In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal throughout the United States.

When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world.

The film airs on Monday, April 25, on PBS. Watch the trailer and find more information here.

Each year the federal government demands that thousands of married couples lie.

The federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) not only denies legally married gay couples the benefits of heterosexual marriage, but we are also told to disavow our spouses and file our taxes as "single."

The Federal Government must stop requiring legally married gay couples to deny the existence of our families and hide our marriages.

It is dehumanizing and it is wrong.

More info at RefuseToLie.org

In a historic vote Saturday morning that seemed highly improbable just weeks earlier, the U.S. Senate approved a stand-alone bill to proceed on repealing the military’s 17-year-old ban on lesbians and gays serving openly in the military. Advocate story is here.

Now, let Hurricane Summers show you how (not?) to celebrate in the next post below.

UPDATE: The final vote has finished with 65-31 vote to repeal.

From The Advocate:

A federal judge has blocked enforcement of "don't ask, don't tell" and has instructed the Defense Department immediately to "suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation, or other proceeding" related to the policy.

U.S. district judge Virginia A. Phillips, who presided over the federal challenge to DADT that went to trial in Riverside, Calif., in July, entered her judgment shortly before noon Pacific time on Tuesday.

More at Advocate.com.