Misplaced Pages

#243756

105-598: The Reminders were held each year from 1965 through 1969, with the final picket taking place shortly after the June 28 Stonewall riots , considered the flashpoint of the modern gay liberation movement. Reminder organizers decided to discontinue the July 4 pickets at this point, and shifted their focus to organizing the Christopher Street Liberation Day demonstration held June 28, 1970, to commemorate

210-757: A "Gay Power" demonstration in Washington Square Park , followed by a march to Sheridan Square within the West Village . On November 2, 1969, Craig Rodwell , his partner Fred Sargeant , Ellen Broidy , and Linda Rhodes proposed an annual march to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting in Philadelphia . We propose that

315-435: A community. By the early 1960s, a campaign to rid New York City of gay bars was in full effect by order of Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. , who was concerned about the image of the city in preparation for the 1964 World's Fair . The city revoked the liquor licenses of the bars and undercover police officers worked to entrap as many homosexual men as possible. Entrapment usually consisted of an undercover officer who found

420-417: A crowd that was incited to riot . Tensions between New York City police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more protests the next evening and again several nights later. Within weeks, Village residents quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested. Following

525-442: A demonstration be held annually on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street and this demonstration be called CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY. No dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration. We also propose that we contact Homophile organizations throughout the country and suggest that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day. We propose

630-506: A distinct subculture through the following two decades. Prohibition inadvertently benefited gay establishments, as drinking alcohol was pushed underground along with other behaviors considered immoral. New York City passed laws against homosexuality in public and private businesses, but because alcohol was in high demand, speakeasies and impromptu drinking establishments were so numerous and temporary that authorities were unable to police them all. However, police raids continued, resulting in

735-468: A fire hose. Because it had no water pressure, the hose was ineffective in dispersing the crowd and seemed only to encourage them. Marsha P. Johnson later said that it was the police that had started the fire in the bar. When demonstrators broke through the windows—which had been covered by plywood by the bar owners to deter the police from raiding the bar—the police inside unholstered their pistols. The doors flew open and officers pointed their weapons at

840-413: A head on that one particular night in the one particular place and it was not an organized demonstration... The only known photograph from the first night of the riots, taken by freelance photographer Joseph Ambrosini, shows the homeless gay youth who slept in nearby Christopher Park, scuffling with police. Jackie Hormona and Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt are on the far left. The Mattachine Society newsletter

945-609: A large feature about the Reminder and other homophile pickets in its October 1965 issue under the headline "Homos On The March". The Annual Reminder continued through July 4, 1969. This final Reminder occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Stonewall riots , where patrons of a Greenwich Village gay bar fought against police raiding the Stonewall Inn on June 28. Rodwell received several telephone calls threatening him and

1050-565: A man in a bar or public park, engaged him in conversation; if the conversation headed toward the possibility that they might leave together—or the officer bought the man a drink—he was arrested for solicitation . One story in the New York Post described an arrest in a gym locker room, where the officer grabbed his crotch, moaning, and a man who asked him if he was all right was arrested. Few lawyers would defend cases as undesirable as these and some of those lawyers kicked back their fees to

1155-478: A month later offered its explanation of why the riots occurred: "It catered largely to a group of people who are not welcome in, or cannot afford, other places of homosexual social gathering   ... The Stonewall became home to these kids. When it was raided, they fought for it. That and the fact that they had nothing to lose other than the most tolerant and broadminded gay place in town, explains why." Garbage cans, garbage, bottles, rocks, and bricks were hurled at

SECTION 10

#1732771973244

1260-698: A nationwide show of support. All attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for Mattachine Society of New York, which abstained. Members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) attended the meeting and were seated as guests of Rodwell's group, Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN). Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell's apartment in 350 Bleecker Street . At first there

1365-464: A peephole in order to get in. We were just out. We were in the streets." Thousands of people had gathered in front of the Stonewall, which had opened again, choking Christopher Street until the crowd spilled into adjoining blocks. The throng surrounded buses and cars, harassing the occupants unless they either admitted they were gay or indicated their support for the demonstrators. Marsha P. Johnson

1470-545: A report, "It is generally believed that those who engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of normal persons", and said all of the government's intelligence agencies "are in complete agreement that sex perverts in Government constitute security risks". Between 1947 and 1950, 1,700 federal job applications were denied, 4,380 people were discharged from the military, and 420 were fired from their government jobs for being suspected homosexuals. Throughout

1575-532: A restaurant and a nightclub for heterosexuals. Once a week a police officer would collect envelopes of cash as a payoff known as a gayola , as the Stonewall Inn had no liquor license . It had no running water behind the bar—dirty glasses were run through tubs of water and immediately reused. There were no fire exits, and the toilets overran consistently. Though the bar was not used for prostitution, drug sales and other black market activities took place. It

