{"id":116,"date":"2018-01-30T14:43:24","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T19:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lzigelyte.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/LGBTQexperiences\/?p=116"},"modified":"2018-01-30T14:43:24","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T19:43:24","slug":"stonewall-and-sylvia-rivera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lzigelyte.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/LGBTQexperiences\/uncategorized\/stonewall-and-sylvia-rivera\/","title":{"rendered":"Stonewall and Sylvia Rivera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite Stonewall being credited as one of the most influential and significant gay movement events it was hardly the first rebellion. While it is the most well known there were a number of significant raids, disturbances, and rebellions before Stonewall. To name a few there was San Francisco’s New Year\u2019s Ball Raid in 1965, Compton\u2019s Cafeteria Disturbance in 1966, and the Los Angeles Black Cat Raid in 1967 (Armstrong). Even for someone who may be aware of LGBTQ history, these events are rarely talked about. However, these events are excellent examples of how the LGBTQ community came together during the 60s and 70s in social situations like bars. These bars gave way to increased gender and sexual expression. Additionally, these social gatherings gave way to the gay liberation movement. It led to people coming together to talk about the injustices they faced and fight back against the humiliation they faced through police raids and laws. <\/span><\/p>\n

All I really knew about Sylvia Rivera prior to this class was that she was a LGBTQ activist. Sylvia Rivera is known for throwing the first beer bottle that escalated the Stonewall riots (Brink). Sylvia was not known for being a \u201crespectable queer.\u201d She was poor, a transgender woman of color, a sex worker and she was hardly conventional. Sylvia herself faced rejection from the lesbian feminist movement which further displays how necessary it is for the feminist movement to be intersectional and include everyone, not just white cisgender women. Rather than focusing on issues like gay marriage, Sylvia focused on oppressed gay populations that were given even less of a voice at the time such as gay street workers. Even at the time, the gay movement predominantly focused on gay white cis man issues. People of different races, ethnicities, socioeconomic status\u2019, and genders were often left out of the equation. Sylvia fought to give those marginalized groups more of a voice. (Untorelli Press).<\/span><\/p>\n