<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:
- DEMOLN OF HISTORIC GAY STREET BUILDG PROMPTS PUBLIC OUTCRY
- LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH
- PICKET FRONT OF U.S. ARMY BUILDG, FIRST-EVER U.S. GAY RIGHTS PROTT
- INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
- GAY RIGHTS
- PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
DEMOLN OF HISTORIC GAY STREET BUILDG PROMPTS PUBLIC OUTCRY
"For the people to publicly make a statement that they were gay or lbian was this enormo risk for them — they uld have lost everythg." * gay street protest *
New York’s gay and lbian bars weled long l of patrons back doors after months of outdoor cy’s many unrground rav and after-hours parti mbled to the wee hours of Sunday morng and afternoon: Papi Juice — the party llective that centers queer and trans people of lor — returned to Elsewhere, a mic venue Bhwick, Brooklyn, for 12 hours of partyg, while Nowadays’s Nonstop Pri party ran for more than 24 hours the Ridgewood neighborhood of Jon for The New York TimImageCred...
BUDAPEST, July 15 (Rters) - Thoands of Hungarians braved srchg heat for the annual Pri march Budapt on Saturday, prottg agast ernment ntrols over public displays by the LGBT Mister Viktor Orban's ernment promot a Christian-nservative agenda and 2021 banned "display and promotn of homosexualy" books and films accsible by unr-18s spe strong cricism om rights groups and the European Unn. REUTERS/Bernatt SzaboNeher anisers nor the ernment gave a number for the marchers, though wns timated about 10, ads for the Pri para were only allowed to be aired late at night, wh most channels not takg the risk at all, Hungarian news se this week, Hungary's send-largt bookseller received a rerd fe for sellg a book that picts homosexualy whout closed Friday, the embassi of the Uned Stat, Germany and 36 other untri urged Hungary to protect LGBT rights and scrap discrimatory laws. Each week’s feature will clu imag om the New York Public Library’s LGBTQ week, we look back at the untry’s first gay pri march — held New York Cy on June 28, 1970, the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Rts — and what led up to that historic Saturday morng on June 28, 1969, police staged a raid at the Stonewall Inn, a mafia-n gay bar New York Cy's Greenwich Village neighborhood.
LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH
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 street protest *
The sign the wdow reads: “WE HOMOSEXUALS PLEAD WITH OUR PEOPLE TO PLEASE HELP MAINTAIN PEACEFUL AND QUIET CONDUCT ON THE STREETS OF THE VILLAGE — MATTACHINE” Diana Davi / New York Public LibraryJt a few days after the Stonewall Rts, gay activist Frank Kameny load up a b wh fellow activists and head down to Philalphia for the fifth “annual remr” picket prott outsi Inpennce Hall. “I thk that was probably Frank’s first realizatn that this was a new orr, thgs were changg, ” Farman days after the "annual remr, " on July 6, 1969, the New York tabloid The Daily News ran a homophobic article about the Stonewall raid by Frank Lisky, tled “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad.
”Activists Lda Rhos, Arlene Khner, and Ellen Davi / New York Public LibrarySoon after the 1969 "remr", four activists — Craig Rodwell, Fred Sargeant, Lda Rhos and Ellen Broidy — cid to attend a regnal “homophile” nference and “propose that the staid ‘annual remrs’ of homophile pickets at Inpennce Hall Philalphia, held every July 4 for the prev five years, be replaced by a march New York Cy, " Farman men were members of the Homophile Youth Movement Neighborhoods, and the women members of Lavenr Menace. The march stretched 15 blocks — three quarters of a e — at s longt, The New York Tim march end Central Park's Sheep’s Meadow, where the Tim wrote marchers "gathered to prott laws that make homosexual acts between nsentg adults illegal and social ndns that often make impossible for them to display affectn public, mata jobs or rent apartments.
PICKET FRONT OF U.S. ARMY BUILDG, FIRST-EVER U.S. GAY RIGHTS PROTT
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 street protest *
Pl Hoton reported the Los Angel Tim on the “hour-long, e-long procsn” down Hollywood Boulevard: “Sunday eveng had many thgs — joyo monstrators for sexual rights and digny, some sual attire, others briefs, ‘queens’ drag, ‘fairi’ wh paper wgs, clowns, leather-jacketed motorcyclists, a lbian on horseback, a python, whe hki, Amerin flags, hilar and somber signs and chants, a float pictg a homosexual nailed to the cross. Organized by Randy Wicker of the Homosexual League of New York (HLNY), and the New York Cy League for Sexual Freedom (LSF), protted the ary’s treatment of gay people – cludg rejectn, ls-than-honorable discharg, and vlatn of privacy through a policy of sendg gay men’s rerds to current and potential employers.
Jog Wicker and Poland that day were eight people, cludg his boyiend, Peter Ogren; 23-year-old Craig Rodwell, future owner of the Osr Wil Memorial Bookshop; 20-year-old Renée Cafiero, a rare female MSNY member, who would go on to bee one of the first openly gay (alternate) legat, at the 1972 Democratic Natnal Conventn; her girliend Nancy Garn, who later wrote the first young adult lbian novel Annie on My Md 1982; and Jack Diether, a noted mic cric active LSF. 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.
INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
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 street protest *
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.
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.
GAY RIGHTS
”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. 1965: Philalphia – Dewey’s Rtrant S-InDewey's rtrant Philalphia, Pennsylvania as appeared May April 25, 1965, the 17th Street lotn of Dewey’s rtrant Philalphia nied service to approximately 150 people who appeared to be gay or genr non-nformg. Leonard Fk Photographs, The LGBT Communy Center Natnal History ArchiveMark SegalEarly member of the Gay Liberatn Front and marshal of the first Pri marchThe Christopher Street Gay Liberatn Day March was as revolutnary and chaotic as everythg we did that first year after the Stonewall rts.
” Today, my origal marshal’s badge is on display the JayEarly member of the Gay Liberatn Front and Radilbians and -anizer of the first march New York and Los AngelIt was a near miracle that the first Christopher Street Wt Para Los Angel kicked off at all on June 28, 1970.
PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
For one day, we were victor agast the Ed Davis of the world, and no one seemed “dismod” the FkelsteJohn KyperEarly member of Boston’s Gay Liberatn Front and an anizer of Boston’s first Pri ParaWe held our first march Boston 1971 — a year after New York. Groups hosted the 17th ternatnal nference of ILGA (The Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn), and the energy of the ternatnal legat who attend and the excement of hostg the gatherg only add to the drama of the untry’s first actual succsful para. ” The same day, a small group of San Francisns marched down Polk Street, then had a “gay-” piic that was broken up by equtrian and other New York groups had spent months planng the Manhattan event wh the help of anizers like Brenda Howard, a bisexual activist who had cut her anizg teeth durg the anti-Vietnam movement of the late 1960s.