For the first time, people had risen up against the oppressive anti-gay legal system and the institutions enforcing it. By the next day, over a thousand people had joined the riots. Over 500 people – drag queens, butch lesbians, transgender people, gay men, homeless youth – attacked the New York City Police who were harassing and beating up the queer patrons in the bar. Why Did the Mafia Own the Bar?, American Experience, PBS.In the early hours of 28th June, 1969, a riot broke out in Stonewall Inn near Manhattan, NYC. The Stonewall Uprising of 1969, Library of Congress Today, attendance is in the millions at the annual New York City march.
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Chicago and other cities around the country also commemorated the anniversary with marches and other events. On June 28, 1970, one year after the riots, the first gay pride marches took place in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. One of those organizations was the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee, which planned the first gay pride parade. Within six months of the riots, two activist organizations and three newspapers were established to promote rights for gay men and lesbians. This experience brought the LGBTQ community in New York City together in a more cohesive way. Photo credit: Digital Public Library of America After the riots Certainly it was the birth of gay pride of a massive scale.” – The Gay Crusaders, by Kay Tobin and Randy Wicker, New York: Paperback Library, 1972.Ĭhristopher Street Liberation Day Committee Pride March flier, 1970.
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“Many new activists consider the Stonewall Uprising the birth of the gay liberation movement. This time, however, things didn’t quite go the same way that previous raids had gone.Īs word got out around the city, thousands of protesters gathered at the Stonewall Inn, beginning a six-day clash with police. Patrons of the Stonewall Inn and employees were interrogated for hours, some being allowed to leave, some being arrested. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, police, armed with a search warrant, raided the Stonewall Inn to investigate the illegal sale of alcohol.
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Police raids on gay bars were frequent events at this time – reportedly happening on average of once a month for each bar. Because of this, the Stonewall Inn operated as a private “bottle club,” as many other gay bars in New York did at the time because private clubs were not required to have a liquor license. In the early 1960s, the State Liquor Authority (SLA) considered establishments to be “disorderly houses,” or places where “unlawful practices are habitually carried on by the public” if alcohol was openly served to gay customers, so many gay bars were refused liquor licenses. The Stonewall Uprising of 1969 The Stonewall Inn, NYC, 2008. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month is celebrated annually in June in honor of the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan and LGBTQ Americans’ work for equal justice and equal opportunity.