The Stonewall Riots And The Gay Rights Movement

Purpose: David Carter wrote “Stonewall” to function as a complete analyzation of the riots of 1969. He wanted to create a reliable source of education over the “what,when, where, why, how?” of Stonewall. To support this, Carter states in his prologue, “how these various strands [of homophobic events] eventually came together to create a turning point for the gay rights movement is the subject of this history”(2).

Another huge social and cultural change during this time was the gay liberation movement. During the 1960’s, many groups decided to fight for their rights and equality. One of these groups was the gay and lesbian members of society. Many of these individuals were discriminated against and had no rights, but they decided enough was enough. In the 1960’s, gays decided to begin the fight for their own rights. One example of this was made after New York officers decided to raid the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York’s very own Greenwich Village on June 27, 1969. This type of raid was not unusual, being that many police officers made it a habit of raiding gay and lesbian bars. This became known as the “Stonewall Riot”, which many view as the starting point of the gay liberation movement. The gay liberation movement was the fight by gays and lesbians for equal rights, one of these rights being the right to not be discriminated against, and most importantly, to be able to openly “come out” to their family and friends. The gay liberation movement helped to impact our current times greatly. Today, a gay person has rights just like anyone else. A gay

Research Question: My research question involves the history of the LGBTQ community’s relationship with law enforcement, particularly around the time when the community had little to no support or protection under the jurisdiction of the United States. I am expanding my knowledge on the Stonewall Riot’s coverage within the media to discover if the framing of the protesters as militant was used to rally support behind a police force with a heteronormative agenda, in order to point out the biases that would have been overlooked in the original coverage of this event.

Life for most homosexuals during the first half of the Twentieth century was one of hiding, being ever so careful to not give away their true feelings and predilections. Although the 1920s saw a brief moment of openness in American society, that was quickly destroyed with the progress of the Cold War, and by default, that of McCarthyism. The homosexuals of the 50s “felt the heavy weight of medical prejudice, police harassment and church condemnation … [and] were not able to challenge these authorities.” They were constantly battered, both physically and emotionally, by the society that surrounded them. The very mention or rumor of one’s homosexuality could lead to the loss of their family, their livelihood and, in some cases, their

Two sources, “Movements and Memory: The Making of the Stonewall Myth” by Elizabeth A. Armstrong and Suzanna M. Crage, and Stonewall: the Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution by David Carter, are used to form a proper analysis. Carter effectively reflects on the monumental spirit of the riots, while Armstrong and Crage focused on the lack of lasting significance of the riots, which directly refutes the beliefs of Carter.

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.

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.

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by people who were apart of the LGBT community against the police raid that happened on the morning of July 28,1969, at the Stonewall Inn, located in Manhattan, New York City. It’s believed that Sylvia Rivera, a trans woman, was the first one who rightfully threw the first brick. These events are widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the LGBT liberation movement and the current fight for LGBT rights in America.

The history of LGBTQ+ Rights is, as any other civil rights movement, is a complex one. For decades these marginalized people have fought for their basic human rights not only to get married, but also to be protected in the workplace and use the restrooms in which they feel comfortable. Throughout much of history, they have been dehumanized and referred to as sexual deviants. The Stonewall Riots put the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement into motion. The photo being analyzed today was taken one year later on June 28, 1970, at what is now known as the first ever Gay Pride Parade. The photo is owned by gettyimages, though the watermark suggests that it belongs to a man named Fred W. McDarrah. The photo depicts an unnamed lesbian holding a sign which says

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

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.

Gay Americans had enough and were no longer going to live in fear or repression that society put on them. The riots took place at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village and are considered to be the single most important event that led to the liberation of homosexuals. Because of the police raid and the proceeding violent acts, it ignited a fire within the LGBT community that they were no longer going to stand for what they had gone through. They began building alliances with other civil rights groups and protesting in the streets. The Stonewall riots finally gave them a platform to make their voices heard and so began the start of working toward LGBT