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167-534: The Stonewall Inn in the gay village of Greenwich Village , Manhattan , New York City , was the site of the June 1969 Stonewall riots , and became the cradle of the modern LGBT rights movement , and the subsequent gay liberation movement. Early in the seventies, annual political marches through major cities, (usually held in June, originally to commemorate the yearly anniversary of the events at Stonewall) were still known as "Gay Liberation" marches. Not until later in

334-401: A New York Times article from that year, described 53 Christopher Street as having wood-paneled walls, wood columns, and rhombus-shaped mirrors, giving the appearance of a "never-ending abstract forest". A commemorative plaque was installed on the facade in 1979 on the tenth anniversary of the riots. After serving as a bagel shop, 53 Christopher Street became a Chinese restaurant, known as

501-626: A 1961 reunion party for performers involved with the play Summer and Smoke . The eatery had become Bonnie's Stonewall Inn by the 1940s and the Stonewall Inn Restaurant by the 1950s or 1960s. The interior of the restaurant was destroyed by fire in the 1960s, and the structures at 51 through 61 Christopher Street were sold in March 1965. Sources disagree over whether the new owner was Burt and Lucille Handelsman or Joel Weiser. The restaurant had definitely shuttered by 1966. After

668-402: A 3,700-square-foot (340 m ) visitor center, containing interactive displays and exhibits about the bar and national monument. The visitor center includes a "content story wall" with information about people involved in the riot, a 1960s jukebox similar to the one used in the original bar, and a theater-like space with golden shovels bearing the names of the visitor center's sponsors. There

835-452: A Genovese mafioso who controlled various mob-operated bars, collected a portion of the bar's profits. The owners believed that a business catering to the LGBT community might turn a profit; in return, they demanded regular payoffs for protection. Stonewall's owners could not obtain a liquor license because state law in the 1960s did not allow bartenders to legally serve LGBT people. At

1002-589: A bakery until 1933, while the Ycre family lived on the second floor. Meanwhile, Vincent Bonavia had opened Bonnie's Stone Wall (or Bonnie's Stonewall) at 91 Seventh Avenue South, near the Christopher Street buildings, in 1930. Bonnie's Stonewall might have been named after The Stone Wall , a lesbian autobiography by Mary Casal . The historian David Carter wrote that, even in the 1930s, this may have been an attempt to subtly welcome queer women. The bar

1169-498: A bartender described tourists as comprising most of the visitors. There was a gift shop behind the bar room. The neighboring structure, at 51 Christopher Street, was operating as a nail salon. The Duell family sold 51–53 Christopher Street and five other buildings in 2015 to a holding company associated with Alan Wasserman, which paid $ 57 million. After the Stonewall National Monument was established around

1336-403: A brick windowsill, which in turn is flanked by arched entrances. The entrance to the left is a narrow semicircular arch . The entrance to the right is a segmental arch , with wooden double doors. On the second story, the stucco facade is scored horizontally, and there is a rectangular iron flower-box holder beneath each of the three windows. By the 21st century, a neon sign with the bar's name

1503-486: A clothing store. The bar at number 53 sold souvenirs and was one of several remaining gay bars on the street. The bar buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1999 and further designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2000. Due to repeated noise complaints, by the 2000s, patrons were required to enter through an adjacent building on Seventh Avenue South, rather than

1670-516: A combined 23 apartments. Despite the bar's significance to the LGBT community, David W. Dunlap of The New York Times wrote: "An architectural monument, Stonewall is not". Ginia Bellafante wrote for the same newspaper in 2015 that the buildings were architecturally undistinguished but received an "A for meaning". Directly south of the two structures is Christopher Park , a 0.19-acre (770 m ; 8,300 sq ft) pocket park between Christopher, West 4th, and Grove streets. In tribute to

1837-588: A crowd estimated at 500,000 people. The show featured Sir Elton John , Patti LaBelle , Bryan Adams , and Rufus Wainwright . On a recent anniversary of PGN, an editorial in The Philadelphia Inquirer stated: "Segal and PGN continue to step up admirably to the challenge set for newspapers by H.L. Mencken : to afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted." By the summer of 1970, groups in at least eight American cities were sufficiently organized to schedule simultaneous events commemorating

