<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:
- THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF GAY ENTRAPMENT
- THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
- 24 TIPS ON HOW GAY MEN CAN AVOID POLICE ENTRAPMENT DANGERO, ANTI-LGBT COUNTRI
- GAY RIGHTS
- PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF GAY ENTRAPMENT
Entrapment schem targetg gay men ntue across the untry, but the Stonewall ristance changed their meang. * the forgotten history of gay entrapment *
The Fotten History of Gay EntrapmentRoute arrts were the lchp of a social system tend to huiate LGBTQ JonEdor’s Note: This article is part of a seri about the gay-rights movement and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Payne, a mic stunt and aspirg performer om Trenton, New Jersey, got his big break near the end of 1947, when he was 23. But the bure’s regulatns prohibed the employment of anyone who “was or pretend to be a homosexual, ” an expansive le signed to prevent queer-themed entertament, cludg the so-lled pansy acts that had been all the rage New York clubs near the end of Prohibn, as well as homosexual entertaers themselv. Between 1923, when the New York state legislature specifilly crimalized male homosexual cisg as a form of disorrly nduct (“generate disorrly nduct, ” or simply, police lgo, “generacy”), and 1966, when a loose aln of pre-Stonewall gay activists, civil libertarians, fé owners, and bohemian wrers persuad newly elected Mayor John Ldsay to end the police partment’s e of entrapment to arrt men on this charge, more than 50, 000 men were arrted for cisg bars, streets, parks, and subway washrooms New York Cy the e of entrapment was one of the signal victori of New York’s ant pre-Stonewall gay activists.
The tens of thoands of New Yorkers who were arrted for cisg the 45 years before Stonewall have been even more thoroughly fotten than the movement that fought on their the 1940s and 1950s, police surveillance was only the lchp of a broar social system that punished people who were disvered to be gay.
THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
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. * the forgotten history of gay entrapment *
But employers were much more likely to dismiss men and women they disvered to be gay, and begng the 1920s and 1930s, state ernments New York and elsewhere ma queer life more and more 1927, the New York state legislature prohibed theaters om stagg plays wh queer characters, and the 1930s, the Hollywood studs adopted a censorship that prohibed the appearance of lbian or gay characters or even the “ference of sexual perversn” s films. Durg the Send World War, the feral ernment followed su by prohibg homosexuals as a class om servg the ary, and after the war, extend that ban to civilian feral re prciple that erned such l was to exclu people who were openly gay om many workplac and the urban public sphere of bars and rtrants, and to prevent them om even beg reprented or discsed plays, films, and baret performanc. The pot was not jt to nmn, huiate, and disurage people who were queer, but also to renr homosexualy visible and therefore, the thori hoped, filmmakers, playwrights, and bar and baret owners who dissented om such heteronormative impuls were forced to ply.
24 TIPS ON HOW GAY MEN CAN AVOID POLICE ENTRAPMENT DANGERO, ANTI-LGBT COUNTRI
”At a moment when the State Liquor Authory was unr prsure to crack down on gay meetg plac, this was enough evince for to revoke the club’s license and permanently close for “perm[tg] homosexuals to ngregate” and “perm[tg] a performance by a homosexual. He also prov himself to be an extraordary rantr, willg to pull back the veil on the strategi for dissemblg—om wearg sunglass so the employers who thought he was “a dumb lored boy” uldn’t see how much he hated them to talkg “sweet ltle whe boys” to buyg him cloth at Saks—that had enabled him, as a poor, black, flamboyant gay man, to survive his post–Salle Champagne life as a maid, hoeboy, and film hts at the black and whe bohemian artistic circl which he found support: the black sgers, such as Carmen McRae, who helped him by givg him work, and the terracial and mixed gay and straight artistic circl which he socialized and partied New York. How Stonewall Reversed a Long History of Jtifyg Police SurveillanceEntrapment schem targetg gay men ntue across the untry, but the Stonewall ristance changed their Villet / The LIFE Picture Collectn / Getty ImagEdor’s Note: This article is part of a seri about the gay-rights movement and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall early June, durg an otherwise unremarkable safety briefg at New York Police Department headquarters Lower Manhattan, Police Commissner Jam O’Neill stood ont of a crowd and apologized for his partment’s behavr durg the Stonewall rts, some 50 years ago.
The tense surveillance of gay bars for such route behavr as kissg has been likened by ntemporary legal scholars to The fotten history of gay entrapmentHomophobic laws and polil tactics forced LGBTQ people to hi themselv—while at the same time, police agenci and nservative groups spread fears that predatory gays were hidn among upstandg cizens.
