I wrote the following words in 2010 and added an addendum to the message:
We are now in June, and June commemorates the Stonewall Rebellion. Prior to Stonewall, gay men dressed up in suits and lesbian women in conservative dresses on the Fourth of July to parade around the Liberty Bell in silence. They hoped for social acceptance.
On June 27th 1969, Stonewall happened. Transsexual activist Sylvia Rivera wrote:
The cops, they just panicked. They had no backup. They didn’t expect this retaliation. But they should have. People were very angry for so long… I saw other people hurt by the police. There was one drag queen, I don’t what she said, but they beat her into a bloody pulp…They called us animals. We were the lowest scum of the Earth.
I met Sylvia Rivera at a demonstration at Soul Force demonstration in front of the Catholic Basilica in Washington, D.C. No gay men were willing to part of the transgendered affinity group. I, an MCC clergy student from New York City, and a seventy-two year old lesbian joined the transgendered affinity group. I honor Sylvia, and our own church member Joe Armetta who was there in his blue jumpsuit at the night of the Stonewall raid by the police, and the rest of the heroes and heroines who said “Enough!”
Stonewall was the loud battle cry heard around the world. It was the queer Exodus event when we stood up and fought for human rights and dignity. The story of Stonewall is our Passover celebration—remembering that LGBT folks would no longer docilely be harassed, beaten, and murdered. That clarion call was not only heard throughout the major cities of the United States but all over the world. Stonewall is now celebrated in many countries on all six continents. Some celebrations in countries are still harassed and threatened with state violence sanctioned by religion.
Now voice today June 2015:
But as we anticipate a historic victory from the Supreme Court that has been decades in the making and that will allow marriage equality in all fifty states. I want to quote a prophetic book: Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution (2013). Hear the final words of Linda Hirshman from her book.
No one said better than Niccolo Machiavelli, “It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” As this most marginalized group of Americans fought for full inclusion in the social order, they didn’t only change their world; they changed everyone’s world. Because they were different, the makers of the gay revolution could not take the easy path of showing they were acceptable citizens under an old order. They had to change the meaning of the core concepts of citizenship—morality, sanity, and loyalty—itself.
Although it’s always hard to say exactly when a new order comes in, from the long view of history, gay men and women made a new world. And we all living in it.
The Spirit of rebellion is the Spirit of Freedom. It is the Holy Spirit who works in peoples across this planet as they struggle for the basic human rights given to us by our Creator God. Let us celebrate what freedom we do have, pray for those without much freedom as we have currently gained, and fight for the day when all human beings are equal not only before God but also before all governments.
God bless our LGBT ancestors who started us to the path of revolution and victory. God bless you as we all anticipate a joyous pride month with another victory not only for us but humanity.