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2004-517: A dollar, more than in contemporary bars, even though they were watered-down drinks that were, in many cases, acquired illegally. The owners could earn up to $ 5,000 on Fridays and $ 6,500 on Saturdays, and, given the monthly rent of $ 300, recouped their $ 3,500 investment soon after opening. The cash registers were taken the first time the New York City Police Department (NYPD) raided the bar; thereafter, Stonewall's income

2171-534: A lawsuit against the local police chief in 1973, asserting malicious harassment. The Miami Beach establishment burned down shortly before 7:00 a.m. on March 2, 1974, following a suspected arson . Manny E. Duell, the operator of a holding company named 51 to 61 Christopher Corp., took over the buildings in March 1970. The owners submitted alteration plans to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and

2338-423: A long bar with narrow stools, and there was a dance floor at the rear. Swinging doors led from the main room, up one step, to the back room at 53 Christopher Street. The back room contained a bar at its rear. Toward the rear of the bar were the men's and women's restrooms, which had doors from both the main and back rooms. The interior of the original Stonewall Inn was divided into two spaces and redesigned after

2505-459: A long bar, jukebox, tables, and seating booths. The facade was nondescript, and the only external indication of the club's existence was a small sign proclaiming that it was a private, members-only club. When it opened, Stonewall "was a small gay bar just like any other", as the LGBT newspaper Gay News would later describe it. Its manager was Ed Murphy (also known as the Skull), an ex-convict who

2672-518: A men's clothing store. A gay bar named New Jimmy's opened at the Stonewall site in May 1990, serving the city's growing outwardly LGBT community. The space was operated by Jimmy Pisano, a first-time bar owner who, according to his boyfriend Thomas Garguilo, was initially loath to name the bar "Stonewall" because of the sudden closure of the similarly named bar next door. Rather, Pisano initially named

2839-497: A more civil demonstration of over 200 attendees several days later protesting the raids. The protest was met by squadrons of armed policemen. It was from this event that the publication The Advocate and organization Metropolitan Community Church (led by Pastor Troy Perry ) were born. Few areas in the U.S. saw a more diverse mix of subcultures than Greenwich Village, which was host to the gay street youth. A group of young, effeminate runaways, shunned by their families, society, and

3006-620: A non-profit and apply for the EOC grant. The organization dissolved due to internal clashes in late 1966 and early 1967. Former members reorganized as The Gay and Lesbian Center and Glide re-directed the EOC funds intended for Vanguard to form a service agency and new non-profit The Hospitality House. On March 28, 1969, in San Francisco, Leo Laurence (the editor of Vector , magazine of the United States' largest homophile organization,

3173-506: A nondescript space with stools and a pool table. There is also a side room with red lighting. Inside is the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor , which was established in 2019 to honor notable LGBT individuals. The modern bar has contained a variety of pride flags; banknotes collected from foreign visitors; pictures and newspaper clippings about the riots; and a sign indicating that the bar had been raided. The second story of

3340-455: A one-man operation on the part of Craig Rodwell , was already espousing the slogans "Gay Power" and "Gay is Good" in its publication HYMNAL . The 1960s was a time of social upheaval in the West, and the sexual revolution and counterculture influenced changes in the homosexual subculture , which in the U.S. included bookshops, publicly sold newspapers and magazines, and a community center. It

3507-403: A partition in 51 Christopher Street to create a dance floor, while another partition was installed in 53 Christopher Street. Alice Echols, in a 2010 book, cited the two dance floors as possibly having "helped to undermine the sort of sexual indirection and repression that characterized most gay bars". The bar's lack of a license made it vulnerable to police raids. The owners gave cash bribes to

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3674-544: A photo of him by Mother Boats appeared in the Berkley Barb , next to the headline "HOMOS, DON'T HIDE IT!", the revolutionary article by Leo Laurence. The same month Carl Wittman , a member of CHF began writing Refugees from Amerika: A Gay Manifesto , which would later be described as "the bible of Gay Liberation". It was first published in the San Francisco Free Press and distributed nationwide, all

3841-589: A poor sound system, and the toilets were regularly clogged, giving the Stonewall Inn a reputation for filthiness. The buildings, at the time, did not have a rear emergency exit, which not only precluded Stonewall from receiving a liquor license but also created a fire hazard. Additionally, the bar's employees were known to have engaged in blackmail. In the 1969 edition of the New York Mattachine Society 's guidebook to gay clubs around