1680-516: A safe place to dance, as the DOB grew they developed similar goals to the Mattachine and urged their members to assimilate into general society. One of the first challenges to government repression came in 1953. An organization named ONE, Inc. published a magazine called ONE . The U.S. Postal Service refused to mail its August issue, which concerned homosexual people in heterosexual marriages, on

1785-417: A second wagon. The police began escorting Mafia members into the first wagon, to the cheers of the bystanders. Next, regular employees were loaded into the wagon. A bystander shouted, "Gay power!", someone began singing " We Shall Overcome " and the crowd reacted with amusement and general good humor mixed with "growing and intensive hostility". An officer shoved a person in drag, who responded by hitting him on

1890-543: A secret panel behind the bar, or in a car down the block, to facilitate resuming business as quickly as possible if alcohol was seized. Bar management usually knew about raids beforehand due to police tip-offs, and raids occurred early enough in the evening that business could commence after the police had finished. During a typical raid, the lights were turned on and customers were lined up and their identification cards checked. Those without identification or dressed in full drag were arrested; others were allowed to leave. Some of

1995-483: A series of spontaneous riots and demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn , in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City . Although the demonstrations were not the first time American homosexuals fought back against government-sponsored persecution of sexual minorities , the Stonewall riots marked a new beginning for

2100-652: A small riot at the Cooper Do-nuts café in Los Angeles in 1959 in response to police harassment. In a larger 1966 event in San Francisco, drag queens, hustlers, and trans women were sitting in Compton's Cafeteria when the police arrived to arrest people appearing to be physically male who were presenting as women. A riot ensued, with the cafeteria patrons slinging cups, plates, and saucers and breaking

2205-443: A strict dress code for participants, including jackets and ties for the men and dresses for the women. Kameny's goal was to represent homosexuals as "presentable and 'employable'". Picketers carried signs with such slogans as "HOMOSEXUAL BILL OF RIGHTS" and "15 MILLION HOMOSEXUAL AMERICANS ASK FOR EQUALITY, OPPORTUNITY, DIGNITY". The picket ran from 3:30 until 5:00 PM. Press coverage was sparse, although Confidential magazine ran

SECTION 20

#1732771973244

2310-677: A venue for corporate pinkwashing , rainbow capitalism , and assimilation of queer identities. Such critiques have given rise to various independent events conducted without permits or police. Since 1993 the NYC Dyke March has been held annually on the Saturday prior. Since 1994 the New York City Drag March has been held annually on the Friday prior; it began as a protest against the ban on leather and drag during

2415-406: A volunteer spearheaded, non-partisan , tax-exempt, non-profit organization. HOP welcomes participation regardless of age, creed, gender, gender identification, HIV status, national origin, physical, mental or developmental ability, race, or religion. HOP does not use qualifiers for participation. In 2021, NYC Pride organizers announced that uniformed law enforcement would be banned from marching in

2520-432: A woman in handcuffs was escorted from the door of the bar to the waiting police wagon several times. She escaped repeatedly and fought with four of the police, swearing and shouting, for about ten minutes. Described as "a typical New York butch" and "a dyke–stone butch", she had been hit on the head by an officer with a baton for, as one witness claimed, complaining that her handcuffs were too tight. Bystanders recalled that

2625-543: Is a depiction of a man pasting up a poster that itself depicts part of the Annual Reminder picket held in 1966; the poster features Barbara Gittings among others. The Annual Reminders were commemorated in 2005 by the placement of a Pennsylvania state historical marker by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission at 6th and Chestnut Streets. On July 4, 2015, the first Annual Reminder

2730-618: Is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in New York City . The largest pride parade and the largest pride event in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June, and carries spiritual and historical significance for the worldwide LGBTQIA+ community and its advocates. Entertainer Madonna stated in 2024, "Aside from my birthday, New York Pride

2835-614: Is the most important day of the year." The route through Lower Manhattan traverses south on Fifth Avenue , through Greenwich Village , passing the Stonewall National Monument , site of the June 1969 riots that launched the modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights . A central component of NYC Pride observances, the March occurs on the last Sunday in June. An estimated 4 million attended the parade in 2019, coinciding with

2940-409: The 50th anniversary of Stonewall , which drew 5 million visitors to Manhattan on Pride weekend. Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual , and transgender (LGBT) people rioted, following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn , a gay bar at 53 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village , Lower Manhattan . This event, together with further protests and rioting over

3045-707: The New York Post , and the Daily News to tell them what was happening. All three papers covered the riots; the Daily News placed coverage on the front page. News of the riot spread quickly throughout Greenwich Village, fueled by rumors that it had been organized by the Students for a Democratic Society , the Black Panthers , or triggered by "a homosexual police officer whose roommate went dancing at

