Gay rights and sexuality were consistently pushed to the side in the years before the 60s, as they had no representation and few people fighting for their rights. Many folks treated them extremely poorly, until they finally took a stand against the system. Fighting for the freedom to just be themselves, gay people marched and protested everywhere so that they may be seen and heard. This photo perfectly presents this as a large group of people show up in front of the California State building in order to protest against discriminatory laws. LGBTQ people from all over criticized the government and through photography, they made their criticisms visible for all to see. As Frederick Douglass wrote, photographs are “the fact of life, the ideal contrasted with the real, which makes criticism possible. Where there is no criticism there is no progress…” and here we see this idea come to fruition as the people here make progress through their demands and push back against the discrimination that they face.
Overall, their fight was the fight to be themselves. They no longer wished to feel afraid to be who they are and wanted everyone, especially the government, to respect that. Identity is a huge part of life as it is who you are so everyone should have the opportunity to express that without any negative consequences. Brave people such as the ones in this photo made sure that this idea came true for future generations of LGBTQ people so that maybe one day, all sexualities and identities could be respected and treated equally.