Stonewall

[Daniel]

It's gay pride month folks! So I thought a little history might be in order. The following article is from 365gay.com

Please feel free to post your own remembrances of that time (if you were born yet!) or anything else you think might be relevant.

The Stonewall Riots
by Todd Richmond
365Gay.com Features Editor

June marks the beginnings of the gay movement. The exact date is etched in our history. June 27, 1969. It was the day gays realized they had power and no longer had to take harassment. It was the day of the Stonewall riots in New York's Greenwich Village.

But, Stonewall was not an isolated moment.

It was the sixties, when all minorities were exerting their claims to liberation. The black movement. The women's movement. The anti-war movement. It is impossible to look at any of them as single events.

Frank Kameny coined the slogan "Gay is Good" in 1968 in clear imitation of "Black is Beautiful." Whatever else "Black is Beautiful" meant, it meant that equality should not depend on becoming identical to the dominant majority.

On Friday, June 27, 1969, eight officers from the public morals section of the first division New York City Police Department pulled up in front of the Stonewall Inn, one of the city's largest and most popular gay bars. Inside, dozens of gays were mourning the death of Judy Garland who was buried the day before.

At the time, the vice squad routinely raided gay bars. Patrons always complied with the police, frightened by the prospect of being identified in the newspaper. But this particular Friday night at the Stonewall Inn was different. It sparked a revolution, and a hidden subculture was transformed into a vibrant political movement. What began with a drag queen clobbering her arresting officer soon escalated into a full-fledged riot, and modern gay activism was born.

Here is an account from the New York Daily News the day after.

Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad

Reprinted from "The New York Daily News," July 6, 1969
By JERRY LISKER

She sat there with her legs crossed, the lashes of her mascara-coated eyes beating like the wings of a hummingbird. She was angry. She was so upset she hadn't bothered to shave. A day old stubble was beginning to push through the pancake makeup. She was a he. A queen of Christopher Street.

Last weekend the queens had turned commandos and stood bra strap to bra strap against an invasion of the helmeted Tactical Patrol Force. The elite police squad had shut down one of their private gay clubs, the Stonewall Inn at 57 Christopher St., in the heart of a three-block homosexual community in Greenwich Village. Queen Power reared its bleached blonde head in revolt. New York City experienced its first homosexual riot. "We may have lost the battle, sweets, but the war is far from over," lisped an unofficial lady-in-waiting from the court of the Queens.

"We've had all we can take from the Gestapo," the spokesman, or spokeswoman, continued. "We're putting our foot down once and for all." The foot wore a spiked heel. According to reports, the Stonewall Inn, a two-story structure with a sand painted brick and opaque glass facade, was a mecca for the homosexual element in the village who wanted nothing but a private little place where they could congregate, drink, dance and do whatever little girls do when they get together.

The thick glass shut out the outside world of the street. Inside, the Stonewall bathed in wild, bright psychedelic lights, while the patrons writhed to the sounds of a juke box on a square dance floor surrounded by booths and tables. The bar did a good business and the waiters, or waitresses, were always kept busy, as they snaked their way around the dancing customers to the booths and tables. For nearly two years, peace and tranquility reigned supreme for the Alice in Wonderland clientele.

The Raid Last Friday

Last Friday the privacy of the Stonewall was invaded by police from the First Division. It was a raid. They had a warrant. After two years, police said they had been informed that liquor was being served on the premises. Since the Stonewall was without a license, the place was being closed. It was the law.

All hell broke loose when the police entered the Stonewall. The girls instinctively reached for each other. Others stood frozen, locked in an embrace of fear.

Only a handful of police were on hand for the initial landing in the homosexual beachhead. They ushered the patrons out onto Christopher Street, just off Sheridan Square. A crowd had formed in front of the Stonewall and the customers were greeted with cheers of encouragement from the gallery.

The whole proceeding took on the aura of a homosexual Academy Awards Night. The Queens pranced out to the street blowing kisses and waving to the crowd. A beauty of a specimen named Stella wailed uncontrollably while being led to the sidewalk in front of the Stonewall by a cop. She later confessed that she didn't protest the manhandling by the officer, it was just that her hair was in curlers and she was afraid her new beau might be in the crowd and spot her. She didn't want him to see her this way, she wept.

Queen Power

The crowd began to get out of hand, eye witnesses said. Then, without warning, Queen Power exploded with all the fury of a gay atomic bomb. Queens, princesses and ladies-in-waiting began hurling anything they could get their polished, manicured fingernails on. Bobby pins, compacts, curlers, lipstick tubes and other femme fatale missiles were flying in the direction of the cops. The war was on. The lilies of the valley had become carnivorous jungle plants.

