From The Peopling of NYC

Stonewall Inn

In the 1970s, the "gay power" movement burst onto the scene as the most controversial of all the civil rights crusades. However, it has been said that the original catylyst for the activity was the widespread and revolutionary effect of Dr. Alfred Kinsey's study on "Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male" (also known as "The Kinsey Report") published in 1948. This groundbreaking research helped to create an urban gay subculture and gave homosexuals a definitive sense of belonging to a community. In the years following this publication, two major gay organisations were formed--The Mattachine Society in 1950, and The Daughters of Bilitis in 1955. Both groups actively protested against discriminatory policies and were instumental as the first chapter of the gay rights movement.

In 1969, on the evening of Friday, June 27th, what is now considered to be the official beginning spark of the gay rights movement was set alight, both literally and figuratively. At The Stonewall Inn members club on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, it was not just another night. The recent death of American cinema and gay community icon Judy Garland on the Monday of that week, and her burial on that very Friday, had prompted the holding of a wake at the Stonewall. In fact, it is alleged that "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was playing on the jukebox when the police showed up.

At first, no one was particularly peturbed as raids by the New York City police were in fact routine, and the authorities usually just asked to see the manager's liquor license, frisked a few patrons for drugs and made general threats. However on this night, the police took it one step further and attempted to arrest some drag queens and a lesbian, forcing them kicking and screaming into the paddywagon that was parked in the front of the club.

It seems that the unjustified arrests, together with the high-strung emotions that were already in the air due to the events of the week clashed and exploded as the gathering crowd became more and more rowdy, jeering the police and making obscene gestures. The situation quickly escalated into a full-scale riot. Patrons from the Stonewall threw bottles, stones, beer cans and Molotov cocktails which set the bar ablaze. They also attacked police cars and the reinforcements. Rioting continued into the next day, June 28th, and the police ended up battling scattered crowds and clusters of angry protesters in numbers upwards of 2,000 people. Overnight, gay power grafitti slogans had been spray-painted on walls throughout Greenwich Village and Lower Manhattan.

Allen Ginsberg, a central Greenwich Village figure, was quoted in The Village Voice as saying,"You know, the guys there were so beautiful. They've lost that wounded look that fags all had ten years ago." The Stonewall Inn Riots galvanised the formation of the Gay Liberation Front in New York City in July 1969, and promoted activism against discrimination from the authorities and in the media.

The History of Stonewall with Varla Jean Merman

Our revolution didn't start with Stonewall. African-American lesbian elders tell the tales of gay New York life in Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx before the world-altering Stonewall rebellion. In this clip they recall, raids and suffocating laws and racial discrimination faced within the gay community.

For more information about The Stonewall Inn Riots:
"Remembering Stonewall":Interview Transcript
The Stonewall Veterans Association
The Stonewall Inn Riots on Wikipedia

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