3150-500: The Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer for that organization. Other mainstays of the organizing committee were Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and Brenda Howard of GLF. Believing that more people would turn out for the march on a Sunday, and so as to mark the date of the start of the Stonewall uprising,

3255-572: The United Nations and the White House . Similar demonstrations were then held also at other government buildings. The purpose was to protest the treatment of gay people in Cuba and U.S. employment discrimination. These pickets shocked many gay people and upset some of the leadership of Mattachine and the DOB. At the same time, demonstrations in the civil rights movement and opposition to

Annual Reminder - Misplaced Pages Continue

3360-498: The gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. American gays and lesbians in the 1950s and 1960s faced a legal system more anti-homosexual than those of some other Western and Eastern Bloc countries. Early homophile groups in the U.S. sought to prove that gay people could be assimilated into society, and they favored non-confrontational education for homosexuals and heterosexuals alike. The last years of

3465-508: The plexiglass windows in the front of the restaurant and returning several days later to smash the windows again after they were replaced. Professor Susan Stryker classifies the Compton's Cafeteria riot as an "act of anti-transgender discrimination, rather than an act of discrimination against sexual orientation" and connects the uprising to the issues of gender, race, and class that were being downplayed by homophile organizations. It marked

3570-592: The 1950s and 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and police departments kept lists of known homosexuals and their favored establishments and friends; the U.S. Post Office kept track of addresses where material pertaining to homosexuality was mailed. State and local governments followed suit: bars catering to gay men and lesbians were shut down and their customers were arrested and exposed in newspapers. Cities performed "sweeps" to rid neighborhoods, parks, bars, and beaches of gay people. They outlawed

3675-656: The 1960s, however, were very contentious, as many social movements were active, including the African American Civil Rights Movement , the Counterculture of the 1960s , and antiwar demonstrations . These influences, along with the liberal environment of Greenwich Village, served as catalysts for the Stonewall riots. Very few establishments welcomed openly gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. Those that did were often bars, although bar owners and managers were rarely gay. The Stonewall Inn

3780-729: The 25th anniversary of Stonewall. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Stonewall in 2019, the Reclaim Pride Coalition organized the first Queer Liberation March , held on Sunday morning, hours before the NYC Pride parade. The first march, in 1970, was front-page news in The New York Times reporting the march extended for about fifteen city blocks. The march had thousands of participants with organizers "who said variously 3,000 and 5,000 and even 20,000." The variance could be due, in part, that although

3885-487: The Mattachine of Washington, D.C. He had been fired from the U.S. Army Map Service for being a homosexual and sued unsuccessfully to be reinstated. Kameny wrote that homosexuals were no different from heterosexuals, often aiming his efforts at mental health professionals , some of whom attended Mattachine and DOB meetings telling members they were abnormal. In 1965, news on Cuban prison work camps for homosexuals inspired Mattachine New York and D.C. to organize protests at

3990-563: The Mattachine shifted their focus to assimilation and respectability. They reasoned that they would change more minds about homosexuality by proving that gay men and lesbians were normal people, no different from heterosexuals. Soon after, several women in San Francisco met in their living rooms to form the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) for lesbians. Although the eight women who created the DOB initially came together to be able to have

4095-632: The New York City Police Department arrived to free the police trapped inside the Stonewall. One officer's eye was cut and a few others were bruised from being struck by flying debris. Bob Kohler , who was walking his dog by the Stonewall that night, saw the TPF arrive: I had been in enough riots to know the fun was over   ... The cops were totally humiliated. This never, ever happened. They were angrier than I guess they had ever been because everybody else had rioted   ... but

4200-553: The November 1–2, 1969 meeting of the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (the successor to ECHO), Ellen Broidy of the NYU Student Homophile League presented Craig Rodwell 's proposal for a new commemorative demonstration. The conference passed a resolution drafted by Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant , Broidy and Linda Rhodes to move the demonstration from July 4 in Philadelphia to

4305-416: The Stonewall Inn for their own safety. Multiple accounts of the riot assert that there was no pre-existing organization or apparent cause for the demonstration; what ensued was spontaneous. Michael Fader explained: We all had a collective feeling like we'd had enough of this kind of shit. It wasn't anything tangible anybody said to anyone else, it was just kind of like everything over the years had come to

Annual Reminder - Misplaced Pages Continue

4410-480: The Stonewall against the officer's wishes". All day Saturday, June 28, people came to stare at the burned and blackened Stonewall Inn. Graffiti appeared on the walls of the bar, declaring "Drag power", "They invaded our rights", "Support gay power" and "Legalize gay bars", along with accusations of police looting and—regarding the status of the bar—"We are open." The next night, rioting again surrounded Christopher Street; participants remember differently which night

