Tag Archive for: History

45 years ago tonight, actually in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 28, 1969, drag queens, homeless kids and hustlers fought police after they raided Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn. As the night turned to morning, the fighting escalated to the point of rioting. The riots continued throughout that weekend into the early part of the following week. Though many people incorrectly think that this event was the start of the gay rights movement, it was merely the final straw after years of silent organizing against oppression, persecution, and murder. It was the moment when the LGBT community said, “No more.”

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I’ve recently been very honored to join the advisory committee for a new not-for-profit organization, The Lavender Effect.   The mission of The Lavender Effect is “to celebrate our heritage and inspire future generations” and the organization is “committed to creating a state-of-the-art LGBTQ Museum and Cultural Center that will be among the foremost educational and entertainment institutions in Southern California.”  I’m thrilled to be working at the genesis of such an important project.

Since its official announcement on June 1, 2012, I’ve seen and heard various responses to the exisitence the organization, but a common question that keeps coming up is “Why do we need an LGBTQ Museum?”  While The Lavender Effect as an organization has its own answers to this question, I wanted to memorialize my answers here on my site, now, at the beginning of this process, to address this issue from a personal viewpoint.

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