A Lesbian and Gay Rights Protest in Greenwich Village, New York City, 1970
Building on the momentum of the Black Power and women’s liberation movements of the late 1960s, a gay liberation movement had emerged by the early 1970s. Its history was longer than most Americans recognized, dating to the homophile movement of the 1950s, but the struggle for gay and lesbian rights and freedoms gained new adherents after the Stonewall riots of 1969. Under the banner of “coming out,” lesbian and gay Americans refused to accept second-class citizenship. Rue des Archives/The Granger Collection, NYC.