Today marks the anniversary of the Stonewall riots. In the early
morning hours of June 28, 1969, the New York City police department
carried out a raid on the Stonewall Inn, a popular Gay Bar in the
Greenwich Village .The move was a clear condemnation by law enforcement
officials of the city's underground gay population.
Yes it was a dive
bar, but even that characterisation was optimistic, since it couldn't
get a liguor license. It's drinks were bootlegged and heavily watered
down. The contents of no bottle ever matched its label. There were no
fire exits and there was no running water. But in that Greenwich Village
Tavern, there was music, there was dancing, and there was freedom. It
was a place of sanctuary, and one of the only places for New York's gay
community to socialise and truly be themselves.
Prior to 1962, same sex relationships were a felony in every
state, making it illegal for people of the same sex to show affection
towards one another, dance with each other or even just be
together. often punished by lengthy prison sentences. Same-sex loving
men and women met in secret, fearing the long-term consequences of
exposure. Gender nonconforming individuals and cross-dressers might find
themselves shunned to the fringes of society. Early efforts at LGBTQ
activism had smoldered for years before Stonewall. There had been riots
in other gay spaces before. And there had certainly been plenty of
police raids at the Stonewall in the past. But the anger that erupted on
this day when police attempted to arrest patrons of the Stonewall Inn,
sparked a uprising that galvanised the LGBTQ civil rights movement as
we know it today.
It was a raid like so many others, but this time after some patrons and
local residents witnessed police barging into the bar, slamming people
against the walls, calling them derogatory names, and then taking money
from their wallets. When police finally let patrons out of the bar and
ordered them to disperse they refused, and after an officer struck a
prisoner on the head, they spontaneously fought back against years of
oppression and state violence by hurling rocks and bottles at the police, anything in fact
within arm's reach. A number of people even wrestled a parking meter from
the ground and tried to use it as a battering ram. The police, fearing
for their safety, locked themseles inside the Stonewall Inn as the angry
mob outside grew into the thousands. Some were attempting to set the
property on fire.Following media coverage of the event, thouusands
protested and clashed with riot police over the next six
days,.Reinforcements were eventually able to get the crowd under
control, well for one night at least. But people had discovered a power
that they were not even aware they had, releasing a sense of pride and
liberation.
Shouts of 'gay power' and 'we shall overcome' could be heard down the
street as support spread.It was a watershed for the worldwide gay rights
movement, because it was the first time LGBT+ people had forcibly
resisted the police. On Saturday, the windows of the Stonewall were
boarded up and painted with gueer liberation slogans like 'We are Open,'
'Support Gay Power- C'mon in girls.' Hostile press coverage was also
pinned to the boards, That night the crowd of protestors returned and
were led in 'gay power; cheers by a group of gay cheerleaders. There was
sustained handholding, kissing, and posing which had appeared only
fleetingly on the street before.
Soon the crowd got restless "Let's go down the street and see what's
happening girls," someone yelled. They did and were confronted by the
Tactical Patrol Force, (originally set up to stop anti-ietnam war
protests) However, the TPF failed to break up the crowd, who in defiance
sprayed them with rocks and other projectiles. The third day of rioting
fell five days after the raid on the Stonewall Inn. On that day 1,000
people congregated at the bar and again took the cops on in the streets.
Once the riots had subsided, protestors were filled with motivation to
organise for their rights, th aftermath saw an explosion in gay movement
organisation, pride and political activism. A year after the riots,
residents began marching on Christopher Street and Sixth Avenue. The
date, June 28 was dubbed Christopher Street Liberation Day. Thousands of
people marched the street while thousands of other people lined up
alongside them to protest the treatment of the LGBT+ community at the
hands of the law. With Stonewall, the spirit of 60's rebellion spread to
LGBT+ people in New York and beyond, who found themselves liberated and
part of a community, sparking a new sense of urgency about demanding
tolerance for persecuted communities.Inspired by New Yor's example,
actiists in other cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and
Chicago, organised gay pride celebrations that same year. The Stonewall
uprising changed the state of play, and sent out a clear message that
enough was enough and that it was time fir the harassment and
discrimination to end.
