Gordon Clay here. Forty years ago this Sunday, a group of street people and drag queens in Greenwich Village enacted the “Bunker Hill” moment of the movement for equal rights for LGBT people in these United States (that's lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, and questioning people)

This motley crew didn’t decide to hold a fund-raising event at some swank venue. They fought for their rights on a city street outside a sleazy gay bar.

They didn’t sit around complaining, theorizing, or rehearsing how they hadn’t been treated fairly. They already lived mistreatment personally and acted to end it.

They didn’t await approval from the leaders of existing LGBT organizations who felt dressing acceptably was necessary to gain acceptance in the system. They weren’t interested in looking “the same as you” – as straight as possible.

They didn’t seek the love and approval of their abusers. They fought for change in the power structure that was beating them down.

They fought back against another police raid at the Stonewall Inn that for them was the last straw in never-ending harassment. It wasn’t theoretical. They experienced it all personally.

The “Stonewall Riots” that were the result communicated the fact that LGBT people weren’t going to take it anymore.

Everything about the activities of Stonewall is liable to offend somebody today. But it symbolizes ideas that go far beyond equality with straight marriages and gaining the attention of businesses that want to make money off of everyone equally.

Stonewall doesn’t symbolize some of the models we wish would bring effective change. It really symbolizes what we’re prone to forget.