A Visual History of the Gay-Rights Movement

The Legacy of Stonewall
A month after Stonewall, the first gay-pride march was held. The riots had galvanized an outsider culture into out-in-the-open activism. There had been previous attempts to persuade heterosexual society to assimilate gays and lesbians (notably by the Mattachine Society, founded in 1951). But those were almost cordial affairs. Stonewall began a series of uprisings and mass action, often fueled by martyrdom, that would become a pattern for American gay politics in the decades ahead. As one provocative mantra put it: "We're here. We're queer. Get used to it."

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