What Life Was Like for Gay Amerins Before Stonewall

Contents:

• 'THEY BEAT YOU WH THEIR BATON': A VETERAN OF THE STONEWALL RTS AND THE FIRST PRI MARCH SHAR WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE FOR GAY AMERINS BEFORE THE UPRISG
• SERB POLICE CLASH WH ANTI-GAY RTERS

'THEY BEAT YOU WH THEIR BATON': A VETERAN OF THE STONEWALL RTS AND THE FIRST PRI MARCH SHAR WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE FOR GAY AMERINS BEFORE THE UPRISG

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. 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.

McDarrah/Getty Imag)In sprg 1966, members of the early gay rights anizatn Mattache Society staged a “sip-”—a twist on “s-” prott— which they vised taverns, clared themselv gay, and waed to be turned away so they uld sue. 1966–1967: Los Angel – Black Cat Tavern Protts, Los AngelOpened November 1966, Black Cat Tavern was a haven for Silver Lake’s queer muny, who were subjected to harassment om police enforcg anti-homosexualy laws.

Image source, NY Daily News Archive / GettyImage ptn, Tensns rose on the street after the raidWhen half a dozen police officers raid a Mafia-n gay bar on a hot New York night 50 years ago, ltle did they know their actns would spark a movement that rhaped the liv of generatns to didn't throw a brick that night. An hour earlier, the police had raid the bar Greenwich Village for the send time that week, but this time on a Friday night at 1am when was 200 ctomers - lbians, gay men, transgenr people, naway teenagers and drag queens - were thrown out on to Christopher Street. Gay people were ed to nng om the police, but this time they were the on on the advance and the men uniform on the gay rights movement didn't start that night but was vigorated by what happened the hours and days after the first was thrown.

SERB POLICE CLASH WH ANTI-GAY RTERS

And jt as Ms Parks' refal to give up her seat on a b Alabama to a whe man had the effect of animatg the civil rights movement 14 years before, so Stonewall electrified the ph for gay equaly. Even what you wore was policed - fewer than three piec of clothg emed appropriate to your genr uld put you was a huge amount of anger bee gay people had no polil power to prevent this, says William Eskridge, a profsor at Yale Law School.

But s creatn marked the start of a new era, leadg to a wave of new activist groups like the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) and the radil lbian group Lavenr Menace of which Shelley was a founr member. In the that followed, the feral exclns on gays and lbians were lifted, and the medil profsn reversed s long-held belief that homosexuals need psychiatric Milk beme one of the first openly gay elected officials the US, 1977 San Francis. Two years later, about 100, 000 people took part a natnal march on Washgton - probably at that pot the biggt gatherg of gay people of the anti-sodomy laws were stck down the 1980s, makg homosexualy effectively legal, although was s before gay marriage beme a ferally-regnised right 2015.

The legal progrs was matched by a change attus - three-quarters of Amerins are today acceptg of gay 2019, there are still battl to fight - gay people n still be fired om their jobs many stat. It's therefore worth reflectg on how much me out of that police raid on a Mafia bar, says David Carter, thor of Stonewall: The Rts that Sparked the Gay Revolutn, which is regard as the five acunt of what happened.

"Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, The Natnal March On Washgton filled the famo mallIt wasn't the first gay uprisg agast the police - as the LA Tim recently relled, the police were pelted wh donuts 10 years earlier - but was the most nsequential. "Image source, New York Public LibraryImage ptn, Segal (on right) mpaigng wh the Gay Liberatn Front 1970, a year after the uprisgBut Stonewall wasn't jt a fight, was a spir and gave him a purpose, he says.

Or, as they were known, "zaps" 1973, he crashed the CBS primetime news show hosted by broadstg legend Walter Cronke and watched by 60 ln people, holdg a plard sayg: "Gays prott CBS prejudice".

Image source, Mark SegalImage ptn, Segal crashed a Nixon fundraiser 1972He went on to lnch a gay newspaper Philalphia and bee a pneer gay journalism, and his work on equaly earned him an dience wh Print Barack Obama. In 1966, when bars New York didn’t allow for LGBTQ people to get served bars, a group of gay men om the Mattache Society challenged thory by anizg a “sip-” at Juli at the Wt Village Tavern.

When Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official, was assassated 1979, thoands of prottors rted San Francis’s Castro District due to the lenient sentencg of Dan Whe for Milk’s murr. 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. 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.

But after an enunter wh rowdy genr-nonnformg teens, employe began refg service to any ctomers they believed to be gay or who otherwise challenged genr April 25, 1965, 150 people were refed service at the eatery. 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.

" He then led ctomers prott chants and told them he'd ver their legal sts if they got men were taed for "lewd nduct" but, unlike other clash between gay bargoers and police, the Patch remaed open that night. "For the first time memory, a gay bar not only survived the aftermath of a police raid after so many failed before, but thrived, thanks to the bar manager's takg on the police on their home turf, " Box Car Bullet wrote 2016. "If all gay bars had ctomers such as me, there would be no further harassment om var agenci such as the ABC, the police, and the so-lled 'straight' public, " Glaze wrote to the Advote October 1968.

Fifty one years ago, on a steamy June 28th eveng, New York policemen showed up at the Stonewall Inn for what was then nsired a route raid of gay Negrelli, a 68-year-old New Yorker, remembers that night well. Back then, you uld be thrown out of a bar if there was even spicn that you might be gay, lbian, transgenr, or otherwise wasn't the first enunter wh police for many of the Stonewall patrons that eveng. "If you had told me s ago that the gay liberatn movement would get to this pot, where we'd go om beg arrted, evicted, fired om our jobs for beg gay to now the Supreme Court lg we n't be discrimated agast at work, I wouldn't believe you!

Meanwhile, the ps si feared for their liv, pistols at the ready, acrdg to Carter’s acunt, but Deputy Inspector Seymour Pe orred them to hold fire unls he shot police were shocked, Carter wr, not jt by how rapidly the crowd had grown, but that normally acquicent homosexuals were out force, shoutg “Gay power! Sudnly, lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and other queer people were motivated and the time beg gay was virtually illegal and anti-discrimatn laws nonexistent, but Greenwich Village was relatively ee terrory for all: butch lbians, drag queens, street queens, transgenr women of lor and of urse gay men. 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.

"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.