How Gay Pride and Black Power Shaped Me

Fifty years after the riots, the Stonewall effect remains strong.

Photo: flickr

I remember the first time I ever walked into Stonewall.

It was 1991, and I was 22 years old. I had just moved to New York City. As I sipped the first of several gin and tonics at the Greenwich Village watering hole, I had no idea that my perch by the bar was…