Historic Video Gives New Look Into LGBT Movement  

New York’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center has released a new ‘Out at the Center’ episode in honor of Pride 2008 and the Center’s 25th anniversary. The two-part segment, hosted by Teddy Alexander Evans and Laverne Cox, details the challenges of being gay before the Stonewall uprising of 1969 and commemorates the people involved in the political movements that followed Stonewall.

The interviews in part one of the episode described the pressure to conform to heterosexual norms that was ever-present for gays and lesbians in the 50’s. Some women married to escape their home life, only to find their same-sex attractions growing. Other lesbians of the time opted not to marry, simply because they didn’t want to “cook and clean for someone.”

Pauline Ferrera, 69, described in the documentary a particularly frightening instance that was, unfortunately, all too common. Her mother and sister once called the police after discovering Ferrera’s relationship with a woman. “You could be arrested if you didn’t have [at least] three feminine articles on you,” Ferrera explained. She quickly borrowed a friend’s shoes and tried to make herself look as feminine as possible before the police arrived.