Jordan Meehan Ms.

Jablonski November 22, 2010 UW 20

The Gay Identity

How the LGBT Community Finds Its Identity Through Collective Memory and Symbology of the LGBT Rights Movement and Shared Experience

There are some that argue that symbols and symbolic, significant events of the past do not play a key role in creating identity for a community of people, such as the LGBT community. They argue that identity forms and changes as time moves forward and thus is constantly changing. I argue that, despite the incredible range of diversity found in the LGBT community, its members do in fact share a collective identity which has been shaped through both shared experience and as seen in the symbology that has arisen through these experiences. Symbols of the LGBT movement, such as the lambda, the rainbow flag, and the pink triangle among others carry a rich history and deep meaning and that meaning has helped create a collective identity within the community that can still be seen today. Certain events, such as the Holocaust and the Stonewall Riots of 1969, have also significantly impacted the LGBT community and the ramifications of these events have also helped to carve a strong communal identity. One of the most popular and most recognized symbols of the LGBT movement is the lambda symbol. The Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) in New York chose this symbol in 1970, a year after they had broken off from the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and a year after the famous Stonewall Riots. The GLF wanted to branch out and form coalitions with womens and African-American groups, while the GAA wished to focus solely on

LGBT issues and thus split off from the main group. (Riffenburg) The lambda symbol instantly became a way for LGBT people to identify each other, becoming a tangible and material form of identity. The reasoning behind this symbol was that it was also used by other groups and could be easily mistaken for something such as a college fraternity letter and thus ignored by much of the population. An arsonist eventually burned down the GAA headquarters and the organization never recovered, so if there were any other reasons for the lambda symbol, they are lost, but there are several rumors. (Riffenburg) Among these rumors are that the letter L in Greek stands for liberation and thus applied to the movement, that the Greek Spartans believed the lambda symbolized unity and that since the lambda is also used in physics to denote energy, it represents the charged energy of the LGBT movement towards equal rights when activists worked together (Glacuho.org). At the time of its inception, the lambda symbol was seen as a rather militant symbol due to its ties with the fairly radical GAA but as time has progressed, the lambda has begun to simply represent the shared concerns of gays and lesbians (Glacuho.org). Perhaps the most popular symbol in the LGBT community and most recognized by both those in the LGBT community and those outside it is the rainbow pride flag. The pride flag was created by Gilbert Baker, a San Francisco artist, in 1978. While this was a new symbol for the LGBT community, the concept of a rainbow is not new. Rainbows have been used since ancient times by cultures such as the Greeks, Africans, Native Americans and Celtic tribes. In creating the rainbow pride flag, Baker took inspiration from a number of other communities and movements, such as the hippie movement and the black civil rights movement. What many people do not know though, is that each

color of the pride flag has its own meaning: Hot pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, blue for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit. However, when the flag was mass-produced, hot pink had to be removed, as it was not an available color (Riffenburg). There have been several variations of this flag, the most popular being the Victory Over AIDS flag. On this flag, a black stripe is added under the purple stripe on the bottom. This variation came about from a San Francisco activist group in an effort to raise AIDS awareness in the LGBT community, as the LGBT community has been one of the hardest hit communities by the AIDS virus. Sgt. Leonard Matlovitch, a Vietnam veteran who is dying of AIDS, has proposed that once a cure is found for AIDS that all of the black stripes be removed from the AIDS awareness flags and ceremonially burned in Washington, DC (Riffenburg). One of the lesser-known and more obscure symbols in the LGBT movement is the purple rhinoceros. Boston activists Daniel Thaxton and Bernie Toale created the purple rhino in 1974, which first started appearing on posters in Boston subways. The rhinoceros is characterized as having a very peaceful demeanor but can become extremely aggressive and violent if threatened, so the image of a rhino seemed very appropriate symbol for the LGBT movement since the Stonewall Riots had occurred only a few years prior (Glacuho.org). The color purple is often used to symbolize homosexuality but it is unclear whether the rhino is purple for this reason or if the purple coloring is used to show the combination of male and female influences. The rhino also bears a heart on it, which is understood to reflect the common humanity of all people (Glacuho.org). Ultimately the purple rhino campaign became too expensive for Thaxton and Toale to

