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When I discovered the theme for National History Day of 2014, rights and responsibilities, I wanted to research a personally intriguing topic that fit this theme; I decided to research the Stonewall Riots, an event that represented the struggle for equal human rights by the homosexual community. I wanted to research this topic because I had been hearing a lot about the homosexual communitys fight to gain their civil rights in the news recently. I also recalled the Stonewall Riots from hearing an excerpt of one of Barack Obamas speech in which he mentioned the event, which I quoted on my conclusion page. I began my research on the topic by finding an overview of homosexual rights online, especially timelines. From there, I expanded my research to more specific events through resources like books, videos, and audio clips. I then broadened my research to pictures and newspaper articles to illustrate my topic. Lastly, I contacted professors and historians with extensive knowledge of my topic I could interview; several didnt respond, but I did interview professor Elvia Arriola, a professor of law at the College of Law at the Northern Illinois University, and Doctor Matt Harris, a history professor at Colorado State University of Pueblo. When deciding how to display my topic best, I decided to create a website. By creating a website, I could illustrate my topic effectively and easily include video and audio clips. Also, I could easily display a chronological order of my topic, and I could differentiate easily between subtopics within the broader areas of my topic. This was advantageous in the fact that it made the story easier to follow, and it was easier to see the individual events that led up to the Stonewall Riots and what events, within broader subtopics, occurred because of the riots. This topic clearly relates to this years theme, rights and responsibilities. The Stonewall Riots and previous events made evident how the basic human rights of homosexuals were being infringed, and demonstrated how the homosexuals took responsibility to gain their human rights. Previous to the Stonewall Riots and the beginning of the homosexual rights movement, the heterosexual society dictated the lives of homosexuals; the Stonewall Riots catalyzed the movement in which homosexual took responsibility to gain their rights from the heterosexual

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society. The homosexuals saw no one else was going to speak up for their rights being infringed, so they had to take responsibility to speak for them. The effects of the Stonewall Riots and the subsequent homosexual rights movement on the human rights of homosexuals can still be seen today in the ongoing advancement of the human rights of the homosexual population of the United States. The song I used on my title screen, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, by Judy Garland, was majorly symbolic to the Stonewall Riots. It was said that on the night of the Stonewall Riots, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn were drinking to commemorate the death of homosexual icon Judy Garland.

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