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The past, present and future of the LGBTQ+ community

The past, present and future of the LGBTQ+ community It’s not an illness -- Members of the Indonesian LGBT community display a banner stating that homosexuality is not a mental illness. Rights groups have said recent comments from public figures condemning LGBT people are ill-informed and risk triggering discrimination. (Tempo/-)
Jaanam Jaswani (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta   ●   Tue, June 28, 2016

“Why don’t you guys do something?” screams Stormé DeLarverie, a lesbian and gay civil rights activist, to a crowd of around 300 people after being arrested at the Stonewall Inn, Greenwich Village, New York City, on June 28, 1969 at 1:20 a.m. This served as the trigger for what is considered one of the most significant events in LGBT history: the Stonewall Riots.

The Stonewall Inn was a place that was unofficially and locally deemed the city’s gay bar. Coins, stones, garbage cans and beer bottles were among the things being thrown at the police for arresting and overlooking the civil rights of these LGBTQ+ people during an unplanned raid.

There were line-ups of drag-queens and lesbians in handcuffs being told to wait for the patrol wagons. For about four hours on that fabulous (read: fagulous) night, these people sparked an uprising that eventually bloomed into the very first pride parade that took place in New York a year later.

(Read also: Depiction of struggle of Indonesia’s gays in 'Sergius Mencari Bacchus')

So what drove the police to ram the door down and arrest all those queer people? Before diving straight into the situation on that tragic, yet symbolic night, we must address the horrifying laws stemming from the homophobia and discrimination that was bubbling underneath.

From being arrested and forcibly sterilized for sodomy and immoral acts, to being discharged from the army in both World War 1 and World War II, to having homosexuality classified as a mental disorder by the APA despite this already having been proven wrong, to even being refused service of alcohol in bars as it would cause “disorder”, the LGBTQ+ community were clearly being marginalized by American laws.

What’s interesting here is the events that prompted the Stonewall Riots. In Los Angeles, 1959, the police raided an establishment called Cooper’s Donuts to arrest a group of drag-queens, queer sex workers and transwomen. A protest occurred, spurred by man who resisted arrest, and eventually “they fought back, hurling donuts, coffee cups and trash at the police”.

According to the law back then, cross-dressers and people who represented themselves differently from the gender assigned on their IDs were liable to arrest. In a similar coffee-related incident in 1966 in Compton’s Cafeteria, San Francisco, the cops were called because there were trans folk being “unruly”. The police yet again tried to arrest people, but an uproar started when a woman threw coffee on a man’s face.

Thus Stonewall was provoked, a rebellion amped up with all the rage of people being dehumanized every single day. “It didn’t have a liquor license; they washed their glasses in a tub at the back; [and] the toilets were overflowing,” says Kevin Hughes in a video explaining the riots.

It should be noted that this was one of the only safe spaces in the city for the LGBTQ+ community at the time, so the bombarding and arrests undoubtedly caused a great amount of resentment, to the point of using batons to beat heads. The next night, more people visited Stonewall to show their pride by spraying the walls with graffiti and creating another event of nonconformity with the cops.

(Read also: LGBT community's ‘secret language’ related to oppression: Researcher)

This happened 47 years ago. Today, the world is much more “tolerant” towards the LGBTQ+ community, considering that anybody can marry anyone in the US, regardless of gender and/or sexuality. But are we really tolerant? Only two weeks ago, Omar Mateen killed 49 people in a gay club in Orlando, in the country’s deadliest mass shooting. In December 2013, a man named Musab Masmari set fire to a gay nightclub in Seattle.

When will the hate crimes stop? There have been 48 incidents of violence against the LGBTQ+ community in the United States since 2010. Just recently, a man from Indiana called James Wesley Howell was arrested near the Los Angeles Pride Parade after being caught with an assortment of rifles and explosives. Why do we have so much hatred for each other? When will we realize that we are all human and that’s the only reason that we need to be civil amongst ourselves?

Let’s consider the predicament in our own country, Indonesia. About a month ago, I was passing by Thamrin when I saw a sign saying “LGBT penyakit penular” (LGBT is a viral sickness). Why must our sexualities be so strongly correlated with depravity, or being “abnormal” or “cacat”?

It’s no secret that LGBTQ + icons are blocked on social media platforms, but why is “respecting Indonesian norms and culture” the reason behind this? Did you know that the Indonesian Psychiatry Association considers homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism mental disorders? What about how the MUI (Majelis Ulama Indonesia) tried to criminalize homosexuality and have it punished with canings and the death penalty?

(Read also: Poor knowledge leads to prolonged discrimination against LGBT people)

I fear for the safety of our youth, especially knowing that there are organizations that are actively seeking to eradicate us with no good cause. Sticking by Stormé DeLarverie, I want to know, why aren’t we doing something?

As June 28 marks Pride Day, I would like to use my voice and spread awareness of the LGBTQ+ community, so that we can finally put an end to these hate crimes. It should be common knowledge that gay agendas are a myth, and that the LGBTQ+ community just wants to live with the same rights as everybody else.

There is never a reason to classify human beings as better or worse than one another. It is time to stop looking upon love with such hatred.

Happy Pride Day, everyone.

***

Jaanam Jaswani is a 17 year-old blogger and occasional poet. Impulsive and controversial, she has an insatiable curiosity when it comes to literature, performance arts, philosophy, and food. She can be found on biryanibabe.blogspot.co.id@exist_sensual on Instagram, or @inbreadwecrust on Twitter.

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