50 Years and Forward: Conversations About Stonewall

Survivors of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, as well as two of the first National Park Rangers to staff the Stonewall National Monument, will speak at Columbia-Greene Community College on Friday, Nov. 8 as part of 50 Years and Forward: Conversations About Stonewall. The event begins at 6 p.m. in the Professional Academic Center on the C-GCC campus. Stonewall survivors and LGBTQ activists Martin Boyce and Jay Toole and National Park Rangers Jamie Adams and Anne Stanley – two of the first rangers to ever staff the Stonewall National Monument, designated in 2016 – will speak at the event, which will offer opportunities for conversation about LGBTQ issues, using the Stonewall Riots as a center-point of discussion. The riots were a series of demonstrations by members of the LGBTQ community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn. Boyce, an art-critic and private chef who co-owned the famed Everybody’s restaurant in New York City from 1986 to 1992, has been featured in documentaries including PBS’s American Experience: Stonewall Uprising; Pay It No Mind: The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson; Stonewall Forever, and others. He is a frequent, internationally recognized speaker on gay rights and the Stonewall Riots. Toole, co-founder of Queers for Economic Justice, speaks frequently on the topics of Stonewall, LGBTQ homelessness, and addiction. She is the recipient of the Richard L. Schiegel National Legion of Honor Award from American University, Washington D.C., for Emerging Activists, and has been honored by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, the Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS), and just this June, the Stonewall Foundation. She regularly leads Stonewall walking tours. Adams, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran, became the first National Park Service ranger for the Stonewall National Monument in 2016. She’ll be joined by Stanley, who also staffs the Stonewall National Monument. 50 Years and Forward is the third installment of C-GCC’s Never Forget Series, created in 2018 to present one, multidisciplinary event per semester dedicated to calling attention to global issues through discourse. The evening will include a panel discussion, art exhibits, historic images and video, a voter registration table, and more. Please Note: This event may include discussion of violence. Anyone who may require accommodations for a disability in order to attend this event may contact the Office of Accessibility Services via e-mail at catherine.carlson@sunycgcc.edu, phone at (518) 828-4181, extension 3437, or by visiting Room 101A between the hours of 8:00 am and 4:00 pm Monday through Friday.