4008-461: A private club's license for Stonewall, as they intended to serve LGBT people without obtaining a license from the NYSLA. After acquiring the buildings, the owners renovated the exterior, blacked out the windows for privacy, and reinforced the wooden front doors with steel plates in anticipation of police raids. The new operators added peepholes and several locks to the front doors, and they removed

4175-502: A result the staff were unconcerned about being arrested. By June 1969, campaigning for that year's mayoral election had precipitated frequent raids in local bars, including one at the Stonewall Inn less than a week before the Stonewall riots. The raids targeted not only gay bars but also straight bars frequented by minorities, and several clubs in Greenwich Village closed because of these raids. According to Rodwell and

4342-414: A revolutionary group of men and women formed with the realization that complete sexual liberation for all people cannot come about unless existing social institutions are abolished. We reject society's attempt to impose sexual roles and definitions of our nature. Gay Liberation Front activist Martha Shelley wrote, "We are women and men who, from the time of our earliest memories, have been in revolt against

4509-592: A synonym for tribade that also refers to rubbing but has a Latin rather than a Greek root, appeared in English as early as 1605 (in Ben Jonson 's Volpone ). Its usage suggests that it was more colloquial and more pejorative than tribade . Variants include the Latinized confricatrice and English rubster . Though sodomy has been used to refer to a range of homosexual and heterosexual " unnatural acts ",

4676-433: A team of eight undercover officers, led by Pine, raided the bar. As was customary, the police began to check patrons' identification. The routine raid did not go as planned, as patrol wagons for the arrested patrons took longer to arrive than expected. A scuffle broke out when a butch lesbian in handcuffs was escorted from the door of the bar to the waiting police wagon several times. The police tried to restrain some of

4843-518: A tourist attraction and a symbol of the LGBT community after the riots, and various works of media about the bar have been created over the years. In part because of its impact on LGBT culture, the Stonewall Inn is the first LGBT cultural site designated as a National Historic Landmark and a New York City designated landmark . The bar is also part of the Stonewall National Monument, the first U.S. National Monument dedicated to

5010-401: A vertical sign, though this has since been removed. There was also a stoop at 51 Christopher Street's entrance, which was removed when the building became a visitor center. When the Stonewall Inn was turned into an LGBT bar, the bar was split into two primary rooms, one in each building. The bar had almost no decoration and scant lighting, and what little decoration did exist was destroyed on

5177-487: Is also artwork, as well as information about the history of the building and the riots. The visitor center also includes restrooms and space for park rangers. The interior of the visitor center is decorated in white, and the doorway to the existing bar at 53 Christopher Street has been bricked up. One observer for the magazine Fast Company said the visitor center "makes Stonewall a sanitary, consumable story", while The New York Times art critic Holland Cotter wrote of

Gay liberation - Misplaced Pages Continue

5344-575: Is even used synonymously or interchangeably with the gay rights movement . The Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee was formed in New York City to commemorate the first anniversary of the June 1969 Stonewall riots , the beginning of the international tradition of a late-June event to celebrate gay pride. The annual gay pride festivals in Berlin , Cologne , and other German cities are known as Christopher Street Days or "CSD"s. Although

5511-488: Is often considered a derogatory epithet . Coined by the German astrologist, author and psychoanalyst Karl-Günther Heimsoth in his 1924 doctoral dissertation Hetero- und Homophilie , the term was in common use in the 1950s and 1960s by homosexual organizations and publications; the groups of this period are now known collectively as the homophile movement . Popular in the 1950s and 1960s (and still in occasional use in

5678-461: Is the founder and publisher of the award-winning Philadelphia Gay News which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. In 1973 Segal disrupted the CBS evening news with Walter Cronkite , an event covered in newspapers across the country and viewed by 60% of American households, many seeing or hearing about homosexuality for the first time. Before the networks agreed to put a stop to censorship and bias in

5845-430: Is the preferred term. People with a same-gender sexual orientation generally prefer the terms gay , lesbian , or bisexual . The most common terms are gay (both men and women) and lesbian (women only). Other terms include same gender loving and same-sex-oriented. Among some sectors of gay sub-culture, same-gender sexual behavior is sometimes viewed as solely for physical pleasure instead of romantic. Men on

