WINS PRIDE
Fifty years ago this month, NYPD officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. Police raids on gay bars were not uncommon during the 1960s, but this raid was different.
Why? Because hundreds of LGBTQ New Yorkers -- deemed "sexual deviants" by the community's foes -- fought back like never before.
They threw anything they could at the police, from pennies to bottles and bricks -- and the protests continued for several days.
The Stonewall uprising would take its place in history as the moment that the modern-day LGBTQ rights movement was born.
In the fifty years since the uprising, massive strides have been made in securing basic rights for LGBTQ Americans -- from anti-discrimination legislation to redefining marriage. But homophobia hasn't gone anywhere, and some LGBTQ Americans are still discriminated in the workplace, in the military, by religious institutions -- and even by their own families.
1010 WINS pays homage in this section to the Stonewall uprising, and honors the trailblazers and heroes of the LGBTQ rights movement, both past and present, as well as looking at the leaders of tomorrow.
In this section, community leaders and everyday folks discuss their journey toward coming out, and how they have been inspired by what happened five decades ago, at a tiny watering hole in the Village.
And 1010 WINS pays tribute to Matthew Shepard, the University of Wyoming student who in 1998 was beaten, tortured, tied to a fence, and left to die near Laramie, Wyoming, in a horrific act of hate. But he did not die in vain: legislation was signed years later expanding the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
1010 WINS' Pride coverage also identifies key locations in New York City that have been central to the LGBTQ rights movement, as well as a guide of LGBTQ resources in the city.
So as the city prepares to welcome some 4 million visitors to descend upon the city for New York Pride and WorldPride, join 1010 WINS as we look back at the 50 years that brought us to the point we're at today.
Happy Pride!
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