The Stonewall Rts Didn’t Start the Gay Rights Movement - JSTOR Daily

Contents:

• POLICE ED TO RAID GAY BARS. NOW THEY MARCH PRI PARAS.
• 51 YEARS AFTER STONEWALL, POLICE RAID TWO GAY BARS AIDG PROTTORS
• THE STONEWALL RTS DIDN’T START THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• JUNE 28 MARKS 14 YEARS SCE THE POLICE RAID OF A FORT WORTH GAY BAR
• TEXAS CY TO PAY $400K GAY BAR RAID SE
• TODAY MARKS 14 YEARS SCE THE POLICE RAID OF A FORT WORTH GAY BAR
• GAY MUNICH

POLICE ED TO RAID GAY BARS. NOW THEY MARCH PRI PARAS.

For stance, solicatn of same-sex relatns was illegal New York such reasons, LGBT dividuals flocked to gay bars and clubs, plac of refuge where they uld exprs themselv openly and socialize whout worry. However, the New York State Liquor Authory penalized and shut down tablishments that served alhol to known or spected LGBT dividuals, argug that the mere gatherg of homosexuals was “disorrly. But engagg gay behavr public (holdg hands, kissg or dancg wh someone of the same sex) was still illegal, so police harassment of gay bars ntued and many bars still operated whout liquor licens— part bee they were owned by the Rights Before StonewallThe first documented U.

In 1966, three years before Stonewall, members of The Mattache Society, an anizatn dited to gay rights, staged a “sip-” where they openly clared their sexualy at taverns, darg staff to turn them away and sug tablishments who did. When The Commissn on Human Rights led that gay dividuals had the right to be served bars, police raids were temporarily Stonewall Inn The crime syndite saw prof terg to shunned gay clientele, and by the mid-1960s, the Genove crime fay ntrolled most Greenwich Village gay bars. And was one of the few—if not the only—gay bar left that allowed were still a fact of life, but ually rpt ps would tip off Mafia-n bars before they occurred, allowg owners to stash the alhol (sold whout a liquor license) and hi other illegal activi.

51 YEARS AFTER STONEWALL, POLICE RAID TWO GAY BARS AIDG PROTTORS

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. Most gay bars and clubs New York at the time were operated by the Mafia, who paid rptible police officers to look the other way and blackmailed wealthy gay patrons by threateng to “out” them.

After the Stonewall Rts, a msage was pated on the outsi of the board-up bar readg, "We homosexuals plead wh out people to please help mata peaceful and quiet nduct on the streets of the village. ”Over the next several nights, gay activists ntued to gather near the Stonewall, takg advantage of the moment to spread rmatn and build the muny that would fuel the growth of the gay rights movement. Fifty years after the Black Cat protts Los Angel, which directly led to the lnch of The Advote, we take a look at some of the most nsequential strik on gay bars and bathho datg back more than a century.

THE STONEWALL RTS DIDN’T START THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

A New Year’s police raid on the Black Cat, a gay bay the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angel, rulted the beatgs of more than a dozen people; two men were arrted for the crime of kissg and a bartenr suffered a ptured spleen. California lawmakers 1976 passed a nsentg adults law part to stop persecutn of gays through bathhoe raids, but that didn’t stop San Francis ps om raidg Liberty Baths an apparent tt of that law, acrdg to A History of Bathho.

JUNE 28 MARKS 14 YEARS SCE THE POLICE RAID OF A FORT WORTH GAY BAR

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office nducted jot raids of Florida gay bars Club 21 and Copa on May 3, 1991, and the cints would play a role Sheriff Nick Navarro eventually losg reelectn, ironilly after nductg such raids an apparent publicy stunt.

TEXAS CY TO PAY $400K GAY BAR RAID SE

Durg what AIDS activist Wan Yahai suggted was a crackdown on gays Beijg, the Dtatn got closed March 9, 2008, by police supposedly for playg mic too loud and hostg too large a crowd, acrdg to an article the Shangaiist. When the Atlanta Police’s “Red Dog” un raid gay bar the Eagle September 2009, patrons reported beg forced onto the ground while officers ed homophobic slurs and nducted background checks on everybody there.

