FIREBIRD

CIRCA 1969 (Part V) : RAINBOW COLORS

It was a truly colorful year. Humanity no longer saw things strictly in “black and white” but in living colors. Regular coulour television broadcasts begun on BBC1 and ITV in UK on November 15, 1969. How was that at seeing colors!

But not only literally do we start seeing in varied colors. New ideas sprung and people started viewing the world in unconventional or non- traditional ways. Causes that espouse racial, gender, ethnic and societal equality were brought to the fore. This gave birth to the Counterculture of the 1960s that includes social movements such as the African American Civil Rights Movements, antiwar demonstrations and activists advocating for social change. These influences served as catalysts for the Stonewall riots. Homosexuals and drag queens fought back after police raided New York’s Stonewall Inn that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. Suddenly, there was solidarity among gay people. Like other ethnic communities in America, gays discovered they were a community. This was the genesis of the gay rights movement. From then on gays, as a group of sexual minorities, would forcibly resist any form of discrimination worldwide.

Civil rights movements sprung not only in America but in other countries as well. In Northern Ireland, People's Democracy marched from Belfast to Derry, in support of civil rights. In Canada, French was made equal to English throughout the Canadian national government to demonstrate equality among its English and French-speaking citizens.

Indeed, 1969 was a “colorful” year. Although much is still to be done in the quest for equality and social justice, it is hard to imagine how our present society might have been without the events that changed our perception of people in respect to gender, sexuality, race and creed. Constantly, we seek unity amidst diversity. Our hope lies in mutual respect and the inherent ability to see the beauty in variety.