USA TODAY -- While Biden’s victory may bring relief from a feeling of assault over the past four years, it is ultimately at the local level that most progress will continue to be made, says Marc Stein, a historian at San Francisco State University and author of “The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History.”
“Over the decades, there have been periods with some national gains, but often when there’s not much help coming from the federal level you see an intensive fight for rights in cities and states, which then sometimes spark national reaction,” he says.
Stein notes that a small conservative New York state town in which he used to live recently elected a gay man to public office. “That is extraordinary to me, and speaks to a reason for hope,” he says.