maintain and as the purple rhino never quite caught on with the mainstream LGBT movement, it soon died out (Riffenburg). Another important set of symbols relevant to the LGBT movement is gender symbols. These symbols have long been used to represent men and women. The male symbol is comprised of a circle with an arrow attached to it, pointing at a northeast direction while the female symbol is made up of a circle with a cross that points south. The male symbol stands for Ares, the Greek god of war and is a strong symbol of masculinity, thus the symbol has come to represent men. The female symbol stands for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, and is a symbol for femininity and has come to represent women (Riffenburg). Interlocking the male and female symbol can mean several things. In the 1970s, the interlocking of the two symbols stood for the common goals of lesbians and gay men. These days, interlocking male and female symbols denote heterosexual awareness of the differences and diversity between men and women (Glacuho.org). In the early 1970s, gay men began to combine two male symbols to denote male homosexuality. Around the same time women began combining two female symbols to represent female homosexuality. The concept of using two female symbols to denote lesbianism soon ran into trouble though when some members of the Feminist movement used the same combined symbol to denote Feminism and the sisterhood of all women. Over time this problem settled itself out and now many feminists use three combined female symbols to represent their movement and sisterhood instead of just two (Riffenburg).

Bisexuals and transgender persons are often left underrepresented in the LGBT movement, regardless of half the anagram LGBT standing for bisexual and transgender. Gender symbols have also been used to symbolize bisexuality and transgendered people. Denoting bisexuality with combinations of the two gender symbols however, is difficult and often times confusing. Typically it is done by starting with the symbol of whatever gender the bisexual person is and then putting a male symbol next to it and a female symbol on the other side and having all three of them interlock. Less commonly seen is a symbol that includes a combination of two female symbols and two male symbols with two of each symbol interlocking. If it were to be transcribed it would be the lesbian symbol, plus the heterosexual symbol plus the gay symbol (Riffenburg). Transgendered people have two symbols from which to choose. The first, and more common one, is a simple combination of the male and female symbol. It places the female cross and the male arrow on the same circle to symbolize the male and female parts present in one person (Riffenburg). The other, less common symbol, disregards the male Ares and the female Aphrodite symbols altogether and uses the symbol for Mercury. According to Greek mythology, Ares and Aphrodite had a child together, whom they named Hermaphroditus, who possessed both male and female genitalia. Since there was no symbol for Hermaphroditus, the symbol for Mercury was borrowed. This symbol has a circle with a cross hanging down (like the Aphrodite symbol) to represent femininity and a crescent moon on top to represent masculinity. The cross and the crescent moon are placed at opposite ends of the circle to strike a balance between the male and female parts; transgendered people who identify hermaphroditically or

androgynously more commonly use this second symbol (Riffenburg). These gender symbols are extremely important in terms of LGBT identity because they provide another visible form of identity and are far more specific than other symbols such as the lambda or the pride flag. The gender symbols are extremely effective because while there are only two symbols (excluding the less common transgender symbol) there are multiple combinations that represent just about everyone in the movement and the ways in which they identify themselves. A less commonly used symbol connected with lesbianism and feminism is the labrys. The labrys is a double-edged axe or hatchet that can be used as both a tool for harvesting or as a weapon in battle. Amazon tribes who lived in what is modern day Kazakhstan favored the labrys. Amazons ruled using a dual-queen system in which one queen was in charge of the armies and led them in battle while the other queen stayed behind to rule the cities they had conquered. The Amazons were known to be merciless in battle but once they conquered a city they ruled justly (Glacuho.org). Lesbian and feminist groups resurrected the labrys symbol in the early 1970s during the onset of the gay liberation movement as a symbol of strength and self-sufficiency. In more recent years, this symbol has been superseded by others but can still be found on some jewelry. What also makes this symbol important is the fact that it is very specific and geared towards lesbians in the LGBT movement. Just as the gender symbols were specific, this symbol is even more specific, representing the identity of a single group within the movement as a whole.

