A half-century after the Stonewall riots, gay pride is big business. This weekend's parade is sponsored by huge banks and multinational corporations, as what was once a civil rights struggle for a persecuted minority has morphed, for many, into a feel-good moneymaking opportunity.
While the work is far from done, gay and lesbian Americans have seen an arc of history bend, and bend sharply in recent decades, toward justice.
The modern movement began when patrons of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village decided on June 28, 1969, they had had enough of cops hassling them.
That sparked a climb toward equality and acceptance that recently has progressed faster than many graying Stonewall veterans thought possible.
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association stopped classifying homosexuality as a disorder. Anti-gay sodomy laws took longer to fall; as late as 1986 the U.S. Supreme Court shamefully ruled private acts between consenting adults could be a crime. The court reversed itself in 2003.
All for the good.
Gays were once excluded from open military service; no more. Four years ago, the Supreme Court decided marriage equality was a constitutional right. In both cases, predictions the sky would fall proved comically wrong. The next front: open the armed services to transgender Americans.
The mayor of Chicago is a lesbian. The speaker of the New York City Council is gay. A leading presidential candidate is gay and has a same sex spouse. And it's no big deal.