4515-478: The Stonewall riots, sexual minorities in New York City faced gender, class, and generational obstacles to becoming a cohesive community. In the weeks and months after, they initiated politically active social organizations and launched publications that spoke openly about rights for gay people. The first anniversary of the riots was marked by peaceful demonstrations in several American cities that have since grown to become pride parades . The Stonewall National Monument

4620-441: The U.S. government, the U.S. Army , and other government-funded agencies and institutions, leading to a national paranoia. Anarchists , communists , and other people deemed un-American and subversive were considered security risks. Gay men and lesbians were included in this list by the U.S. State Department on the theory that they were susceptible to blackmail . In 1950, a Senate investigation chaired by Clyde R. Hoey noted in

4725-527: The Vietnam War all grew in prominence, frequency, and severity throughout the 1960s, as did their confrontations with police forces. On the outer fringes of the few small gay communities were people who challenged gender expectations. They were effeminate men and masculine women, or people who dressed and lived in contrast to their sex assigned at birth , either part or full-time. Contemporaneous nomenclature classified them as transvestites and they were

4830-411: The angry crowd, threatening to shoot. Howard Smith, in the bar with the police, took a wrench from the bar and stuffed it in his pants, unsure if he might have to use it against the mob or the police. He watched someone squirt lighter fluid into the bar; as it was lit and the police took aim, sirens were heard and fire trucks arrived. The onslaught had lasted 45 minutes. When the violence broke out,

4935-589: The anniversary of the riot. This became the first Gay Pride Parade . Activist Craig Rodwell conceived of the event following a picket at the White House on April 17, 1965, by members of the New York City and Washington, D.C. chapters of the Mattachine Society , Philadelphia's Janus Society , and the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis . The groups operated under the collective name East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO). The name of

5040-558: The arresting officer. The Mattachine Society succeeded in getting newly elected mayor John Lindsay to end the campaign of police entrapment in New York City. They had a more difficult time with the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA). While no laws prohibited serving homosexuals, courts allowed the SLA discretion in approving and revoking liquor licenses for businesses that might become "disorderly". Despite

5145-500: The back with a nightstick ." Another account stated, "I just can't ever get that one sight out of my mind. The cops with the [nightsticks] and the kick line on the other side. It was the most amazing thing   ... And all the sudden that kick line, which I guess was a spoof on the machismo   ... I think that's when I felt rage. Because people were getting smashed with bats. And for what? A kick line." Marsha P. Johnson , an African-American street queen , recalled arriving at

5250-441: The bar around "2:00 [am]", and that at that point the riots were well underway, with the building in flames. As the riots went on into the early hours of the morning, Johnson, along with Zazu Nova and Jackie Hormona, were noted as "three individuals known to have been in the vanguard" of the pushback against the police. Craig Rodwell , owner of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop , reported watching police chase participants through

5355-557: The bar early that evening to gather visual evidence, as the Public Morals Squad waited outside for the signal. Once ready, the undercover officers called for backup from the Sixth Precinct using the bar's pay telephone. Stonewall employees do not recall being tipped off that a raid was to occur that night, as was the custom. The music was turned off and the main lights were turned on. Approximately 200 people were in

SECTION 50

#1732771973244

5460-420: The bar that night. Patrons who had never experienced a police raid were confused. A few who realized what was happening began to run for doors and windows in the bathrooms, but police barred the doors. Michael Fader remembered, "Things happened so fast you kind of got caught not knowing. All of a sudden there were police there and we were told to all get in lines and to have our identification ready to be led out of

5565-488: The bar." The raid did not go as planned. Standard procedure was to line up the patrons, check their identification and have female police officers take customers dressed as women to the bathroom to verify their sex, upon which any people appearing to be physically male and dressed as women would be arrested. Those dressed as women that night refused to go with the officers. Men in line began to refuse to produce their identification. The police decided to take everyone present to

5670-428: The beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco. The Manhattan neighborhoods of Greenwich Village and Harlem were home to sizable gay and lesbian populations after World War I , when people who had served in the military took advantage of the opportunity to settle in larger cities. The enclaves of gay men and lesbians, described by a newspaper story as "short-haired women and long-haired men", developed

5775-406: The building, breaking the windows. Witnesses attest that "flame queens", hustlers, and gay "street kids"—the most outcast people in the gay community—were responsible for the first volley of projectiles, as well as the uprooting of a parking meter used as a battering ram on the doors of the Stonewall Inn. The mob lit garbage on fire and stuffed it through the broken windows as the police grabbed