Just about everybody who is familiar with this next symbol knows that it finds its roots in the Holocaust, although the pink triangle, the symbol used to identify homosexuals during the Holocaust, was around before World War II even started. A clause in German law known as Paragraph 175 prohibited homosexual relations, not unlike laws in many U.S. states today. This law extended to prohibiting homosexual kissing, embracing and even going so far as to prohibit homosexual fantasies. Between 1937 and 1939, an estimated 25,000 people were convicted under this law. They were sentenced to prison, and later to concentration camps, where their punishment included sterilization, most commonly by means of castration. Hitler increased the punishment for homosexuality to death in 1942 (Riffenburg). In Nazi concentration camps, prisoners were labeled according to their crimes. Crimes considered regular were assigned a green triangle, political prisoners were given a red triangle, Jews were given two overlapping yellow triangles (to form the Star of David) and homosexuals were given a pink triangle. Gay Jews, who were considered the lowest form of prisoners, were given overlapping pink and yellow triangles. Through this system of different colored triangles, a social hierarchy was formed within the concentration camps and it has been reported that gay prisoners who bore the pink triangle often received the heaviest workloads and were constantly harassed and beaten by guards and even by other prisoners (Riffenburg). Recently, Maxime Donzel, a video reporter for French website Yagg.com had the opportunity to meet and interview Rudolph Brazda, the last known surviving pink triangle. It should be noted that the term last known means that there could be more

surviving pink triangles but so far none have chosen to speak up. Donzel, in an article written for the Huffington Post, writes [o]ne aspect of coming to terms with your own homosexuality is learning about gay culture and history Getting acquainted with past struggles of gays, lesbians and transgendered people, but also some of their incredible successes, is part of what helps you brush off the sadness and shame most of us unfortunately grow up feeling. Brazdas story is important because it details a first hand account of how homosexuals were treated during the Holocaust and how that treatment formed the basis of a collective memory. Brazda recounts being forced to strip naked upon arriving at the concentration camp and being forced to bathe in a disinfectant liquid and having his head held under by a member of the S.S. Brazda continues to recount that having to wear a pink triangle was humiliating and the prisoners who wore them were ridiculed by other prisoners but ultimately left alone. The S.S. also ridiculed the pink triangles and Brazda recounts them saying things like oh this ones a fag. By learning of the collective memory shared by members of the LGBT community for example, by hearing stories such as Brazdas, and by becoming acquainted with the collective identity of the LGBT community, gays and lesbians are able to shake off the yoke which, even today, society burdens them with. The pink triangle symbol began being used as an activist symbol in the 1970s and was adopted by the gay liberation movement. When public figures and lawmakers were confronted by this symbol, they risked being associated with the Nazis if they made any attempt to try to limit or persecute gays. In the 1980s, an organization known as ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) adopted the symbol as their own. However, they inverted the symbol and turned it right side up as to depict an active fight instead of

passive resignation, like criminals under Paragraph 175. After being tied to the AIDS fight (as well as remaining a symbol of remembrance for victims of the Holocaust) many people began wearing the symbol right side up if they had connections to anybody who had died of AIDS (Riffenburg). In 1993, a gay magazine called 10 Percent criticized the use of the pink triangle as a symbol of gay identity. A senior editor of the magazine said it was wrong to equate the discrimination experienced today to the savage acts inflicted on the gay and lesbian victims of the Holocaust (Jensen 319). Amidst the letters of response, one reader wrote in disagreement to the senior editor and argued that the pink triangle raised the political consciousness of gays and lesbians, compelling them to take action against homophobic trends and sentiments (Jensen 319). Jensen goes on to argue that readers attributed their political consciousness as gay men and women, at least in part, to a particular collective memory of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals. This historical memory, refracted in the symbol of the pink triangle, has mobilized vigilance against contemporary oppression, from queer bashings to antigay initiatives (320). Why then, as a symbol, is the pink triangle so significant, especially when compared to other symbols? Perhaps because other symbols, such as the rainbow pride flag, the lambda and the purple rhinoceros are reactionary symbols created to unite people after important events, such as the Stonewall Riots, and in doing so create political consciousness and collective identity. The pink triangle, however, was not created with the intent to react but rather was created as a label and used to persecute homosexuals during the Holocaust. Perhaps then, what makes this symbol so significant is that this symbol has been adopted by the LGBT community and, while it is also used by activist

