<strong>The long read</strong>: A police raid on a gay bar New York led to the birth of the Pri movement half a century ago – but the fight for LGBTQ+ rights go back much further than that
Contents:
- A GAY RT AT A DOUGHNUT SHOP? THE LEGEND HAS SOME HOL.
- GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
- GAY RIGHTS
- THE FOTTEN GAY RT AGAST THE POLICE AT DIXIE’S
- RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN
- IDAHO POLICE ARRT DOZENS ON SPICN OF NSPIRACY TO RT AT GAY PRI EVENT
- HOW ‘LEAGUE OF LEGENDS’ MA S FIRST PROUDLY GAY, BLACK CHAMPN
- THE STONEWALL RTS DIDN’T START THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- ANTI-GAY RT IN TBLISI TTS BALANCE BETWEEN CHURCH, STATE
- PREACHER ASKS GOD TO KILL GAY PEOPLE IN “SLOW, PAFUL DEATH”
- THE ‘BLACK CAT GAY RT’ IS WELL-KNOWN… ’S ALSO A MYTH
- CHIGO RAPPER KG LIL JAY ADDRS ‘GAY’ ALLEGATNS AFTER PRISON VIO SURFAC
A GAY RT AT A DOUGHNUT SHOP? THE LEGEND HAS SOME HOL.
The Stonewall Rts, also lled the Stonewall Uprisg, took place on June 28, 1969, New York Cy, after police raid the Stonewall Inn, a lol gay club. The raid sparked a rt among bar patrons and neighborhood rints as police hled employe and patrons out of the bar, leadg to six days of protts and vlent clash. The Stonewall Rts served as a talyst for the gay rights movement. * gay riot *
Stonewall's LegacyThough the Stonewall uprisg didn’t start the gay rights movement, was a galvanizg force for LGBT polil activism, leadg to numero gay rights anizatns, cludg the Gay Liberatn Front, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD (formerly Gay and Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn), and PFLAG (formerly Parents, Fai and Friends of Lbians and Gays) the one-year anniversary of the rts on June 28, 1970, thoands of people marched the streets of Manhattan om the Stonewall Inn to Central Park what was then lled “Christopher Street Liberatn Day, ” Ameri’s first gay pri para. ”In 2016, then-Print Barack Obama signated the se of the rts—Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and the surroundg streets and siwalks—a natnal monument regnn of the area’s ntributn to gay Gallery The Stonewall Inn is a bar loted New York Cy’s Greenwich Village that served as a haven the 1960s for the cy’s gay, lbian and transgenr muny.
Legend has that a rt took place at a Cooper lotn of Miltone FilmsPublished June 5, 2023Updated June 6, 2023The story still ronat: More than 60 years ago, Los Angel police officers were routely harassg the gay and transgenr people who gathered at Cooper Do-nuts, a 24-hour spot the cy’s seedy gay circu known as the to This ArticleThen one eveng May 1959, some fed-up drag queens, htlers and other ctomers phed back, barragg officers wh hot ffee and half-eaten cllers. The send IRS whistleblower allegg that Hunter Bin received special treatment om the Department of Jtice (DoJ) over his tax affairs is a Democrat, has Ziegler told the Hoe of Reprentativ Oversight Commtee on Wednday he was a “gay Democrat married to a man” joed Gary Shapley, the origal whistleblower, appearg ont of a televised mtee hearg which they tailed their allegatns that the vtigatn to Hunter Bin was imped by the DoJ.
But there were pickets, protts—even rts— the years before June 28, 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall rts, when a raid on a New York Cy gay bar led to rto prott by people fed up wh beg harassed, discrimated agast and jailed simply for who they were or who they the 1960s, New York Cy stepped up efforts to close gay bars and entrap homosexual men. Army Buildg at 39 Whehall Street Downtown New York, which had been an Armed Forc Examatn and Entrance Statn sce group, led by Randy Wicker and members of the Sexual Freedom League, monstrated agast the ary's discrimatory polici and the outg of homosexual men rejected for would be 47 years before the U.
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
The 1969 Stonewall Rts marked a historic turng pot for gay rights, but several smaller uprisgs preced Stonewall as LGBTQ muni phed back agast harassment and equaly. * gay riot *
Other ECHO monstratns that sprg took place ont of the Pentagon and the State May 21, Armed Forc Day, 35 people walked a send picket le at the Whe Hoe, prottg the excln of homosexuals om the ary, the dishonorable discharg given to those who were disvered and the "ntug refal by the Departments of Defense, Army, Navy, and Air Force to meet wh spokmen for the homosexual muny to engage nstctive discsn of the polici and procr at issue.
PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
Up to 2,000 anti-LGBT protters broke up a Gay Pri ftival the Geian pal Tbilisi on Saturday, scufflg wh police and stroyg props cludg rabow flags and plards, though there were no reports of juri. * gay riot *
Four years before Stonewall, Frank Kameny, Barbara Gtgs and 38 other activists picketed outsi Philalphia's Inpennce Hall to mand equaly, what was the largt gay rights monstratn of s rried signs readg "No society n be great whout all of s cizens" and "15 ln homosexual Amerins ask for equaly, opportuny, digny. To monstrate agast this discrimatory policy, members of the Mattache Society took a page om the civil rights movement: They walked to Juli' New York's Wt Village, announced they were homosexuals and asked to be bar had been raid a few days earlier, and a uniformed p was statned outsi the door.
They were met by squadrons of armed officers, but ntued their peaceful Black Cat raid and subsequent monstratns spired Richard Mch and Bill R to turn a lol gay rights newsletter to The Los Angel Advote, which soon beme The Advote, the natn's first natnal LGBT 2008, The Black Cat was signated as the first Los Angel Historic-Cultural Monument landmarked for s signifint role LGBT history.
GAY RIGHTS
The Advote's September 1969 article lorfully chronicl the tumultuo Stonewall rts, known as the major spark that igned the morn gay rights movement. * gay riot *
McDarrah/Getty ImagAfter pourg their drks, a bartenr Juli's Bar ref to serve John Timms, Dick Lesch, Craig Rodwell, and Randy Wicker, members of the Mattache Society who were prottg New York liquor laws that prevented servg gay ctomers, 1966, three members of the Mattache Society, an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay rights, staged a “sip-”—a twist on the “s-” protts of the 1960s. Inasmuch as all the ps town seemed to be near The Corner aga, the docks were very by, and two boys went to the Charl Street statn hoe and pasted "Equaly for Homosexuals" bumper stickers on p rs, and the van ed to take away of the most ighteng ments was ma by one p to another, and overheard by a MSNY member beg held tentn. In the Uned Stat this greater visibily brought some backlash, particularly om the ernment and the police: the ernment often fired gay civil servants, the ary attempted to purge s ranks of gay soldiers (a policy enacted durg World War II), and police vice squads equently raid gay bars and arrted their patrons.
In the Uned Stat the first major male anizatn, found 1950–51 by Harry Hay Los Angel, was the Mattache Society (s name reputedly rived om a medieval French society of masked players, the Société Mattache, to reprent the public “maskg” of homosexualy), while the Dghters of Bilis (named after the Sapphic love poems of Pierre Louÿs, Chansons Bilis), found 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart San Francis, was a leadg group for women.
THE FOTTEN GAY RT AGAST THE POLICE AT DIXIE’S
Gay rights movement, civil rights movement that advot equal rights for LGBTQ persons—that is, for lbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons—and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life. * gay riot *
Other issu of primary importance for the gay rights movement sce the 1970s clud batg the HIV/AIDS epimic and promotg disease preventn and fundg for rearch; lobbyg ernment for nondiscrimatory polici employment, hog, and other aspects of civil society; endg the ban on ary service for gay and lbian dividuals; expandg hate crim legislatn to clu protectns for gays, cludg transgenr dividuals; and securg marriage rights for same-sex upl (see same-sex marriage). Soon they were advotg nothg ls than “gay liberatn” nscns-raisg groups to fundraisg danc, protts outsi hostile newspapers to refug for homels trans and queer people, this surge LGBTQ+ anisg took many forms, and as the first anniversary of the rts me to view, some the muny began discsg how bt to mark what was beg regard as the “Bastille day” of gay rights.
RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN
Turkish police attacked and arrted hundreds at the Istanbul Pri March last weekend, a sweepg display of vlence and discrimatn agast lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people, as well as journalists attemptg to report on the June 26 event. The number of arrts 2022 is three-tim more than the arrts durg the prev seven Istanbul Pri march bed. Thirty-four of those arrted were youth, acrdg to Kaos GL, a Turkish LGBT rights group. * gay riot *
The roots of that bate go back to s earlit days, and suggt that Pri and the Stonewall rts have always been part of a ntent battle for inty and ownership – a battle that has helped produce the very ia of what beg a lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or queer person might Stonewall rts were not the birth of the gay rights movement. Seven years before that, when police had raid Coopers, a donut shop the cy ntled between two gay bars, LGBTQ+ patrons had attacked officers after the arrt of a number of drag queens, sex workers and gay had been a gay rights movement the US among people scribg themselv as “homophil” sce the late 40s. Hirschfeld’s scientific approach, bed wh his sympathetic treatment of LGBTQ+ people – he was himself homosexual – had been key velopg the ia that their shared experienc uld be unrstood not jt as discrete sexual (and crimal) acts, nor as psychiatric illns, but as a legible sexual and genr inty, which uld be afford civil rights.
