LTC Library: LGBTQIA+ Pride Month: Videos

Stonewall Uprising

From PBS: Stonewall Uprising explores the dramatic events that launched a worldwide civil rights movement. When police raided a Mafia-run gay bar in Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, on June 28, 1969, gay men and women did something they had not done before—they fought back. As the streets of New York erupted into violent protests and street demonstrations, the collective anger announced that the gay rights movement had arrived.

Gay and Proud

Gay and Proud
From the Library of Congress: Footage of one of the earliest Gay Pride demonstration marches, the first Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade, held in New York City, New York, on June 28, 1970, to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

Casa Susanna

From PBS: In the 1950s and ’60s, an underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men found refuge at a house in the Catskills region of New York. Known as Casa Susanna, the house provided a safe place to express their true selves. Told through the memories of those who visited, the film looks back at a secret world where the persecuted and frightened found freedom and acceptance.

Rocking the Cradle: Gay Parenting

Rocking the Cradle: Gay Parenting
Prior to the 1960s, the idea of same-sex parenting had yet to reach the consciousness of most Americans. The majority of gays and lesbians did not even consider parenting, fearing the stigma their children might face. By 2000, however, the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that a full one-third of lesbian couples and roughly a quarter of gay male couples had opted to become parents. This program captures six gay/lesbian families in their day-to-day lives. Two of these families are families by adoption, two are co-parenting families, and two are lesbian families by insemination. Man-on-the-street interviews as well as emotional testimonials from the 15 adults and 11 children featured in this film provide a range of perspectives on gay parenting.

The Strange History of Don't Ask Don't Tell

Suspenseful, deeply engaging and heart-wrenching, The Strange History of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell illustrates the tumultuous evolution of a controversial policy which fostered hate and intolerance within the military – and undermined the very freedoms American soldiers fight for – by forcing gay and lesbian soldiers to lie and live in secrecy. In 1993, President Bill Clinton, trying to deliver on his election promise of lifting the ban on gays in the military, encountered vehement opposition that resulted in the compromise legislation, known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” This 80-minute documentary examines the torturous consequences of the policy and the fight to repeal it – a battle that would last 17 years, span three presidencies, and result in the discharge of 13,368 active service members. Shot during the final 15 months of the law prior to its repeal, the film includes archival news footage and interviews with over 70 key players, from policy experts to Pentagon personnel, as well as personal accounts by a number of actively serving gay soldiers.

LGBT Literary Event

LGBT Literary Event
From the Library of Congress: A group of publishers in the field of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literature were featured in an LGBT event sponsored by the Library's Poetry & Literature Center and Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

In Plain Sight

This documentary interviews LGBTQ women in rural communities, and argues that these places are often much more inclusive than the stereotypes lead one to believe. This is a phenomenon known as metronormativity. Contrary to dominant ideas that position rural places as backwards, conservative, and homophobic, the women in this documentary feel safe, supported, and happy. The film asks how we have come to imagine what life is like for LGBTQ people in rural places, and provides an opportunity to imagine it otherwise.