6012-448: Is unknown to what extent women patronized the bar, though several observers interviewed by David Carter described the bar as being almost exclusively male. These observers also said that almost all of the lesbians at Stonewall were butch lesbians . Due to differing terminologies used in the late 1960s, it is also unknown to what extent transvestites visited the bar, but Carter writes that the number of transsexual and transvestite customers

6179-734: The Gay Activists' Alliance . The GLF virtually disappeared from the New York City political scene after the first Stonewall commemoration parade in 1970. Mark Segal , a member of GLF from 1969 to 1971, continued to push gay rights in various venues. As a pioneer of the local gay press movement, he was one of the founders and former president of both the National Gay Press Association and the National Gay Newspaper Guild . He also

6346-492: The Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City . It was the site of the 1969 Stonewall riots , which led to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States . When the riots occurred, Stonewall was one of the relatively few gay bars in New York City. The original gay bar occupied two structures at 51–53 Christopher Street, which were built as horse stables in

6513-555: The LGBT community . In addition to the stigma surrounding homosexuality, terms have been influenced by taboos around sex in general, producing a number of euphemisms . A gay person may be described as "that way", "a bit funny", "light in his loafers", "on the bus", "batting for the other team", "a friend of Dorothy ", "women who wear comfortable shoes" (lesbians), although such euphemisms are becoming less common as homosexuality becomes more visible. Harry Hay frequently stated that, in

6680-411: The LGBT rights movement . The Stonewall Inn buildings at 51–53 Christopher Street, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, were constructed as double-height horse stables . The older of the two buildings is 51 Christopher Street, which was built in 1843 by A. Voorhis and expanded to three stories in 1898. The other structure, 53 Christopher Street, was built in 1846; it

6847-468: The Liberty Bell ." Around 2007, the bar was taken over by the businessmen Bill Morgan, Tony DeCicco, and Kurt Kelly, along with the bar's first lesbian investor, Stacy Lentz . Morgan told the LGBT newspaper PinkNews that "When we went looking for investors to save the Stonewall people came out of the woodwork. Gay and straight." An NPR reporter stated that the co-owners sought to renovate

Gay liberation - Misplaced Pages Continue

7014-635: The New Left rather than the established homophile groups of the time. The words "gay liberation" echoed "women's liberation"; the Gay Liberation Front consciously took its name from the National Liberation Fronts of Vietnam and Algeria ; and the slogan "Gay Power", as a defiant answer to the rights-oriented homophile movement, was inspired by Black Power, which was a response to the civil rights movement . Vanguard

7181-483: The New York City Department of Buildings in late 1970, as they sought to convert 51 to 53 Christopher Street into a restaurant and non-alcoholic bar. The new venue would have retained most of the 1967 bar's interior decorations, but the architects planned to replace the damaged doors and windows. By 1973, the original gay bar had been divided into two storefronts at the ground level and apartments on

7348-827: The Prussian Penal Code and Its Maintenance as Paragraph 152 of the Draft of a Penal Code for the North German Confederation "). The pamphlet was written by Karl-Maria Kertbeny , but published anonymously. It advocated the repeal of Prussia's sodomy laws . Kertbeny had previously used the word in a private letter written in 1868 to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs . Kertbeny used Homosexualität (in English, 'homosexuality') in place of Ulrichs' Urningtum ; Homosexualisten ('male homosexualists') instead of Urninge , and Homosexualistinnen ('female homosexualists') instead of Urninden . The term

7515-615: The ancient Greek philosopher Plato described (through the character of the profane comedian Aristophanes ) three sexual orientations – heterosexuality, male homosexuality, and female homosexuality – and provided explanations for their existence using an invented creation myth . Although this term refers to a specific sex act between women today, in the past it was commonly used to describe female-female sexual love in general, and women who had sex with women were called Tribads or Tribades. As author Rictor Norton explains: The tribas , lesbian, from Greek tribein , to rub (i.e. rubbing

7682-431: The down-low (or DL) may engage in covert sexual activity with other men while pursuing sexual and romantic relationships with women. The choice of terms regarding sexual orientation may imply a certain political outlook, and different terms have been preferred at different times and in different places. Historian and philosopher Michel Foucault argued that homosexual and heterosexual identities did not emerge until

