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Stone wall

    Reading With Pride - An Indie author Spotlight and Fundraising Event

    When I first launched The Kindred Book Club, I envisioned a close-knit space where readers and authors could connect, shine a spotlight on indie creatives, and raise money for meaningful causes. Originally, it was going to be a Patreon-based Discord—but I’ve since realised that’s not the kind of community I want to build. ✨ What I do want is something more open, more values-driven, and more joyful. From now on, the Kindred Book Club Discord will be free to join—a welcoming space for all. Paid tiers with optional perks may come later, but the heart of this community will always be about uplifting creatives and championing important causes. The Kindred Book Club's first event is a community spotlight and charity fundraiser for Pride Month—and they'd love for you to be part of it! This event will celebrate and uplift LGBTQIA+ indie authors while raising money for Stonewall through a series of fun, impactful activities. Here’s what I’m planning: ? Promotional Event A curated list of queer-authored books, offered at discounted prices, to help boost visibility and support LGBTQIA+ authors. ? Charity Tie-In Authors can choose to donate a portion of their proceeds—or readers can make direct donations via Tiltify . All funds will go to Stonewall. ? Bookish Raffle Donors who give £1/$1 or more will be entered into a raffle to win prizes like books, merch, or critique slots—donated by the community! ? Kindred Book Club Relaunch (Soft Launch) A special video discussion with participating authors about representation in literature, to be shared with readers and book lovers. This form is for LGBTQIA+ indie authors who wish to be part of the promotional event, and requires authors to offer their book at a discounted rate for at least one day during June. There is the additional option to donate a portion of your proceeds to Stonewall. You're still welcome in the promo event even if you don't donate Your book does not need to be LGBTQIA+ themed, though that is preferred, as long as you're an LGBTQIA+ indie author. If you're an LGBTQA+ author and you'd like to be featured in the spotlight, please sign up here: https://forms.gle/TVpXCYepahFrKAfD7And if you'd like to donate a prize to the raffle (i.e. signed book(s), author swag, author services etc.) you can sign up here: https://forms.gle/QRHeh1uLxdz91z2e7

