Stonewall @ 50

So it's Pride Month, and it's a special one this year -- 50 years ago this month was the Greenwich Village Stonewall raid and riots that kicked off the modern-day gay rights movement. It's hard for anyone young these days to remember just how brutal it was for gay men and women to live in America back then. You could lose your job, your family, everything you had, if you dared to come out of the closet. Even into the 1990s and early 2000s gays were legally and socially discriminated against. There's little to say that's good about what's gone on in this country in the first two decades of the 21st century but, along with the election of President Barack Obama, gay marriage and the acceptance of gay life in America today is one of this country's proudest achievements.

In fact, the current NYC Police Commissioner made a formal apology for the Stonewall raid, closing a loop of history.

But history's not over! In NYC, and across America, Drag Queens are reading to and entertain young people in public libraries (it's called Drag Queen Story Hour). Needless to say, some closed-minded people don't like this, even in progressive Brooklyn. 

So when my wife and I found out about this, we decided to invite them to our neighborhood public library to read to our kids.