There are a lot of kids here. The police had a history of raiding the nightclub and targeting its patrons because of their sexual orientation. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. But I'm wearing this police thing I'm thinking well if they break through I better take it off really quickly but they're gunna come this way and we're going to be backing up and -- who knows what'll happen. For the first time, we weren't letting ourselves be carted off to jails, gay people were actually fighting back just the way people in the peace movement fought back. In fact, the NYPD had stormed Stonewall Inn just a few days before the riot-inducing raid. Slate:Perversion for Profit(1965), Citizens for Decency Through Law. TV Host (Archival):That's a very lovely dress too that you're wearing Simone. The records concern the start of the Stonewall uprising in the early morning of June 28, 1969. Is that conceivable? Where did you buy it? And I hadn't had enough sleep, so I was in a somewhat feverish state, and I thought, "We have to do something, we have to do something," and I thought, "We have to have a protest march of our own." Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation NBC News Archives But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" More progressives should keep that in mind these days. John O'Brien:All of a sudden, the police faced something they had never seen before. And we all relaxed. American Airlines It was terrifying. When you exit, have some identification and it'll be over in a short time." If there's one place in the world where you can dance and feel yourself fully as a person and that's threatened with being taken away, those words are fighting words. Like, "Joe, if you fire your gun without me saying your name and the words 'fire,' you will be walking a beat on Staten Island all alone on a lonely beach for the rest of your police career. The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began Doric Wilson:Somebody that I knew that was older than me, his family had him sent off where they go up and damage the frontal part of the brain. Mr. Katz highlighted several ways in which the documents cast new light on the Stonewall uprising: In an interview, Mr. Carter said of the documents, Theres potential there for learning a lot more.. And, it was, I knew I would go through hell, I would go through fire for that experience. And you felt bad that you were part of this, when you knew they broke the law, but what kind of law was that? Popular. Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. They had a warrant. Library of Congress - The Stonewall Uprising of 1969, Columbia University - The Stonewall Riots, Stonewall riots - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). happily back in New York City, and I still pray for those who are brave enough to continue the quest for Equality. Thank you, New York Times for bringing this ongoing struggle by so many Vanessa Ezersky Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And I keep listening and listening and listening, hoping I'm gonna hear sirens any minute and I was very freaked. Image: Police push protestors back outside of the Stonewall Inn in the early hours of June 28, 1969. Updates? The raid sparked a riot among bar patrons and neighborhood residents as police roughly hauled employees and patrons out of the bar, leading to six days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement outside the bar on Christopher Street, in neighboring streets and in nearby Christopher Park. The broad-based radical activism of many gay men and lesbians in the 1970s eventually set into motion a new, nondiscriminatory trend in government policies and helped educate society regarding this significant minority. John Scagliotti This is every year in New York City. xGrS$GJ19f#Qld| C$ Rcyu5K+#<_7jntz~:tOuS=>@Vy?~j{P/TUc7VC^|j_](G.Ox.~vTGz6r+]* 6 :!>j6KcV'6FjSSTcNsWU zwOV$k5(;'NAo;;l'Skmu}n%86`naUfJ7WMvf Martin Boyce:Oh, Miss New Orleans, she wouldn't be stopped. Naturally, you get careless, you fall for it, and the next thing you know, you have silver bracelets on both arms. Since 1970, LGBTQ+ people have continued to gather together in June to march with Pride and demonstrate for equal rights. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? E.R.C.H.O. Danny Garvin Tom Caruso They really were objecting to how they were being treated. Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. One poignant example is the murder of Frederick Wiliam Paez on the 11th anniversary of Stonewall (June 28 1980) who was shot by a police officer who had solicited him. Send questions or suggestions They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. And this went on for hours. Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. Almost anything you could name. After two years, police said they had been informed that liquor was being served on the premises. The Stonewall was also not the only bar in town being frequently raided. 4 0 obj Narrator (Archival):Richard Enman, president of the Mattachine Society of Florida, whose goal is to legalize homosexuality between consenting adults, was a reluctant participant in tonight's program. by e-mail. For instance, solicitation of same-sex relations was illegal in New York City. It was one of the things you did in New York, it was like the Barnum and Bailey aspect of it. PBS - American Experience - Who was at Stonewall? And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. Leroy S. Mobley Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. Raymond Castro:Incendiary devices were being thrown in I don't think they were Molotov cocktails, but it was just fire being thrown in when the doors got open. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. John O'Brien:Cops got hurt. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. Americas first lesbian rights organization, The Daughters of Bilitis, was formed in San Francisco on September 21, 1955. All of the rules that I had grown up with, and that I had hated in my guts, other people were fighting against, and saying "No, it doesn't have to be this way.". Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. Dick Leitsch:New York State Liquor Authority had a rule that one known homosexual at a licensed premise made the place disorderly, so nobody would set up a place where we could meet because they were afraid that the cops would come in to close it, and that's how the Mafia got into the gay bar business. But as visibility increased, the reactions of people increased. And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. This online resource is a research supplement to Marc Stein,The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History(New York: New York University Press, 2019). Danny Garvin:We were talking about the revolution happening and we were walking up 7th Avenue and I was thinking it was either Black Panthers or the Young Lords were going to start it and we turned the corner from 7th Avenue onto Christopher Street and we saw the paddy wagon pull up there. John O'Brien:Heterosexuals, legally, had lots of sexual outlets. WebJune 28, 1969, Greenwich Village: The New York City Police Department, fueled by bigoted liquor licensing practices and an omnipresent backdrop of homophobia and transphobia, raided the Stonewall Inn, a neighborhood gay bar, in the middle of the night. Cover art for The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History and The Stonewall Reader. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. Dan Martino I'm losing everything that I have. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was a bottle club which meant that I guess you went to the door and you bought a membership or something for a buck and then you went in and then you could buy drinks. I really thought that, you know, we did it. Documents and Transcripts Listed by Time of Occurrence, from Earliest to Latest Document 1. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:That night I'm in my office, I looked down the street, and I could see the Stonewall sign and I started to see some activity in front. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. The Stonewall Inn was a sanctuary for drag queens, who were not always welcomed even at other gay bars. All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. This was a highly unusual raid, going in there in the middle of the night with a full crowd, the Mafia hasn't been alerted, the Sixth Precinct hasn't been alerted. The Stonewall Riots (June 28, 1969) In 1969, a riot at the Stonewall Inn (later known as the Stonewall Riots) became a turning point in the fight for LGBTQ civil rights. Stonewall Inn. Based on Robin Haueter by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor Kate Davis and David Holbreiner, author David Carter, and a participant in the riots will be present for a Q&A afterward. Windows started to break. Stonewall Inn was registered as a type of private bottle bar, which did not require a liquor license because patrons were supposed to bring their own liquor. Raymond Castro:I'd go in there and I would look and I would just cringe because, you know, people would start touching me, and "Hello, what are you doing there if you don't want to be touched?" Evan Eames Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. Richard Enman (Archival):Present laws give the adult homosexual only the choice of being, to simplify the matter, heterosexual and legal or homosexual and illegal. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. I mean they were making some headway. Chapter 2: Activist Agendas and Visions before Stonewall, Chapter 3: Political Protests before Stonewall, Chapter 6: Activist Agendas after Stonewall, Chapter 7: Political Protests after Stonewall, About the Author:Short CV/Long CV/Biography, Documenting the Stonewall Riots: A Bibliography of Primary Sources, View the files for Part I, II, III and Resources, San Francisco State They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. Sourcing: Who was Jerry Lisker? 2. People started throwing pennies. But we couldn't hold out very long. That's more an uprising than a riot. By Marc Stein . They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. Bettye Lane The Stonewall Riots marked the beginning of the gay liberation movement that has transformed the oppression of gays and lesbians into calls for pride and action. This time the people milling outside the bar did not retreat or scatter as they almost always had in the past. WebSTANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUP sheg.stanford.edu Document B: Sylvia Rivera (Excerpt) Born and raised in New York City, Sylvia Rivera participated in the Stonewall A History of Gay Rights in America. Producers Dana Gaiser On the one-year anniversary of the riots on June 28, 1970, thousands of people marched in the streets of Manhattan from the Stonewall Inn to Central Park in what was then called Christopher Street Liberation Day, Americas first gay pride parade. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. Gay bars were places of refuge where gay men and lesbians and other individuals who were considered sexually suspect could socialize in relative safety from public harassment. You can find the latest entries at nytimes.com/diary and on our New York section online. << /Length 5 0 R /Filter /FlateDecode >> With Stonewall, the spirit of 60s rebellion spread to LGBTQ people in New York and beyond, who for the first time found For the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, an anthology chronicling the tumultuous fight for LGBTQ rights in the 1960s and the activists who spearheaded it June 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising - the most significant event in the gay liberation movement and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. In June 28, 1969, in Greenwich Village, The New York City Police Department fueled by bigoted liquor licensing practices and an omnipresent backdrop of homophobia Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. And I had become very radicalized in that time. We strive for accuracy and fairness. Certainly it was rare at the time to learn more than the first name or nickhame of someone you met casually in a bar. The Stonewall Inn site was declared He said, "Okay, let's go." Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was.