    LGBTQ+ Heritage Will Always Be Integral to the Greenwich Village Story

    Stonewall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 21, 1999, following a nomination process that included Village Preservation (then known as the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation) and the now-defunct Organization of Lesbian and Gay Architects and Designers. The following year, the site, which comprises the Stonewall Inn, the adjacent Christopher Park, and surrounding streets, became a National Historic Landmark, one of a more exclusive subset of properties that, per the National Historic Landmarks Program website, represent “an outstanding aspect of American history and culture.” The Stonewall Inn In the case of Stonewall, that “outstanding aspect” of history was its crucial role in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. These nominations represented two pivotal moments in the nation’s historic preservation movement: Stonewall was the first site in the United States to be designated as a landmark for its connections to LGBTQ+ history. It took almost fifteen more years to get the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to begin designating sites specifically for their contributions to LGBTQ+ heritage, but in June of 2015, an advocacy effort led by Village Preservation (with the support of elected officials, LGBTQ+ groups, and other preservation organizations), convinced the LPC to designate Stonewall an individual city landmark, making it the first site designated by the City of New York based on LGBTQ+ history. The LPC designation report cites Stonewall as “one of the most important sites associated with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender history in New York City and the nation,” also making Stonewall one of the first and, to date, among the few designations to explicitly acknowledge transgender history and the role that transgender individuals had in shaping our city’s history. (Another instance is the designation report for the South Village Historic District — also proposed and advocated for by Village Preservation — designated December 17, 2013, which includes a section entitled “The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender [LGBT] Community’s Presence in the South Village.”) Crafted nearly two decades prior, at a time when transgender history was much more invisible and under-acknowledged than even today, the National Historic Landmark listing for Stonewall, in contrast, does not include the term “transgender” outright. It tells the story of the Stonewall Uprising, referencing gay and lesbian liberation numerous times, and includes phrases such as “men in drag,” noting that cross-dressing was still illegal when the Stonewall Riots were taking place in the summer of 1969. Many of the letters in support of designation by community groups and individuals, appended to the document, express commitment to preserving the “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender” history that took place there. But the contributions of the transgender population that pivotal summer were not written into national-level documentation until Stonewall became a National Monument, one of only roughly 120 in the U.S., in 2016, designated as such by President Barack Obama. The Stonewall National Monument was and still is the only one dedicated to LGBTQ+ history and rights. Image courtesy New York Public Library Designation reports, which record the reasons why a site has been elevated to city, state, or national landmark status, are critical written documents that help us preserve our nation’s history. This form of documentation is, however, relatively young (the New York City Landmarks Law of 1965, followed soon after by the National Preservation Act of 1966, were the start of the formal preservation movement in the United States), and the information recorded and facets of history we choose to acknowledge are ever-evolving. Early designations focused almost entirely on architectural significance, and it’s only in the past decade or two that stories of the people who inhabited these places have really become part of the written record via these designations. These layers of cultural history, the people and movements that inhabited these places, are a huge part of what make our historic sites significant and worthy of preservation, and it is increasingly essential that we continue to record these stories – especially when it comes to layers of history that have long been present, but are often invisible, under recognized, or even facing threat of intentional erasure. Click here to visit the map Stonewall was a critical turning point for the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement in the U.S., and it is important to further acknowledge just how deep LGBTQ+ history runs through our neighborhoods, stretching from well over a century before 1969 up to this day. Village Preservation has and will continue to tell these critical stories. Our Civil Rights and Social Justice Map includes nearly 60 sites of significance to LGBTQ+ history and we continue to add new ones. While many of these places include elements important to and inclusive of transgender people, three sites — Weinstein Hall, S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) House, and the Pyramid Club — have transgender history and experience at the heart of their stories. We also maintain an LGBTQ+ history page on our website, which is continually being updated. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center Village Preservation has long been one of the key organizations leading the charge to get more historic sites recognized for their LGBTQ+ history, and in 2019 succeeded in achieving NYC landmark status for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, the Gay Activists Alliance Fire House, and the Caffe Cino, all significant sites for their LGBTQ+ heritage. In 2022, we pushed the LPC to designate Julius’ Bar (where the “Sip In” took place three years before the Stonewall Uprising). We will continue to fight for this and many other crucial layers of cultural history in our neighborhoods to be recognized and preserved. The post LGBTQ+ Heritage Will Always Be Integral to the Greenwich Village Story first appeared on Village Preservation.

    Trans Rights Groups Protest Scrubbed Stonewall Monument Website

    Upon his return to the White House, Donald Trump has targeted transgender and nonbinary people with a string of executive orders, rolling back Biden-era protections for these groups and asserting scientifically discredited essentialist definitions of gender onto everything from travel documents to women’s sports.  Last Thursday, February 13, these attempts to publicly erase transgender and nonbinary individuals reached New York City’s Stonewall National Monument, where the National Park Service (NPS) scrubbed any and all references to transgender and queer people from its website describing the historic 1969 uprising — including the “T” and “Q” in the LGBTQ+ initialism.  The website changes drew immediate outrage from queer rights activists and groups including Advocates for Trans Equality, ACT UP, and Human Rights Campaign, who subsequently rallied at the monument to protest the act. They covered the site with Transgender Pride flags and signs calling attention to trans and gender-nonconforming civil rights activists such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who were at the forefront of the 1969 uprising. “Through the 1960s almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was a violation of law, rule, or policy,” a description for the Stonewall monument now read on the NPS website, notably omitting any reference to trans individuals. Additionally, a link to a 15-part educational video series about the rebellion no longer works. While the NPS is a federal bureau within the Department of Interior, it is unclear whether the agency made the website changes in response to a specific Trump order. NPS has not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s press inquiry. Pink and blue chalk was used to write reminders that Pride’s roots are inherently intertwined with trans activism. Activists covered Christopher Park in Transgender Pride flags and signs calling attention to gender nonconforming activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Located on Christopher Street in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, Stonewall became the first national monument to commemorate the LGBTQ+ rights movement in June 2016 after receiving a formal designation from then-President Barack Obama. It encompasses the Stonewall Inn itself, the surrounding streets where the famous uprising took place, and the adjacent Christopher Park, which is home to artist George Segal’s “Gay Liberation” (1992) sculpture. Last year, a corresponding visitor center opened at 51 Christopher Street, becoming the first LGBTQ+ visitor center in the National Park System; its inauguration was marked by a banner protest for Gaza at the nearby AIDS Memorial. In a joint statement posted to Instagram, the Stonewall Inn and the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative said they were “outraged and appalled” by the NPS changes and demanded an “immediate restoration” of the word “transgender” to the monument’s website description. “This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history, but it also dishonors the immense contributions of transgender individuals — especially transgender women of color — who were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader fight for LGBTQ+ rights,” the statement read, citing the efforts of “countless … trans and gender-nonconforming individuals” that helped form the basis of the modern LGTBQ+ rights movement. “This decision to erase the word ‘transgender’ is a deliberate attempt to erase our history and marginalize the very people who paved the way for many victories we have achieved as a community,” the statement continued.

