50 years after Stonewall, LGBT rights are a work in progress

They didn't set out to change history; they weren't the first LGBT Americans to mobilize against bias.

Yet the June 1969 uprising by young gays, lesbians and transgender people in New York City, clashing with police near a bar called the Stonewall Inn, was a vital catalyst in expanding LGBT activism nationwide and abroad. This month's anniversary provides an opportune moment to ask: How has the movement fared over the past 50 years? What unfinished business remains?

From the perspective of veteran activists, the progress has been astounding. In 1969, every state but Illinois outlawed gay sex, psychiatric experts classified homosexuality as a mental disorder, and most gays stayed in the closet for fear of losing jobs and friends.

FILE - In this Aug. 31, 1970 file photo, an NYPD officer grabs a youth by the hair as another officer clubs a young man during a confrontation in Greenwich Village after a Gay Power march in New York. A year earlier, the June 1969 uprising by young gays, lesbians and transgender people in New York City, clashing with police near a bar called the Stonewall Inn, was a vital catalyst in expanding LGBT activism nationwide and abroad. (AP PhotoFile)

Today, same-sex marriage is the law of the land in the U.S. and at least 25 other countries. LGBT Americans serve as governors, big-city mayors and members of Congress, and one — Pete Buttigieg — is waging a spirited campaign for president.

Among those looking back with marvel is Stephen Rutsky, 68, a lifelong New Yorker who joined in rioting and protests sparked by a police raid targeted at gay patrons of Stonewall. He engaged in a wide variety of LGBT activism over the ensuing decades.

"Mobs of gays and lesbians were running around angry and confused, but we all knew that something had sparked a change in our world," Rutsky remembers. "We were demanding our freedom and there was nothing that was ever going to stop us from obtaining it."

FILE - In this April 1977 file photo, San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, left, and Mayor George Moscone sit together in the mayor's office during the signing of the city's gay rights bill. (AP PhotoFile)

"We've come a long way, baby," he added. "But lots more to do."

WHAT'S NEXT

High on the to-do list is passage of federal legislation that would provide nationwide nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people. A bill with that goal, the Equality Act, passed the House of Representatives in May with unanimous Democratic backing but appears doomed in the Senate because of Republican opposition.

FILE - In this May 22, 1979 file photo, demonstrators smash glass out of the front doors of the San Francisco City Hall. Thousands marched from the city's gay community to city hall, protesting the voluntary manslaughter conviction of Dan White in the fatal shootings of Mayor George Moscone and city supervisor and gay rights activist Harvey Milk. (AP PhotoPaul Sakuma)

Nationally, 20 mostly Democrat-run states already have laws comparable to the Equality Act — protecting LGBT people from discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and public services. The other 30 states, where Republicans hold full or partial power, have balked.

The result is a patchwork map in which a majority of states make it legal to be fired, evicted or barred from public facilities because of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Internationally, the struggle for LGBT rights remains daunting in much of the world. Stonewall helped inspire successful activist movements in Western Europe (a major British LGBT-rights group is called Stonewall) and elsewhere. But gay sex is outlawed in dozens of countries, while Asia and Africa each have only one nation that has legalized same-sex marriage.

FILE - In this Dec. 9, 1992 file photo, gay-rights activist Thomas L. Long carries a list of admonitions from the Bible during protest at Norview Baptist church in Norfolk, Va. Long said there are no fundamentalists - only selective literalists. (Lawrence JacksonThe Virginian-Pilot via AP)

Another battlefront relates to transgender rights. In the U.S., the Trump administration has moved to revoke newly won health care protections for transgender people, restrict their presence in the military, and withdraw federal guidance that trans students should be able to use bathrooms of their choice.

Donald Trump's election "gave all sorts of mouth-breathers permission to spew ignorance, hatred, and stupidity, undoing decades of progress," said Jennifer Boylan, a transgender writer who teaches at Barnard College in New York City. "People who know nothing about trans people and our unique challenges have no qualms weighing in."

