Free Republic

References to transgender people were removed Thursday from a National Park Service website for the Stonewall National Monument, a park and visitor center in New York that commemorates a 1969 riot that became a pivotal moment for the LGBTQ+ rights movement.

On the Friday night of June 27, 1969 the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, and a firestorm of protest erupted that continued over the next several nights. The Stonewall riots are considered the birth of the modern gay rights movement, and over the following decades often has been characterized as a protest against police harassment. However, in actuality, the Stonewall Inn was raided pursuant to an investigation against its reputed mob owners, and the ensuing rage on the streets by its gay patrons was directed as much against the wise guys...

CNSNews.com) - At a White House reception held Friday evening in honor of Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Pride month, President Barack Obama celebrated a 1969 anti-police riot that started in what the New York Times reports was an illegal Mafia-owned bar for transvestites. “Now, each June since I took office, we have gathered to pay tribute to the generations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans who devoted their lives to our most basic of ideals--equality not just for some, but for all,” Obama said. “Together we’ve marked major milestones like the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, when...

<p>Although 2,000 miles apart, Amanda Blair and Stephanie Haaser will remember their high school years for remarkably similar lessons — about courage, integrity and the personal rewards of standing up for the underdog.</p> <p>Upset by anti-gay climates at their schools in Wyoming and Maryland, the heterosexual teens creatively figured out how to transform routine occasions into powerful lessons for their peers and teachers and to show gay kids they have allies.</p>

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - The Rev. Troy Perry felt he had a simple mission when he gathered a dozen congregants in his living room in 1968 to sing hymns and take Communion: He wanted them to know God loves gay people as much as everyone else. "I told them, 'God doesn't play favorites,'" recalled Perry, who recruited the 11 men and one woman with an ad in the national gay newsmagazine The Advocate. "I knew God loved me, and if God loved me, God had to love other gay people," said Perry, an excommunicated Pentecostal minister. From that service in...