7849-467: The legal drinking age were frequently admitted. In keeping with private club regulations, patrons were required to sign a logbook upon entry; the logbook also served to screen out straight patrons. The visitor logbook frequently contained pseudonyms such as Donald Duck , Elizabeth Taylor , and Judy Garland . If a visitor wished to leave the bar and return the same night, the bouncers would stamp their hand with individual ink. Any customer who passed

8016-414: The nuclear family , regardless of whether they had anything to do with the actual principles of gay rights. For some offsets of movement, the politics were radical, anti-racist , and anti-capitalist . In order to achieve such goals, consciousness raising and direct action were employed. While HIV/AIDS activism and awareness (in groups such as ACT UP ) radicalized a new wave of lesbians and gay men in

8183-551: The pudenda together, or clitoris upon pubic bone , etc.), appears in Greek and Latin satires from the late first century. The tribade was the most common (vulgar) lesbian in European texts for many centuries. 'Tribade' occurs in English texts from at least as early as 1601 to at least as late as the mid-nineteenth century before it became self-consciously old-fashioned—it was in current use for nearly three centuries. Fricatrice ,

8350-463: The 1840s. The original Stonewall Inn was founded in 1930 as a speakeasy on Seventh Avenue South. It relocated in 1934 to Christopher Street, where it operated as a restaurant until 1966. Four mafiosos associated with the Genovese crime family bought the restaurant and reopened it as a gay bar in early 1967. The Stonewall Inn was a popular hangout for gay men, particularly for youth and those on

8517-481: The 18th century, with the connotation of lesbian. In 1773, a London magazine described sex between women as "Sapphic passion". The adjective form Sapphic is sometimes used nowadays as an inclusive umbrella term that expresses the sexuality and romantic attraction of queer women, including bisexuals, nonbinary, and trans people However, this is not accepted by all women who identify as lesbian. Today, pederasty refers to male attraction towards adolescent boys, or

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8684-426: The 1980s, and radical groups have continued to exist ever since, by the early 1990s the radicalism of gay liberation was eclipsed in the mainstream by newly-out, pro- assimilationist gay men and women who stressed civil rights and mainstream politics. The term gay liberation sometimes refers to the broader movement to end social and legal oppression against LGBT people. Sometimes the term gay liberation movement

8851-575: The 1990s, particularly in writing by Anglican clergy), the term homophile was an attempt to avoid the clinical implications of sexual pathology found with the word homosexual, emphasizing love ( -phile ) instead. The first element of the word, the Greek root homo- , means 'same'; it is unrelated to Latin homo , 'person'. In almost all languages where the words homophile and homosexual were both in use (i.e., their cognate equivalents: German Homophil and Homosexuell , Italian omofilo and omosessuale , etc.), homosexual won out as

9018-457: The 19th century. Prior to that time, he said, the terms described practices and not identity. Foucault cited Karl Westphal 's famous 1870 article Contrary Sexual Feeling as the "date of birth" of the categorization of sexual orientation. Some scholars, however, have argued that there are significant continuities between past and present conceptualizations of sexuality, with various terms having been used for homosexuality. In his Symposium ,

9185-576: The Berlin Wall. He and Bob Ross, former publisher of San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter represented the gay press and lectured in Moscow and St. Petersburg at Russia's first openly gay conference, referred to as Russia's Stonewall. He recently coordinated a network of local gay publications nationally to celebrate October as gay history month, with a combined print run reaching over a half million people. His determination to gain acceptance and respect for

9352-565: The NYPD dispersed the protests. Allen Ginsberg , a beat poet who witnessed the riots, said that "the guys there were so beautiful—they've lost that wounded look that fags all had 10 years ago". By the end of 1969, the Stonewall Inn had closed; sources disagree on whether it was shuttered in October or in December. Carter writes that the bar's downfall may have been because of its infamy,

9519-412: The NYPD's 6th Precinct (within which the bar was located) to stave off raids. A magazine article, published five months after the bar's opening, implied that the bar paid the police around $ 1,200 a month. Some observers such as the activist Craig Rodwell objected to the payoffs because of the corruption involved. In addition, despite these payoffs, Stonewall was raided once a month on average, and it

