Stonewall Forever

The video above, Stonewall Forever, is a short documentary from New York City’s LGBT Community Center. Directed by Ro Haber, it “brings together voices from over 50 years of the LGBTQ rights movement to explore queer activism before, during and after the Stonewall Riots.” It’s one of the most balanced documentaries I’ve seen.

Films like this make it easier for young LGBT+ people to learn their own history, and how they got to be as free as they are. I hope that it will also alert them to how fragile those freedoms are, how politicians can take it all away. Which is why it was so appropriate that the film begins with a rally protesting the current White House regime’s war on trans* people. If the regime remains in power, they won’t stop there.

As a veteran of the fight during the height of the Plague Years, I really want young LGBT+ youth to know what we did, how hard we fought, how much we won, and how much we lost. I want them to understand how vital it is that they continue the fight, that they never—ever—allow them to erase us, because certain people absolutely have that as their goal.

It all begins with knowing where we came from and how we got here.

Then, it’s time to get busy.