Gay Rights 40 Years After Stonewall

By Laura Knoy on Monday, June 29, 2009.

In July of 1969, gay men and women fought back against police raids at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, an event often called the birth of the gay rights movement. Four decades later, many activists say enormous progress has been made, but others feel full equality is still far away. We’ll see where the gay rights movement stands today.

Guests

  • Dudley Clendinen, former national reporter and editorial writer for The New York Times and author of several books including Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America
  • Irene Monroe, Baptist minister, coordinator of the African-American roundtable of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS) at the Pacific School of Religion, and gay rights blogger at the Huffington Post

We'll also hear from

  • Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center at UMass Amherst and a board member at the Transgender Law and Policy Institute
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Im not against gays being
blizzo - Tue, 06/30/2009 - 08:22

Im not against gays being given the same rights but how is being gay not a choice? If you say you are born gay its still a choice. Someone could be born with the urge to violent but when they choose to hurt someone it is still bc they made a choice that they are punished.

Gay Rights after 40 years
NHPR Listener, - Tue, 06/30/2009 - 08:29

I have taught middle school in NH for 25 years. No one is more homophobic than a typical 13 year old. And yet, I have seen a change. It used to be the worst thing a kid could be accused of was gay. Now it is still a pretty heterosexual culture and kids giggle at awkward comments that might suggest homosexuality, but there is also a certain level of open acceptance by kids and teachers that never existed before. Also, adults working with at risk kids consider the child's emerging sexuality as an issue to recognized.

What is "natural"
Liz - Tue, 06/30/2009 - 08:45

Talking about what is "natural" is tricky. Many things that used to be "natural" are no longer "natural." It used to be "natural" to die at a much younger age, for instance. Cancer is "natural." For another example, it would have been considered "unnatural" for me, as a woman, to have a job as a professor at a university. Common thinking used to be that if women directed their energies toward intellect, there could literally be adverse health consequences. Some people might think that women are "naturally" gentle and nurturing. Nothing wrong with thinking that, I guess, and of course we all know gentle and nurturing women. The problem comes, when it is then "UNnatural" for a woman to not want children, or for a man to want to be a preschool teacher.