    Stonewall riots: No one can erase the truth that trans women kickstarted the LGBTQ+ rights movement

    Last week, the Trump administration removed nearly all references to trans people from the Stonewall National Monument’s official website, which commemorates the Stonewall riots. A description of the monument on its front page has replaced the acronym LGBTQ+, which is inclusive of trans people, with LGB. The page now only mentions lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in its explanation of the riots. This erasure is particularly shocking and offensive given the incredibly important role trans people played in the the powerful uprising on 28 June 1969, which is the reason Pride Month is held in June each year. The Trump administration can edit and alter state-owned websites all they want, but they can’t change the facts – that trans women like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were central to the Stonewall riots. On 28 June 1970, the very first Pride marches were held in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. These marches were a direct response to the police raid on a queer bar exactly a year before. That 1969 police raid on a New York City bar sparked the Stonewall riots, and what would become the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and which are commemorated by the Stonewall National Monument. The Stonewall National Monument is an area in NYC that includes the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and nearby streets including Christopher Street, the site of the Stonewall riots of June 28, 1969. Anti-Trump protesters rally outside the Stonewall Inn in 2019 (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) On 28 June, 1969, officers sought to gut the Stonewall Inn, a queer nightclub then owned by the mafia in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. It was, the force said at the time, part of a routine raid of unlicensed bars illegally selling alcohol in the city. What followed, however, was anything but routine. It was a night of resistance, of calls for LGBTQ+ equality, which continues to embolden new generations of activists to this day. Even before the uprising, Stonewall was seen by many queer New Yorkers as a refuge from an unwelcoming, violent world. “The minute you walked into Stonewall, there was a change,” Mark Segal, an activist and eyewitness of the Stonewall uprising, told PinkNews in 2019. Segal, a Philadelphia native, packed his bags and came to New York City aged 18. To him, the Stonewall Inn, with its watered-down drinks and the mob’s backdoor dealings, was more that just a bar. It was an escape. “You could hold hands, you could kiss, you could show affection,” he recalled, “but more importantly for an 18-year-old kid, you could dance your ass off.” What prompted the Stonewall riots? At around 1:20am, NYPD officers from the force’s now-defunct Public Morals Squad, detective Charles Smith and deputy inspector Seymour Pine, swung through the doors of the Stonewall Inn. Seven more officers followed. It was no surprise, Segal said, as such raids were all too familiar. Disgruntled bar-goers were harassed and hurried out of the inn, greeted to a warm summer night. Police pulled some patrons aside, asking for identification and even subjecting those in drag to genital inspections. Staff, meanwhile, were arrested. Outside, the streets bristled with tension. A butch lesbian, generally thought to be Stormé DeLarverie by historians, resisted arrest and tried to escape only to be struck on the head with a baton. Storme DeLarverie (North Fork Women for Women Fund) “Why don’t you guys do something? she shouted at bystanders, who started to lob coins, bottles and stones at the car and at officers while shouting: “Gay power!” The Stonewall uprising, which would go on to be marked by the National Monument, had been sparked, with lesbians and trans women of colour leading the fight. Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera arrived at Stonewall around 2am where, Johnson said in a later interview, “the place was already on fire, and there was a raid already. The riots had already started.” The details of the night continue to be contested to this day – though many cite Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera as the fabled figures who “threw the first brick at Stonewall”, historians don’t believe any brick was thrown, and in any case, Johnson was clear that she didn’t arrive at Stonewall until events were well underway. However, it’s clear she and Rivera were on the front lines. Johnson and Rivera went on to become central figures in the fight for gay and trans rights, co-founding Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in 1970 “an organization dedicated to sheltering young transgender individuals who were shunned by their families.” They are rightly remembered today as heroes but for a long time, that wasn’t the case, with many quick to ignore their contributions, which is why we can’t sit back and let the word trans be erased from the Stonewall National Monument website in 2025. Days of rioting followed, and the following year, on 28 June 1970, LGBTQ+ people gathered to remember what had transpired that fateful day. The Stonewall Inn. (Spencer Platt/Getty) The one-year anniversary was dubbed Christopher Street Liberation Day, with the ensuing parade becoming the first LGBTQ+ Pride festival in the world. The Stonewall uprising provided activists with a long-sought template to, at long last, fight back against the injustices they had faced. “It’s probably the happiest riot there ever was and the reason it was happy is very simple,” Segal said. “The police represented two thousand years of oppression, everything that each and every one of us had ever gone through.” The Stonewall Inn is, to many, the birthplace of the LGBTQ+ rights movement. What happened that night is a matter for historians to preserve, not for politicians to erase. Trans women were on the front lines that night, fighting for the rights of all LGBTQ+ people. Now, it’s time for all LGBTQ+ people to stand up for trans rights. The post Stonewall riots: No one can erase the truth that trans women kickstarted the LGBTQ+ rights movement appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.

    Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime marginally falls in the England and Wales over the last year

    The Pride Progress Flag (Image: Benoît Prieur/Wikimedia Commons) Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime in England and Wales has fallen in the last year, according to new figures shared by the Home Office. The data, which covers the period between March 2023 and March 2024, showed that hate crimes against people because of their sexual orientation fell by 8% compared to the previous year, while transgender hate crime fell by 2%. Nevertheless, anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime in England and Wales is still higher than it was five years ago. According to the Home Office, between 2020 and 2021 there were 18,596 instances of hate crime because of sexual orientation reported to police. The most recent figures show that between 2023 and 2024, there were 22,839 instances. Still, this figure is 13% lower than the year ending March 2022, when 26,152 offences were recorded. “We know hate crime has a ripple effect” – Simon Blake, CEO of Stonewall Elsewhere in the report, the Home Office noted that disability hate crime had fallen by 18%, while racially motivated hate crimes had fallen by 5%. However, religious hate crimes had increased by 25%, particularly among the Jewish and Muslim communities. In a statement shared in response to the data, Simon Blake, CEO of Stonewall, said: “While the Home Office official statistics released today reveals a drop in reported hate crime motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity, the huge increase in religious hate crimes in the last year is deeply worrying. “We stand together with everyone affected by hate crime, whatever community they are part of. We know hate crime has a ripple effect. A rise in hatred towards one marginalised group is harmful to everyone, including the LGBTQ+ community, and has a corrosive effect across society. “We need to work together to stand hand in hand against hate crime and report it when we see it happen. We know hate crime reported to the police is only part of the picture, so it’s vital all those affected have access to support. The fight against hatred is shared, so we must work together to build a society where everyone is safe and respected and free from harm.” “Our research shows less than half of LGBTQ+ people feel safe holding their partner’s hand” – Stonewall Stonewall also noted that while overall there was a downward trend in reported hate crime, more accurate data was required. “Our research shows less than half of LGBTQ+ people feel safe holding their partner’s hand in public. And according to a survey by Galop, only one in eight people reported their experiences to the police,” a spokesperson said. “To reflect the true picture of hate crime, reporting needs to be as accurate as possible. There has been a lot of work to improve reporting. But there’s more to do to inform the community about reporting routes and ensure those affected by hate crime can access support.” The post Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime marginally falls in the England and Wales over the last year appeared first on Attitude.