Urged on by cries of "C'mon girls, lets go get'em," the defenders of Stonewall launched an attack. The cops called for assistance. To the rescue came the Tactical Patrol Force.

Flushed with the excitement of battle, a fellow called Gloria pranced around like Wonder Woman, while several Florence Nightingales administered first aid to the fallen warriors. There were some assorted scratches and bruises, but nothing serious was suffered by the honeys turned Madwoman of Chaillot.

Official reports listed four injured policemen with 13 arrests. The War of the Roses lasted about 2 hours from about midnight to 2 a.m. There was a return bout Wednesday night.

Two veterans recently recalled the battle and issued a warning to the cops. "If they close up all the gay joints in this area, there is going to be all out war."

Bruce and Nan

Both said they were refugees from Indiana and had come to New York where they could live together happily ever after. They were in their early 20's. They preferred to be called by their married names, Bruce and Nan.

"I don't like your paper," Nan lisped matter-of-factly. "It's anti-fag and pro-cop."

"I'll bet you didn't see what they did to the Stonewall. Did the pigs tell you that they smashed everything in sight? Did you ask them why they stole money out of the cash register and then smashed it with a sledge hammer? Did you ask them why it took them two years to discover that the Stonewall didn't have a liquor license."

Bruce nodded in agreement and reached over for Nan's trembling hands.

"Calm down, doll," he said. "Your face is getting all flushed."

Nan wiped her face with a tissue.

"This would have to happen right before the wedding. The reception was going to be held at the Stonewall, too," Nan said, tossing her ashen-tinted hair over her shoulder.

"What wedding?," the bystander asked.

Nan frowned with a how-could-anybody-be-so-stupid look. "Eric and Jack's wedding, of course. They're finally tieing the knot. I thought they'd never get together."

Meet Shirley

"We'll have to find another place, that's all there is to it," Bruce sighed. "But every time we start a place, the cops break it up sooner or later."

"They let us operate just as long as the payoff is regular," Nan said bitterly. "I believe they closed up the Stonewall because there was some trouble with the payoff to the cops. I think that's the real reason. It's a shame. It was such a lovely place. We never bothered anybody. Why couldn't they leave us alone?"

Shirley Evans, a neighbor with two children, agrees that the Stonewall was not a rowdy place and the persons who frequented the club were never troublesome. She lives at 45 Christopher St.

"Up until the night of the police raid there was never any trouble there," she said. "The homosexuals minded their own business and never bothered a soul. There were never any fights or hollering, or anything like that. They just wanted to be left alone. I don't know what they did inside, but that's their business. I was never in there myself. It was just awful when the police came. It was like a swarm of hornets attacking a bunch of butterflies."

A reporter visited the now closed Stonewall and it indeed looked like a cyclone had struck the premisses.

Police said there were over 200 people in the Stonewall when they entered with a warrant. The crowd outside was estimated at 500 to 1,000. According to police, the Stonewall had been under observation for some time. Being a private club, plain clothesmen were refused entrance to the inside when they periodically tried to check the place. "They had the tightest security in the Village," a First Division officer said, "We could never get near the place without a warrant."

Police Talk

The men of the First Division were unable to find any humor in the situation, despite the comical overtones of the raid.

"They were throwing more than lace hankies," one inspector said. "I was almost decapitated by a slab of thick glass. It was thrown like a discus and just missed my throat by inches. The beer can didn't miss, though, "it hit me right above the temple."

Police also believe the club was operated by Mafia connected owners. The police did confiscate the Stonewall's cash register as proceeds from an illegal operation. The receipts were counted and are on file at the division headquarters. The warrant was served and the establishment closed on the grounds it was an illegal membership club with no license, and no license to serve liquor.

The police are sure of one thing. They haven't heard the last from the Girls of Christopher Street.

[Progo35]

Congrats on gay pride month. How's the hate legislation coming along?

[Zerbie]

I recommend the book "Stonewall" by David Carter. It's recent, 2004. Carter went back & gathered a lot of information, apparently some of which had been overlooked/missed in previous historical accounts. He intersperses personal anecdotes of individuals and couples involved, with what was going on politically, with mayoral candidates and within the police precincts, with the activities of established (mattachine) and incipient (GLF) gay rights organizations.

From reading this book, I get a sense of the seriousness of the physical danger for all involved. There were folks handcuffed to radiators inside the Stonewall while the police were barricaded inside, and firebombs were being thrown in. There's also a detailed description of the riot police and their riot gear advancing on a group of queens in dressed & heels singing and doing a kickline. I'd hear that story before, but without knowing what a massive phalanx of riot police in full gear looked like, I had no idea how incredible those queens were.

