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#stonewall inn
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Celebrating Black Queer Icons:
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy
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Born on October 25, 1940, Major is a trans women well known as a leader in the broader trans community and an activist, with a particular focus on black and incarcerated trans women. Major grew up in Chicago's South Side and participated in the local drag scene, during her youth. Major described the experiences as glamorous, like going to the Oscars. While she did not have the contemporary language for it, Major has been out as a trans women since the late 1950s. This made her a target of criticism, mistreatment, and violence, even among her queer peers. Majors transition, especially getting her hands on hormones, was largely a black market affair. Given the lack of employment opportunities for black trans women at the time, she largely survived through sex work and other criminalized activities. At some point Major moved to New York City and established herself amongst the cities queer community, despite the prejudice against trans women. She participated in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. Later, after getting convicted on a burglary charge, Major was imprisoned with men at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY. There she met Frank "Big Black" Smith, a participant in the 1971 Attica Uprising at Attica Correctional Facility. He treated Major, and her identity as a woman, with respect and the two built a friendship. Smith also taught Major a good bit about advocating for herself and other trans women being mistreated by the US Justice System. Major was released from Dannemora in 1974. Major moved to San Diego in 1978 and almost immediately began working on community efforts and participating in grassroots movements. Starting by working at a food bank, she would go on to provide services directly to incarcerated, addicted, and homeless trans women, and would provide additional services after the AIDS epidemic started. In the 1990s Major moved to the San Fransisco Bay Area, where she continued her work, alongside organizations like the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center. In 2003 Major became the Director of the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project, shortly after its founding by attorney and community organizer Alexander L Lee, a trans man. The group works to end human rights abuses in the California Prison System, with a focus on trans, intersex, and gender variant POC. The position has since been passed on to Janetta Johnson, a previously incarcerated trans woman who mentored under Major. She is the focus of the 2015, award winning, documentary Major!. Major has five sons, two biological and three runaways she adopted, after meeting them in a California park. Her oldest son, Christopher was born in 1978, and her youngest, Asiah (rhymes with messiah) in 2021. At 82 years old Miss Major Griffin-Gracy continues to be an active member of her community and an advocate for our rights as trans people.
Haven't settled on which yet, but Willmer "Little Ax" Broadnax or Victor J Mukasa will be next!
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harveyguillensource · 11 months
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Harvey and Susan Sarandon kicked off Pride early in NYC!
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cuntwrap--supreme · 11 months
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WOKE politicians 'support gay CONVERSION therapy' as confused kids 'fast-tracked to STERILISATION'
Andrew Doyle: On Friday there was a heated debate in the House of Commons about conversion therapy. Emotions ran high and few were more impassioned than the conservative MP Alicia Kearns who berated Alba MP Neil Hanvey for appealing on behalf of the LGB community.
So, here's how that exchange went.
Hanvey: People in the LGB community are often referred to as bigots and transphobes and other slurs just because we have concerns about legislation such of this. And we want to make sure that young LGB people are protected. And trans people. Does she agree with me that that must apply, that rule must apply, to all sides of any debate and not just one side that she favors.
Kearns: ... absolutely right, but there was one digit missing from his LGB: LGBT. We do not divide the LGBT community in this place. You can say that you have concerns about we doing. But by removing the T, you are suggesting that transgender people do not exist. You are suggesting they are lesser than other LGB people. And I will not stand for that, because it was trans people who stood with gay people at Stonewall. It was trans people who fought alongside for LGBT rights. So, when you say LGBT, when you remove the T, you suggest that they are lesser.
Doyle: Now it's clear to me that Alicia Kearns is well intentioned and sincere, and I mean no disrespect when I say that this is a subject about which she clearly knows very little. And that is dangerous, because if she gets her way on this issue, it will set back gay rights by decades.
So, let's address some of the key misconceptions. So, firstly, Kearns claimed that Hanvey was suggesting that transgender people don't exist, and at no point did he make such a claim. Sexual orientation and the belief in gender identity are totally unrelated concepts. Kearns seems to be suggesting that gay people have no right to campaign for their interests unless they simultaneously campaign for trans people. But why? Groups such as Mermaids campaign solely for trans rights. Are they therefore homophobic? Perhaps Alicia Kerns would like to berate them in Parliament. I look forward to seeing that.
