Do labels like LGBTQI+ help or hinder?

Nursing Standard’s senior nurse editor reflects on the legacy of the Stonewall riots and the use of the acronym LGBTQI+

This summer marks 50 years since the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, New York City.

LGBT patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar and haven for the gay community, fought back against a police raid in a spontaneous, unplanned event, resulting in several days of large-scale rioting. There had been previous protests in the US, but this event is seen as a watershed moment in the fight for LGBT equality and rights in the US and beyond.

All historical events are seen through a glass darkly, and the reasons for the raid, why the bar’s patrons fought back and the influence of factors such as the civil rights movement, and even