<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:
PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
* evergreens lgbt protestors *
While there’s no nyg Stonewall was a key turng pot for the movement, was not nearly the first notable nontatn between LGBTQ people and the early 1950s, there was a burgeong movement of gay men, lbians, and transgenr people fightg for their civil rights. "As the homophile movement of the 1950s grew stronger to the 60s and 70s, ” says Marc Ste, profsor of history at San Francis State Universy, “LGBTQ people began to feel embolned and disvered the urage they need durg a powerful perd of social movements. But three teenagers cid that they wouldn’t police were lled and the three were arrted, addn to Clark Polak, a gay-rights lear Phililphia who shed to the scene to help the three protters obta a lawyer, and was subsiquently arrted by police.
Dewey’s agreed to stop nyg LGBTQ people by Henry Lel, via the Gay, Lbian, Bisexual, Transgenr Historil SocietyCompton's Cafeteria Rt, San Francis, 1966In Augt 1966, after management and police harassed a group of transgenr women and drag queens at Compton’s Cafeteria San Francis—a late-night hangout for many lol queers and sex workers at the time—the cy’s LGBTQ muny rpond wh two nights of was not the first time that ctomers of Compton’s had clashed wh the police, but on this summer night, clientele had had enough. S., cid they would try to change an effort to brg scty to the regulatn, the group, along wh four newspaper reporters, head to Juli’ Bar Manhattan, where a man had been arrted for “gay activy” a few days prr after beg entrapped by a police officer. ”The monstratn ultimately lead to two lawsus that stck down the New York State Liquor Authory’s practice of takg away liquor licens based on bars havg queer clientele— openg the door for gay bars to beg openg and thrivg the cy—and an agreement by New York Cy Mayor John Ldsay to end entrapment practic by police gay bars.
GAY RIGHTS
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. * evergreens lgbt protestors *
Tens of thoands of people have marched Washgton, Los Angel and other US ci for LGBT rights, one of the biggt protts sce Print Donald Tmp took of the those attendg said they felt their muny was unr threat om the new anisers said dozens of ci across the US would also hold march nearly a year sce the shootg a gay Florida nightclub, Pulse, which killed 49 the pal, began the downtown area, then passed ont of the Whe Hoe and ntued on to the Natnal om as far as California, Colorado and Kentucky held aloft plards bearg slogans such as "Make Ameri Kd Aga", "Remember Pulse" and "We Are Human". A small number of people said was not jt about Print Tmp, but is clear the new occupant of the Whe Hoe has mobilised the LGBT muny a way not seen source, AFPImage ptn, Some said same-sex marriage was not the end of their fight for legislative changeImage ptn, Karl Ruckschell om New York said he feared Mr Tmp "rollg back history"Image source, AFPImage ptn, The march was one of the biggt gay rights protts recent yearsMore on this storyMedia ptn, Pulse survivor: 'Blood donatns saved my life'More on this story. 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.
Wh a sgle lifetime, homosexualy has moved om beg a crime and a psychiatric disorr, punished the US by imprisonment, chemil stratn, social ostracisatn and a lifetime as a registered sex offenr, to a socially and legally regnised sexual inty.
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.