Rise Up: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement

Rise Up: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement, created to mark the 50th anniversary of a June 1969 police raid of the Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village, explores the modern LGBTQ rights movement in the United States. The protests that followed the raid were a pivotal moment in the modern gay liberation movement and the ongoing fight for LGBTQ civil rights.

Rise Up highlights the events that led to the Stonewall Inn riots and how they energized the fight for LGBTQ rights. Over the last 50 years, activists have used their First Amendment freedoms to demand an end to discrimination against LGBTQ Americans. Through powerful artifacts, images, and historic publications, Rise Up describes key moments in LGBTQ history, including the 1978 assassination of Harvey Milk, one of the country’s first openly gay elected officials, the AIDS crisis, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank’s public coming out in 1987, the efforts to enact hate crime legislation, the implementation and later repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and the fight for marriage equality in the United States.

Rise Up also looks at popular culture’s role in influencing attitudes about the LGBTQ community through film, television, and music and examines how the LGBTQ rights movement harnessed the power of public protest to change laws and shatter stereotypes.

Rise Up: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement was developed by the Freedom Forum, which fosters First Amendment freedoms for all.