groups, serves to commemorate and remember the victims of a horrific event and preserve the collective memory that has been established by that event instead of simply being used as a reactionary symbol. Through this preservation and remembrance of that collective memory by means of keeping this symbol alive, a collective identity takes shape. It is also worth noting the difference in significance of the Holocaust to the LGBT community and Jewish victims. There is no denying that the Holocaust was a watershed event for Jews. There is also no denying that it was still a significant event for homosexuals, as well as every other minority who was persecuted. As this was an event that primarily affected the Jews and was such a major event for the Jewish population, it is clear that it created a collective memory and identity for the Jews more so than the LGBT community. Due to the surrounding circumstances at the time of the Holocaust (world war, extreme political upheaval, fascism, etc) compared to today, a peaceful time with countries far more industrialized and developed compared to the 1940s, when the LGBT movement is again in the spotlight, it is safe to assume that homosexuals will probably never face an event like the Holocaust that is primarily geared towards them. For this reason, the LGBT identity will most likely not develop in the same way that the collective identity for the Jews developed as a result of the Holocaust. The collective identity of the Jews has been shaped by centuries of persecution and while gays and lesbians have also faced centuries of persecution, the collective identity of the LGBT community has only just begun to take shape over the last century, primarily through activism and political reaction to events such as Stonewall. It is important to note this comparison in the development of collective identity of the two groups because it depicts

the different ways in which collective identity can be shaped: by means of a horrific, landmark event, such as the Holocaust, or by numerous reactions to political and social persecution as seen in the LGBT community. Every modern gay rights activist, and most informed members of the LGBT community, knows all about the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Many members of the LGBT community however, do not realize its significance. The word Stonewall has entered the vocabulary of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered (LGBT) people everywhere as a potent emblem of the gay community making a stand against oppression and demanding full equality in every area of life (Wright). What many people fail to realize though is that the identity of the LGBT community had faced numerous trials and tribulations long before a few plainclothes cops went out for a night of gay bar raiding on that fateful June night in 1969. During the Second World War, with norms of peacetime having been broken, gays and lesbians saw the opportunity for greater sexual expression and freedom. Women, who under normal peacetime conditions did not have the same economic rights and privileges as their male counterparts, began entering the workforce and thus had the spending power to fund their own sexual freedom. This freedom, however, was shortlived and as peacetime conditions settled back in, society closed its doors on the wave of sexual freedom experienced by gays and lesbians. While the lid of sexual orthodoxy came crashing down, and a dark age was about to dawn for gay people (Wright), things could never return to being completely normal; gays and lesbians had gotten a taste of what sexual freedom was like and would forever refuse to let go. While most of the wartime gay venues were forced to close up shop as peacetime conditions renewed