Kearns went on to say that it was trans people who stood with the gays at Stonewall. Trans people fought together for LGB rights. Did they? I mean there were some trans people involved in the struggle for gay rights, certainly. But not all that many. The activists who changed history for the better were predominantly lesbians and gay men. At the Stonewall Inn, it was mostly gay men with some lesbians and drag queens who were involved in the riots. And it was likely a lesbian, Stormé DeLarverie, who sparked the whole thing. After the police raided the bar, she was being forcibly arrested and is said to have shouted to the crowd, aren't you going to do something?
Now, some trans activists have since attempted to rewrite history, claiming that a transwoman called Marsha P. Johnson threw the first brick at the Stonewall Inn. The trouble is, Marsha P. Johnson wasn't trans. He was a drag queen. And he wasn't even there when the rioting started.
Now, if Alicia Kearns wants to know about the actual history of Stonewall, not the revisionist fabrications of activists, she could read "Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution," by David Carter. Or, she could talk to someone who was actually there, such as the gay rights veteran Fred Sargeant.
Now let's talk about the confusion that's at the heart of this parliamentary debate. What exactly is conversion therapy? A YouGov poll last year revealed that 65% of voters believe that gay conversion therapy ought to be banned, and 62% feel the same about "trans conversion therapy." And this would suggest that most voters do not recognize the difference between the two, and nor do many politicians. Now this photograph was taken in Westminster Hall. A cross-party collective of dozens of MPs with a placard that reads, "I support a trans inclusive ban." The image was posted on Twitter by Laboir MP from Nottingham East, Nadia Whittome.
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In truth, and without realizing it, the these politicians are supporting a new form of gay conversion therapy, something that most of us thought would be consigned to the history books by this point. When we hear that phrase, "conversion therapy," most of our minds leap to a variety of horrific practices. So, in America, Christian fundamentalists have established programs to address the "problem" of homosexuality, there are camps where young people can "pray the gay away." Which I suppose is at least a step forward from brain surgery, castration and the kind of electric shock treatment favoured by scientific practitioners in the 20th century, or the corrective rape of lesbians to "cure" them of homosexual tendencies that still goes on in some countries.
Such practices are of course already illegal in the UK. So, why the need for a conversion therapy ban? Well, what's happening is there is a conflation of sexual orientation and gender identity and this is why so many are confused. In her book, "Time to Think," Hannah Barnes revealed that between 80 to 90% of adolescents who were referred to the Tavistock pediatric gender clinic were same-sex attracted. We've known for a long time there's a strong correlation between gender nonconformity in youth and being gay in adult life. Members at the Tavistock itself joked that, "soon there would be no gay people left." Whistleblowers revealed that homophobia was endemic. In other words, children who are likely to grow up gay are being "fixed" by medical practitioners to better conform with stereotypical heterosexual paradigms.
Barnes's research shows that the Tavistock clinic -- and this is a quote -- "ignored evidence that 97.5% of children seeking sex changes had autism, depression or other problems that might have explained their unhappiness." They are only 2% of the country's children that suffer from an autistic spectrum disorder, so why is it that 35% of referrals to the Tavistock fit into that category?
in almost all instances, children who are prescribed puberty blockers go on to cross- sex hormones, which in some cases leads to irreversible surgery. We're dealing here, overwhelmingly, with gay and autistic children fast-tracked onto a pathway to sterilization. This is what MPs such as Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Alicia Kearns and Keir Starmer are supporting. Whether they realize it or not.
Now, thankfully, more and more people are waking up to the scale of this problem. So, recently the equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Commons Women and Equality Select Committee about her discussions with former clinicians at the Tavistock. And the conclusion? So-called gender affirmative care amounts to what she described as, "conversion therapy for gay kids." And crucially, she cited a survey of detransitioners -- these are people who have been pressurized into transitioning and they later regret it -- in which 23% of respondents put their determination to transition down to experiences of homophobia.
Badenoch quoted a gender clinic in Germany. They said, "it must be understood that early hormone therapy may interfere with the patient's development as a homosexual. This may not be in the interests of patients who, as a result of hormone therapy, can no longer have the decisive experiences that enable them to establish a homosexual identity."
