Bricks, Bars, and Batterings: The History of the Stonewall Riots and Pride Month
- queeritagepw
- Nov 26, 2024
- 6 min read
Written by Melody
When commemorating and celebrating Pride Month, what most people remember are the exuberant pride parades, colorful pride flags, and bold music that flushes throughout cities — all of which are key elements that make up the festive Pride Month that we know of today. However, behind all of the extravagant Pride celebrations lies a story of strength, resilience, and resistance that is often forgotten. Before the widespread repeals of legislations against same-sex marriage and institutional recognitions of the LGBTQ+ community and Pride Month, the queer community faced tyrannical discrimination socially, institutionally, and economically. Though there were times when queerness was accepted or even revered in various cultures, the spread of western colonialism led to the acculturation to western religions and beliefs. Thereafter, the seed of homophobia and transphobia was slowly germinated throughout the globe — leading to internal destruction of then normalized identities, such as the Hijras (transgender and/or intersex people) of India (Rhude 2018). In the United States, homophobia had its roots in the early 20th century, when events like the Red Scare in the 1920s and 50s revealed widespread fear of communism — often exacerbated by government propaganda — which was then translated to a national fear of the “other”. Thus, any person or behavior that deviated from the norm of a white, wealthy, educated nuclear family was considered a threat. Among such threats was the LGBTQ+ community. Pride Month did not begin as a joyful celebration of queerness; instead, it started in a riot organized by infuriated people who had been subjected to police brutality and discrimination for decades. The activists participated in riots that led to the creation of Pride Month, and were a diverse group of individuals who were transgender, Black, Latinx, sex workers, homeless, drag queens, gender transgressive and nonconforming, and many more. This article explores the history of the Stonewall uprisings in the United States, how the riots led to the first Pride, and how Stonewall and Pride has been continued and commemorated today.
LGBTQ+ Discrimination in the 20th Century in the United States
Throughout the 20th century, the LGBTQ+ community experienced extreme social and institutional violence and discrimination in the United States — especially in cities like New York during the 1960s and 70s. At the time, New York City’s prejudicial laws banned cross-dressing (e.g. a man dressing in “feminine” clothing), as well as homosexuality and same-sex marriage — legislations that authorized law enforcement to arrest anyone suspected to be homosexual or gender transgressive. Additionally, selling drugs and alcohol to homosexuals was also banned in NYC. Gay bars and nightclubs were some of the few spaces of refuge for queer individuals to freely and authentically be themselves. Thus, the police would target and raid LGBT bars and exploit the anti-gay and anti-trans laws — justifying their actions by claiming that queerness was pathological, and that the removal of queer people was for the safety of the community.
The Stonewall Inn and Stonewall Riots
One of the most notable LGBT bars from the 20th century was the Stonewall Inn — a hub located in Greenwich Village that welcomed drag performers, “artists, actors, writers, and intellectuals,” many of whom were part of the LGBT community (Murphy 2019). Though homonymous with the historical gay bar, the term “Stonewall” was also later used to denote the sequence of violent uprisings led by LGBTQ+ people in 1969 throughout NYC (Murphy 2019).
On June 28, 1969, police officers barged into the Stonewall Inn with search warrants to ransack for unlicensed alcohol, just a few days after their previous raid. Upon entry, NYPD “detained all customers and employees, inspected IDs,” body searched patrons, and arrested 13 individuals — including both employees and crossdressers (Zapata 2017). As the raid was unfolding, a crowd of onlookers began to form outside of the Inn, cheering on the people who were leaving the Inn “either to freedom or into waiting patrol cars” (Murphy 2019). However, on this day, the bystanders did not merely stand around and accept the outrageous acts unfolding in front of them. One after another as more people were arrested and forced into patrol cars, patrons, customers, and neighbors who were infuriated by the constant police brutality decided in the moment to resist the police’s harassment. When witnessing the police’s aggressive handling of transgender people, onlookers began to “[heckle] the police and [pelt] them with coins, cans, bottles, and trash” (Murphy 2019). Moreover, when a butch lesbian strongly resisted her arrest and was battered with a baton by police officers, she cried out “Why don’t you do something?” to the crowd — completely igniting the crowd’s anger towards the NYPD. By the time the patrol vans departed, the crowd had begun to attack the remaining police officers within the bar “with bricks, cobblestones, and trashcans, breaking [the bar’s] windows and attempting to set it on fire with the police inside” (Murphy 2019). Immediately after the first riot, word of the uprisings spread and more people joined in on the movement. LGBTQ+ activists such as Marsha P. Johnson, Stormé DeLarverie, Sylvia Rivera, and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy were instrumental in the following Stonewall Riots, where protestors would attack and taunt the police every Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday night (Rindner 2021). Although Stonewall is the LGBT protest that is remembered today as the roots of Pride, they were not the first and only uprisings that occurred in the late 1900s. Stonewall’s publicized location, extensive volume of supporters, and massive scale of press attention led to its preservation in the mainstream narrative; however, riots at bars and restaurants like Cooper Do-Nuts in Los Angeles and Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco were some of the uprising that helped construct the foundation of the gay and trans rights resistances that preceded Stonewall (Murphy 2019).