) The Mattache Society had radil roots activism, takg on the anisatnal stcture of cells and central anisatn favoured by the Communist well as publishg magaz for gay men, and supportg victims of police entrapment, the society had wir polil aims, cludg to “unify homosexuals isolated om their own kd” and to “te homosexuals and heterosexuals toward an ethil homosexual culture parallelg the cultur of the Negro, Mexin and Jewish peopl”. In 1966, the Mattache Society challenged this policy wh a “sip-” at Juli’, a Greenwich Village bar that was popular wh gay men, but was attemptg to shake off s homosexual bars equently flouted this law, explog legal loophol and payg off the NYPD while chargg their LGBTQ+ ctomers high pric for watered-down drks. At the same time, there were tensns around the excln of trans people, many of whom scribed themselv as queens and transvt, the language of the LGBTQ+ scene at the time, even while still intifyg themselv as “gay” umbrella, which brought people together for the e of liberatn, failed to acknowledge the different experienc of those who sheltered unr , or addrs the power imbalanc wh .
IDAHO POLICE ARRT DOZENS ON SPICN OF NSPIRACY TO RT AT GAY PRI EVENT
* gay riot *
It wasn’t until the 00s, though, that rporate sponsorship began to overwhelm Pri, as more fundg led to larger and larger events, which LGBTQ+ people are now often charged to the late 90s, some US activists created Gay Shame rponse to Pri’s mercialisatn, an event that foced on anisg around wir issu that affected the whole LGBTQ+ muny.
Dpe the radil LGBTQ+ anisg that took place rponse to the Aids crisis – where Pri paras beme a loc for awarens-raisg protts – many more-radil activists felt that, wh creasg rporate volvement, the event was beg taken over by liberal activists wantg to assiate queer liv to beg a “mol mory”, wh marriage and ary service beg a symbol that gay people particular had “ma ”. In Poland, natnalist and nservative policians have found electoral benef siar statements; only last year Jarosław Kaczyński, lear of the lg Law and Jtice party, scribed LGBTQ+ activism as a “foreign imported threat to the natn” e of such rhetoric across the world, and the history of European exportatn of homophobic laws, means that attempts by liberal, pro-LGBTQ+ mentators the wt to pict other untri as somehow naturally backwards is often dangeroly unterproductive for LGBTQ+ people those untri.
HOW ‘LEAGUE OF LEGENDS’ MA S FIRST PROUDLY GAY, BLACK CHAMPN
The gay rights movement the Uned Stat began the 1920s and saw huge progrs the 2000s, wh laws prohibg homosexual activy stck down and a Supreme Court lg legalizg same-sex marriage. * gay riot *
Ernment signated Gerber’s Chigo hoe a Natnal Historic Pk TriangleCorbis/Getty ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, gay rights movement stagnated for the next few s, though LGBT dividuals around the world did e to the spotlight a few example, English poet and thor Radclyffe Hall stirred up ntroversy 1928 when she published her lbian-themed novel, The Well of Lonels. ”Though started off small, the foundatn, which sought to improve the liv of gay men through discsn groups and related activi, expand after foundg member Dale Jenngs was arrted 1952 for solicatn and then later set ee due to a adlocked the end of the year, Jenngs formed another anizatn lled One, Inc., which weled women and published ONE, the untry’s first pro-gay magaze. That same year, four lbian upl San Francis found an anizatn lled the Dghters of Bilis, which soon began publishg a newsletter lled The Ladr, the first lbian publitn of any early years of the movement also faced some notable setbacks: the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn listed homosexualy as a form of mental disorr followg year, Print Dwight D.
