Phil Raia is an activist. 18 transsexual women of color were murdered and that is not being addressed. Transsexuals were barred from the military under the Trump administration. Religious rights were being put in the forefront ahead of human rights. The country was founded on the separation of church and state. When religious leaders preach sermons of hate and are embraced by the political elite that is concerning.
He went to NYC to attend a protest where about 50,000 people marched from Christopher Street up to Central Park. The main Pride Parade was a commercial enterprise and he preferred to be with old friends who raised their voices against injustice. The event was in honor of the 50th anniversary of Stonewall. He knows some of the people who were a part of Stonewall. Stonewall was a raid on a club. He had been there many times. He lived across from the club on Christopher Street.
Three of the windows of his apartment faced Christopher street and he felt like he was on the runway. He was not in the Stonewall when the event actually happened. There are still questions about who threw the shot glass or who threw the brick. We may never really know exactly what transpired there. The reality is that the cops entered, which was happening more and more. There was a political rationale behind these raids. At the time you could loose your job if you were found to be in a gay establishment. It was something that happened at the right time because of the right circumstances. In the late 50s there was McCarthyism. Then came a time of thinking outside the box, followed by the peace movement, the women’s right movement, the civil rights movement. These were the bedrock behind the Stonewall movement. Really the part of the Stonewall occurrence that was most important wasn’t the event itself, it was the people who came around the next day and communed with those more directly effected by it. It was the awakening that they were oppressed. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) grew giving the movement the lift it needed.