The gay liberation movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s arose amid cries for civil rights, equality of gender and the end of American participation in the Vietnam War. Gay Liberation marked a revolutionary recognition of gay rights in the United States; historians and activists argue that the 1969 Stonewall Riots prompted this development. The Greenwich Village riot was the first example of gay resistance to gain widespread, if mixed, media attention. The Stonewall riots acted as a catalyst for the gay liberation movement, as did the event's presence in local and national newspapers, regardless of the changing degree of support media coverage lent to the rioters. Subcultural movements defined the 1960s. Because of the prodigious “baby boom” in the United States after World War II, unprecedented numbers of young people were alive in the 1960s to spark liberal protest movements and express their characteristic discontent with the status quo. As they experimented with recreational drugs and nonconformist lifestyles, they brought issues of race, gender, and U.S. participation in the Vietnam War to the forefront of American consciousness. Among these causes was the gay rights movement. Despite the radical climate of the 1960s, the first gay rights groups were led by the conservative and homophile Mattachine Society, founded in Los Angeles in 1950. The organization responded to negative stereotypes and emphasized the presence of the gay community in mainstream society ; they adopted this approach in 1953 after facing initial opposition to more radical strategies. Of the society, David Carter writes: “The founders of the Mattachine Society used the word homophile because they believed that this new term, with… middle of the paper… and put gay rights front and center. newspaper front pages across the United States, and is still remembered well into the twenty-first century. President Barack Obama mentioned Stonewall in his 2013 inaugural address, the first inaugural address to reference gay rights. He stated: “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that we are all created equal – is the star that still guides us; just as he guided our ancestors through Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall… Our journey will not be complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like everyone else under the law. Despite the immediate negative media coverage, the Stonewall riots raised awareness and encouraged the United States to recognize an emerging call for equal rights. Because, to quote Oscar Wilde, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”