themselves, the identity that they helped to shape would stick around indefinitely. Tragically, this identity was about to be suppressed as the wave of McCarthyism washed upon American shores. The late 1940s and 1950s saw the rise of post-war reconstruction and the return to consumer production. This resulted in the authorities heavily promoting the model of the orthodox nuclear family to buttress the social and economic system of capitalism (Wright). Those who went against this idea of the nuclear family to engage in homosexual relationships were persecuted and seen as going against the fundamental values of capitalism. This persecution was detrimental to the gay identity as it tried to sweep any concept of a gay identity under the rug and completely out of sight, as if it didnt exist at all. Inquiries of the House Un-American Activities Committee, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, also led to thousands of gay people losing their jobs in government departments. The now infamous Joseph McCarthy was, during the early part of his career, a fairly unknown member of the U.S. Senate. In 1950, he and other political leaders led an attempt to ferret out and purge the country of Communists; they also charged that homosexuals were a threat to national security, publically referring to them as perverts and claiming that they had infiltrated the government and were perhaps as dangerous as the actual Communists (Meem 73). In every state, local newspapers listed the names of those who had been accused of homosexuality and their place of work, thus leading to even more job losses. Colleges and universities even began keeping tabs on students who they suspected might be gay (Wright). This new wave of fear mongering and persecution actively worked to not just repress the gay identity but to eradicate it altogether. Through this persecution, however, a movement would be born.

Harry Hay, a gay man and long time member of the Communist Party, decided in 1948 to create a gay rights group in resistance to the post-war persecution. This was the first chapter in what gay people at the time described as the homophile movement (Wright). The new Stalinist regime conflicted with the ideals of the former ruler Communist Party in Russia, the Bolsheviks, who had wished to put an end to anti-gay persecution. Harry Hay upheld this view but when Stalin came into power and put into place anti-gay policies, Hay had no choice but to leave the Communist Party if he were to create his gay rights group and in 1950 Hay launched the Mattachine Society. The creation of this organization played a volatile role in shaping the gay identity as it was seen as the first gay rights organizations and would kick off the gay rights movement as a whole. The goal of the Mattachine Society was to unify isolated homosexuals and educate them to see themselves as an oppressed minority and lead them in the struggle for liberation from the society who oppressed them so vigorously. This unification of isolated homosexuals began crafting a common identity; gays and lesbians from all walks of life were brought together and a communal feeling and identity was created. The Mattachine Society organized local discussion groups to promote and ethical homosexual culture and show them that emotional stress and mental confusion among gays and lesbians was socially conditioned (Wright). This social conditioning shows how society actively worked to not only curb but altogether suppress the very concept of a gay identity. While the Stonewall Riots of 1969 are undoubtedly a watershed event in the LGBT rights movement, they were preceded by similar events that simply failed to garner the amount of commemorability that the Stonewall Riots grasped. Among these

events, which preceded Stonewall, is the police raid at a San Francisco New Years Eve Ball in 1965, a riot in response to police action at Comptons Cafeteria in 1966 (also in San Francisco), the Black Cat raid of 1967 in Los Angeles and an event that occurred after Stonewall, a police raid of the Snake Pit Bar in New York City in 1970. The first of these events, the San Francisco New Years Ball, began innocently enough with a coalition group known as The Council of Religion for the Homosexual, comprised of progressive heterosexual religious leaders and homophile activists. The New Years Ball was meant to be a simple fundraiser for the group and it was implied that there would be no police raid as the organizers had told the police of the upcoming event. Regardless, sponsors of the event saw what the Mattachine Review described as the most lavish display of police harassment known in recent times (Armstrong 730). Even before the raid took place this event was seen as significant because of the intergroup cooperation between homophile activists and religious leaders, two groups that dont typically go well together. While this event was memorable and certainly significant, the homophile activists in San Francisco made no effort to commemorate this event. Without such commemoration this event was unable to sufficiently help shape the gay identity like the Stonewall Riots were. However, the San Francisco activists are not entirely to blame for this for [t]hey had neither the idea that a homosexual event could be commemorated nor any model of how to do so (Armstrong 730). The activists in San Francisco clearly cannot be entirely to blame, as they had no idea what to do in terms of remembrance of this event aside from committing it to memory. So while they had lived through an event that could have been the next step in shaping the gay identity, they were

