SUMMARY:During the era of 1969’s Stonewall Riots, police raids against LGBTQ establishments were common. But when Stonewall patrons fought back, the modern gay rights movement was launched. On Stonewall’s 50th anniversary, Judy Woodruff gets perspective from Reverend Emma Chattin, activist and journalist George Johnson, The Anti-Violence Project’s Beverly Tillery and Mark Segal of Philadelphia Gay News.
SUMMARY:It was 50 years ago this week that gay, lesbian, trans and other gender-nonconforming people rioted at a bar called the Stonewall Inn after a police raid. The New York Public Library has one of the largest collections of LGBTQ artifacts from that tumultuous period, which is now being displayed in a major exhibit, "Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50." NewsHour Weekend's Ivette Feliciano reports.
SUMMARY: While the Nigerian military has made significant gains against Boko Haram, killings by the group continue, with some civilians caught in the middle. As part of a week-long series "Nigeria: Pain and Promise," special correspondent Nick Schifrin reports with producer and cameraman Zach Fannin on the government's attempts to wipe out the militant group.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): Tonight, we begin a week-long series on Africa’s most populous country, “Nigeria: Pain and Promise.”
Special correspondent Nick Schifrin and producer and cameraman Zach Fannin spent more than a month on the ground there, chronicling a nation in the midst of an encouraging and impressive economic boom, but still plagued by income inequality, corruption and terrorism.
This evening, we look at the government’s attempts to wipe out Boko Haram, a terrorist group that killed more people in 2014 than the Islamic State we hear so much about.
While the Nigerian military has made significant gains, the killings by the group continue. As we report, some civilians are getting caught in the middle.
A warning: Some of the images in this report may be disturbing.
NICK SCHIFRIN (NewsHour): On the outskirts of Maiduguri, the men who protect the city fight with whatever they can find, 40-year-old shotguns and iPhone ear buds. Some carve their own clubs. Others patrol in floral and kitchen knives.
What they lack in weaponry, they make up for in divinely inspired confidence.
There’s a couple of shotguns. There’s a few machetes, a few knives, but that’s it.
ABBA AJI KALLI, Civilian JTF: Yes.
NICK SCHIFRIN: I mean, what would you actually be able to do if you ran into Boko Haram out here?
MAN: We chased them out of Maiduguri with stick and we didn’t even have a gun, and when they have AK-47, they have RPG on their hand, but we pushed them out.
ABBA AJI KALLI: God has put the fear of the Civilian JTF in their heart. Well done.
NICK SCHIFRIN:Fifty-one-year-old Abba Aji Kalli leads the Civilian JTF, for Joint Task Force. He used to be a government auditor. Today, he’s more comfortable on the front lines.
SUMMARY: Nigeria is a nation of superlatives. It’s Africa's richest country and its fastest growing economy. At the same time, millions still live in poverty and lack basic services like running water. As part of a week-long series "Nigeria: Pain and Promise," special correspondent Nick Schifrin reports on the country's massive economic surge, new millionaires, growing inequality and those fighting to provide new opportunities for all Nigerians.
SUMMARY: In Nigeria, where corruption is part of daily life, police officers routinely demand bribes, local government leaders pocket money meant for schools and the former national security advisor is accused of stealing billions from the military. As part of a week-long series "Nigeria: Pain and Promise," special correspondent Nick Schifrin reports on the challenges of fighting corruption.
SUMMARY: Nigeria made same-sex marriage and gay rights activism illegal last January. Since then, gay Nigerians say abuse and extortion have become commonplace by state-sponsored vigilantes, police and public mobs. As part of a week-long series "Nigeria: Pain and Promise," special correspondent Nick Schifrin reports on the threats and violence that LGBT citizens face in that country.
SUMMARY: NewsHour has focused in on Nigeria for a week-long series, “Pain and Promise,” examining the fight against Boko Haram, economic development, corruption and LGBT discrimination. Special correspondent Nick Schifrin and Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of "Americanah," speak with William Brangham about that country’s complexity.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): Celebrities, athletes and politicians have increasingly gone public about their sexual orientation. But the corporate closet has mostly remained closed.
Today, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, opened that door a but more, declaring in an essay for Bloomberg Businessweek he is gay.
“While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven’t publicly acknowledged it either until now,” he wrote. “So let me be clear. I’m proud to be gay and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”
Cook becomes the most prominent business leader to come out, but what difference will it make?
Kara Swisher, who has long covered the tech industry and is co-executive editor of the tech news website re/code, joins me now.
So, Kara, in this day and age, why does what Tim Cook had to say matter?
KARA SWISHER, re/code: Well, he is the most prominent executive in tech, and he’s running the most valuable company in the world.
And so he has a lot of prominence, and this is a big deal for him to come out and say that. And the fact that no Fortune 500 executive has done this is a milestone.
GWEN IFILL: So, why now? Tell us about Tim Cook.
KARA SWISHER: I don’t think there was an occasion. He didn’t just decide, like, wake up this morning.
This is something — he’s been out among his friends, as he wrote, but he had never acknowledged it in public. And people have been talking about it in Silicon Valley a lot. There was a lot of hubbub a couple of months ago when a CNBC exchange discussed it. Everybody knows he’s gay and stuff like that.
And I think he just wanted — he’s been moving slowly towards it. He’s been making — he appeared at the Gay Pride Festival here in San Francisco this year. He made a speech just recently about gay and lesbian rights related to Alabama, where here’s from.
So he’s been moving towards this very clearly. And I think probably he just woke up and said enough. I will just acknowledge it and say it and it’s not a big deal. And me holding back probably makes it more of a big deal.
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): And now we turn to the legacy of the March on Washington, 50 years later, as seen by scholars of other civil rights movements who were broadly represented at last week's anniversary celebration.
For a century after the Civil War, the black struggle for equal rights reminded America of its unfinished business.
Tonight Ray Suarez examines whether that struggle changed the way we think and talk about rights for everyone.
RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): For that, we get two different perspectives.
Ruth Rosen is a professor emerita of history at the University of California, Davis, and author of the book "The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America." And George Chauncey is co-director of the Research Initiative on the History of Sexualities and a professor of history and American studies at Yale University.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
*Anti-First Amendment policies that attempt to turn America into a theocracy by enshrining ANY religious belief as law.
* Any attempt to suppress human or Constitutional rights.
* Any law or policy that supports discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, race/color, gender, sexual orientation, or any law that does NOT support Equal Treatment under the law.
*Any law or policy that attempts to suppress Freedom of the Press or Free Speech.
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