9686-490: The National Register of Historic Places along with the bar itself. On both buildings, the facade of the ground story is mostly made of brick, while the second floor is clad with stucco. The building at 53 Christopher Street is two stories high and divided vertically into three bays . At ground level, the center of number 53's facade contains a rectangular, 4-by-8-foot (1.2 by 2.4 m) storefront window with

9853-772: The SLA eventually prevented the agency from revoking licenses on the basis of homosexual solicitation in 1967. At the beginning of gay rights protest, news on Cuban prison work camps for homosexuals inspired the Mattachine Society to organize protests at the United Nations and the White House , in 1965. In the years before 1969, the organization also was effective in getting New York City to change its policy of police entrapment of gay men, and to rescind its hiring practices designed to screen out gay people. However,

10020-573: The Safe Schools Coalition of Washington's Glossary for School Employees advises that gay is the "preferred synonym for homosexual", and goes on to suggest avoiding the term homosexual as it is "clinical, distancing, and archaic". However, the terms homosexual and homosexuality are sometimes deemed appropriate in referring to behavior (although same-gender is the preferred adjective). Using homosexuality or homosexual to refer to behavior may be inaccurate but does not carry

10187-814: The Society for Individual Rights) called for "the Homosexual Revolution of 1969", exhorting gay men and lesbians to join the Black Panthers and other left-wing groups and to "come out" en masse . Laurence was expelled from the organization in May for characterizing members as "timid" and "middle-class, uptight, bitchy old queens". Laurence then co-founded a militant group the Committee for Homosexual Freedom with Gale Whittington, Mother Boats, Morris Kight and others. Whittington had been fired from States Steamship Company for being openly gay, after

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10354-684: The Stonewall riots for the last Sunday in June. The events varied from a highly political march of three to five thousand in New York and thousands more at parades in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. While groups using the Gay Liberation Front name appeared around the U.S., in New York that organization was replaced totally by the Gay Activist Alliance. Groups with a "Gay Lib" approach began to spring up around

10521-546: The Stonewall riots of 1969 in New York City are popularly remembered as the spark that produced a new movement, the origins predate these iconic events. Resistance to police bar-raids was nothing new: as early as 1725, customers fought off a police raid at a London homosexual molly house . Organized movements, particularly in Western Europe, have been active since the 19th century, producing publications, forming social groups and campaigning for social and legal reform. In

10688-592: The Szechuan Cottage Restaurant. Sources disagree on when the changeover occurred. The LPC writes that the Chinese restaurant was in operation by 1982, when the restaurant altered the building without the agency's permission, but a 1985 description of the site characterizes the bagel shop as still being located within the Stonewall site. A bar named Stonewall opened in 51 Christopher Street in 1987. New York City mayor Ed Koch proposed co-naming

10855-592: The UK, and others. The term homosexual can be used as an adjective to describe the sexual attractions and behaviors of people attracted to the same sex. Author and gay pioneer Quentin Crisp said that the term should be "homosexualist", adding that no one says "I am a sexual." Some gay people argue that the use of homosexual as a noun is offensive, arguing that they are people first and their homosexuality being merely an attribute of their humanity. Even if they do not consider

11022-418: The adjective homosexual to refer to any single-gender context (such as an all-girls school), today the term implies a sexual aspect. The term homosocial is now used to describe single-sex contexts that are not of a romantic or sexual nature. The colloquial abbreviation homo for homosexual is a coinage of the interbellum period , first recorded as a noun in 1929, and as an adjective in 1933. Today, it

11189-432: The bar a "mecca" for the LGBT community in the neighborhood, and Newsday wrote that "Here the young men with the delicate wrists and the bobby pins in their hair come to dance the night away with one another". One contemporary patron described the bar as being accepting of "anyone who was in the margins of gay society", but that this gave the bar a "trashy, low, and tawdry" feel. Homeless youth and drag queens frequented

11356-437: The bar after Jimmy Merry, who had taught him how to operate a bar. New Jimmy's occupied only the space at 53 Christopher Street and was unrelated to the original bar. Dominic DeSimone was hired to renovate the space; he wanted to restore the bar to its 1960s-era condition, but critics such as David Carter expressed concerns that the new operators wanted to exploit the bar's name for commercial purposes. A commemorative plaque

