Going Underground
Stonewall Riots of 1969 Grey Villet/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Going Underground

June 1969 was a month that liberated men and women around the world, and many of those who experience the freedoms they enjoy today have no idea about those who fought for their rights to be free.

Meeting in secret, ostracised by the majority of the population and seen as the spreaders of disease and immorality, gays and lesbians went underground to socialise and be free from judgement and prejudice.

It didn't matter which country you were in, you could always find a gay bar if you looked hard enough; even in the strict Catholic quarters of Latin America, the conserative corners of Islamic Cairo and especially in the bourjois captial city of Paris.

Hidden and living in shame for decades, centuries in fact, the gay and lesbians of the world laid the foundations for Princess Pablo and his sparkly unicorn to walk the streets proudly in Brasil today.

The angry riots that followed the police raids at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in the early hours of June 28th, were the spark that ignited many more protests in the suburb, and then across the city of New York.

Those sparks became fires, which then ignited more and more protests in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Before the gay community of Stonewall knew it, protests were happening around the world.

Within a few years the protests had gained such momentum that the secret meetings in mafia owned clubs had led to more and more people joining the fight for gay rights; and not just gay or lesbians joined the fight.

Family members, communities all rallied around the people they loved, and gay rights organisations started springing up all over the world. Today that movement has now evolved into the highly celebrated Gay Pride festivals and marches we see each and every year in streets around the world.

Many of our friends are now able to live life in same sex marriages without fear of being beaten. They are no longer refused health care, in fact they have changed the way we view, treat and understand the very diseases we were afraid to catch just by standing close to them.

Almost everyone was afraid of catching HIV and AIDS back in the 1980's but due to the mounting pressure to understand why so many gay men were dying from the virus, and the hetrosexuals in subsharan Africa were dying from the same disease, we came to understand more and more about them both.

With sporadic and spontaneous protests mounting year on year for the homosexual community, the individuals themselves grew more confident. Their mental health improved and their productivity soared, benefitting the economy and society they lived in.

Soon the gay community were given the same rights as everyone else. Our neighbours, friends and family members no longer had to be excluded from public places, no longer were seen as a danger to our physical or moral health.

They were no longer feared by others simply because they made a choice to love someone who happened to be the same sex and gender as them.

No longer did they have to socialise in the underground, although... the gay clubs back in the UK in the 1990's were some of the best clubs I have ever partied in - and this is coming from a hetrosexual woman who loved to party!

(And let's be honest ladies, having a gay stylist work his magic on your hair is pretty much a guarantee that you will look absolutely fabulous once the scissors have stop clicking!)

Even though the Stonewall Riots of 1969 led to the floodgates being opened when it came to gay rights, some fifty plus years later many people around the world are still not free to marry the one they love due to governments and religious groups around the world banning same sex marriages.

Who are they to ban someone from marrying another?

Who are they to judge another person's love?

It is not only Article 2 in the UDHR which says "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty".

Each and every single religion known to man has it clearly stated in the Holy texts that no one shall judge another for our only judge to be feared is God, Allah, G-d, Dieu et al on the Day of Judgement.

Looking at the most vehemont haters and judgemental people on the planet, we find that they are from a very religious background, and surely judging, condeming and excluding people based on their choice of who to love, marrying, have children with is akin to the biggest sin of all... placing ourselves on the same level of the Almighty?

And not very Christian, Islamic or Jewish at all... not when you look at the aspect of putting faith into action rather than just espousing the manipulated verse which one would deem appropriate for our ego.

Many people around the world choose to look down upon those of us who protest, who push the boundaries of societal norms, who challenge the status quo, who choose not to believe the social narratives, and who question laws, governments and expose the systemic corruption and biogtry.

But without us, women would still be unable to vote or work, would not be able to wear clothing which should more than the shoe on her foot and her face, and would not be able to file for divorce from a violent husband.

We wouldn't be allowed to homeschool our children, or get a second opinion when it came to medical care. Because of those of us who choose to stand up and fight against the human rights violations the education we want for our children is becoming more and more diverse.

Same sex marriages and the ability to have a sex change wouldn't be as acceptable as it is today, nor would being able to marry someone of a different skin colour or religion.

Tattoos, piercings and other kinds of body modifications wouldn't be permitted in the workplace, nor would niqaabs.

We wouldn't have religious freedoms that allowed young girls of the Orthodox Jewish community or Islamic faith to wear a headscarf in school, which come in pretty handy when Nitty Nicola and Nigel have the jumping mites in their hair.

The freedom to express ourselves and fight for our freedom of speech no longer results in a beheading, hanging or stoning in the town square, but results in the progress of humanity and driving change around the world.

Unfortunately though, as a collective we do not move as fast as we would like, mainly due to the governments and their concrete boots which hold up the progress we so desprately need. They say that it takes times to change legislation.

But if anything has shown up what a pile of crock that excuse is, it has been the mass totalitarian dictatorship which is spreading around the world today with regards to the so called vaccines, and laws being drawn up and implemented at the speed of light.

We expect 'bloody foreigners' to change their culture over night and adapt to our laws and way of being, when we cannot even change from the imperial to metric system which was introduced to the world back in 1795.

Not even the passing of global regulations in September of 1992, making official measurements in science and trade, did anything to change the way people measure things, but go to any country as an immigrant you had better change your entire culture within a year, or prepare yourself for a backlash from the yokels!

Many people don't want to get involved in human rights because of a few reasons. They think it will be more hassle than it is worth, it is too complicated, it's boring, too political and because it is far too overwhelming to even begin to unravel the human rights violations around the world.

The simple truth is this though: when we start to understand our own human rights, embodying them and claim them,

Regardless of whether that is our right to be identified by a grammatical term or a letter of the alphabet,

Or whether we are calling for equal rights for blacks, Asians, religious groups, fathers, women, children or single parents,

Whatever injustice we experience, the change only comes when we know, understand and embody our human rights, and claim them.

And yes, it can be a lonely journey, and yes it may seem like a we are fighting a losing battle, but when we give birth we don't stop half way through because it is too tough do we?

No, of course not!

Nor do we drop the kids off at an electrical store and swap them for a TV so we can numb our minds with Netflix and the latest episodes of the latest episodes of trash TV just because it gets tough.

We fight for our children, we do whatever it takes for them, whether that is finding the money to replace the boiler to keep them warm, or march into the headteacher's office demanding the bullies in the school are dealt with.

Dealing with the bullies in the school is no different to dealing with the bullies in society and within the government, especially when we all get together, get informed and stand up for our rights. Yes there are laws in place, but they can be changed.

Yes there are dangerous political leaders and police officers who will make you disappear faster than the strict calorie controlled diet on your birthday, and yes you may face time in prison, but just like Nelson Mandela, a man revered the world over, when we stand for our rights regardless of the consequences, we get to change the world.

Our human rights are ours, just like our eyes are ours, just like our genitalia is ours, and just like our hearts and minds are ours. No one has the right to take them from us.

We must protect them all with everything we have, because if we do not stand up for something, we stand for nothing, and that is a very pitiful existence indeed.

#gayrights #genderrights #humanrights #parentalrights #womensrights #ethnicrights #mensrights #religiousrights #workersrights #medicalrights #universaldeclarationofhumanrights #getinformed #freedomofspeech #



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