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It is profoundly disturbing that Starmer's Labour party is now officially supporting gay conversion therapy in the form of a ban on "trans-inclusive conversion therapy," and that he's gaining cross-party support. Now, a charitable interpretation is that Starmer, Kearns, Russell-Moyle, Whittome, all the other MPs who are supporting this, simply do not understand that they are advancing dangerously anti-gay proposals. They are supporting the new Section 28. And all the while, they think they're doing the precise opposite.
If any of these politicians would like to come on to this show and discuss these issues, I would be delighted to have them. Consider it an open invitation. In the meantime, I'd like to remind Parliament that homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organization's list of psychiatric disorders back in 1993. Being gay is not a medical condition that requires treatment. Unfortunately, activists have been remarkably successful in confusing the issues through semantic ambiguities and the redefinition of terms. And so, although it sounds desperately counterintuitive, the truth is that in order to oppose gay conversion therapy, one must be opposed to a ban on "trans conversion therapy."
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thefallenangelsgang · 10 months
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Today, 54 years ago, the Stonewall Riots began
The police raided the bar and our queer elders fought back. Today the gay rights movement is considered to have started.
It's been 54 years and all of us are still in danger. Sweeping anti-trans legislation is happening in the US. Anti-Trans sympathies are still largely the norm in the UK. Homosexuality is still criminalized in 64 countries.
Don't forget your history. Don't forget your elders. Don't forget your queer siblings. And DO NOT forget those who have died due to the neglect of issues that impact us.
They can try to kill us, beat us, jail us, but we will not break.
Throw bricks, suck dicks, and never forget your history <3
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cyarsk52-20 · 11 months
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The first pride event wasn’t a celebration but a riot
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sweetmeatdale · 2 years
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That lady at Stonewall:
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edankest · 11 months
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Let's talk about all things Pride. Give this blog post a read if you'd like to learn more about the origin of Pride, the importance of the Stonewall Uprising, social and political progress, and the some of the potential danger lgbt+ youths face in almost every state in the US.
It's harrowing, uncomfortable, devastatingly sad, and yet... I'm proud to be a part of the LGBT+
I put the B in LGBT+
-AW
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lgbtawarenessproject · 11 months
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Part 1: USA
Hello everyone! Happy pride month!
Last month I stated that coming June I would post about historical queer events around the world. This is part 1 of North America. Later today I will post parts 2 & 3, Belize and Greenland. The pride month calendar can be seen in our pinned post!
That being said, I'm excited to show you what I've been working on. (Also thanks Mom for helping me edit this)
-Soul
Stonewall Inn was one of many bars in Greenwich Village, New York City. It, just like many others, was owned by the Genovese crime family, the local mafia. The family thought it would be profitable to cater towards the gay citizens, shunned by most every other bar and person. Police had been bribed to ignore it, and on the occasions that they did raid the bar, ‘dirty’ cops would send a tip.
June 28th 1969, Stonewall Inn had just experienced a routine raid a couple days before. Officers burst in carrying a warrant, and arrested thirteen people. In order to check if they were truly ‘cross-dressing’, female officers would take them into the bathroom and have them strip
Usually when this happened everyone would let it go, they’d be mad, but they wouldn’t do anything. This time, however, an officer had hit a butch lesbian(widely assumed to be Stormé DeLarverie), in the head with a baton while getting her into the car. She yelled for the onlookers to act, and they did. Bottles, stones, pennies, and other things were thrown at the police. Among the first to throw them were two trans lesbians of color, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha Johnshon. The officers boarded themselves in the Inn, but the crowd had begun setting it on fire. Not long later, the firemen and riot control came and took control of the situation.
This event may be the one we are most familiar with, but it’s not the only thing that happened. Here are some links to other events that happened shortly before and after.
Before Stonewall
After Stonewall
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Back in 1987, the AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) epidemic had just been labeled an epidemic. There were very few treatments, and only one FDA approved one. This treatment, called AZT (zidovudine) , was only manufactured by one company. Burroughs Wellcome, a pharmaceutical company, had made the drug nigh inaccessible. The price was so high, that very few people could afford it. 
ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), was created in response to this. Larry Kramer was among the ones to originate this movement. The activist groups scheduled a march on Wall Street in 1987, scheduled to disrupt traffic during the morning rush hour. Activists laid in the street and held signs, chanting phrases like “We are angry, we want action”, and “Release those drugs.” Seventeen activists were arrested, but shortly afterwards the FDA announced it would lower the required time for drugs to be approved from nine years, to seven. 
