were so many people who you now think of as really important figures in lesbian and gay history -- carla j, martin they were going to a restaurant or a bar in they saw something going on. they began to support the people, the young people in the stonewall inn. >> how hard was it for these people to come out. -- to come out? to say that you were gay or lesbian -- what were the challenges? prof. potter: one was it was illegal to be gay in many places. of course it was not written into the law is illegal to be homosexual but sexual acts are illegal. in fact, sodomy is still a crime in many states of the union and that would be defined as any form of sexual activity that is not heteronormative. there were laws against wearing the clothing of the other gender . men who cross-dressed or butch lesbians who wore men's clothes, they could be arrested for not wearing the clothes of the proper gender and taking them to these station, shaking them down, find. they would have to bail themselves out and come to court the next day. there's a lot of routine police harassment that went on all the time. it'