The Stonewall Riots
“When did you ever see a fag fight back? Now, times were a-changin´. Tuesday night was the last night for bullshit.
Predominantly,
the theme was, ‘this shit has got to stop!’" — Anonymous riot
participant, from David Carter’s book, “Stonewall: The Riots that
Sparked the Gay Revolution”
Up
until 1 a.m. on June 28, 1969, it had been an ordinary evening at the
Stonewall Inn. But a surprise raid — patrons were usually tipped off —
changed everything. At first, it was a raid as usual: patrons lined up
at the bar, drag queens were separated and liquor was seized.
But
then a person or multiple people decided that enough was enough.
Theories vary on what the fuse was. All witnesses acknowledge that some
extra spark of outrage lit a powder keg of emotion.
As people
were being led out of the bar to a police wagon, a scuffle ensued.
Patrons did not simply disperse; they stayed in the street shouting at
police. Coins were thrown at the cops, a symbolic reaction to the
practice of “gayola,” or gay bars paying off the police to prevent
raids.
Tension mounted, and homeless gay teens from
Christopher Park across the street joined in the melee. Violence
against the police intensified and they were forced to barricade
themselves inside the Stonewall Inn, waiting for backup.
As
the reinforcements arrived and began marching down the street to
scatter the protesters, they were suddenly faced with a kick line of
drag queens, dancing and singing:
“We are the Stonewall girls,
We wear our hair in curls,
We wear no underwear,
We show our pubic hair,
We wear our dungarees
Above our nelly knees!”
The
riot was eventually quashed that evening, but over the next five
nights, protests and riots of various sizes occurred in the
neighborhood and beyond. As word got out in the press, the crowds grew.
The riots ceased after July 3, but the camaraderie that they created
evolved into something else, something that lasted.
After Stonewall
"Let
it forever be remembered that here — on this spot — men and women stood
proud, they stood fast, so that we may be who we are, we may work where
we will, live where we choose and love whom our hearts desire.” — M.
John Berry, assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior, at a
1999 ceremony honoring the addition of the Stonewall Inn to the
National Register of Historic Places.
Before
Stonewall, conservative gay rights groups like the Mattachine Society
had been trying to win rights and social acceptance by holding quiet,
dignified pickets in cities
like Philadelphia. The Mattachine’s method of operation was to try to
show the world that gays were not different, but its efforts made
little progress. In the span of a few nights, angry gays and drag
queens made more progress by showing the world the exact opposite. The
message they sent was, “We’re not like you, we look like this, and
we’re not going to hide any more.” Gay rights advocacy groups learned
that they were more likely to gain rights by being out and about, and
the era of gay pride marches began.
One year after Stonewall,
the Christopher Street Liberation Day March was held — the mother of
gay pride marches. Two years hence, marches spread across the nation
and into Europe and membership in gay rights groups skyrocketed across
western nations.
The first gay march in Michigan happened in
1971. In 1989 — the 20th anniversary of Stonewall — the Statewide Pride
March moved to Lansing and has since been an annual event.
As
the application to the National Register of Historic Places points out,
the Stonewall Riots were to gay rights what Rosa Parks was to black
rights, or the Boston Tea Party was to the American Revolution. Yet
this critical event isn’t discussed in American history textbooks and
isn’t included in the curriculum of public schools. The lucky few who
take a human sexuality or civil rights class in college might learn
about Stonewall.