unable to commemorate it properly as to add it to the collective memory of the LGBT movement and thus this event goes largely unremembered. Although the activists involved in the San Francisco New Years Ball raid lacked the foundation on which to make this event a part of the gay identity and properly commemorate it, it should also be noted that these activists were much more politically relaxed than those in Los Angeles and New York. During this time the civil rights movement was roaring in the South and its influences could be seen across the country. The San Francisco activists resisted these radicalizing influences, though, because of their moderate approach achieved modest success (Armstrong 731). This raid was seen as a local problem having to do primarily with problems with the police and they decided that the best way to approach it was through private meetings opposed to public protests. Although even if they had wanted to make the reaction to this event a public ordeal, it was extremely difficult getting the word out to other cities as the mainstream media would not cover these types of stories and only three of the thirteen homophile periodicals that were published by the end of 1964 were in circulation nationally, and even still they only had an audience of a few thousand. These two factors, the political modesty of the San Francisco activists and the lack of a powerful and far-reaching homophile news source, rendered it impossible for this event to garner the amount of attention and significance that the Stonewall Riots would later attain. Following the events that took place at the San Francisco New Years Ball, California went on to pass up commemorating two more similar events that had the potential to be very memorable and symbolic. The first of these happened in San Francisco in August of 1996 at Comptons Cafeteria, all all-night coffee shop that was

popular with gay hustlers, hair fairies, queens and street kids (Armstrong 732). This altercation began, as so many did, with the police harassing the people inside. A cop grabbed the arm of a transvestite patron who proceeded to throw his cup of coffee in the cops face which prompted a slew of cups, saucers and trays being thrown all about the room, directed at the police. The police fled outside to call reinforcements and the management ordered the place to close, which in turn prompted the gay patrons to start breaking every window until they ran outside to escape the broken glass. The riot continued outside as drag queens proceeded to hit the police with their heavy purses and general havoc ensued into the night. The next day a group of conservative gay activists, drag queens, hair fairies, and hustlers joined together to picket the coffee shop when they would not allow the drag queens back in (Armstrong 732-33). While the events that took place at Comptons were extremely similar to those that would go on to occur at the Stonewall Inn, this event was not seen politically important or newsworthy to the homophile establishment of San Francisco. The homophile establishment made no attempt to commemorate the event, nor did they even challenge the police or make any kind of legal challenges. The homophile activists of San Francisco were mostly white, middle-class, gender-normative older men with vast social resources, a stark contrast to the patrons at Comptons. These activists deplored the behavior at Comptons, saying that it threatened homophile accommodation with the police (Armstrong 733). Members of the Los Angeles homophile movement had a much more violent relationship with the police and lacked whatever accommodation their counterparts in San Francisco had managed to achieve. Although, during the time of the Black Cat raid on New Years of 1967, there had been a two- year de facto peace between the LAPD and

many of the cities gay bars. This peace was destroyed when police raided the Black Cat bar on New Years Eve and surrounding gay and lesbian bars in a brutal display of police brutality (Armstrong 734). Following these raids there were protests and pickets against police brutality but these efforts proved to be futile, resulting in nothing but some police being charged with lewd conduct after an investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau. After these failed efforts the hype quickly died down as time passed and there was no attempt at commemorating this event (Armstrong 734). While these events failed to garner commemoration or play a key role in the collective memory in the LGBT community, they seemed to perfectly set the stage for the Stonewall Riots that would occur in 1969. The Stonewall Riots were also well preceded by the onset of gay liberation sentiment in New York City earlier that year. Following the Democratic National Convention of 1968, which was attended by homosexual activists from both coasts, the activists in attendance returned home energized and gay liberation movements quickly began springing up in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. These movements borrowed heavily from the civil rights movement, black power, womens rights and the New Left movements. The political atmosphere of New York differed greatly than that of San Francisco and Los Angeles which made the liberation movement in New York all the more vibrant (Armstrong 736). East coast activists also took up public protesting and picketing, an action which would go on to spawn the idea of commemorating homosexual events through public ritual. The earliest type of commemoration came when activist Craig Rodwell began a yearly picket at Independence Hall in Philadelphia called The Annual Reminder which was designed to make people aware that there was still a group of Americans who did not enjoy equal