5880-430: The cause of gay men and lesbians and provide opportunities where they could socialize without fear of being arrested. Los Angeles area homosexuals created the Mattachine Society in 1950, in the home of communist activist Harry Hay . Their objectives were to unify homosexuals, educate them, provide leadership, and assist "sexual deviants" with legal troubles. Facing enormous opposition to their radical approach, in 1953

5985-419: The clientele ranged between the upper teens and early thirties and the racial mix was distributed among mainly white, with Black, and Hispanic patrons. Because of its mix of people, its location, and the attraction of dancing, the Stonewall Inn was known by many as " the gay bar in the city". Police raids on gay bars were frequent, occurring on average once a month for each bar. Many bars kept extra liquor in

6090-752: The closure of iconic establishments such as Eve's Hangout in 1926. The social repression of the 1950s resulted in a cultural revolution in Greenwich Village. A cohort of poets, later named the Beat poets, wrote about the evils of the social organization at the time, glorifying anarchy, drugs, and hedonistic pleasures over unquestioning social compliance, consumerism, and closed-mindedness. Of them, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs —both Greenwich Village residents—also wrote bluntly and honestly about homosexuality. Their writings attracted sympathetic liberal-minded people, as well as homosexuals looking for

6195-537: The committee scheduled the date for the first march for Sunday, June 28, 1970. With Dick Leitsch's replacement as president of Mattachine NY by Michael Kotis in April 1970, opposition to the march by Mattachine ended. There was little open animosity, and some bystanders applauded when a tall, pretty girl carrying a sign "I am a Lesbian" walked by.  – The New York Times coverage of Gay Liberation Day, 1970 Christopher Street Liberation Day on June 28, 1970, marked

6300-603: The crooked streets, only to see them appear around the next corner behind the police. Members of the mob stopped cars, overturning one of them to block Christopher Street. Jack Nichols and Lige Clarke , in their column printed in Screw , declared that "massive crowds of angry protesters chased [the police] for blocks screaming, 'Catch them! ' " By 4:00 am, the streets had nearly been cleared. Many people sat on stoops or gathered nearby in Christopher Park throughout

6405-417: The crowd were hospitalized, and four police officers were injured. Almost everything in the Stonewall Inn was broken. Inspector Pine had intended to close and dismantle the Stonewall Inn that night. Pay phones, toilets, mirrors, jukeboxes , and cigarette machines were all smashed, possibly in the riot and possibly by the police. During the siege of the Stonewall, Craig Rodwell called The New York Times ,

SECTION 60

#1732771973244

6510-438: The crowd, knocking a few people down, which incited bystanders even more. Some of those handcuffed in the wagon escaped when police left them unattended (deliberately, according to some witnesses). As the crowd tried to overturn the police wagon, two police cars and the wagon—with a few slashed tires—left immediately, with Inspector Pine urging them to return as soon as possible. The commotion attracted more people who learned what

6615-441: The doorman or 'look gay'. Patrons were required to sign their names in a book to prove that the bar was a private "bottle club", but they rarely signed their real names. There were two dance floors in the Stonewall. The interior was painted black, making it very dark inside, with pulsing gel lights or black lights . If police were spotted, regular white lights were turned on, signaling that everyone should stop dancing or touching. In

6720-614: The event was selected to remind the American people that a substantial number of American citizens were denied the rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" enumerated in the United States Declaration of Independence . Enthused by Rodwell's idea, ECHO put together the first Reminder picket in just over two months. Thirty-nine people attended the first picket, including veteran activists Frank Kameny , Barbara Gittings , and Kay Tobin . Kameny insisted on

6825-432: The fairies were not supposed to riot   ... no group had ever forced cops to retreat before, so the anger was just enormous. I mean, they wanted to kill. With larger numbers, police detained anyone they could and put them in patrol wagons to go to jail, though Inspector Pine recalled, "Fights erupted with the transvestites, who wouldn't go into the patrol wagon." His recollection was corroborated by another witness across

6930-603: The first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with a march from Sheridan Square , covering the 51 blocks to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park . The march took less than half the scheduled time due to excitement, but also due to wariness about walking through the city with gay banners and signs. Although the parade permit was delivered only two hours before the start of the march, participants encountered little resistance from onlookers. The New York Times reported (on

7035-462: The first three hours of each years march (which has had an actual run time over nine hours in 2017 and 2018). Both the 2017 and 2018 broadcasts were Emmy nominated programs. In 2022, the WABC-TV broadcast was also available via streaming from ABC News Live and Hulu . Over the course of five decades, various groups have accused the NYC Pride March of losing its political, activist roots and becoming

