Rights of Gays and Lesbians

I enjoyed the article “Spirit of Achievement Marks Gay Pride Parade” (June 13). However, the writer made one statement in the article that wasn’t entirely correct. Referring to the Stonewall riot in June, 1969, she wrote that it “gave birth to the fledgling gay and lesbian civil rights movement.”

While the Stonewall riot is one of the most important events, and surely a major turning point in the fight for gay rights, it was hardly the beginning of it. Here in Los Angeles, Vice Versa, the first magazine for lesbians, began publication in 1947; Physique Pictorial, a magazine for gay men, started in 1951; ONE magazine was also started in 1951 and was seized by the post office, which led to a groundbreaking Supreme Court decision in 1958, which said that ONE served the needs of the gay community, and therefore was not pornographic. The Advocate, now the nation’s oldest gay publication, was started in 1967. The Mattachine Society, the country’s first influential gay rights organization, was formed in 1950. There was a gay Christian church in L.A. as far back as 1956, and Metropolitan Community Church, now the world’s largest gay church, was established in 1968. L.A. had its own share of gay rights protests in the 1960s, most notably in January, 1966, after the LAPD raided a couple of gay bars on Sunset Boulevard.

To say that the Stonewall riot was the start of lesbian and gay rights is a disservice to all the brave men and women who lived openly and fought for gay and lesbian rights in the decades before Stonewall, risking their freedom, livelihood and lives.

G.L. LEYNER

Northridge

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* All right, out with it. Do the homosexuals have an agenda for the domestic partnership bill (June 9)? It’s no secret. This bill is another steppingstone toward full civil rights for lesbian and gay people. Gays and lesbians need this bill more than heterosexual couples who choose not to marry. As those who oppose the bill are quick to point out: Heterosexual couples can marry if they choose, and anyone can make out a will and appoint a conservator through the durable power of attorney for health care and finances. Homosexuals do not enjoy the right to marry their life partners or to have their relationships recognized by the state.

MADELYNN RIGOPOULOS

Huntington Beach