Jude Patton, a 78-year-old transgender man from Yuba City, California, marvels at the changes that have unfolded during his life.

FILE - In this Wednesday, June 8, 1977 file photo, former U.S. Rep. Bella Abzug addresses a rally in New York as thousands turn out to protest the repeal of a homosexual rights law in Dade County, Fla. Abzug, a candidate for mayor in New York, urged gay rights activists to undertake a public education program to gain their rights. (AP PhotoSuzanne Vlamis)

He grew up in Alton, Illinois, knowing from childhood that he was uncomfortable being viewed as a girl. His parents were supportive, but he says some teachers at his high school were intolerant.

In his mid-20s, Patton moved to California and completed a surgical transition at a Stanford University clinic in 1973. Ever since, he has been active in advocacy, counseling and health education related to LGBT issues.

Now, he says his delight at LGBT gains is tempered by worries over the Trump administration's rollback of trans-friendly protections.

FILE - In this June 26, 1977 file photo, demonstrators carry signs of, from left, Adolf Hitler, Anita Bryant, the Ku Klux Klan and Idi Amin, chanting ''Human rights now,'' during the annual Gay Freedom Day March in San Francisco. Bryant, an anti-gay activist, led a successful campaign to overturn a Miami-Dade County ordinance outlawing discrimination against homosexuals in 1977. (AP PhotoFile)

"Every day, I see some other right being taken away," he said. "Historically, the pendulum can swing back again. I hope it gets better."

'AN AMAZING SILVER LINING'

Historians trace the emergence of America's gay rights movements to the 1950s, when the Mattachine Society and a lesbian group, the Daughters of Bilitis, were founded in California.

FILE - In this Aug. 24, 1963 file photo, Bayard Rustin points to a map showing the path of the March on Washington during a news conference at the New York City headquarters. Months before Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" declaration galvanized a quarter-million people at the 1963 March on Washington, Rustin was planning all the essential details to keep the crowd orderly and engaged. A Quaker and a pacifist, Rustin served as chief strategist for King's march over the objections of some leaders, but was kept mostly in the background with some organizers considering him a liability. Notably, he was gay in an era when same-sex relations were widely reviled in American society. He died in 1987, and is sometimes forgotten in civil rights history. (AP PhotoFile)

Government astronomer Frank Kameny, who sued after he was fired for being gay, took his anti-discrimination case to the Supreme Court in 1961 (the justices declined to hear his appeal), and helped stage the first gay rights protest outside the White House in 1965.

In 1966, Mattachine Society members in New York City successfully staged a "sip-in" to protest laws that banned bars from serving alcohol to gays and lesbians. The terms "gay pride" and "gay liberation" emerged.

Much of the activity unfolded out of the national spotlight. But the movement broadened after Stonewall, leading to some high-profile events in the late 1970s.

FILE - In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 1979 file photo, participants in a march sponsored by the National Gay Task Force walk past the White House in Washington, in support of a federal ban on discrimination against gays in federal jobs. This was the first national gay-rights march in the capital. (AP PhotoDennis Cook)

In 1977, singer Anita Bryant led a victorious campaign to repeal a local ordinance in Florida barring anti-gay discrimination. Activists retaliated with a nationwide boycott of Florida orange juice, a product for which Bryant was a brand spokeswoman.

In 1978, pioneering gay politician Harvey Milk was assassinated along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. The next year, activists organized the first national gay rights march on Washington.

The 1980s proved shattering — but also galvanizing — for gay Americans, as an initially mysterious, unnamed disease morphed into the AIDS epidemic. Many thousands of gay men died, including actor Rock Hudson; his death played a major role in raising public awareness of the disease.

FILE - In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 1979 file photo, a group calling themselves the "Ad-Hoc Committee for the National Day of Prayer on Homosexuality" are led in prayer by Paul Cates at a gathering on Capitol Hill in Washington. The group stated they intended to pray for the repentance of homosexuals. The gathering coincided with a Washington rally by gay organizations. (AP PhotoThumma)

Longtime activist Lorri Jean, who has served more than 20 years as CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, remembers AIDS in the 1980s as a "horrific disaster" that killed many of the men close to her.