Outcomes of Stonewall and Pride Month
The activists and protestors who participated in the Stonewall Riots soon recognized the power that they had in potentially changing the lives of queer people and how institutions viewed the LGBTQ+ community. Realizing the importance of their work, a meeting was held following the early Stonewall riots, and led to the creation of the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance — two crucial organizations in the spearheading of 20th century queer rights movements (Murphy 2019). On July 27, 1969, members organized a “‘Gay Power’” march through Greenwich Village” with hundreds of supporters who rallied for gay and queer liberation in Washington Square Park (Murphy 2019). A year later on June 28, 1970, the first official Pride march — then named the Christopher Street Liberation Day march — was hosted, attracting 2000 people from more than 20 LGBT organizations to march in the name of “gay power” and equal rights (Murphy 2019).
Since 1970, the Pride march has been organized and elongated into a monthly celebration in the United States and globally every year in June. Although Pride Month has been continuously commemorated since the first riot and march, it was not until 1999 — 30 years after the first riot — when former president Bill Clinton’s proclamation finally declared Pride Month as a federally-recognized holiday (Housman 2024). Furthermore, it has taken nearly 30 more years for recent US presidents such as Barack Obama and Joe Biden to issue declarations to further protect LGBTQ+ rights and individuals (Houseman 2024). Although the Stonewall Riots and the queer rights movements have led to extraordinary change in the social and institutional acceptance of the LGBT community, the community still faces countless struggles today, such as high rates of violence against trans women of color and increased mental health concerns within queer youth (Keller 2023).
Conclusion
The birth of Pride Month may have been a piece of history tainted with violence; however, the centering of the stories of activists and leaders who identified outside of the traditional demographics of people commonly celebrated for their work in the Stonewall Riots and the queer rights movements helps diversify the history and narrative of the LGBTQ+ community. Despite the increase in legislative reforms in several countries that have lessened discrimination towards the LGBT community, there are still queer people being subjected to microaggressions and assaults daily, and existing countries around the world where people are unable to love freely and live authentically. The fight for LGBTQ+ rights must continue, and we hope that the history of Stonewall and Pride month inspires you to stand up against injustice and defend for what is just in your community.
Bibliography :
Housman, Patty. “American.edu.” American University, 2024.
Keller, Jarred. “HRC Foundation Report: Epidemic of Violence Continues; Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People Still Killed at Disproportionate Rates in 2023.” Human Rights Campaign, November 20, 2023.
https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/hrc-foundation-report-epidemic-of-violence-continues -transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-people-still-killed-at-disproportionate-rates-in-2 023.
Murphy, M J. “Stonewall 101 - M. J. Murphy - Medium.” Medium. Medium, June 5, 2019. https://emjaymurphee.medium.com/stonewall-101-e6d5543b5365.
Rhude, Kristofer . “The Third Gender and Hijras.” Harvard.edu, 2018.
Rindner, Grant. “No One Knows Who Started the Stonewall Rebellion, but These Leaders Were Key.” Oprah Daily. Oprah Daily, May 13, 2021.
Zapata, Christian. “1969 Stonewall Riots - Origins, Timeline & Leaders | HISTORY.” HISTORY, May 31, 2017. https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/the-stonewall-riots.
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