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In June of 2015, gay marriage was legalized by the supreme court in the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges, forcing fourteen states to legalize same-sex marriage.
The case started in 2013, when James Obergefell and his husband John Arthur James, filed a lawsuit in Ohio when they realized that their marriage would not be recognized on Arthur's death certificate.  During the lawsuit, Arthur, who had a terminal illness, passed.
Plaintiffs told Obergefell that state officials were not going to approve his name being on Arthur’s death certificate, but filed the complaint anyway. The judge the case went to, Judge Timothy Black, granted Obergefell a temporary order that would allow Arthur to be marked as wed. 
The plaintiffs and Judge Black were not happy with this however, and the plaintiffs amended their complaint, adding two more plaintiffs. They asked that Ohio declare that their refusal to honor out of state marriages on death certificates, was unconstitutional and asked that they would fix it. Judge Black also declared it unconstitutional and banned the state from enforcing it upon the plaintiffs.
The department of health director Wymyslo appealed this, but was unable to see the case through. As was his successor Lance Himes. Himes’ successor Hodges was the one to finally see the case in court, where it was appealed. 
Obergefell filed a petition for a Writ of Certiorari with the supreme court, in 2014. In January of 2015, the Supreme Court granted it, allowing the case to be heard. The Supreme Court, decided after much deliberation, to recognize same-sex marriage as a right under the fourteenth amendment.
Sources 1 2
Additional things that I wanted to share about, but cannot do justice for.
Intersex Awareness 1 2 3 4 5
Two-Spirit 1 2 3
Please support our project by taking this survey if you haven't already done so!
-> Part 2
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Celebrating Black Queer Icons:
Tourmaline
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Tourmaline (formerly known/credited as Reian Gossett)is a trans woman that actively identifies as queer, and is best known for her work in trans activism and economic justice. Tourmaline was born July 20, 1983, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Tourmaline's mother was a feminist and union organizer, her father a self defense instructor and anti-imprisonment advocate. Growing up in this atmosphere allowed Tourmaline to explore her identity and encouraged her to fight in what she believes in. Tourmaline has earned a BA in Comparative Ethnic Studies, from Colombia University. During her time at Colombia U, Tourmaline taught creative writing courses to inmates at Riker's Island Correctional Institute, through a school program known as Island Academy. Tourmaline has worked with many groups and organizations in her pursuit of justice. She served as the Membership Coordinator for Queers For Economic Justice, Director of Membership at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and as a Featured Speaker for GLAAD. Tourmaline also works as a historian and archivist for drag queens and trans people associated with the 1969 Stonewall Inn Uprising. She started doing this after noticing how little trans material was being archived, saying that what little did get archived was done so accidentally. In 2010 Tourmaline began her work in film by gathering oral histories from queer New Yorkers for Kagendo Murungi's Taking Freedom Home. In 2016 Tourmaline directed her first film The Personal Things, which featured trans elder Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. For the film Tourmaline was awarded the 2017 Queer Art Prize. Tourmaline served as the Assistant Director to Dee Rees on the Golden Globe nominated historical drama, Mudbound. Tourmaline has co produced two projects with fellow filmmaker and activist Sasha Wortzel. The first was STAR People Are Beautiful, about the work of Sylvia Rivera and Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. The second was Happy Birthday, Marsha, about Marsha P Johnson. Happy Birthday, Marsha had all trans roles played by trans actors. Tourmaline's work is featured or archived in several major museums and galleries. In 2017 her work was featured in New Museum's exhibit Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon. In 2020 the Museum of Modern Art acquired Tourmaline's 2019 film Salacia, a project about Mary Jones. In 2021 the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired two of Tourmaline's works for display in Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room. Tourmaline is also the sibling of:
Che Gossett
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Che Gossett is a nonbinary, trans femme writer and archivist. Gossett specializes in queer/trans studies, aesthetic theory, abolitionist thought and black study. Gossett received a Doctorate in Women's and Gender Studies, from Rutgers University, in 2021. They have also received a BA in African American Studies from Morehouse college, a MAT in Social Studios from Brown University, and a MA in History from the University of Pennsylvania. Gossett has held a fellowship at Yale, and currently holds fellowships at Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge. Gossett's writing has been published in a number of anthologies and they have lectured and performed at several museums and galleries of note, including the Museum of Modern Art and A.I.R. Gallery. Gossett is currently working on finishing a political biography of queer Japanese-American AIDS activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya.
