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"For two decades I was emotionally, and physically involved in social movements of other people, yet all my life I had been concerned with my own gayness, and seeing the injustice done to gay people.” What happened in 1969, however, finally gave Jerry and other gay rights activists a reason to join the fight for the rights of other gay Americans like themselves. Jerry took part in these fights as well as the one to end the war in Vietnam. For many years, a civil rights battle was being fought over the rights of women and minorities. At first he studied optometry, but eventually went on to graduate from University of Denver Law School in 1969. First he went to UCLA and later to Berkeley. In the early 1950s, he attended college at the University of California. It was this same year that he discovered he was part of a larger community that could look to each other for support. He and many gay youth like him wanted to go to gay bars because it was the only place they could be open about who they were and still be loved and respected. He didn't do this because he wanted to drink alcohol. Around this time he also got a fake ID so he could go to gay bars. Jerry was in his first relationship when he was 17 and he already knew that it had to remain a secret for his own safety. There was a great deal of prejudice against gay people and you could even be targeted by the police for loving the wrong person. While many people now think of big cities like Los Angeles as safe places for gay people, that was not true in the 1940s and 1950s. By the time he was 14, he knew he was gay. When Jerry was 10 years old, the family moved to Los Angeles.