19 July 2007

Stonewall Inn, population six


[Dear John, Decades ago, this hotel, The Stonewall Inn, was the witness to a riot that spawned the gay rights movement. On the shadowy wall, protesters march for equal rights, holding signs and rainbow flags. But those days are history here, it seems. A friend told me that New York City's gay community doesn't frequent this area of town as much as it used to. Instead of having a geographic hub, gays in New York are spread out all over the place, he said. In many ways, I think that is a powerful victory. While gays are still discriminated against, they don't have to separate, isolate and alienate themselves from the rest of life and society. They, or we, are peppered in as part of the mosaic experience that is American life today. Well, at least here.]

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