When Tree Sequoia joined hundreds of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people rioting in downtown New York 50 years ago, same-sex relations were illegal in more than 100 countries worldwide and every U.S. state had anti-sodomy laws. “(The police) came in nasty,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation outside the Stonewall Inn where the modern LGBT+ rights movements began on June 28, 1969, after a police raid. “They pushed the wrong person and that person pushed them back and before you know it, they were beating up the cop and that started the whole rebellion.” Fast forward half a century and gay sex remains illegal in 69 countries and can be punished with death in seven nations. Denmark in 1989 became the first nation to legalize a form of gay marriage with 26 countries and Taiwan following suit, but courses to “convert” minors from being gay are legal in all but three nations and reported murders of trans people are rising.