The Use Of The Stonewall Riots In Alison Bechdel's Fun Home

Even to this day, shame about one’s sexual orientation remains a prominent topic. Whether one identified themselves as gay, lesbian, and transgender, society viewed them and their actions as a sin, a crime, and a disease, which only increased the amount of shame–a painful feeling of distress or humiliation caused by the consciousness of wrong or fooling behavior–they saw within themselves. Then changes began to occur as a group of gays, lesbians, and transgender people confronted police in an event known as the Stonewall Riots or the Stonewall Uprising, which became a turning point for gay liberation. Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home is a 1980s, family tragicomic-graphic memoir that addresses this perspective turning point through the use of the labyrinth

On June 28, 1969, the police came into Stonewall Inn–a known gathering place and refuge for gays, lesbians, and transgender people–and people based on the New York criminal statute. However, it was not unusual for police to come in, there have been previous entries done by police on a regular basis. Not only were homosexual relationships were seen as a crime but also behavior that does not conform to traditional gender roles; therefore preventing one’s expression of their sexuality. Similarly, these societal perceptions are expressed through Bruce’s behavior as he is trapped in the labyrinth to hide his truth. Bechdel calls her father Daedalus, the designer of the labyrinth, as she describes his passion for historical restoration in every sense of the word: libidinal, manic, and martyred. Bruce’s manipulation of how objects appear in a sexual, mental, and sacrificial sense points to a strong desire to hide and distract society in any way possible from the truth he knows–real identity of the objects or, in this case, his homosexuality. Historical restoration becomes his way to distract himself from thoughts and actions that are shamed upon by society–homosexual relationships–and enabling himself to fit in with society’s beliefs. When Alison and Bruce are eating at a luncheonette they see a woman dressed in men’s clothes and Bruce

The response from the Stonewall Riot was described as,“perhaps the first time lesbians, gays, and transgender people saw the value in uniting behind a common cause” against social and political discrimination because, since during 1969, homosexual relations were considered an illegal act. Additionally, the response became “crucial in a transformation from accommodations and silence to active visibility, pride, and action,” because it functions as a push and call to others. In Fun Home, Alison goes through a box of family photos and finds an image her father took of their babysitter and yard work assistant, Roy. Unlike the rest of the pages, the image of Roy is a full bleed with a noticeable colored background. In the narrator boxes, Bechdel describes the