For many years, the LGBT community, standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, in America has suffered injustice after injustice at the hands of those who choose to discriminate against them. But the aggression towards homosexuals came to a boiling point in New York in the late 1960s. One of the most well known of these homophobic events were the riots just outside the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in New York. Many historians, such as Duberman and Deitcher, would place the blame solely on the police force however, the police raids were responsible for the Stonewall riots in 1969 to a small extent because other factors such as the legal discrimination of homosexuals, and the media’s censorship of the gay movement had a much stronger impact leading to the most influential gay rights riot in US history.
The Stonewall riots were a series of riots that occurred in late June of 1969 when the New York City Police entered the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar located in what is known as the Village, with the intent to arrest the employees for serving alcohol without the proper liquor license. The Village is a combination of Greenwich Village and Harlem where a considerable homosexual population stayed. It is a staple in the Stonewall riots because this is where Stonewall Inn resided and where the eventual Stonewall Riots occurred. Not having a license was often used as an excuse by the NYPD to raid local gay bars, such as the Checkerboard or the Stonewall Inn.
The Stonewall Riots took place in Greenwich Village, New York in 1969. Police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar run by the mafia, which outraged its many patrons and the people of the village. The patrons of the bar was not the only reason the Stonewall Inn got raided. Since it was illegal to sell alcohol to homosexuals, it was done illegally. The SLA, the state liquor authority, would not give liquor licenses to those who would sell to homosexuals. The Stonewall Inn owner, Fat Tony, combated this problem by saying the bar was a bottle club. A bottle club was where the patrons would bring their own bottles and get their alcohol from their privately owned stock. Violence broke out after 13 people were arrested and put into a wagon. "People in the crowd yelled at the police to stop. The officers responded by telling them to get off the street. Someone started throwing pocket change at the officers, and others began rocking the wagon" (Rede). Other villagers and patrons threw objects at the police, such as bricks and bottles, and chanted protests to the
This investigation assesses the New York City Stonewall Riots of 1969, concerning their influence on the rise of the modern gay rights movement, specifically regarding political emergence, social unity, and demographic shifts. The investigation will attempt to answer the following question: To what extent were the Stonewall Riots of 1969 a catalyst for the LGBT social movement in America?
The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar in New York City and it was the starting place of the Gay Liberation Movement. In the 1970s gay men and lesbians started wanting equality because they faced lots of legal discrimination. They didn’t have equal rights because they couldn’t even have consensual sex with their partners and it was illegal in almost all states. So in 1969 police raided the Stonewall Inn and gay men fought the police and proclaimed “Gay Power.” This event caused riots between the New York City police and all the gay residents.
The conflict was between the police of New York City and Gay Right actives outside of the Stonewall Inn, a bar were the gay rights movement was born. In 1969, homosexual relationships was illegal in New York City. The gay bars were where gay men and lesbians could socialize in safe place away from the public harassment, but many of those bars were subject to regular police harassment. A gathering location for many young gay men, lesbians, and transgender individual was Stonewall Inn, in Greenwich Village, which was an establishment which would run without a liquor
The Stonewall Rebellion or Stonewall Riots was a series of violent riots that took place between gay and trans activists, drag queens, and other patrons of The Stonewall Inn against the police after a raid had been carried out by the Sixth Precinct police. The days and rebellions that followed are monumental moments in LGBT and World history.
The next major event was the birth of the movement, The Stonewall Riots, which was the mother of all LGBT-themed associates and groups. There have been a large number of eyewitness accounts, articles and stories of how the riot began and ended, as well as what it immediately brought about. People began to start doing “radical” acts, one man decided to begin writing his college papers in terms of having a prominent gay
The 1960’s was a decade of great change in America, from civil rights for African Americans to equal rights for women, the American people were rising up and discovering that their voice in the political discourse was just as important as those they elected to office. One other such group that awakened and challenged the existing status quo that kept them silent and scared were the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities across the country. From the first large-scale associations of LGBT individuals that formed in San Francisco in the 1950’s to the political and social groups that came to be following the Stonewall Riots of 1969, they would speak out and not allow themselves to be kept down anymore. The aim of this paper is to establish the events and opinions that led up to the uprising at the Stonewall Inn such as perceived and real discrimination by police, medical professionals, and society itself, what actually happened at Stonewall, and how they sparked the modern LGBT movement in the United States over the next half century to the present day.
