Ron Peters's Reviews > Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution

I’m more familiar with the stories of the black and women’s rights movements than with the fight for LGBTQ rights. Before this, I knew the outlines of the Stonewall story but not the details. Carter’s book was an education for me and an eye-opener.

I was struck by the angry comments posted by transgender readers who felt omitted from this history. It reminded me of the angry reactions from transgender readers to books by radical feminists. The anger is real and principled, but I wonder if this level of divisiveness doesn’t actively harm these movements, which already face uphill battles. I suppose internal factions are always a problem; think of the differences between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

This book also made me realize that passing laws, as important as they are, can only do so much. In Canada (where I’m from) after WWII, being gay was illegal and an official mental illness. The hatred of the public, the press, politicians, the police, and the courts toward gays was palpable and poisonous. I grew up as the child of some of these people, so this hatred was expressed to me in evil language as I grew up, even though (or maybe because) my uncle was bisexual.

Once it became illegal to express these views publicly, I was still exposed to hate speech in the privacy of my home. Governments and schools must do more to educate people, not just to avoid illegal language and actions, but to truly understand people who live differently than you. In the post-Trump era, we are constantly reminded of how shallowly rooted our hard-won social advances are.