GAY RIGHTS
Soon after, he formed the Mattache Society, an early “homophile” anizatn, and the Cizens’ Commtee to Outlaw Entrapment, which offered legal advice to other men siarly arrted by y irony of the y arrt is that police officers were engagg the very behavr they claimed to be preventg: loerg bathrooms, cent exposure, and makg sexual advanc to strangers.
Skip to ntentSe NavigatnThe AtlanticPopularLattNewslettersSign InSubscribe Lucy JonAmeri Moved On From Its Gay-Rights Moment—And Left a Legal Ms BehdHalf a after the Supreme Court’s same-sex-marriage cisn, the jtic and Congrs are still tryg to figure out what feral law should say about LGBTQ GreenAugt 17, 2019Joyce Naltchayan / AFP / GettyThe LGBTQ Health Clic That Faced a Dark Tth About the AIDS CrisisAmeri has rarely treated all people wh HIV equally.
PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
Abdallah FayyadJuly 22, 2019Nati Harnik / APHow Schools Revigorated the Stonewall RevolutnSce the creatn of high-school LGBTQ clubs, their mere existence has ma life easier for queer WongJuly 9, 2019Samantha RersThe Unfulfilled Promise of LGBTQ Rights South AiThe untry has some of the most progrsive laws the world, but refuge fleeg homophobia elsewhere often fd a untry that is morally nservative, hostile, and profoundly GreefJuly 2, 2019Lucy JonHow the Memory of Stonewall Liv On a MemeThe qutn “Who threw the first brick? Brandon TensleyJuly 1, 2019Andrea WeissCreatg the First Visual History of Queer Life Before StonewallMakg a landmark documentary about LGBTQ Amerins before 1969 meant diggg through untls archiv to fd trac of a fotten WeissJune 30, 2019Grey Villet / The LIFE Picture Collectn / Getty ImagHow Stonewall Reversed a Long History of Jtifyg Police SurveillanceEntrapment schem targetg gay men ntue across the untry, but the Stonewall ristance changed their FsellJune 29, 2019Illtratn by Lucy Jon; Photos urty of Joan Biren and Plette GoodmanHow One Mom Changed Other Parents’ Mds About Their Children’s SexualyFor nearly 40 years, Plette Goodman has been helpg people accept their LGBTQ PskerJune 28, 2019Kostas Tsironis / RtersThe Stggle for Gay Rights Is OverFor those born to a form of adversy, sometim the harst thg to do is admtg that they’ve KirchickJune 28, 2019Kay Tob / Mancripts and Archiv Divisn / The New York Public LibraryBefore Stonewall, There Was a BookstoreNetworks of activists transformed Stonewall om an isolated event to a turng pot the stggle for gay DownsJune 27, 2019Lucy JonTracg the Internal Queer RevolutnRts and paras have ma LGBTQ people visible.
Spencer KornhaberJune 26, 2019Lucy JonThe Fotten History of Gay EntrapmentRoute arrts were the lchp of a social system tend to huiate LGBTQ ChnceyJune 25, 2019Kailey WhmanCelebratg My (Gay) DivorceMarriage equaly means divorce equaly—and I feel pri, as well as sadns, about my spl om my PetrowJune 20, 2019Kriste Euy / Llie-Lohman MmThe Photographer Who Captured 20th-Century Queer LifeJoan E. Spencer KornhaberJune 17, 2019Khalil Senosi / APThe Brish Empire's Homophobia Liv On Former ColoniActivists argue is homophobia, not homosexualy, that has been imported om the KhnerMay 24, 2019Associated PrsThe Three-Letter Word That Triggered a RevolutnFifty-five years ago, a ngrsman ma a sgle addn to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that changed S. Almost any gay person n tell you that the early morng of June 28, 1969 a batn of grief over Judy Garland’s recent ath, a waxg full moon and one-too-many police raids sparked the Stonewall rts New York Cy—five nights of mayhem that hered the morn LGBTQ rights movement.
It is all meticuloly documented his groundbreakg 1994 book Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, (reissued this sprg wh a new preface), which overturned notns that gay life only existed the closet before the 1960s. For a long time, the mastream public didn't want to hear our Ca's The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle tells the story of a secretly gay postman searchg for a lost love om his youth (Cred: Headle Review)"I would venture to say that the public were disgted and outraged, " says thor Crystal Jeans.