7140-497: The following nights, marked a watershed moment in the modern LGBT rights movement and the impetus for organizing LGBT pride marches on a much larger scale. Veterans of the riot formed a group, the Stonewall Veterans Association, which has continued to drive the advancement of LGBT rights from the rioting at the Stonewall Inn, to the present day. In the weeks following the riots, 500 people gathered for

7245-415: The form of a chorus line facing the line of helmeted and club-carrying cops. Just as the line got into a full kick routine, the TPF advanced again and cleared the crowd of screaming gay power[-]ites down Christopher to Seventh Avenue." One participant who had been in the Stonewall during the raid recalled, "The police rushed us and that's when I realized this is not a good thing to do, because they got me in

7350-406: The front door, but they did not leave quickly as usual. Instead, they stopped outside and a crowd began to grow and watch. Within minutes, between 100 and 150 people had congregated outside, some after they were released from inside the Stonewall and some after noticing the police cars and the crowd. Although the police forcefully pushed or kicked some patrons out of the bar, some customers released by

7455-605: The front page) that the march extended for about 15 city blocks. Reporting by The Village Voice was positive, describing "the out-front resistance that grew out of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn one year ago". There was also an assembly on Christopher Street. The first March in 1970 was organized by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee. Since 1984, the parade and related LGBT pride events in New York City have been produced and organized by Heritage of Pride (HOP),

7560-615: The grounds that the material was obscene despite it being covered in brown paper wrapping. The case eventually went to the Supreme Court , which in 1958 ruled that ONE, Inc. could mail its materials through the Postal Service. Homophile organizations—as homosexual groups self-identified in this era—grew in number and spread to the East Coast. Gradually, members of these organizations grew bolder. Frank Kameny founded

7665-438: The head with her purse. The cop clubbed her over the head, as the crowd began to boo. Author Edmund White , who had been passing by, recalled, "Everyone's restless, angry, and high-spirited. No one has a slogan, no one even has an attitude, but something's brewing." Pennies, then beer bottles, were thrown at the wagon as a rumor spread through the crowd that patrons still inside the bar were being beaten. A scuffle broke out when

7770-605: The high population of gay men and lesbians who called Greenwich Village home, very few places existed, other than bars, where they were able to congregate openly without being harassed or arrested. In 1966 the New York Mattachine held a "sip-in" at a Greenwich Village bar named Julius , which was frequented by gay men, to illustrate the discrimination homosexuals faced. None of the bars frequented by gay men and lesbians were owned by gay people. Almost all of them were owned and controlled by organized crime , who treated

7875-442: The last night for bullshit   ... Predominantly, the theme [w]as, "this shit has got to stop!" —anonymous Stonewall riots participant The police were to transport the bar's alcohol in patrol wagons. Twenty-eight cases of beer and nineteen bottles of hard liquor were seized, but the patrol wagons had not yet arrived, so patrons were required to wait in line for about 15 minutes. Those who were not arrested were released from

7980-565: The last weekend in June in New York City , as well as proposing to "other organizations throughout the country... suggest(ing) that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day" to commemorate the Stonewall riots. The newly located event in New York City became known as Christopher Street Liberation Day . As part of the mural "Pride and Progress" by Ann Northrup (located on the side of the William Way LGBT Community Center at 1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia) there

8085-470: The majority of witnesses described as "sissies" or "swishes", the crowd surged to recapture them. Again, street battling ensued until 4:00 am. Beat poet and longtime Greenwich Village resident Allen Ginsberg lived on Christopher Street and happened upon the jubilant chaos. After he learned of the riot that had occurred the previous evening, he stated, "Gay power! Isn't that great!   ... It's about time we did something to assert ourselves" and visited

8190-632: The march started with over a dozen homosexual and feminist contingents, parade spectators were encouraged to join the procession. Currently, Heritage of Pride requires preregistration of marchers, and sets up barricades along the entire route discouraging the practice. Although estimating crowd size is an imprecise science, the NYC March is consistently considered the largest Pride parade in North America, with 2.1 million people in 2015, and 2.5 million in 2016. In 2018, attendance

8295-465: The men, including those in drag, used their draft cards as identification. Women were required to wear three pieces of feminine clothing and would be arrested if found not wearing them. Typically, employees and management of the bars were also arrested. The period immediately before June 28, 1969, was marked by frequent raids of local bars—including a raid at the Stonewall Inn on the Tuesday before

8400-438: The morning, dazed in disbelief at what had transpired. Many witnesses remembered the surreal and eerie quiet that descended upon Christopher Street, though there continued to be "electricity in the air". One commented: "There was a certain beauty in the aftermath of the riot   ... It was obvious, at least to me, that a lot of people really were gay and, you know, this was our street." Thirteen people had been arrested. Some in

