Now that may be just a theory with no evidence to support it but I think overall that race is a huge element to this discussion in particular due to Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera being such significant contributors.
I personally didn’t know much about Marsh P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera before now. I had a conversation with Raul in regards to this issue and he told me a lot. I definitely feel that trans representation within the Gay Rights Movement and it shouldn’t be that way. I feel that as a society, we are so fixated on placing every little thing into categories and because of that certain people get forgotten or pushed out. If the movement was set in motion by self-identified trans individuals, then they should be represented.