”In fear of beg shut down by thori, bartenrs would ny drks to patrons spected of beg gay or kick them out altogether; others would serve them drks but force them to s facg away om other ctomers to prevent them om 1966, members of the Mattache Society New York Cy staged a “sip-”—a twist on the “s-” protts of the 1960s— which they vised taverns, clared themselv gay, and waed to be turned away so they uld sue. They were nied service at the Greenwich Village tavern Juli, rultg much publicy and the quick reversal of the anti-gay liquor Stonewall Inn A few years later, 1969, a now-famo event talyzed the gay rights movement: The Stonewall clanste gay club Stonewall Inn was an stutn Greenwich Village bee was large, cheap, allowed dancg and weled drag queens and homels the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn. Addnally, several openly LGBTQ dividuals secured public office posns: Kathy Kozachenko won a seat to the Ann Harbor, Michigan, Cy Council 1974, beg the first out Amerin to be elected to public Milk, who mpaigned on a pro-gay rights platform, beme the San Francis cy supervisor 1978, beg the first openly gay man elected to a polil office asked Gilbert Baker, an artist and gay rights activist, to create an emblem that reprents the movement and would be seen as a symbol of pri.
In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn published a report about five prevly healthy homosexual men beg fected wh a rare type of 1984, rearchers had intified the e of AIDS—the human immunoficiency vis, or HIV—and the Food and Dg Admistratn licensed the first mercial blood tt for HIV 1985. But after failg to garner enough support for such an open policy, Print Clton 1993 passed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, which allowed gay men and women to serve the ary as long as they kept their sexualy a rights advot cried the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, as did ltle to stop people om beg discharged on the grounds of their 2011, Print Obama fulfilled a mpaign promise to repeal DADT; by that time, more than 12, 000 officers had been discharged om the ary unr DADT for refg to hi their sexualy.
THE STONEWALL RTS DIDN’T START THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Steve Bull once raced agast time to try to save the memoirs of one of Mae's gay rights pneers. His trip led him down memory lane. * gay riot *
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was officially repealed on September 20, Marriage and Beyond In 1992, the District of Columbia passed a law that allowed gay and lbian upl to register as domtic partners, grantg them some of the rights of marriage (the cy of San Francis passed a siar ordance three years prr and California would later extend those rights to the entire state 1999) 1993, the hight urt Hawaii led that a ban on gay marriage may go agast the state’s nstutn.
That tersectn is as old as the morn fight for LGTBQ rights, and perhaps no moment illtrat that as well as the movement’s most famo turng pot: the 1969 Stonewall Rts, the uprisg sparked by a police raid at a gay bar New York Cy’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, and the tone to which Pri Month is pegged. The fact that several members of the Black Panther Party, cludg Angela Davis, Afeni Shakur and Joan Bird, had also spent time the prison speaks to the shared nnectns a broar stggle, Ryan says, as lks emerged between the Black Panther Party, the Gay Liberatn Front, radil lbians and the femist and women’s movements. The cy uncil Huntgton Beach had prevly voted not to display the Pri flag on cy the state’s Inland Empire regn, a school board Temecula rejected a history curriculum bee of s mentn of the murred civil rights activist Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official California history, who was posthumoly award the printial medal of eedom.
”Lol news acunts and footage of the volatile anti-gay protters Glendale and North Hollywood showed some protters g rhetoric now mon far-right protts across the Uned Stat, suggtg that LGBTQ+ people are pedophil or predators, and argug that any mentn of the existence of gay people or gay fai is appropriate for young children. Many wore intil T-shirts readg “Leave our kids alone, ” and some voked Christian fah as the reason for their opposn to Pri events are faiar l of attack that have often been mobilised by anti-gay activists the past, cludg by Ana Bryant her “Save our Children” mpaign the 1970s, which also foced on “parents’ rights” as a way to ph back agast advanc civil rights for gay as equaly for LGBTQ+ people has bee creasgly popular and accepted the US, wh 71% of rponnts a recent Gallup poll exprsg support for same-sex marriage, many Amerins scribed the renewed attacks as ighteng and disturbg.