rights (Armstrong 736). This yearly action, which began in July of 1965, would provide a model of commemorating Stonewall. As mentioned several times before, the Stonewall Riots of 1969 were a watershed moment in the LGBT rights movement. While these riots are seen as an extremely important landmark in LGBT history, they are not the first time a riot has ensued due to police raiding a homosexual establishment and the events at Stonewall bear striking resemblances to the events that preceded them in California. The Stonewall Inn had always been a bit seedy; it sold liquor without a license, had no running water and was known for having mafia ties along with a less than reputable clientele that would have the homosexual establishment of San Francisco turning their noses. The Inn was raided about once a month and on the night of June 27th, 1969 police were gearing up for another such raid to seize illegally sold alcohol, arrest those that worked there and kick patrons out. On this night, however, something different happened. As patrons were rounded up and kicked out they began gathering outside the bar instead of trying to slip away like they normally did (Armstrong 736). While confrontations between the police and students, blacks, and antiwar protesters were common by this time, the police never expected homosexuals to do anything but submit passively to their skull-cracking authority (Marcus 121). As the police filled their vans with arrestees, the crowd became angry and began throwing pennies at the police. As they got angrier they threw bottles and then bricks until the police, with no backup, barricaded themselves inside the bar for safety. Riot police arrived eventually and tried to for hours to disperse the enraged crowd but the violence ensued until about 3:30am (Armstrong 736).

Craig Rodwell happened to be walking by as the first night of rioting happened and immediately called his media contacts, knowing that this was the event the LGBT community had been waiting for for years. The media coverage was largely homophobic and sensationalist but unprecedented nonetheless. (Armstrong 736). Large crowds of people gathered the next night to see the bar, which gave Rodwell the chance to distribute gay liberation flyers. The crowd soon began shouting gay power chants and a second night of rioting quickly ensued, prompting riot police to arrive early in the evening. A crowd of nearly 2,000 people blocked the entrance to Christopher Street that night, where Stonewall was located, shouting things such as Christopher Street belongs to the queens! (Armstrong 738). Homosexual activists viewed the riots as highly commemorable and the first such dramatic event to occur in a context with a welldeveloped notion of gay commemorability (Armstrong 738). Having five years of the Annual Reminder under their belt, activists knew what they needed to do to properly commemorate the riots and ensure that they were remembered properly. Soon after the Fifth Annual Reminder, the Reminder itself was changed so that it would commemorate the Stonewall Riots and was moved from Philadelphia to New York and renamed Christopher Street Liberation Day. Nine months after the Stonewall Riots, New York City police raided the Snake Pit, an after-hours gay bar that lacked a liquor license. Fearful of a repeat of Stonewall, police arrested all 167 of the patrons, instead of just management and those who didnt have proper identification, which had become standard following Stonewall. At the police station, one of the arrestees panicked and jumped out a second-story window and had his leg impaled on a fence. While this was a slightly similar event compared to

Stonewall, the Snake Pit raid only took on some of the symbolic importance of Stonewall and only temporarily. New York activists had already made plans to commemorate the Stonewall Riots and instead of commemorating this event separately, they used the Snake Pit raid to justify their plans of commemorating Stonewall. While the Snake Pit raid was still recognized as an important event, it failed to overtake the significance of Stonewall but rather furthered the legitimacy of the claims made by activists who wanted to commemorate Stonewall. In many ways, the Stonewall riots have served as an important symbol of the fight for greater queer visibility and political power. LGBT social and political organizations around the world used the word Stonewall in their names, and annual pride parades in June across the glove celebrated the uprisings (Meem 94). While the events that preceded it, such as the San Francisco New Years Ball and the Compton Cafeteria riot, were extremely similar, the Stonewall Riots proved to be the event from which collective memory sprung and collective identity began to form around. Perhaps it was the media attention that it garnered or the overwhelming feeling of liberation that was present in many homosexual circles at the time or perhaps a combination of the two, but Stonewall proved to have a lasting impact that no other event of that nature was able to come close to obtaining. While many of the events that have crafted what have come to be known as the collective LGBT identity and memory took place decades ago, it is important to recognize recent events and examine their impact on identity and memory in the LGBT community. In October of this year, the United States saw a large surge in suicides of gay teenagers who were bullied to the point that they thought that taking their own life was the only option they had left. One teenager, Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi, jumped off

