Pride Begins with Stonewall
-Chrissie

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The Stonewall Inn opened on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village in 1966, specifically as an underground gay bar. The welcoming atmosphere for gender non-conforming people made it unusual, but it was  the lack of a liquor license that made it underground. It was run by the Genovese (mafia) family, as were many such bars throughout New York City. Its existence was maintained by payoffs to local police, though it was still raided fairly regularly to maintain appearances. The staff was usually told to expect a raid which allowed them to hide or remove any alcohol or problematic materials.

The raids were also usually conducted early in the evening, allowing the bar to reopen a few hours later and recoup lost business. Raids on underground bars usually consisted of any alcohol being seized and some employees arrested on charges of selling alcohol without a license. At Stonewall and other gay bars, it was not unusual for some patrons to be arrested on charges of cross-dressing, based on a law that dated to the mid-nineteenth century. To catch the cross-dressers, the police checked IDs; anyone, male or female, who did not present in accordance with the sex listed on their ID was arrested. 

            Stonewall became nationally known in June 1969 after a raid turned into a riot and a cry to end discrimination against the gay community. The traditional, if not entirely true, story of the events at Stonewall is that a group of drag queens mourning the death of Judy Garland were pushed over the edge by the raid on the bar. One of them threw a brick (or shot glass) at a cop, thereby starting a riot which began the Gay Rights Movement. The reality is a bit more nuanced; the actions at Stonewall acted as a catalyst because it pushed the issue to national attention. The push for inclusion of LGBTQ+ rights had existed alongside the other civil rights and counterculture movements of the late 1950s and 1960s, but was not often recognized or included in these. The Summer of Love didn’t necessarily include same-sex couples.

            It’s difficult to know what was different about the night of Friday, 26 June 1969. Something about the raid, the people, the atmosphere, sparked resistance. It was not as if this was a new experience for anyone nor, according to first person accounts, was the mood particularly different than any other night. When the police conducted their raid, the patrons and staff of Stonewall refused to go quietly. People refused to show their IDs and those who did and were found to be cross-dressing did not cooperate with their own arrests. People released by the police didn’t leave, but stayed in the street outside the bar, bringing attention to events that would generally be overlooked. What prompted the violence, the riot, has taken on a mythological aspect: activist Marsha P. Johnson is often identified as the person whose act of throwing a shot glass set everything off. She says she wasn’t there until after it was “already on fire.” A friend and fellow activist, Sylvia Rivera, is credited with throwing a Molotov cocktail, but she says she was not the first to throw anything. These two people had an important role in the gay rights movement both before and after Stonewall. Another woman is also credited in many accounts as the catalyst: as she was being loaded roughly into a police van, she shouted, “Why don’t you guys do something?” Her identity is not sure, though Stonewall bouncer Stormé DeLaverie is often named; she has both confirmed and denied that she was this person.

Whatever was the catalyst, people began throwing bricks and rocks, beer cans, glasses, and anything else they could at the raiders. Some of those they’d already arrested were in the bar, waiting (not quietly) to be removed; the police barricaded themselves alongside these people, trying to keep everyone else out. The windows were broken and a fire was started; this forced the cops and protesters alike out of the building. Who started the fire (demonstrators or police) and whether it was intentional is not sure. By this time, the NYC Tactical Patrol Force had arrived in riot gear. Their shield wall was met by a chorus line of men singing and kicking. Participants say this prompted a surge of violence from the police, who began beating the men with their clubs. This essentially ended the demonstration and the street had quieted by dawn. Thirteen people were arrested, four police officers were injured, and many in the crowd were treated for their injuries at local hospitals.

News of the events on Christopher Street spread through the city and were covered by all of the major newspapers, prompting people to hold demonstrations around the bar throughout that day and into the next. They only stopped when a punishing rainstorm forced them indoors. On the first anniversary of the events, what came to be known as Christopher Street Liberation Day was celebrated with the first Pride parades held in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Within two years, the day was commemorated across the US and Western Europe and is now recognized and celebrated the world over. This was the origin of June being commemorated as Pride Month, an annual opportunity for people in the LGBTQ+ community to celebrate their true selves and make clear that society has pushed bigotry into the past.