"Yet it had an amazing silver lining," said Jean, 62. "Suddenly, the most privileged in our community were being impacted as well as the least privileged, and people couldn't hide in the closet anymore. When they got sick, people knew. That galvanized our community in a way that nothing else ever had."

MARRIAGE RIGHTS

FILE - In this March 11, 1991 file photo, mourners embrace each other next to the casket of AIDS patient David Thurmond during his funeral service in Houston. (AP PhotoHouston Chronicle, John Everett)

By the mid-1990s, the federal government — slow to respond at the start of the epidemic — was deeply engaged in the fight against AIDS, and the number of new cases finally began to decline. Many gay rights organizations and activists shifted their focus to a long-haul campaign to legalize same-sex marriage. Massachusetts became the first state to do so in 2004; the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans in 2015.

Some activists suggest that the push for marriage equality consumed too much of the LGBT rights movement's energy, diverting attention from violence against transgender people and the persistently high HIV infection rate among gay and bisexual black men. Others say the marriage campaign was crucial in changing policy and public attitudes.

"For the government to treat gay people with equal dignity, it had to treat gay people as equal in marriage," said lawyer Roberta Kaplan. "It was an essential, determinative step."

FILE - In this August 1982 file photo, actor Rock Hudson poses for a portrait in Los Angeles, Calif. The 1980s proved shattering _ but also galvanizing _ for gay Americans, as an initially mysterious, unnamed disease morphed into the AIDS epidemic. Many thousands of gay men died, including Hudson; his death played a major role in raising public awareness of the disease. (AP PhotoLennox McLendon)

Kaplan is best known for winning a landmark Supreme Court case in 2013 on behalf of Edith Windsor, who was denied an inheritance tax break after the death of her wife. Kaplan and Windsor successfully challenged the Defense of Marriage Act, which barred married same-sex couples from enjoying marriage benefits conferred under federal law. That decision helped lay the legal groundwork for the 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Born in 1966, Kaplan recalls being in college during the height of the AIDS epidemic, "with men dying by the thousands and a government not seeming to care."

"It's incomprehensible — the change that has been wrought during my lifetime," she said. "If you had told me, when I was in college, that one day I would grow up, get married to a woman, have a kid, be partner in a law firm, and then argue a momentous civil rights case in the Supreme Court, I would have said you were going to too many Grateful Dead concerts."

FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 9, 1987 file photo, protesters carry signs, including one depicting President Ronald Reagan, during a demonstration outside the National Press Club in Washington. The demonstration was held as the president's AIDS commission met at the press club. (AP PhotoDennis Cook)

THE RELIGION QUESTION

Same-sex marriage is among several reasons why, in the post-Stonewall era, the realm of religion has abounded with controversies linked to LGBT rights.

Many denominations — including Reformed Judaism and most mainline Protestant churches — have adopted fully inclusive policies, accepting LGBT people into the clergy and honoring their marriages. But some of the largest denominations — including the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — refuse to take those inclusive steps and still consider gay sex immoral.

FILE - In this Saturday, Oct. 10, 1992 file photo, people visit the 21,000 panel Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington. The Washington Monument is seen in the background. (AP PhotoShayna Brennan)

Gene Robinson, who in 2003 became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, says there's a split on LGBT acceptance between many rank-and-file churchgoers and the leaders of the big, conservative denominations.

"The good news is that we have changed the minds and hearts of a majority of religious people across all religious lines," Robinson said. "The bad news is that the people in the pews — many of whom have gay relatives and friends — don't have the power to change policies in churches that are tightly controlled by the hierarchy."

Religion plays a key role in current debates over nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people. The Trump administration has aligned with some religious conservatives in arguing that such protections can infringe on the religious beliefs of people who oppose same-sex marriage and transgender rights.

