We will not be ground into dust.
poet Audre Lord in After Stonewall
Police in Sydney broke up a demonstration for lesbian and gay civil rights that drew about 20,000 people in 1978. At the time, people in Australia whose sexuality was not heterosexual faced confinement and involuntary psychiatric treatment. But 20 years later, those official assertions that gay men and lesbians are crazy were relics of a seemingly distant past. Openly gay police officers were among the more than one million people who celebrated Sydney's Gay Mardi Gras in 1998.
That striking contrast is just one of many examples of the dynamism of the political and social activism in the past three decades on behalf of people who are not heterosexual. Much of that energy is captured in After Stonewall (1999; directed by John Scagliotti). The intriguing and inspiring documentary, made by the production crew which made Before Stonewall in 1985, packs into its 88 minutes kaleidoscopic images of a movement progressing in little more than a generation from near-invisibility to celebration over the election of a U.S. president who had courted the votes of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered people and their heterosexual allies.
At the beginning of the 30-year period covered by the film, lesbians and gay men wondered whether it would be possible to convince the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. By the end of that era, the discussion was about how -- not whether -- the newly-elected gay-friendly president would change Department of Defense regulations to make it easier for acknowledged homosexuals to serve in the military. The movement had become so resourceful and varied that it had earned the luxury of shifting its focus from an issue of vital importance to all people who are not heterosexual to one that many gay men and lesbians think is nearly irrelevant.
It is widely accepted that this movement began in June 1969, when lesbians and gay men sparked several nights of angry and even violent resistance to police harassment during a raid on the Stonewall Tavern in Manhattan, a raid similar to thousands which law enforcement officials had launched for decades against bars that catered to homosexuals. But Stonewall's international significance as a symbol didn't develop until the following year, when more than 15,000 lesbians and gay men took part in a march marking the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. That mass of people inspired gay rights activism around the globe, and the next year there were Stonewall observances in many of the world's cities, as there have been every year since.
Those celebrations energized a movement that for much of After Stonewall veers between triumph and setback. The American Psychiatric Association's decision in 1974 to declare that homosexuality is not a mental illness paved the way for activists in states throughout the United States to win repeal of laws that criminalized same-sex activity between consenting adults. But in 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the remaining sodomy laws in about half of the states. Those laws provide the foundations for others laws that deny gay men and lesbians equal protections in such areas as employment, inheritance, health care and child custody.
The emergence in the 1970s of San Francisco's Harvey Milk and of other openly gay elected officials led to a backlash that made Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade international news and that included a rash of violence against gay men and lesbians, including the assassination of Milk. The onslaught of AIDS in the 1980s threatened the movement's vitality because the disease took the lives of so many of its most energetic and inspiring members. But the resulting scapegoating of gay men by some religious leaders spurred legions of other gay men and lesbians to undertake activism that was unprecedented in its variety, scope and assertiveness.
With narration by pop singer Melissa Etheridge, After Stonewall uses interviews with participants and historians to trace the ebb and flow of gay activism. Much of the documentary is concerned with developments in the United States. But there are acknowledgements of civil rights gains in other parts of the world as well. Denmark was the first country to legalize same-sex marriages. And South Africa's constitution codifies legal protections for lesbians and gay men that are far greater than those afforded by a patchwork of federal and local laws in the United States. This reflects the passion of such leaders as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984 for his crusade against apartheid. "With the same energy I fight racism," Tutu says, "I fight homophobia."
Milestones in U.S. gay history that are shown in After Stonewall include the first Olympics-inspired Gay Games in 1982 and the first gay ball to be an official presidential inaugural event, in 1992. For the observation of the 20th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s landmark "I have a dream . . . " speech, organizers included representatives of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays.
The documentary acknowledges setbacks and tragedies among advances and triumphs. A 1987 march on Washington marks the first showing of the Names Project AIDS quilt, which now has panels honoring so many who died of the disease that it is too large to be displayed in its entirety. And the fatal crucifixion of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in 1998 and the deadly bashing of U.S. Army Pfc. Barry Winchell in 1999 reflect a continuing hatred of homosexuals that frequently finds release in violence and bloodshed.
After Stonewall ends with the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and an implicit suggestion that the march was the highwater mark in the contemporary gay/lesbian movement. The years since the documentary's release in 1999 have proved for many gay activists to be calm. For some, this marks a natural progression from the fiery enthusiasm of their youths to more mature interests. Lesbian historian Barbara Gittings, who also was interviewed in Before Stonewall, looks forward to settling in one of the many retirement communities being developed specifically for lesbians and gay men. She anticipates relaxing in a rocking chair while reminiscing with her former comrades in arms. "We'll sit around and say to each other, 'Do you remember when we picketed the White House in 1965?' "
But for a movement that has surged, receded and then surged again, this could be a lull before another resurgence. Looking back on the 30 years covered in After Stonewall, author Dorothy Allison says, "It was a time when each of us felt as if we held the world in our hands. We felt we could make things change. And we can."
__________
For the second year, Epinions member bgoodday has organized a Helping Hands Write-Off. Participants donate the proceeds from their reviews to organizations that help make the world a better place.
The Web page for the write-off is at: http://63.200.217.166
Proceeds from this review will be donated to the Lambda Legal Defense Fund: http://www.lambdalegal.org
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.