Sunday, June 28th marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a pivotal moment that many say engendered the modern gay rights movement. Has the LGBT community made important steps towards equality since the Stonewall Riots? Absolutely, but they they still haven’t been given full equality just yet. The Stonewall Riots was a week of violent clashes between protesters and police following a police raid of a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village. Police raids of gay bars were commonplace during the ’60s: since most patrons of gay bars preferred to keep their sexuality a secret, they would often pay off policemen who threatened to arrest them for “indecency.”

The raid of the Stonewall Inn at 1:20 in the morning was fairly normal: police would line up the patrons and ask them to produce identification, men who were dressed as women were to be arrested. However, on that night, the transvestites refused to go with the police, the gay men in the bar refused to produce identification and lesbians were bullied and sexually assaulted by police who were frisking them. A large crowd started to gather outside and they began to mock the police. One butch lesbian fought with police as she was being escorted into a police wagon, she was heaved into the back of the wagon by one police officer and then the crowd became “explosive.” The crowd overturned police cars, slashed tires and threw beer cans and bricks at the officers. They mocked the police for looking for a payout by throwing coins at them. The riot lasted just under and hour. After the initial riot, protesters met at nearby Christopher Park to discuss what had happened and to plan what would happen next. The following week involved even larger protests and some more scuffles with the police. Although the riots eventually stopped, the young members of the LGBT community began to mobilize: the Gay Liberation Front was created and Gay, a LGBT city-wide newspaper was created (most other newspapers, including The New York Times and even The Village Voice refused to publish the word “gay”). A year later the first Gay Pride march took place, eventually spawning Gay Pride weeks and parades in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and many other cities across the world.

So what made that night at Stonewall Inn so special? As Frank Rich noted, the patrons that night weren’t college students planning sit-ins out of their college dorm rooms. Many of the young people who frequented Stonewall and other gay bars in the Village were homeless kids who had been thrown out of their houses for being gay. They “had no powerful allies of any kind, no rights, no future.” However, this lack of support and allies might have been a benefit to them: the street kids had nothing to hide, so why would they sit idly by as the police harassed them and trashed their bar? The Mattachine Society, a gay-rights group formed in the 1950s, wrote in their newsletter after the riots that the Stonewall Inn was a gay and lesbian street kid hangout. It was basically a cheap gay dive that served as a home for many street kids so when the police raided the place they were essentially raiding these kids’ homes. Although the street kids shared little with their more public and heterosexual peers protesting in colleges, the organization that followed after the riots was clearly influenced by the “take action” spirit that was ingrained in young people during this time.

Although a proud gay community began to flourish after the riots, the LGBT remained largely out of sight from mainstream society. As Rich mentions, he and his peers didn’t hear about the Stonewall Riots and the story was buried in newspapers. At the time of the riots, gay sex was only legal in Illinois and it was punishable by castration in seven states. It wasn’t until the 1980s when AIDS sparked a revived political involvement within the gay community that the LGBT fight for equality was even recognized by mainstream society.

Forty years later, where does the LGBT movement stand? While same-sex marriage is making strides it is currently only practiced in 6 states and recognized in 7 (not counting Washington D.C.). The Defense of Marriage Act denies the federal recognition of same-sex marriages. Gay men and women who serve in the military can be fired if they are openly gay or are found out to be gay. President Obama has said that he would support the LGBT community in their quest for equality but he has done little action to prove it (we know, he is barely half a year in, but we are watching you, dude). However, the community that came out of the Stonewall Riots has made great changes and they should be recognized for that. The political passion is still strong as ever with a National Equality March coming up on October 11, 2009 and gay rights issues have become visible in mainstream society and slowly more accepted by the general public.

The Stonewall Riots are an incredibly important part of the history of struggles for equality and against oppression. At the time, gays and lesbians were expected to roll over when pushed by mainstream society, but they proved that they had a thirst for equality and fair treatment that was just as strong and important as everyone else struggling in society.

3 Responses to “40 Years Later: The Stonewall Riots Prove That Desire For Equality Is Still Going Strong”

1. Jeremy says:

   June 29, 2009 at 2:55 pm

   I went to a pride picnic in my state this summer, and listening to older gay men and women talk about their lives was one of the most uplifting things I have experienced. They went through so much, it’s really amazing.

   Reply
2. Rachel says:

   June 29, 2009 at 4:49 pm

   Sadly, it seems there is still a long way to go: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/28/747810/-Breaking:-Raid-on-Fort-Worth-Gay-Bar-%28Update-x3%29

   Reply
3. meg says:

   June 29, 2009 at 9:33 pm

   Thanks so much for writing about this, I didn’t know much of the history of the Stonewall Riots and now I know how important they were for the movement. It honestly makes me sick how unjustly our government has treated members of the LGBT community over time. One day we will look back and shake our heads at how long it took for states to recognize same-sex marriage.

   Reply