ANTI-GAY RT IN TBLISI TTS BALANCE BETWEEN CHURCH, STATE
Police raids of gay bars the 50s and 60s were route but a raid on the Stonewall Inn did not go to plan and what followed effectively kick-started the morn LGBTQ civil rights movement. * gay riot *
Trans people have been sgled out as the foc of much of the legislatn, and ntue to be the target of many particularly vilent polil attacks, but, as Florida’s “don’t say gay” law, which regulat what tors are allowed to discs public school classrooms, any mentn of genr inty or homosexualy is now g unr attack. ” After same-sex marriage was legalized natnwi and LGBTQ+ people uld openly start servg the ary, right-wg activists turned their attentn to transnal re for transgenr mors, barrg public drag shows, genr-ntral bathroom laws and gettg “progrsive” books banned om schools, Myrick prott at the school, Myrick said, shows the revalizatn of “gay panic” — the belief that beg gay is “ntag” and that “we n’t let our kids hear there are gay people bee might turn them gay. Amelia Earhart and openly gay reporter Lorena Hickok are jt two of the women wh whom former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was mored to have had closeted affairs, the latter wh whom she exchanged more than 3, 300 letters over a 30-year perd; Roosevelt and Hickok allegedly began an affair om 1932 to 1938.
When ps raid New York gay bar Stonewall Inn more than half a century ago on June 28, 1969 their actns helped trigger an LGBTQ movement that revolutnized the liv of future had already raid the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street that week, and this send time occurred the early hours of Saturday morng, when the venue was the LGBTQ movement nnot be directly traced to the events of that night, was certaly energized by what happened the hours and days after the Richards, Edw D.
PREACHER ASKS GOD TO KILL GAY PEOPLE IN “SLOW, PAFUL DEATH”
At least 31 people spected of beg part of a Whe natnalist group were arrted a U-hl van nearby a gay pri event that was takg place Couer d'Alene Idaho. * gay riot *
"Police raids of gay bars the 1950s and 1960s ed to be route, volvg the threateng and beatg of ctomers and staff when police raid the Stonewall Inn the early hours of June 28, 1969 thgs did not go to plan, and what followed effectively kick-started the morn LGBTQ civil rights élie Gee, an expert LGBTQ history and an Associate Profsor at Wake Fort Universy School of Law, believ Stonewall has rightly "entered the LGBTQ history books. "Newsweek has reported how versns of the famo rabow flags now play an important role durg Gay Pri march, as "they reprent a variety of different muni, such as trans muni and bisexual people had for many years faced social sanctn and legal harassment for their sexual orientatn, which had been crimalized on the pretexts of relign and 1960s even wnsed homosexualy reclassified as a mental disorr and most municipali the U. On June 11, 1999, former Print Bill Clton issued a proclamatn officially signatg June as “Gay and Lbian Pri Month” for the first time—celebratg the urage of lbian and gay activists and enuragg Amerins to “remember throughout the year the gay and lbian Amerins whose many and varied ntributns have enriched our natnal life.
Stber h Williams the head and the teen drowned, but police refed to arrt Stber, sparkg racist vlence that left 38 people rt is “an orig story for segregatn” Chigo, as stigmatized Black muni as vlent and played a role the cy’s current hog divi, memoratn project -director Frankl Cosey-Gay said Chigo History Mm, ICHi-065480; Jun Fuja, photographerPolicemen stand over a victim of the 1919 race rts. The ‘Black Cat gay rt’ is well-known… ’s also a mythIf one tak the time to look behd the curta, they beg to wonr if uld have simply started as an torrect mistake – “Black Cat raid” to “Black Cat rt” – a mistake that beme a meme and kept spreadg like a bad would thk someone might have noticed the absence of anyone claimg to have thrown the first shot glass or brick or rock or sha heard ‘round the world. A” – their 25th anniversary “Bt Essays” Archiv Foundatn, Inc., llaboratn wh UCLA History-Geography Project and the Los Angel LGBT Center offers a module for school teachers to teach about the “rts” their LGBTQ history lson ’s referenced the crilly important LGBTQ Ameri: A Theme Study of Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer History, a publitn of the Natnal Park Foundatn and the Natnal Park was also featured the Queer California: Untold Stori exhibn at the Oakland Mm of California this June.
THE ‘BLACK CAT GAY RT’ IS WELL-KNOWN… ’S ALSO A MYTH
Yet another pastor affiliated wh the New Inpennt Fundamentalist Baptist Church has gone on an anti-gay rant a sermon. * gay riot *
However, the re of every prev prott was that exact argument jt as was at the heart of the lawsu agast the Post Office by ONE magaze over antigay censorship and jt as was at the heart of Frank Kameny’s appeal to the Supreme Court over his firg om the Army Map Service for beg are claims that was “the first time that that many people stood together public for gay rights. Michael BedwellWhile may seem shockg to 52 years later that he would let the straight anizer of the jot protts nvce him not to say “homosexual” even at our muny’s own event ont of the Black Cat — even on the picket signs — he ma huge ntributns to our progrs and what he said at the rally I still fd eply movg.