The Gay Liberation Movement Of Manhattan, New York City

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

When police found out that the Stonewall Inn had been operating without a liquor license, however, they took the liberty of entering the bar and arresting the employees on shift that night as well as harassing dozens of patrons. In addition to the employees arrested, anyone not wearing at least three articles of “gender-appropriate” clothing was arrested in compliance with the law at the time. Other customers refused to stand by idly, watching their friends and allies be beaten and taken away, and began throwing glass bottles, bricks, trash, and whatever they could find at the police officers. So used to passive and acquiescent behavior from LGBT+ people, police officers were angered and called for reinforcements to barricade inside the bar. The night ended with rioters setting the bar on fire. In total, about 400 people rioted on that first night. In the next five days people continued to

At the time, homosexuality was still considered to be taboo. The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York, was raided and shut down by police quite frequently. The members of the bar had eventually grown sick of the harassment, so they began to fight back. The next day, over a thousand people were back. The Stonewall Riots began to inspire activists to form various gay rights advocacy groups. One year after the Stonewall Riots, the very first documented pride parades in the United States began to take place. They occurred in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and by the Stonewall Inn, the same bar that the riots had occurred at one year

With reference to the Stonewall riots of 1969, it is important to understand that the riot by the Lesbian and Gay Rights Movement came at a time when the civil rights movement was in its high peak. The riots for equality by the Gay and Lesbian groups and activists came at a time when Americans minority groups were fighting for identity in the typical American culture. Then again, it is significant to note that the trends that surround the Stonewall riots were the intense hatred towards the homosexual individuals that had hit the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. The Gay and Lesbian people had to seek solace in Homosexual perceived bars and night clubs as they feared for their life due to their ‘awkward’ sexual orientation at the time (Ruta, 2013). Similarly, another trend that characterized the Stonewall riot was the Cold War policies that had earmarked Homosexual individuals and organization as security threats. With the rising tension due to the cold war, the United States government had blacklisted Gay and Lesbian groups and individuals as an easy target for blackmail by the Communist groups. As a result, they faced constant harassment from police in the 1940s all through to the Stonewall riot in 1969. The uprising is as a result of the civil rights movement that allowed for many minorities and interest groups to come out and fight for their rights.

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?

In the book Gay Rights it states, “In 1969, the year the stonewall rebellion occurred, there were only 50 gays and lesbian organizations with a few thousands of members in the entire country.” It means that they were finally taking a stand and ready to fight back. What happened in the Stonewall is in June 28 1969 there was a gay club called the Stonewall. Police started to attack the gay and lesbians. Then after that the crowd of people started to throw bottles at the police. If I was there I would have done so much worse than that. There is one of the main events in the 1960’s Gay

Obviously, the gay community will not stop to remember the major events leading to gay liberation in the U.S. Those who witnessed the June 28, 1969 violent demonstrations by a group of gays at the Stonewall Inn, located in the Greenwich Village near Manhattan, New York City, will forever remember the impact of that early morning hours riots against police raid in the history of gay liberation movement.

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.

If I were to ask you what was the Stonewall riots and when did they take place, could you tell me? Well, no need because that is the exact reason why I’m writing this paper. In order to better inform you, my peers of what happened, where they took place, and why they are so important to American history. The 1960’s were not a welcoming time for those who fell into the LGBT community, ally or not. So those in the community who were affected came together and turned Inns into a place of refuge. Therefore, the Stonewall Riots were an important event in American History because it brought to the attention of the people; social injustices, police corruption, and sparked a social movement for peace and rights for all.

In the wee hours of June 28th, 1969, members of the gay community were forced to enter a string of intense protests when the New York City Police began to raid the Stonewall Inn, a popular hangout spot for drag queens and members of the LGBT community, in Greenwich

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

These kind of raids were not uncommon but this night would be different from the others. The patrons were so tired of getting harassed and treated badly that they began to resist and grew aggressive when the police started to arrest people. Over the next few nights there were a series of more demonstrations riots which came to be collectively known at the Stonewall Riots. The actions of the police on that night were the last straw for a group of people who had constantly dealt with oppression and marginalization and marked a change in the way that gay people across the country handled their situation. They were finished with the attitude of the 1960s that called for peaceful resistance against their lack of freedom and negative treatment; they took the fight for equal treatment into their own hands

The public profile taken by some gays who felt that individuals should be able to live as they wanted without harassment. The police reacted by raiding gay bars and closing them down. When they attempted to the raid the Stonewall Inn, they expected that they would simply take their arrests without complaint, as they had usually done in the past. But on the night of June 27, 1969 took a turn that the police were not expecting. The LGBT this time however fought back instead of submitting.

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.

The gay liberation movement occurred in Greenwich Village, New York. In June 1969, police invaded the Stone Wall Inn, a bar for gays. The gay people at the club became angered by the police actions, because they felt that it was unprovoked harassment. They fought for several nights, refusing to have the bar closed. This incident, generally referred to as Stonewall, has been noted as the beginning of the awakening of gays into personal and sexual liberation.