I originally intended to do separate profiles for Che Gossett Tourmaline, but could not find sufficient information about Che Gossett, beyond their credentials and current academic activity. That means that this will be the last of these write ups for a bit. I plan on picking it back up in October for the US's LGBT History Month and UK's Black History month. With time to plan ahead and research more I hope to diversify my list geographically and improve formatting. I plan on starting to include cis icons as well, like Rustin Bayard. If you come across this or any other of these posts Ive made this month I would love feedback and suggestions for figures you would like to see covered.
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autumnonapoea · 5 months
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b l u r r r
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mapsoffun · 8 months
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When we were in the Village, we made a stop to the Stonewall Inn and the Stonewall National Monument, and while we were a little bummed about the scaffolding obscuring the view (it’s New York--what are you going to do?) the National Monument is a beautiful park to stand in and have a few moments of quiet reflection. 
I’m definitely looking forward to coming back next year to check out the National Monument’s Visitor Center, slated to open in June.
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cassie1022 · 2 years
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Hard to believe this really happened, given current events. Happy 7 years, may it continue to be protected.
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sapphicpoetspost · 7 months
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important queer history!!
"and the prison had these windows. so people could yell up and down. so incarcerated women, their lovers would be on the streets yelling up to them. they would live their lives. their queer lives. publicly, where people could see them, and attract other people."
"The House of D [was] 500 feet from the Stonewall Inn," Ryan says. "On the first night of the riots, people incarcerated in the prison could actually see what was happening out their windows, and they started a riot all their own, setting fire to their belongings and throwing them down to the streets below while chanting 'Gay rights! Gay rights! Gay rights!'"
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scriobh-an-iontas · 11 months
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And now, for your Pride enjoyment, I present to you:
"Stonewall Riot"
<Sung to the tune of "Zoot Suit Riot">
+++++
[Verse 1]
Who’s that senator standin’ tall,
It’s Joe McCarthy and he hates us all,
Commies, anarchists, leftists, and queers,
Our rights were stripped, we lived in fear.
[Pre-Chorus 1]
A ma-fi-a owned dance hall,
Is where we went to play
The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich,
They didn’t care if we were gay.
[Chorus 1]
Stonewall Riot (Riot!)
Throw back a brick and a beer!
Stonewall Riot (Riot!)
My civil rights started ri-i-ight here!
Stonewall Riot (Riot!)
Throw back a brick and a beer!
Stonewall Riot (Riot!)
My civil rights started ri-i-ight here!
Blow daddy!
[Verse 2]
A-raid gone wrong's where it began,
The N Y P D didn't understand,
We weren't just sheep, merely in a haze,
But once we came to we quickly got enraged
[Pre-Chorus 2]
The ri-ots last-ed days,
Our community unfurled,
Later, queers would say it was
“The brick thrown round the world”
[Chorus 2]
Stonewall Riot (Riot!)
Throw back a brick and a beer!
Stonewall Riot (Riot!)
My civil rights started ri-i-ight here!
[Bridge]
You're in a Stonewall Riot!
You're in a Stonewall Riot!
You're in a Stonewall Riot!
<Skat-like>
Here at Pri-ide now,
Leather daddy’s ok,
Trans folk and a-specs,
Non-binary display!
Get your kink on
Lesbians, Bi’s, and Gays,
Intersex is welcome,
But cops stay away!
[Pre-Chorus 3]
Oh, the fight, it still ain't done
But we're-through hidin' behind-closed-doors
Cause-we've stood all we can stands
And we just can't stands no more!
[Chorus 1]
Stonewall Riot (Riot!)
Throw back a brick and a beer!
Stonewall Riot (Riot!)
My civil rights started ri-i-ight here!
Stonewall Riot (Riot!)
Throw back a brick and a beer!
Stonewall Riot (Riot!)
My civil rights started ri-i-ight here!
[Outro]
You're in a Stonewall Riot!
You're in a Stonewall Riot!
You're in a Stonewall Riot!
(I think I'm about ready for Pride now)
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johnthestitcher · 10 months
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Stonewall was actually considered a 'rebellion', not a riot, but why get technical?
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