The Stonewall Inn... Place, where Pride began

The Stonewall Inn, NYC. Always fills me up with emotions. Always takes me back to the time when I was not born yet. Time which would have a lasting impact not only on the history of rights movement "[the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States" and beyond], but as such a very deep personal impact too.

Happy to learn that "In June 2015, the Stonewall Inn received official landmark status from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission for its role as the catalyst of the LGBT movement. It is the first landmark in New York City that has been recognized because of its status in LGBT history."

 *Stonewall Place, NYC

*Gay street, NYC

Armenian version of “Some People Are Gay. Get Over It!” in Yerevan to mark IDAHOT

Activists in Yerevan posted Armenian version of Stonewall's message - “Some People Are Gay. Get Over It!”  - "Ոմանք գեյ են, թեթև տարեք" - across various parts of Yerevan, including street crossings, to mark IDAHOT. Respects!!

Exclusive pictures below.

UPDATE: 18 May 2015 - One day after my post:

...and this :))

UPDATE: 19 May 2015 - Two days after my post:

...and these :))

1000 London buses promote Stonewall's equal marriage message: “Some People Are Gay. Get Over It!”

Britain’s most prominent gay rights lobbying group Stonewall extends its Education for All campaign message “Some People Are Gay. Get Over It!” to launch the largest advertising campaign of its kind on 1000 London buses to promote equal marriage.

Throughout April 1,000 London buses are carrying adverts from Stonewall to promote equal marriage, in the largest advertising campaign of its kind. The iconic ‘Some People Are Gay. Get Over It!’ adverts link to Stonewall’s equal marriage campaign website (www.stonewall.org.uk/marriage), which includes details of the charity’s response to the government’s consultation on the issue and explains how people can submit their own responses.

Here is what I spotted so far.

History in the making: New York legalises gay marriage

It's a place that gave birth to the modern gay rights movement. Stonewall. It's therefore a bit surprising it took so long for marriage equality to become a reality in New York. It seemed so natural and routine for the soul of New York that this should have been the case for ages. Still, with delays, it's truly a history in the making. It's impossible to underestimate the importance and influence of New York worldwide. It's not simply a victory for local activists. It's a victory for all of us, for anyone who cares about human rights. Well done, New York !! Mon amour.

Yes, was so f*cking amazing to wake up with the news that New York finally legalised gay marriage.

This picture of the Empire State building in New York covered in rainbow went viral today.

It has always been cool to be a New Yorker. It's now even double-triple cool...

Cheers!

Google celebrates Gay Pride 2009

It's not the first time Google is voicing its support for LGBT rights and equality. My respects to Google!

*The Official Google Blog

Celebrating Gay Pride 2009

All around Google, we're proud of our work, our culture and, most importantly, our people. In the spirit of celebration, this spring and summer Googlers have participated in Pride celebrations in Tel Aviv, New York, Zürich, San Francisco and many other cities around the world. Pride is a time for the LGBT* community along with families, friends and supporters to stand up for equality, and to honor those who paved the way for us to express sexual orientation and gender identity openly.

In the U.S., this year's celebration is historically important: it's the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, a response to what was then routine police harassment of LGBT people. Some 75 Googlers, family members and friends marched with several hundred members of New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center. Hundreds of Googlers also joined other U.S. celebrations in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Earlier this month, around 50 Googlers and friends gathered to celebrate at Europride, Europe's best-known Gay Pride celebration. This year it was in Zürich, Switzerland. After weeks of sunshine, on the morning of the parade it began to storm, but that didn't deter our intrepid Googlers from being out at 6:30am turning a 28-ton truck into a rainbow-colored nightclub on wheels. Hundreds of nuts, bolts and gallons of helium later, the truck was transformed, the sun came out and we were ready to march through the city streets, cheered on by a crowd of 50,000.

Google is a company that supports its LGBT employees, taking a public stand stand on issues that are important to our community. This is not the first year that Google has supported Pride, and it will certainly not be the last. We hope you enjoy this photo album of our global celebrations.

Pride 2009

Pride 2009 music video was made by JGL production company to honour the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots which marked the start of the gay rights movement in the US and around the world. (video - via Queers United)

UK: Northern Ireland politician named “Bigot of the Year”

PinkNews reports: Northern Ireland politician Iris Robinson has been named as the Bigot of the Year at the Stonewall Awards. She has refused to withdraw comments that homosexuality is an abomination and gay people can be "cured" by therapy. […] Mrs Robinson caused further uproar in July, when it emerged that during committee proceedings in the Commons last month, she told MPs: "There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children."

I am glad that my favourite publication Time Out London was named “Publication of the Year” “for its weekly essential information on lesbian and gay London, including features and cultural events beyond the capital’s commercial scene.” Well deserved.

London Gay Pride parade - 5 July 2008

All photos - by Unzipped: Gay Armenia

Veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell and actor Sir Ian McKellen. Peter Tatchell marched  carrying a poster ridiculing the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It featured a photo of Amhadinejad wearing blue eye shadow, red lipstick, a gold
earring and pink nail varnish. The placard was emblazoned with the words: "President of Iran. Murderer. Homophobe." Next to the President's tiny wagging finger was a mocking speech bubble with the words: "My penis is this big."

For the first time in history, LGBT representatives from all three armed forces - Navy, Army and Airforce, were out parading in their full dress uniforms. Metropolitan Police and Fire Brigade were out there too.

Older LGBT community

LGBT Muslims

The presence of transgender community was particularly strong this year.

Amnesty International supporters staged 'Eurovision Pride Contest' at the London Gay Pride parade, awarding symbolic 'nul points' to countries with poor gay rights record.

