NY exhibit on gay rights hits amid marriage debate

Posted on June 2, 2009
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As exhibitions go, the New York Public Library’s “1969: The Year of Gay Liberation” could hardly have chosen better timing.
With debate raging over same-sex marriage across the United States, the library in midtown Manhattan opened the exhibit on Monday to mark the 40th anniversary of the so-called Stonewall riots that triggered the modern U.S. gay rights movement.
Photos, documents, clippings from the gay media and other artifacts illustrate what was a shocking development at the time: homosexual men and women coming out of the closet to demonstrate for their civil rights, often at great risk.
The free exhibit will run at the main branch all of June.
“We tend to forget how radical these activists were. They risked their lives and safety for this cause. That’s what this exhibition is about,” said Jason Baumann, the curator.
Starting around June 28, 1969, the Stonewall riots refer to a week of violent clashes on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village between patrons of a gay bar called the Stonewall and police who had periodically raided the bar, arresting gays under morals laws of the era. See NY exhibit on gay rights hits amid marriage debate
Reuters

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