Stonewall Riots Research Paper

Although most people who know about the Stonewall Riots see the riots as the “birthday

On this Saturday morning, the police attempted a raid on the Stonewall Inn, but the bar patrons were not cooperating with orders, and the officers present had to call for backup. Patrons that were not arrested, instead of leaving, stayed outside the bar to watch the commotion, and soon were joined by passerby’s until a crowd of over 150 people formed outside the bar. The crowd didn’t turn violent until the police hit a lesbian in the head and threw her in the back of their car because she complained about her handcuffs.

Additional Information: I would need to supply general definitions of the LGBTQ community, as well as show that there was a significant population of these individuals living around the Stonewall Inn and benefitting from its progressive modes of operation. Once that community has been established, I would then take the time to explain the past tensions that members of the LGBTQ community have faced due to unnecessary violence at the hands of law enforcement individuals, in particular how those altercations would often turn

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.

The riot resulted in four injuries to policemen. The Stonewall Inn closed. The police returned the following night and made additional raids. A crowd of four hundred young men and women appeared. They hurled bottles at police and chanted "gay power!"

Everyone knows what happened at Stonewall. The story has been glorified and romanticized throughout the decades since the original riot in 1969. The public perception of the Stonewall Riots is that this three day long episode was the beginning of modern LGBTQIA organization, or, as it is commercially referred to, LGBTQIA "pride". However, another police raid occurred four years earlier at California Hall in San Francisco, California. This narrative has been trivialized into local history, while the succeeding police raid has made it into national history. The religious groups and the homophile movements tell an extremely contrasting story of the LGBTQIA community and the chronicles of the police raids they faced from the common

In today's era, one of the most progressive civil rights movements is that of the LGBT+ community. For many decades, gays, transgenders, and other queers have been under fire for who they love and who they are. On June 28th, 1969, a group of queers subjected to police brutality took a chance to stand up for themselves. Thus starting one of the most widely revered LGBT+ movements: the Stone Wall Riots. This group of courageous men and women (and those in between) were pioneers in the United States gay rights activism, and can even be considered the spark to LGBT+ rights.

General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is best known for being a war hero and one of the South’s most outstanding figures of the Civil War. His war tactics, leadership, and success in battle cemented him as one of the most significant generals of early American history. Thomas was born on January 21, 1824, in Clarksburg, Virginia. Throughout his life he faced much adversity especially within his family with his older sister and father passing when he was of young age. In his late teens (1842) he enrolled at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He graduated in 1846 after finding his way academically with much hard work. As Jackson was leaving West Point, the Mexican War was starting and he was sent to Mexico. During the war he was quickly recognized

The LGBTQ+ community had fought for rights throughout history so that they would be able to live “normal” lives. By the end of the 1960’s the Stonewall riots created a movement that inspired people of the

It was approximately three a.m. on the twenty-eighth of June, 1969 when outside the Stonewall Inn, a monumental riot began. On Christopher Street in New York City, a police raid had just taken place in the gay bar due to the selling of liquor without a license, and arrests were made to anyone without a minimum of three articles of gender appropriate clothing on in accordance to New York law. This was one of several police raids that occurred in a gay bar in such a small amount of time, and the LGBT community made their anger very clear that morning. The event that took place as a result of these raids known as the Stonewall Riots became the catalyst for the Gay Liberation Front, and the Gay Activist Alliance, as well as many new

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

and the rampant drinking culture of the time. The gay experience was rooted in this shady

In the past decades, the struggle for gay rights in the Unites States has taken many forms. Previously, homosexuality was viewed as immoral. Many people also viewed it as pathologic because the American Psychiatric Association classified it as a psychiatric disorder. As a result, many people remained in ‘the closet’ because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being discriminated against in the society. According to David Allyn, though most gays could pass in the heterosexual world, they tended to live in fear and lies because they could not look towards their families for support. At the same time, openly gay establishments were often shut down to keep openly gay people under close scrutiny (Allyn 146). But since the 1960s, people

It was not uncommon for the New York Police Department Morals Task Force to raid gay bars. In fact, during the two decades leading up to the Stonewall Riots, the raids were more commonplace than naught. Many have speculated as to why the raids were common – some saying it was because of the Italian Mafia’s involvement in owning those establishments, and consequently forgetting to bribe the local police; others believe it to be based in bias, hatred, and ignorance of people different from oneself. In the Stonewall Inn’s specific case, it could have been a combination of both. The Inn, which was owned by the Mafia, was actually a bottle club, meaning they did not own a liquor license. You had to be a member to drink there. While these various theories are most likely true, as far as ancillary causes, the fact remains that there was an

“That is so gay”. This is a common saying that Americans are used to hearing on a daily basis: in schools, homes, or any public place and it comes out of the mouths of kids, teenagers, and adults. This phrase is used to describe something that is usually a negative action or idea, revealing the mindsets of how Americans saw the gay community. Overtime, Americans have changed their interpretation and attitudes towards this phrase due to the spreading population of sexuality identities. They have come to the conclusion that the word “gay” alone insults people who identify as gay, so this phrase is now known to offend people, because the realization that calling someone gay is not an insult because it is an sexuality, something that people identify themselves with. Since the word “gay” offended many people, the creation of the LGBTQ+ community was used to describe these people. The LGBTQ+ community has aspired due to the Stonewall riots. The Stonewall riots took place in Greenwich Village, New York City on June 28, 1969-July 1969. These riots were due the LGBTQ+ community standing up against oppression from police. Tension between the LGBTQ+ community and the police grew due to the police violating the community in gay bars by barging into them and trying to get them arrested, due to the distribution of alcohol at a gay bar, which was illegal to prevent AIDS. The conflict at Stonewall in ca. 1960 helped open American eyes to awareness about the LGBTQ+ community by challenging