the George Washington Bridge after his roommate streamed live video of Clementi having a sexual encounter with another man on the Internet. In an article for The Daily Beacon, a student newspaper at the University of Tennessee, Brandi Panter explains how, in light of these suicides, students have been calling for greater sensitivity to diversity especially since many of these suicides occurred in October, which is LGBT History Month. The suicide of Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi last month brought much national attention to the struggles of LGBT issues in the college atmosphere, especially those regarding discrimination and harassment, as well as the alienated atmosphere many out students claim they face because of their sexual orientation (Panter). In response to these suicides, gay rights activist and sex advice columnist Dan Savage has created an internet campaign known as the It Gets Better Project which is dedicated to reaching out to troubled gay teens and letting them know that no matter how bad it might seem for them now, it will get better soon. Shira Lazar, columnist for the Huffington Post, interviewed Savage and learned more about the It Gets Better Project. Savage's Internet-based project hopes to connect with young gay people and let them know, no matter how bleak their lives seem now, it does get better (Lazar). After receiving thousands upon thousands of video submissions from gay teenagers and adults wishing to tell their story, many politicians, such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to President Barack Obama, have released their own It Gets Better videos. Some columnists, such as Nicole Mann, columnist for R&M Political, are skeptical that politicians may be using this campaign to garner support for their candidacies more than to deliver a legitimate message of hope to troubled gay youth. Mann goes on to say that

[s]ome people have accused Clinton and Obama of creating these videos for political purposes. These videos were make just a few weeks before midterm elections on November 2, and there is a possibility they could be created for the sole purpose of encouraging LGBT youth, who are Democrats more often than not, to change their opinions about President Obama, who has been under fire for inaction on LGBT rights. This campaign is not the first to spring up on the internet in response to LGBT issues. Several other campaigns such as the NOH8 campaign, a photo campaign in response to Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California in 2008, have also sprouted as of late. It is important to note that these internet campaigns have the ability to spread to millions of people in a short amount of time, something that was not possible during the time of Stonewall and the gay liberation era. With the rise of new technology and the Internet, it is curious to see how the LGBT identity will be shaped now that members of the LGBT community have better access to each other than ever due to the Internet. With the spread of ideas and the strides that have been made in recent years for the LGBT community, some people, such as Allison Hope, columnist for Change.org, wonder if there will be a post-gay identity. Hope says that [s]ome may argue the post-gay identity is upon us already. Take Iceland, for instance. Same-sex marriage was just recently made legal, but LGBTQ folks have been accepted socially there for years and alternative sexualities to a large extent have been normalized. While some might argue that major, symbolic events such as the Holocaust or the Stonewall riots and the symbology that is born out of them do not play a key role in creating a collective identity for a community of people, such as the LGBT community, it is clear that these events and symbology do in fact create a collective identity which, over

time, builds upon itself instead of constantly changing. This is evident in the continued use of symbols from the Holocaust, such as the pink triangle, and from the gay liberation era following the Stonewall riots, such as the lambda and the pride flag. Recent events, such as the wave of teen suicides and the reactionary campaigns, such as the It Gets Better campaign also serve to show that the LGBT identity does not simply change, but builds upon itself and grows without forgetting its roots. The inquiries as to a post-gay identity serve to raise questions about the future of the LGBT identity as societies become more and more accepting of LGBT culture and persons. Especially with the rise of the Internet and mass communication, it is unclear what direction the LGBT identity will take now that so many roads have been opened by technology. Whatever path the LGBT identity does take though, it is certain that it will not forget its roots and will continue to build upon itself and grow.