Equality A Movement Essays - Matthew Shepard, Hate Crime, Gay Bar

Equality: A Movement It was Friday June 27, 1969. New York's crime syndicates are extorting large sums of protection money from gay bars. Any who can, or will, not pay are either persuaded or closed down after a visit from NYCPDs Public Morals Section, who enforce the Mafia's stranglehold on the city's gay bars. The detectives from the Public Morals Section have no reason to believe that tonight's raid on the gay Stonewall Inn will be anything but brief and businesslike. They arrest two bartenders, three drag queens, and a lesbian. The customers are allowed to leave one-by-one. A crowd of these customers quickly gathers outside the Stonewall Inn. Cries of defiance and cheers begin to rise from the swelling crowd (Lesbian). Soon, the crowd becomes an angry mob. Out numbered, with no place to go, the police seek cover inside the Stonewall, bolting the heavy wooden door against the crowd. Outside an uprooted parking meter is used as a makeshift battering ram, the door flies open. Someone pours lighter fluid through a broken window-- a match is thrown and the bar is in flames as police reinforcements begin to arrive. By Sunday morning the riot has burnt itself out. Intermittent small incidents take place over the next four nights but the pent-up anger and fury of the gay community has been exhausted and replaced by an emotion they have never experienced before, pride. Within a month the first Gay Liberation Front meeting is held in New York (Lesbian). Every year following the riot, now referred to simply as Stonewall, Americans, gay and straight alike, come together in almost every city across the country. They come together in remembrance of Stonewall, prior struggles for equality, and just to make sure that the rest of the world knows that they exist and will never give in to oppression. The purpose of the gay rights movement is to prompt open minded Americans to get involved by finding, joining and supporting state federal, legal, educational and family groups; in order to gain societal equality for all homosexual, bisexual, and transgendered Americans. Since the 1960s, societal equality and acceptance has eluded the gay rights movement; consequently, there has been all-too-often occurrences of hate crimes that are in dire need of legislation against them; therefore, our society needs to be educated in understanding in order to increase the chances of passing equal rights laws, and the federal government needs to provide the same protection against housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and basic human rights discrimination for homosexual Americans. Hate Crimes In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury (Jefferson par. 30). Alan Schindler joined the Navy to see the world. He joined the Navy to serve his country and earn money for college. In his eyes, these things were possible; it didnt matter that he was gay. He soon found out, though, that others he was serving with didnt hold these same beliefs. Schindler told his friends and family of being harassed by other shipmates. He said that when he admitted to a legal officer that he was homosexual, it was an act of both liberation and desperation, because by then, afraid for his life, he wanted out of the Navy (Lavin A-14). Airman Apprentice Terry M. Helvey had initially developed a dislike for Schindler a year before, and was resentful at how Schindler had bossed him around on cleanup duty. His dislike grew more intense when word spread that Schindler was gay and was about to be discharged. On the night of October 27, 1993 Helvey and Airman Charles E. Vins went to a movie, then headed toward a park just outside the base in Japan, where they saw Schindler walking alone and decided to harass him (Lavin A-14). When Schindler went into a public bathroom, Helvey and Vins followed. Both hit and kicked Schindler, with Helvey striking the major blows. When the assailants left a few minutes later, Schindler's face was destroyed and several internal organs were injured, including mortal wounds to his heart and liver (Lavin A-14). There are many ways to rob a person. All police see many victims. Most of them, relieved of