FILE - In this Oct. 9, 1999 file photo, a cross made of stones rests below the fence in Laramie, Wyo., where a year earlier, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was tied and pistol whipped into a coma. He later died. The murder of Shepard was a watershed moment for gay rights and LGBTQ acceptance in the U.S. (AP PhotoEd Andrieski, File)

Emilie Kao, a lawyer with the conservative Heritage Foundation, says the Equality Act "imposes sexual ideology on the nation that endangers religious freedom, freedom of speech, and parental rights by punishing those who dissent from political correctness."

These arguments irk activists such as Lorri Jean.

"My biggest concern is the very clever backlash by fundamentalist religious leaders who are trying to suggest they are the victims," Jean said. "But even if they have victories, they'll be short-lived... The vast majority of American people do not believe discrimination against LGBT people is OK."

FILE - In this Sunday, June 25, 1990 file photo, anti-gay protesters heckle marchers in the Gay Pride Parade along Fifth Avenue in New York. About 200,000 people marched in the 21st annual gay and lesbian parade in Manhattan demanding better AIDS treatment and civil rights. (AP PhotoDavid A. Cantor)

SLOWLY INTEGRATING

In myriad ways, progress for LGBT Americans has become so commonplace that it attracts little notice, whether it's in local politics, the arts or sports. For example, there are no openly gay men currently competing in North America's four biggest pro sports leagues — but the situation is different at lower levels.

"I look more at college and high school sports ... where we've seen literally countless athletes come out and be totally accepted by their teams," said Cyd Zeigler of the website Outsports. He believes any athlete coming out now in the major leagues would be welcomed by teammates, coaches and fans.

FILE - In this Saturday, Nov. 8, 1997 file photo, actress Ellen DeGeneres, left, and her companion, Anne Heche, leave the Human Rights Campaign national dinner in Washington after DeGeneres received her civil rights award. President Clinton spoke earlier at the dinner, before the nation's largest lesbian and male homosexual group--the first president to appear before such an audience. (AP PhotoBrian K. Diggs)

Back in 1984, Ruth Clark joined a lesbian feminist chorus in Chicago called the Artemis Singers — a step she viewed at the time as "a very radical act." Over the decades, the chorus has moved toward the mainstream — performing at universities, churches, museums and a 2013 ceremony at which then-Gov. Pat Quinn signed Illinois' marriage-equality bill.

Clark says that when questions were raised recently about whether the chorus should be allowed to use a Roman Catholic school's auditorium, the group's producer assured the skeptics, "They're just like soccer moms."

FILE - In this Oct. 6, 1994 file photo, President Bill Clinton salutes sailors aboard the USS Eisenhower as he arrived to thank the troops for their role in Operation Restore Democracy at the Norfolk Naval Base in Norfolk, Va. Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy prohibited gay men and women from serving openly in the armed forces. After prolonged controversy and litigation, Congress repealed the policy in 2010. (AP PhotoDoug Mills)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012 file photo, Sgt. Brandon Morgan, right, kisses his partner, Dalan Wells, in a helicopter hangar at the Marine base in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii upon returning from a six-month deployment to Afghanistan. The photo, made some five months after the repeal of the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy prohibiting gay servicemen from openly acknowledging their sexuality, was among the first showing a gay active duty serviceman in uniform kissing his partner at a homecoming. (AP PhotoDavid Lewis)

FILE - In this Sunday, March 7, 2004 file photo, Gene Robinson is applauded after his investiture as the Episcopal Church's bishop of New Hampshire at St. Paul's Church in Concord, N.H. Robinson, who became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, says there's a split on LGBT acceptance between many rank-and-file churchgoers and the leaders of the big, conservative denominations. (AP PhotoLee Marriner)

FILE - In this Sunday, March 21, 1999 file photo, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., speaks at a gay rights rally aimed at ending discrimination based on sexual orientation in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP PhotoDon Edgar)

FILE - In this Wednesday, May 25, 2003 file photo, Lyn Shimuzu, left, and her partner, Silvia Castellanos, play with a train set with their children, 6-year-old twins Che, left, and Liana, right, at their home in San Francisco. (AP PhotoEric Risberg)

FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2008 file photo, Richie Beanan, from Los Angeles, puts a sign on a bus that will tour California in support of Proposition 8 after a rally in Sacramento, Calif. California voters passed proposition 8 in November, eliminating the right for same-sex couples to marry. (AP PhotoSteve Yeater)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015 file photo, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, right, talks with David Moore following her office's refusal to issue marriage licenses at the Rowan County Courthouse in Morehead, Ky. Although her appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied, Davis still refuses to issue marriage licenses. (AP PhotoTimothy D. Easley)

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 8, 2012 file photo, Seth Keel, center, is consoled by his boyfriend, Ian Chambers, left, and his mother Jill Hinton, during a concession speech at an Amendment One opposition party in downtown Raleigh, N.C. North Carolina voters approved the constitutional amendment Tuesday defining marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman, becoming the latest state to effectively stop same-sex marriages. (Travis LongThe News & Observer via AP)

FILE - In this Tuesday, June 17, 2008 file photo, Curt Garman, left, and Richard Looke of Novato, Calif., wearing hats, embrace after being married at City Hall in San Francisco. County clerk offices across California opened for their first full day of same-sex marriages Tuesday, with hundreds of gay and lesbian couples ready to take the plunge in what in some cities was a party atmosphere. (AP PhotoEric Risberg)

FILE - In this Sunday, June 12, 2016 file photo, police officers direct family members away from a fatal shooting at Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando, Fla. A gunman massacred 49 people and wounded many others at the gay nightclub. (AP PhotoPhelan M. Ebenhack)

FILE - In this Friday, June 26, 2015 file photo, a crowd celebrates outside of the Supreme Court in Washington after the court declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the U.S. (AP PhotoJacquelyn Martin)

FILE - This Wednesday, May 21, 2014 file photo shows merit badges and a rainbow-colored neckerchief slider on the Boy Scout uniform of Pascal Tessier, 17, a gay Eagle Scout from Kensington, Md., as he speaks in front of a group of scouts and scout leaders, outside the headquarters of Amazon in Seattle. The group delivered a petition to Amazon that was started as an online effort by Tessier, urging Amazon to stop donating money to the Boy Scouts due to the organization's policy of excluding openly gay adults from leadership positions, despite recently accepting gay youth as scouts. (AP PhotoTed S. Warren)

FILE - In this Friday, June 26, 2015 file photo, people gather in Lafayette Park to see the White House illuminated with rainbow colors in commemoration of the Supreme Court's ruling to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington. President Barack Obama, who was inside, said a few days later, "To see people gathered in the evening outside on a beautiful summer night, and to feel whole and to feel accepted, and to feel that they had a right to love _ that was pretty cool." (AP PhotoPablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - In this June 12, 2016 file photo, an armed police officer stands guard outside the Stonewall Inn in New York, after a gunman in Orlando, Fla., opened fire in a gay nightclub, spreading fear of more attacks. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018 file photo, Vermont Democratic gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist, center, a transgender woman and former electric company executive, embraces supporters after claiming victory in the primary election in Burlington, Vt. In November 2018, she lost the gubernatorial election to Republican incumbent Phil Scott. (AP PhotoCharles Krupa)

FILE - In this April 2, 2019 file photo, Lori Lightfoot speaks to supporters at her election night party in Chicago. She became the first openly gay mayor of the city. (AP PhotoNam Y. Huh, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, June 11, 2019 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg waves at Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington, Ind., to speak on foreign policy and national security. (AP PhotoMichael Conroy)

FILE - This June 1, 2009 file photo shows Frank Kameny in his home in Washington. Kameny, a government astronomer who sued after he was fired for being gay, took his anti-discrimination case to the Supreme Court in 1961 (the justices declined to hear his appeal), and helped stage the first gay rights protest outside the White House in 1965. (AP PhotoJacquelyn Martin, File)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).

Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.

That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.

In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.

Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.

In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.

“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.

Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.

It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.

“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.

It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.

While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.

“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.

Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.

Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)