The Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage is a significant step for gay rights in the country. The obtaining of those rights has been neither easy nor quick.
The basic history often jumps from the Stonewall Riots of 1969 to the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Historian Jim Downs fills in the years in between, in his book Stand By Me.
They were years of community-building for what we call the LGBT community today. Jim Downs joins us with a synopsis.