    The Gay Liberation Front’s Impact on LGBTQ+ History

    In June 1969, a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village was met with a resistance that launched the modern Gay Liberation Movement. Following decades of mostly discreet and targeted gay rights activism led by the Mattachine Society, the events set forth at Stonewall launched the movement into the popular consciousness. There was no turning back from Stonewall, but how the movement would proceed was a huge unknown. Scenes from the Stonewall Rebellion by Fred W. McDarah, used with permission of the Estate of Fred W. McDarrah In the days following Stonewall, there was division within the movement. The Mattachine Society, which was one of the first gay rights groups (founded secretly in 1950), wanted to “retain the favor of the Establishment” and continue to challenge government, religion, and psychiatry as major agents of oppression. The newly formed Mattachine Action Society (MAC) took a more radical approach, wanting to overthrow the establishment rather than arguing for change from within. They immediately announced a public forum on the topic of “Gay Power” at which they enthusiastically voted to stage a protest of police harassment. At a second forum on July 16th, 1969 at St. John’s in the Village Episcopal Church on West 11th Street and Waverly Place (destroyed by fire, 1971), an argument between Mattachine’s leadership and MAC constituents broke out. Gay Liberation Front Meeting at Alternate U in 1970. Photographed by Diana Davies via NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project The MAC broke away from Mattachine and established their own organization during a series of meetings on July 24 and July 31 at Alternate U at 530 Sixth Avenue aka 69 West 14th Street, just north of 14th Street (demolished). The core group of activists included Michael Brown, Martha Shelley, Lois Hart, Bob Martin, Marty Robinson, Karla Jay, Bob Kohler, and others. This new group called themselves the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). They took this name from other “National Liberation Front ” movements of the time such as the National Liberation Front in Algeria, which was formed in 1954 as an anti-colonial and pro-Algerian political party, and the Vietnamese National Liberation Front which was formed in 1960 to overthrow the South Vietnamese government and reunify North and South Vietnam under communism.  69 West 14th Street (demolished in 2019), served as headquarters for Alternate U and the GLF. Photographed in 1980, image via NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. The GLF demanded liberation in the spirit of these national-liberation and anti-capitalist struggles around the world. They viewed Stonewall as an opportunity to revolutionize society. They organized marches on Time magazine and The Village Voice, and published their own newspaper, Come Out! They reclaimed the word “Gay,” which had been avoided by the previous generation of activists in favor of cryptic names such as Mattachine, Bilitis, and Janus. The GLF helped create the first Pride, which took place on June 28, 1970 in New York City. Photo by Diana Davies, 1970. Source: NYPL While the GLF was relatively short-lived, it was highly influential. GLF meetings were run by consensus, which created an opportunity for dialogue that helped its members become more effective activists but also contributed to the group’s fracturing within one year of its founding. The GLF eventually became a network of semi-autonomous cells. Groups such as the Red Butterfly Cell, the 28th of June Cell, the Planned Non-Parenthood Cell, the Gay Commandoes, and the Aquarius Cell each pursued a specialized agenda. Many of these cells would grow into the groups that would lead the next generation of LGBTQ+ activism. For example, the Lavender Menace (later officially organized as Radicalesbians) and the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), founded by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. Other groups that grew out of GFL also included the Parents of Gays (later renamed Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG), and the National Gay Task Force (later the National LGBTQ+ Task Force), the first national gay liberation organization. Gay Activists Alliance flyer for the Snake Pit raid protest, March 1970. Photo via LGBT Historic Sites Project Perhaps the most influential of the organizations created out of GLF was the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). Unlike the GLF, which aligned itself with a host of New Left causes, the GAA dedicated itself exclusively to advancing LGBT civil and social rights. The GAA was headquartered at 99 Wooster Street rom April 1971 until October 1974. This location served as an important community center. On June 18, 2019, Village Preservation scored a big victory — following a five-year campaign, NYC landmarked both the LGBT Community Center at 208 W. 13th Street and the former Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) Firehouse at 99 Wooster Street. Read more about the GAA Firehouse here. Click here to read more about the GLF. Click here to read about the fight to honor LGBT rights history. Click here to read about LGBT landmarks. The post The Gay Liberation Front’s Impact on LGBTQ+ History first appeared on Village Preservation.

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