I purchased this book and forgot about it. Until I didn’t forget lmao and I’ve been reading this for the last week and omg I love historical accounts of social Justice movements!!! Very good!

A great overview of the gay rights movement leading up to the Stonewall riots and the first pride parade. Lots of detail but suffers a bit from the author's fatphobia.

I wish this had focused more on the Uprising itself, as opposed to being a semi auto-biography on those who were involved in it. But it's still a fascinating story at the nascent days of the LGBTQIA+ Movement, the challenges and complexities, and what emerged from it. A good gateway into learning more.

Stonewall was fascinating to read. It was my textbook in a class about the homophile movement, and it's definitely the most interesting textbook I've ever gotten to read. Not only does it offer a historical record of some of the events in the 60's, but it gives a personal account of what it was like. On top of being different gender or sexual orientations, you see the implications of being a women, or a person of colour, being in different class systems, having different experiences, and more. It's so necessary to have the recounts of people who were in the bar scene and in movements, and to hear the hate crimes they had specifically. It gives such a good feel for how the times were. For the same reason, I love that the book did not focus just on the night of the Stonewall riot. While it was definitely the climax and the focus, it gave very good records of many other organizations and movements happening all around it, and paving the way for stronger social change. It is not a light book, it shows how horrific reality can be, but learning from history only helps implement social change today, and gives a lot of perspective on how the world is today.