This book also gives a sense of the slow buildup to the outburst. Carter also includes a map of the Village and explanation of why the area around the Stonewall was conducive to a spontaneous riot. It's fascinating stuff. He retains his objectivity throughout the entire book, too, good for him. Only in the conclusion does his personal opinion/interpretation of the event come in, and by then, as a reader, I was anxious to finally hear it.

[u-dog]

1. Whenever the argument gets made that Pride parade is counterproductive and that the outrageous queens should step down so the button-down lawyer types can carry the rainbow flag a little more respectably, I think about who it was that FIRST took to the streets and "manned" the barricades. It was a bunch of really courageous, beautiful, drag queens in boas and spike heels. God Bless them! we would not be where we are today without their "balls". So if the Drag Queens are center stage on Pride day... they have a right to be. So says the king of the buttondown types.

2. I know that the newspaper article was anti-gay and intended to be insulting... but 40 years later... I LOVED IT. It made me laugh out loud. It made me admire those queens and the power they called forth. The reality of the last forty years has transformed that piece from what it was intended to be to something quite different.

[Daniel]

And when was the last time you heard another gay...I mean guy....call his boyfriend 'doll'?

Kinda sweet actually.

[BrentRichards]

Originally Posted by Daniel

And when was the last time you heard another gay...I mean guy....call his boyfriend 'doll'?

Kinda sweet actually.

All of this has power now ... in the present environment, it reads like satire, which is interesting. I think satire can be a valuable educational tool for us. I love the "toaster" joke for just that reason.

[u-dog]

Originally Posted by u-dog

2. I know that the newspaper article was anti-gay and intended to be insulting... but 40 years later... I LOVED IT. It made me laugh out loud. It made me admire those queens and the power they called forth. The reality of the last forty years has transformed that piece from what it was intended to be to something quite different.

Now that I think of it this is an excellent example of how context COMPLETELY controls the meaning of any text. If 40 years can make this much difference how much MORE difference does 4000 years make?

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by u-dog

Now that I think of it this is an excellent example of how context COMPLETELY controls the meaning of any text. If 40 years can make this much difference how much MORE difference does 4000 years make?

What an interesting thought! Great thought actually.

I don't think we give enough attention to the matter of who is writing and why- and in what context they are writing.

The writer of the Stonewall piece sounds like a frustrated screenwriter. Very film noir stuff.

[BrentRichards]

Originally Posted by Daniel

Very film noir stuff.

Now go back and read it with the tune "Harlem Nocturne" running in your head ... HAHAHA!!

[Steven E. Webster]

Friends,

I was 18 years old when the Stonewall riot happened. I'd just graduated from a rural High School in Northern Wisconsin. My family subscribed to the St. Paul Pioneer Press and I read about the riot in the morning paper. I was raised in a liberal Methodist church mileu and admired Martin Luther King and his work. It did not strike me as odd at all that these gay people in New York would stand up for their rights--wasn't that to be expected? I didn't know then that I was "one of them." I didn't come out for two more years, and when I did, I was brought out by a young Quaker gay man who just exuded the spirit of Stonewall and thought that Greenwich Village would be the ideal place in the world to be.

After that, it never occurred to me that I should live my life in the closet--and I didn't. I suppose that put me among the leading edge of a generation of LGBT people that expected society to change, and we would change it if we needed to. In 1971 or 72 I became part of the Gay Liberation Front in Madison, Wisconsin--yes, we had a GLF here in the Midwest!

It has been a long journey, the LGBT movement, and it seems like we have a ways to go yet.

Steven E. Webster

[kara speltz]

Originally Posted by u-dog

1. Whenever the argument gets made that Pride parade is counterproductive and that the outrageous queens should step down so the button-down lawyer types can carry the rainbow flag a little more respectably, I think about who it was that FIRST took to the streets and "manned" the barricades. It was a bunch of really courageous, beautiful, drag queens in boas and spike heels. God Bless them! we would not be where we are today without their "balls". So if the Drag Queens are center stage on Pride day... they have a right to be. So says the king of the buttondown types.

.

Amen Dave. The saddest part of all this is that the gay community is so often willing to sacrifice the transgenders in order to get gay rights bills passed. I think it was in 2000, if I recall when Sylvia Rivera, (one of the drag queens who fought back) joined Soulforce at the Bishops Conference and got arrested with us. What an honor it was for me to get to meet her and thank her for her amazing contributions to the LGBT community. The day before she died, she was still fighting to get transgenders included in civil rights bills. She is definately one of my S/heros

kara