For almost two years now, about half of the television programs I watch come from PBS. Mostly, it is a mixture of NOVA, Frontline, Nature, and American Experience; all of which are available for online viewing here.
So, I have decided every once in a while that I will post a link to one of their videos available online and share my thoughts.
The first video I would like to share is from American Experience about the Stonewall Uprising and the start of the gay rights movement.
As someone who was born in the mid-eighties and was raised by parents who have been pro-gay rights since I can remember, hearing about the widespread hatred and oppression of gays before Stonewall is shocking. American Experience is at its best when its subject is modern enough to talked to people who were involved, be it gay rights, the freedom riders, or stories from people who rode the rails during the Great Depression. It is one thing to read how police sometimes arrested gay men on bogus charges of lewd and lascivious behavior. But when someone who experienced arrest and sometimes beatings tells the story, it humanizes the event. History gains a body, a face, and a voice, and is formed into a more visceral human story
I remember being shocked when I found out that homosexuals used to be viewed on the same level by many people as pedophiles. Then I noticed that the only word Tennessee Williams used for a homosexual in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' was 'degenerate,' and it made a little more sense to me (Tennessee Williams was gay himself). Then again, maybe he wouldn't have been able to publish the work if he attempted to portray homosexuals in a positive light.
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