8505-517: The most visible representatives of sexual minorities. They belied the carefully crafted image portrayed by the Mattachine Society and DOB asserted homosexuals were respectable, normal people. The Mattachine and DOB considered the trials of being arrested for wearing clothing of the opposite gender as a parallel to the struggles of homophile organizations: similar but distinctly separate. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people staged

8610-457: The open Stonewall Inn for the first time. While walking home, he declared to Lucian Truscott, "You know, the guys there were so beautiful—they've lost that wounded look that fags all had 10 years ago." Activist Mark Segal recounts that Martha Shelley and Marty Robinson stood and made speeches from the front door of the Stonewall on June 29, 1969, the second night of the riot. LGBT Pride March (New York City) The NYC Pride March

8715-467: The other New York participants, but he was able to arrange for police protection for the chartered bus all the way to Philadelphia. About 45 people participated, including the deputy mayor of Philadelphia and his wife. The dress code was still in effect at the Reminder, but two women from the New York contingent broke from the single-file picket line and held hands. When Kameny tried to break them apart, Rodwell furiously denounced him to onlooking members of

8820-507: The parade until 2025, when the ban will be reexamined by committees and the executive board of NYC Pride. For many years, the march was only available locally to Time Warner Cable customers, via its NY1 news channel. In 2017 WABC-TV broadcast the NYC LGBT Pride March live for the first time regionally, and made the stream available to all parts of the globe where such content is accessible. WABC-TV continues to broadcast

8925-411: The police performed for the crowd by posing and saluting the police in an exaggerated fashion. The crowd's applause encouraged them further. When the first patrol wagon arrived, Inspector Pine recalled that the crowd—most of whom were homosexual—had grown to at least ten times the number of people who were arrested and they all became very quiet. Confusion over radio communication delayed the arrival of

9030-399: The police station, after separating those suspected of cross-dressing in a room in the back of the bar. All parties involved recall that a sense of discomfort spread very quickly, started by police who assaulted some of the lesbians by "feeling some of them up inappropriately" while frisking them. When did you ever see a fag fight back?   ... Now, times were a-changin'. Tuesday night was

9135-677: The press. Similarly to Stonewall, most of the major Philadelphia newspapers failed to cover the Annual Reminder, with limited notice in Philadelphia Tribune , The Distant Drummer , and the Temple Free Press . Following the 1969 Annual Reminder, there was a sense, particularly among the younger and more radical participants, that the time for silent picketing had passed. As Frank Kameny put it, "[P]icketing as such had become questionable. Dissent and dissatisfaction had begun to take new and more emphatic forms in society." At

9240-488: The rear of the bar was a smaller room frequented by "queens"; it was one of two bars where effeminate men who wore makeup and teased their hair (though dressed in men's clothing) could go. Only a few people in full drag were allowed in by the bouncers. The customers were "98 percent male" but a few lesbians sometimes came to the bar. Younger homeless adolescent males, who slept in nearby Christopher Park , would often try to get in so customers would buy them drinks. The age of

9345-515: The regulars poorly, watered down the liquor, and overcharged for drinks. However, they also paid off police to prevent frequent raids. The Stonewall Inn, located at 51 and 53 Christopher Street , along with several other establishments in the city, was owned by the Genovese crime family . In 1966, three members of the Mafia invested $ 3,500 to turn the Stonewall Inn into a gay bar, after it had been

9450-607: The revolt from a bar two doors away from the Stonewall. Though Van Ronk was not gay, he had experienced police violence when he participated in antiwar demonstrations: "As far as I was concerned, anybody who'd stand against the cops was all right with me and that's why I stayed in   ... Every time you turned around the cops were pulling some outrage or another." Van Ronk was the first of thirteen arrested that night. Ten police officers—including two policewomen—barricaded themselves, Van Ronk, Howard Smith (a column writer for The Village Voice ), and several handcuffed detainees inside

9555-561: The riots —and the closing of the Checkerboard, the Tele-Star, and two other clubs in Greenwich Village. At 1:20 a.m. on Saturday, June 28, 1969, four plainclothes policemen in dark suits, two patrol officers in uniform, Detective Charles Smythe, and Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine arrived at the Stonewall Inn's double doors and announced "Police! We're taking the place!" Two undercover policewomen and two undercover policemen entered

9660-659: The street who said, "All I could see about who was fighting was that it was transvestites and they were fighting furiously." The TPF formed a phalanx and attempted to clear the streets by marching slowly and pushing the crowd back. The mob openly mocked the police. The crowd cheered, started impromptu kick lines and sang to the tune of " Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay ": "We are the Stonewall girls/ We wear our hair in curls/ We don't wear underwear/ We show our pubic hair." Lucian Truscott reported in The Village Voice : "A stagnant situation there brought on some gay tomfoolery in

