Stonewall: Making Myth out of Meaning out of Myth

The Stonewall Riots (1969) are considered in the popular imagination to be the founding event of the contemporary movement for LGBTQ civil rights in the United States. Annual Pride parades across the world, LGBTQ socio-political rhetoric, social and cultural media, memes and gifs, art and cinema all combine to figure Stonewall as the “birth” myth of the wide variety of identities currently encompassed under the umbrella acronym LGBTQ+. A key part of understanding Stonewall is the ability to critically distinguish between the historical and myth, and how and why Stonewall mythology has developed, grown, and been transformed since 1969. This presentation examines Stonewall as a myth-making engine whose values and symbolism have morphed and changed over time, and why that myth-making still holds meaning for LGBTQ+ communities.

Speaker Bio: Aureliano Maria DeSoto is associate professor of Ethnic Studies at Metro State University. He is a past chair of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS), and currently serves as the IFO (Statewide) Academic Affairs coordinator. At Metro State, he teaches Comparative Ethnic Studies courses in the Department of Ethnic and Religious Studies and LGBT Studies in the Gender Studies Program.

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