Stonewall Inn Research Paper

2879 Words12 Pages

In this and the last century our Human Rights issues, no matter the issue, all follow the same pattern. As these go throughout time, with racial and gender equality in the past showing similarities, and issues of today following suit. Also, the many genocides throughout time also follow a pattern, too.

In the past, we had hot button issues of racial equality, gender equality, “underground” issues, and equality in general. The most important, was racial injustice, this movement started “Under the charismatic leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and, alienated by televised depictions of Southern white violence against protesters, which included beatings, killings and bombings, whites and blacks alike became involved in efforts to end discrimination …show more content…

There were smaller issues in the past, that didn’t get much press, but that were important nonetheless. Many were just starting out, like LGBT issues, which all started at “The legendary Stonewall Inn [which] is the birthplace of the modern Gay Rights movement. On June 28th, 1969, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back against what had become regular, tolerated, city sanctioned harassment by the police department. For the first time in history Gay people refused to accept the status quo of oppression and stood up for themselves and, ultimately, the global Gay community. The Stonewall Inn, and the rebellion here, became the iconic flashpoint that sparked the long, uphill battle towards equality for all members of the Gay community ("HISTORY." HISTORY. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2017) The LGBT community was swept under the rug, kept secret, but then, they burst into our consciousness and have been working for equality and freedom since. Gays were very oppressed, and were under unfair laws, mostly that their entire existence was illegal. The mistreatment was great, and these brave souls sparked a fire burning to this day. One of the older issues here is one important to remember due to its strange reprieve today, with a different group. Japanese Internment and targeting. “On December 11, 1941, the FBI ordered the detention of 1,370 Japanese classified as "dangerous enemy aliens." By early January 1942, many notable American politicians were calling for the complete …show more content…

The most terrible things that infringe on human rights are genocides. These killings show complete disregard for life of a certain group. The follow strange orders, all of them, like “The outbreak of war on September 1, 1939, saw the establishment of a system of ghettos in occupied Poland from October 1939 onward, in order to confine Poland 's Jewish population. Here, they were persecuted and terrorized, starved and deprived of all medical care. (Bartrop, Paul R. "Holocaust." Modern Genocide) Keeping the targeted group poor in in bad shape made them easier to bend to cruel will. Others show this too, in Cambodia, where “Miserable conditions of life were imposed on the entire population, who were forced to labor in conditions of virtual enslavement. They were deprived of even a bare sufficiency of food and family life, while health care and education were virtually nonexistent, and all aspects of existence were subject to control and direction from Angkar (the Organization). (Jarvis, Helen. "Cambodian Genocide." Modern Genocide) These two were in different places and times, yet they are the same. The people are forced from their homes, and often to work, “Cambodian society was torn from its roots through mass evacuations (especially from the towns and cities, which were emptied immediately and brutally as the new rulers arrived). Nothing was allowed to stand in the way of the Khmer Rouge 's overarching project of social engineering and radical restructuring of society.