Contrary to the 2015 film Stonewall, we know that rioters included drag queens, trans folks, femmes and people of colour. Today, Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera\u2019s names are as likely to be spoken by\u00a0young queer people as those of icons Harvey Milk and Alan Turing<\/a>. Stonewall shows us that gay liberation was hard won by a diverse spectrum of people.<\/p>\n Gay activism, however, was not created in\u00a01969. Campaigning groups in Europe and\u00a0North America lobbied for legal reform and\u00a0societal change from at least the 1940s. In the UK, the Homosexual Law Reform Society, Campaign for Homosexual Equality, Minorities Research Group, Beaumont Society and others worked tirelessly to build LGBTQ communities and effect change. Sexual radicals and reformers such as George Cecil Ives and Edward Carpenter promoted tolerance from the late 19th century. And new research suggests that a queer cohort of men within parliament challenged sodomy laws in the 1820s. The history of activism is as long as the struggles.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> Stonewall did not end in June 1969. Inspired by the Black Panthers and mindful that their own momentum not be lost, activists soon founded the Gay Liberation Front. Its radical activism inspired other GLF groups around the world, including the UK, from 1970. Its 1971 manifesto demands for workplace protections for gay people and equal age of consent have been achieved, while others \u2013 including the inclusion of gay topics in sex education \u2013 remain divisive today. Though it would only last a few years, the GLF inspired generations of future activists.<\/p>\n On the podcast | We mark LGBT+ History Month with a panel discussion tackling some of the biggest themes in LGBTQ history:<\/strong><\/p>\nRead more Why we should remember\u2026?<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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