The riots started at around 3 am on June 28th, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in Brooklyn, New York City when police raided the inn, on the pretense of the bar’s lack of a liquor license. They began checking identification and taking people into the bar’s bathroom to determine their sex. The patrons of the bar were held outside as police threw the bar’s unstamped alcohol into patrol wagons. A crowd of Greenwich Village residents and the area’s homeless youth gathered to watch as the bar’s patrons were arrested.
Stonewall Riots: the Events that Sparked the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement When most think of the gay rights movement of today, most realize that it is all very progressive, and many people, regardless of gender or sexuality, fully support the movement. Although this is the case now, things for the LGBTQ+ community have not always this accepting. According to a popular news website, "[The LGBTQ+ community] were viewed as some kind of freak show," said Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt. "Something to be avoided." (cbsnews.com) Around the mid 20th century and before, anyone who did not identify, or was suspected of not identifying as straight was highly discriminated against, and, in most cases, persecuted.
Stonewall is known as the riot that kickstarted the movement for gay rights in America in 1969. Throughout the 1960’s the gay community was targeted for their homosexual activities because this went against the common beliefs of the people. Most of the population had the Christian belief that being interested in the same sex was against God’s will. This caused discrimination throughout the nation between members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender plus (LGBT+) community and the rest of the country. Due to this discrimination, many LGBT+ members felt like their rights were being violated by the government. On June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan, New York City, the community decided to fight back for their rights. They
Members of the gay community were heavily discriminated against because of their sexuality and because heterosexual people had no tolerance for them and their “lifestyle”. When the actual raid on the Stonewall Inn occurred some patrons at the bar became hostile and resisted the police. The police in turn became violent and began to threaten and even hurt some of the people in the bar that refused to show identification or have their gender checked. Both the members of the gay community and the New York police that came to raid Stonewall are to blame for the riots that broke out. The gay patrons of the bar had a right to fight against hate and discrimination, but the police could only fight back because the riots were violent towards them. In the end, the members of the gay community had more of a reason to riot than the police had to injure and arrest them during the riots.
club located in New York, known as the ‘Stonewall Inn’ turned violent. Outside, hundreds of protesters and sympathizers began rioting against the sudden police force. While the NYPD had been justified in closing down the club, the events which would follow over the next six days would go on to spark revolution, and establish the LGBT movement for gay civil rights. It is inevitably because of these protests that the LGBT community has the rights and freedom that they have today. However, the Stonewall Riots are not as recognized as a copious amount of protests and revolts, and are a severely underrated historical event, which resulted in the removal of
The Stonewall Inn was a bar located New York that catered to the LGBT population, regular patrons included gay men, drag queens, and transgender women; all from various ethnic backgrounds. As a visible hub for the queer community, the Stonewall Inn was frequently raided by police due to the political climate and negative attitudes towards homosexuality. On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn was raided and rather than accept the harassment by police, a group of customers took a stand and a riot broke out. This riot led to other demonstrations and protests by LGBT groups demanding civil rights. The Stonewall riots are considered the catalyst of the gay liberation movement and annual pride marches take place around the world to commemorate the
At dawn on June 28, 1969 police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York. The raids were common in that decade, in which homosexuality was illegal in every state except Illinois. That night, however, violent demonstrations and street protests that lasted for most of the week broke. The Stonewall riots, as they became known, marked a before and after in the movements for gay civil rights in the United States and the world.
Until the last half of the 20th century, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals were victims of discrimination in American society and in statutory laws, which limited their basic rights. On the night of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, and arrested three drag queens by using excessive force. Bar patrons and spectators, tired of police oppression, stood up and fought back. This was the first major protest based on equal rights for homosexuals. The Stonewall Riots became a turning point for the homosexual community in the United States sparking the beginning of the gay rights movement, and encouraged lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual, or "LGBT," to fight for their rights.