“There’s a perception in Washington that you can throw little bits of partial equality to gay people and that gay people will be satisfied with that.
Gay Americans aren’t just another political special interest group. They are Americans who are actively discriminated against by federal laws. If the president is to properly honor the memory of Stonewall, he should get up to speed on what happened there 40 years ago, when courageous kids who had nothing, not even a public acknowledgment of their existence, stood up to make history happen in the least likely of places."

I just read the Wikipedia article on the riots, and was astonished.

They should never have been and should not now be called second class citizens. They are citizens deserving of the same rights as everyone else.

@Tany,
I totally agree.

Mas,
It's amazing isn't it? First of all, I was too young at the time to have known about this. The first memory I have of even knowing what a homosexual was both my parents being angry that it was removed from the American Psychiatric DSM as a mental illness. They were both of the opinion that it was done by a bunch of "fag" shrinks.

No wonder it took me this long to come out to myself because I would just deny attractions by tucking my feelings away.
I feel that a powerful way to combat the homophobia in society is to be in the company of gays and lesbians as it breaks through the stereotypes about how we are and what defines us.