JUAN GONZÁLEZ: On Saturday, thousands of
anti-Trump demonstrators supporting the LGBT
community held a rally in front of the Stonewall
bar in New York City’s West Village.
The site was recently designated by the Obama
administration as a national monument for
its historic role in the long fight for gay
rights.
New York City elected officials, activists
and celebrities spoke at the event.
On June 28th, 1969, police raided the Stonewall
bar.
The people inside, led by transgender patrons,
fought back.
The riot that ensued launched the modern gay
and lesbian rights movement.
The uprising began in the morning on June
28th, 1969, when New York City police officers
raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn
in Greenwich Village.
We hear first from the first openly gay city
councilmember of New York, who is also HIV-positive.
COUNCILMEMBER COREY JOHNSON: We have the ability
to push back.
We will protest.
We will march.
We will engage in civil disobedience.
We will let our voices be heard!
My name is Councilmember Corey Johnson, a
member of the New York City Council.
We’re here today for an LGBT solidarity
rally to stand up to this demagogic, anticonstitutional
administration.
Stonewall is the modern birthplace of the
gay rights movement.
And we come here in times of celebration,
and we come here in times of anger and in
protest.
And that’s because people bled here.
People put their bodies on the line here.
People stood up to oppression here.
And that’s what we’re doing today.
We are saying you are not going to oppress
us.
We know our self-worth.
We know our self-value.
And we’re going to push back.
PROTESTERS: No justice, no peace!
No justice, no peace!
ISHALAA ORTEGA: My name is Ishalaa Ortega,
and I am here fighting for our rights.
As an immigrant transgender woman of color,
as an atheist, as a person who had to run
away from my own country, I am here to tell
Donald Trump that we resist, and we’re not
going to accept what he’s trying to do against
us.
ANNOUNCER: Please welcome to the stage Egyptian
actor and activist Omar Sharif Jr.
OMAR SHARIF JR.: You know, when I came out,
it was at a scene not unlike this.
It was the height of the Arab Spring in Egypt,
and I decided to use my voice to come out.
It didn’t go so well.
I faced threats of intimidation, of violence,
even death threats, and I was forced to leave
overnight.
But I got here to New York.
I was welcomed by New York.
You guys for so long have been that beacon
of liberty, of hope, of justice, of freedom
for all.
Don’t back down!
Resist!
Keep fighting!
Fight for those like me.
Fight for those without a voice.
Resist!
Resist!
Resist!
HARI NEF: New York is our home.
America is our home.
My name is Hari Nef, and I’m here because
I am a Jewish-American trans woman, and I
have no choice but to resist.
Donald Trump stands to normalize hatred.
He poses as an ally to our community, and
yet his initiatives for religious freedom
stand to devour so many things that my community
has fought and worked for.
And this will not happen, and this cannot
happen.
PROTESTERS: We will not be silent!
We will not be silent!
AMY GOODMAN: Some of the voices among thousands
who came out outside the Stonewall Inn in
New York’s West Village this weekend to
protest Donald Trump and to remember what
happened decades ago when the police raided
this historic bar.
Among those who led the charge against the
police were trans activists.