After a July 6, 2014, raid which around 65 gay people were round up and taken to the police statn, Nairobi news outlet Ghafla reported that the arrts were ma simply bee the patrons were homosexual. Police apparently regularly me to mand the IDs of guts, then end up arrtg Mlims to charge them not wh any homosexualy-related crime but wh the illegal nsumptn of alhol, a vlatn of Sharia law largely unenforced straight nightclubs. ” There was good reason for that: Police enforced anti-gay laws that banned homosexual acts, ps regularly raid gay bars, and LGBTQ muni often rorted to policg and takg re of themselv bee they knew a lot of society, cludg ps, would simply dismiss their problems or make them worse.

History & CultureExplaerA June 1969 police raid of the New York bar epted to a days-long rebelln that l a fire unr the fight for LGBTQ 1969, police raids of gay bars Manhattan followed a template. By the 1960s, homosexualy was clilly classified as a mental disorr, and most municipali the Uned Stat had discrimatory laws that forba same-sex relatnships and nied basic rights to anyone spected of beg gay.

TODAY MARKS 14 YEARS SCE THE POLICE RAID OF A FORT WORTH GAY BAR

Loted Greenwich Village, the heart of gay life New York at the time, s patrons were among the most margalized members of New York’s LGBTQ muny—cludg unraged and unhoed dividuals, people of lor, and drag performers. The movement stoked by the police raid Greenwich Village soon spread to ci across the 1970, a year after the raid, activists led by Craig Rodwell memorated s anniversary wh what they lled Christopher Street Liberatn Day, now regnized as the first gay pri march. The scen multiple stat were eerily remiscent of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn 1969 that touched off the morn gay liberatn a Facebook post, the owner of The Blazg Saddle D Mo wrote that he was watchg the protts on TV wh his staff when they saw that police were firg chemil agents at peaceful protters.

Most gay bars and clubs New York at the time (cludg the Stonewall) were operated by the Mafia, who paid rpt police officers to look the other way and blackmailed wealthy gay patrons by threateng to “out” them. Acrdg to David Carter, historian and thor of Stonewall: The Rts That Sparked the Gay Revolutn, the “hierarchy of ristance” the rts began wh the homels or “street” kids, those young gay men who viewed the Stonewall as the only safe place their liv. June 29-July 1, 1969: Stonewall be gatherg pot for LGBTQ the next several nights, gay activists ntued to gather near the Stonewall, takg advantage of the moment to spread rmatn and build the muny that would fuel the growth of the gay rights movement.

Though the gay rights movement didn’t beg at Stonewall, the uprisg did mark a turng pot, as earlier “homophile” anizatns like the Mattache Society gave way to more radil groups like the Gay Liberatn Front (GLF) and the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). June 28, 1970: First Gay Pri para sets off om the first anniversary of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn, gay activists New York anized the Christopher Street Liberatn March to p off the cy’s first Gay Pri Week. The enzy of activism born on that first night at Stonewall would eventually fuel gay rights movements Canada, Bra, France, Germany, Atralia and New Zealand, among other untri, beg a lastg force that would rry on for the next half-century—and beyond.

GAY MUNICH

" This sign was wrten by the Mattache Society–an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay reportg the events, The New York Daily News rorted to homophobic slurs s tailed verage, nng the headle: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad. The story of how this particular night and this particular bar me to signify global gay rebelln is a story of how llective memory works and how social movements anize to memorate their gas.

Crage tail four prev police raids on gay bars ci across the Uned Stat that prompted activist rpons—and lol gas—but that eher fad om lol memory, did not spire memoratns that lasted, or did not motivate activists other ci. For example, San Francis activists mobilized rponse to police raids on gay bars the early 1960s, which me to a head durg a raid on a New Year’s Eve ball 1965 that eventually brought down the police missner.