It is important to recognise the fact the gay rights movement did not
begin at Stonewall, there were gay activists and calls for "gay
power"well before that early morning of June 28, 1969. What was different
about Stonewall was that gay activists around the country ad the world
were prepared to commemorate it publicly. It was not the first
rebellion, but it was the first to be called "the first" and that act of
naming mattered, the uprising did mark a turning point, igniting a new
atmosphere of militant gay liberation. Radical groups like the
libertarian left wing Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Gay Activists
Alliance (GAA), were formed in New York and beyond who sought links
with the Black Panthers, the Women's Liberation movement and anti-war
organisations. Similar organisations were soon created around the world
including Canada, France, Brtain, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands,
Australia and New Zealandin, becoming a lasting force that would carry
on for the next half-century and beyond.
Stonewall marked a sharp break from the past and a qualitative
turning point in the LGBTQ+ movement,,not only because of the continuous
rioting in the streets against police, but because activists were able
to seize the moment and give an organized expression to the spontaneous
uprising that encapsulated the militancy of the era. While the homophile
movement made steady, if limited, progress throughout the 1950s and 60s
and laid the basis for the gay liberation movement, Stonewall broke the
dam of political and social isolation and catapulted the gay movement
from the margins and into the open.
The Stonewall Inn made headlines again in 2015, when its story came to
the silver screen, but critics at the time said that Stonewall depicted
brave, cisgender white males as the unsung heroes of the moement, but
in reality it was trans women of color, homeless queer people, sex
workers, gay bi and pansexual people who were the riots heart and soul.
The uprising was multiracial, diverse, and reflected a broad spectrum of
the LGBTQ+ community. Many eyewitnesses commented specifically on the
important role played that night by the most marginalised sections of
the community — street kids, trans women, and queer youth of colour.
The resisters who stood up to the police on this day could hardly have
imagined that within 50 years, the United States and other Western
countries would go from criminalising homosexuality to guaranteering the
equal right of same sex couples to marry. Despite the gains made since
and why we celebrate Pride in June, ( beyond the sequins and the
glitter, it remains a protest, not just an excuse to party) half a
century on from the Stonewall Riots, the global LGBT+ community still
faces significent problems.
The Stonewall Inn uprising marked a turning point n the visibility of the gay rights movement, with the first pride parades in 1970. It is however important to remember that many transgender people were discriminated against and discouraged from participating.and the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA), which formed in response to Stonewall, frequently rejected the role transgender people , the majority of whom were of color, rights had played.
On 28 August 1971, the year before the first London Pride March, members of the Gay Liberation (GLF) Youth Group organised the first LGBT+ public march in the UK. Beginning with a mass gathering in Hyde Park, GLF Youth Group marched through central London to their rally point of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.
What many also forget is that it was only as recently as 2017 that the UK Government finally issued a
posthumous pardon to all gay or bi men who were convicted under
pernicious sexual offences laws in the last century which enabled police
to criminalise people for being gay or bi. In many South Asian and
Middle Eastern, in fact around 70 counties homosexuality is still
illegal and in around 70 countries ,as far as the law goes punishable by
death.Anti-gay bullying is still prevalent in schools and workplaces
and anti LGBT+ sentiment is still being combatted across the world, Sadly
there is still to much stigma attached for being who we are. But for
many that fight has its roots in those dramatic riots in Greenwich all
those years ago.
The LGBT+ movement is still a work in progress, so any single acronym is
just a working title. Many other groups could be added to the acronym,
including queer, intersex, and loving people of all kinds who just don't
fit in the conventional pink and blue boxes of gender. This movement is
a rainbow coalition of communities.The struggle will continue as long
as governments do not fully respect and protect the "inherent dignity"
and "equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family",as the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so
eloquently pronounces, regardless of their gender identity, gender
expression, or sexual orientation. The struggle will continue while many in the LGBT+ community are still fighting for their lives, a community that till faces hostility and horrendous, unexplained violence.
When we remember the Stonewall Rebellion, we should also commit to common
memory, think of the many rebels who thought they might be alone but
found common ground in movements of popular resistance.We still have so
much further to go in the fight for equality. With on going solidarity
with other oppressed people across the world, with rage and love we can
firmly find our pride.
The Stonewall uprising began a process of militant LGBT+ struggle that
continues to this day, whose early years were characterized by an
anti-racist, anti-war and anti-capitalist, fightback against both
heteronormative patriarchy and transphobia. The legacy of Stonewall remains as important as
ever reminding us that rebellions work.
Change does not come because politicians introduce piecemeal
legislation or because NGOs organise black-tie fundraisers. It happens
when ordinary people take matters into their own hands, when we continue to
challenge institutions of state repression and become active
participants in shaping their own world, By necessity, we must keep striving towards a future grounded in human liberation and solidarity and love. I dedicate this post to the heroes who fought back,so that those that came after could have better lives.