Stonewall's campaign Education for All and Boycott Heinz featured prominently during the march.

Manworthy...

    Colourful

A handful of protesters (Christian fundamentalists). Very sad people, indeed!

Rainbow flag over the St Martin-in-the-Fields church. What a sight, eh?!

Absolut vodka known for its gay-friendly ads, turned rainbow for the occasion, Soho, London.

Boycott Heinz!!!

What better way to respond to Heinz's ridiculous decision to pull an innocuous ad containing a male-on-male kiss on the cheek?

While Heinz's decision to withdraw the ad might have been seen by them as an easy way to palm off 200 fundamentalist Christian complainants, it seems to have been made under the quaint impression that it will cause no offence to Britain's 3.6 million lesbian and gay consumers. Or any of their friends, or families, or colleagues, 13,000 of whom have signed the online petition complaining about the decision.

Above all, Heinz's prim retraction seems to have been made without any thought for the damage that might be done to its business. Supporters of Stonewall have been professing a sudden fondness for Branston baked beans, Baxters soups, Buitoni spaghetti, Jardines tomato ketchup and Hellmann's mayonnaise!

*source: Stonewall Ebulletin

Picture of the Day

Boris Johnson, newly elected the Mayor of London, has a questionable record of voting/supporting gay rights and equality in past. Now he is holding a Stonewall's Education for All campaign poster to tackle homophobia and homophobic bullying in schools: "Some People Are Gay. Get Over It!"; and in an interview with PinkNews says that he is "very much looking forward to" taking part in this year's London Pride parade on Saturday, his first ever gay event.

*photo - via PinkNews

38th Anniversary of the First Gay Pride march - New York, 28 June 1978

Thousands of people across Europe participated today in Gay Pride events. In parts of Eastern Europe, the gathering of gays and lesbians to protest discrimination ended in violence and arrests.

38 years ago today the first LGBT Pride march was held in New York on 28 June 1978 to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The Stonewall riots, that began on June 28, 1969, were the beginning of the gay rights movement in the United States with its world-wide influence. There was a police raid at the Stonewall Inn bar in Manhattan. The police raided the bar at the Stonewall Inn for only one reason, it was a gay bar. People started rioting after the horrific event and the start of the gay rights movement was born.

The New York Public Library has posted the following piece (below) on what was originally called Christopher Street Liberation Day to mark this historic anniversary.

***

Diana Davies. Gay “Be-In,” Sheep Meadow, Central Park, New York, June 28, 1970.

The first LGBT pride marches were held on June 28, 1970. Originally called Christopher Street Liberation Day, marches were held in 1970 to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Craig Rodwell, activist and owner of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore, obtained support for the march from ERCHO’s (Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations) November 1969 convention. Rodwell drew in support from New York City activists and organizations, such as Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance, to create the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee to plan the march. A sister march was planned and held in Los Angeles by their Gay Liberation Front. The march went from Washington Place in Greenwich Village uptown on Sixth Avenue to end with a ‘gay-in” in Central Park.

Many of the men and women who marched that day would forever remember that moment on top of the bluff. Before them lay a field of uncut grass, a blizzard of banners, dancing, pot-smoking, singing and music, a huge American flag, “gay pride” signs decorated with the Day-Glo hippie flower stickers, and men and women applauding each new arrival over the hill. And behind them—stretching out as far as they could see—was line after line after line of homosexuals and their supporters, at least fifteen blocks worth, by the count of the New York Times, which found the turnout notable enough to report it on the front page of the next day’s paper. No one had ever seen so many homosexuals in one place before. On top of the bluff, many of these men and women, who had grown up isolated and alone, stood in silence and cried.
From Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America by Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney.

More images of the early Christopher Street Liberation Day marches by Kay Tobin Lahusen and Richard Wandell are available in the Library’s Digital Gallery.

Stonewall: zero-tolerance to homophobic bullying in schools

This new poster is from Britain's prominent gay rights lobbying organisation Stonewall's Education for All campaign which aims to tackle homophobia and homophobic bullying in schools. "This uncompromising message, developed with secondary school students, makes it clear that schools should take a zero-tolerance approach to homophobic bullying." www.stonewall.org.uk/getoverit

This was designed specifically for British schools but universal in its message.

US Presidential Hopeful Barack Obama Supports Gay Rights in his Statement on Pride Month

A type of statement you will not hear from presidential candidates in Armenia

Background info on Pride Month in the US: June was officially named gay Pride Month in the year 2000 by former US President Bill Clinton. June was chosen to honor the Stonewall riots in 1969. The Stonewall riots were the beginning of the gay rights movement in the United States with its world-wide influence. There was a police raid at the Stonewall Inn bar in Manhattan. The police raided the bar at the Stonewall Inn for only one reason, it was a gay bar. People started rioting after the horrific event and the start of the gay rights movement was born.

U.S. Senator and presidential hopeful Barack Obama today released the following statement to commemorate Pride Month:

"Pride Month is a reminder that while we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do."

"Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans. It's about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect."

"It's time to turn the page on the bitterness and bigotry that fill so much of today's LGBT rights debate. The rights of all Americans should be protected - whether it's at work or anyplace else. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" needs to be repealed because patriotism and a sense of duty should be the key tests for military service, not sexual orientation. Civil unions should give gay couples full rights. And those who commit hate crimes should be punished no matter whether those crimes are committed on account of race, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation."

"This Pride Month, let's make our founding promise of equality a reality for every American."

A rare example of dignified politics - bravo, Obama!