Process Paper Hill  

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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 for because

I had been hearing a lot about the homosexual community’s fight to gain their civil rights

in the news, and I recalled the Stonewall Riots from an excerpt of a speech of Barack

Obama’s in which he mentioned the event.

I began my research on the topic by finding an overview of the homosexual rights

movement online, especially timelines. From there, I expanded my research to more

specific events through resources like books, videos, and audio clips. I then expanded

my research to pictures and newspaper articles to illustrate my topic. Lastly, I contacted

people with extensive knowledge of my topic I could interview; several didn’t respond,

but I did interview professor Elvia Arriola, a professor of law at the Northern Illinois

University, Doctor Matt Harris a United States history professor at Colorado State

University-Pueblo, Professor William Eskridge, Jr. a professor of law at Yale University,

and Lillian Faderman: an historian and author on homosexuals.

When deciding how to display my topic best, I decided to use a website. By

creating a website, I could illustrate my topic effectively to 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 areas of my topic. This was

advantageous in the fact that it made the story easier to follow, and it was easier to see

what led up to the Stonewall Riots and what came because of them.

Process Paper Hill  

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This topic clearly relates to this year’s theme, rights and responsibilities. The

Stonewall Riots 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 society. The homosexuals saw that the United States

government was not upholding the promise of equal rights for all citizens of the United

States; the homosexuals held the government responsible to grant equal rights for all

citizens, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. 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 changing laws and the changing mindset of the

United States from exclusion of homosexuals towards inclusion of homosexuals.