9765-612: The wearing of opposite-gender clothes and universities expelled instructors suspected of being homosexual. In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ( DSM ) as a mental disorder. A large-scale study of homosexuality in 1962 was used to justify the inclusion of the "disorder" as a supposed pathological hidden fear of the opposite sex caused by traumatic parent–child relationships. This view

9870-410: The woman, whose identity remains unknown ( Stormé DeLarverie has been identified by some, including herself, as the woman, but accounts vary ), sparked the crowd to fight when she looked at bystanders and shouted, "Why don't you guys do something?" After an officer picked her up and heaved her into the back of the wagon, the crowd became a mob and became violent. The police tried to restrain some of

9975-465: The women and transmasculine people being held down the street at The Women's House of Detention joined in by chanting, setting fire to their belongings and tossing them into the street below. The historian Hugh Ryan says, "When I would talk to people about Stonewall, they would tell me, that night on Stonewall, we looked to the prison because we saw the women rioting and chanting, 'Gay rights, gay rights, gay rights.'" The Tactical Patrol Force (TPF) of

10080-564: Was difficulty getting some of the major New York City organizations like Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) to send representatives. Craig Rodwell and his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Michael Brown, Marty Nixon, and Foster Gunnison Jr. of Mattachine made up the core group of the CSLD Umbrella Committee (CSLDUC). For initial funding, Gunnison served as treasurer and sought donations from the national homophile organizations and sponsors, while Sargeant solicited donations via

10185-495: Was established at the site in 2016. Today, pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots. Following the social upheaval of World War II , many people in the United States felt a fervent desire to "restore the prewar social order and hold off the forces of change", according to historian Barry Adam . Spurred by the national emphasis on anti-communism , Senator Joseph McCarthy conducted hearings searching for communists in

10290-413: Was estimated around two million. In 2024, the estimated crowd size was 2.5 million. In 2019, as part of Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC , an estimated 5 million people took part over the final weekend of the celebrations, with an estimated 4 million in attendance at the parade. The 12-hour parade included 150,000 pre-registered participants among 695 groups. It was the largest parade of any kind in

10395-580: Was happening. Someone in the crowd declared that the bar had been raided because "they didn't pay off the cops", to which someone else yelled, "Let's pay them off!" Coins sailed through the air towards the police as the crowd shouted "Pigs!" and "Faggot cops!" Beer cans were thrown and the police lashed out, dispersing some of the crowd who found a construction site nearby with stacks of bricks. The police, outnumbered by between 500 and 600 people, grabbed several people, including activist folk singer (and mentor of Bob Dylan ) Dave Van Ronk —who had been attracted to

10500-405: Was more frantic or violent. Many of the same people returned from the previous evening—hustlers, street youths, and "queens"—but they were joined by "police provocateurs", curious bystanders, and even tourists. Remarkable to many was the sudden exhibition of homosexual affection in public, as described by one witness: "From going to places where you had to knock on a door and speak to someone through

10605-465: Was owned by the Mafia and catered to an assortment of patrons, popular among the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens , representatives of a newly self-aware transgender community, effeminate young men, hustlers , and homeless youth. Police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn and attracted

10710-417: Was recreated as part of the celebration of the action's 50th anniversary. The 1995 film Stonewall presents a fictionalized Annual Reminder. However, the film sets the Reminder earlier in the summer, predating the June 28 Stonewall riots. Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising , Stonewall rebellion , Stonewall revolution , or simply Stonewall ) were

10815-488: Was seen climbing a lamppost and dropping a heavy bag onto the hood of a police car, shattering the windshield. As on the previous evening, fires were started in garbage cans throughout the neighborhood. More than a hundred police were present from the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Precincts , but after 2:00 a.m. the TPF arrived again. Kick lines and police chases waxed and waned; when police captured demonstrators, whom

10920-442: Was the only bar for gay men in New York City where dancing was allowed; dancing was its main draw since its re-opening as a gay club. Visitors to the Stonewall Inn in 1969 were greeted by a bouncer who inspected them through a peephole in the door. The legal drinking age was 18 and to avoid unwittingly letting in undercover police (who were called "Lily Law", "Alice Blue Gown", or "Betty Badge" ), visitors would have to be known by

11025-530: Was widely influential in the medical profession. In 1956, the psychologist Evelyn Hooker performed a study that compared the happiness and well-adjusted nature of self-identified homosexual men with heterosexual men and found no difference. Her study stunned the medical community and made her a hero to many gay men and lesbians, but homosexuality remained in the DSM until 1974. In response to this trend, two organizations formed independently of each other to advance

#243756