Before and After Stonewall: 25th Anniversary Edition

This two-DVD set is a basic primer on American GLBT history from the middle of the last century to the present. Before Stonewall is concerned with what life was like for gay people before the riot at the Stonewall Inn, which is often described as the birth of the gay-rights movement. The film makes clear that it simply wasn’t so; organizations and individuals were doing a lot of work to improve the civil status of gays and lesbians. For instance, Frank Kameny describes his efforts to keep his state department job during the McCarthy era, and Barbara Gittings describes early protests of unfair treatment in employment, including one at the White House in the early ‘60s. The second film, After Stonewall, is the more familiar history of gay activism throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, including the effect that AIDS had on our communities and the rise of the Christian right in opposition to civil rights for gay people.