11523-626: The bar by 1969; it was one of the only places where they were socially accepted, and the admission fee meant that additional drinks did not require a tab . Other LGBT patrons shunned Stonewall because of its mob ownership and the drag queens' presence. As a private club, Stonewall was not legally allowed to accept money for drinks, and each customer was given two tickets that could be exchanged for drinks. Different-colored tickets were used each day to prevent patrons from saving up drink tickets. The Stonewall Inn's operators pressured customers to buy drinks almost as soon as they entered. Each drink cost

11690-405: The bar had reportedly been the source of a small outbreak of hepatitis . Despite the poor conditions, the Stonewall Inn's popularity endured. Stonewall was the only bar for gay men in New York City where dancing was allowed, and dancing was its main draw after it opened as a gay club. Of the two bar rooms , the main room to the east typically played mainstream rock. There was a jukebox behind

11857-456: The bar in 2016, the LGBT–rights organization Pride Live tried to develop a visitor center for the monument. Pride Live began negotiating with the owner of 51 Christopher Street in 2019, as the storefront there had been vacated. One of the bar's longest-tenured staff members at the time—the bartender Tree Sequoia, who had been present during the riots—frequently told stories to visitors and

12024-429: The bar in the main room; patrons could pay to have a song played on the jukebox. In addition to dancing, the main room was a popular place for gay men to congregate and cruise , and there were a small number of tables with candles. There was typically a single waiter in the main room, which was often called the "white room" because of its music and clientele. The back room, to the west, mostly played soul music . It

12191-405: The bar on these nights. The bar's 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. There were white floodlights inside the bar, which could be activated in case of a raid. Many bars kept extra liquor nearby so they could resume business as quickly as possible if alcohol

12358-480: The bar reopened, other bars nearby saw increased business. The bar recorded few issues, other than sporadic violent incidents. One commentator for the Gay and Lesbian Review , said in 2009 that the modern bar's "crowd veers toward a random mix of tourists, city kids, and bridge-and-tunnel gays" but that its symbolism was still important. During the 2010s, the Stonewall Inn continued to attract regular customers, although

12525-420: The bar to approximate its 1969 appearance, although they did not necessarily wish to operate the bar as a museum. The Stonewall Inn reopened in March 2007. Lentz hung a costume in the window to honor the actress Judy Garland , a gay icon who had died a few days before the riots; the costume resembled the dress worn by Garland's character Dorothy in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz . Kelly said that, after

12692-574: The bar was allowed to start selling cocktails that June, it was in danger of closing permanently, so Kelly and Lentz launched two crowdfunding campaigns on GoFundMe ; They raised at least $ 300,000 for the bar in one month, and the Gill Foundation provided another $ 250,000 in matching funds. Stonewall reopened in July 2020 with a limited capacity. The building at 51 Christopher Street was placed for sale in June 2021, but, after Pride Live and

12859-447: The bar was often empty in the three years after it reopened. Pisano died of AIDS-related complications in early 1994, and Garguilo took over operation, as he wanted the bar to be open for the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. According to Garguilo, so many people came to commemorate the riots' 25th anniversary that there was a line to take pictures of the bar. DeSimone and Pisano's business partner Bob Gurecki took over Stonewall in

13026-440: The bar was open or were not interested in the events hosted there. In the bar itself, there were no indications of the riots that had taken place there, except for framed newspaper articles on the walls. The Pink News attributed the bar's decline to long-running resentment between different groups of patrons, but neglect, gross mismanagement, and noise complaints from neighbors were also cited as reasons for its downfall. The bar

13193-413: The bar's facade the day afterward. The riot was covered in the city's major media outlets, including in radio and newspapers. Another demonstration took place on June 29; it attracted hundreds of protesters of all sexualities. Activity in Greenwich Village was sporadic over the next two days due to inclement weather, but another riot took place on July 2. The riots ultimately ended on July 3, when

13360-419: The bar, likely to limit outsiders' views of the interior. Visitors entered straight into a tiny vestibule. There was an office or coat check to the left of the main entrance, immediately behind the front window of 53 Christopher Street. A wishing well was found just inside the doorway. The main bar room was to the right, within 51 Christopher Street, through a doorway and down a single step. The main room had

13527-445: The bar. The structure at 51 Christopher Street became a visitor center for the Stonewall National Monument in the 2020s. The buildings themselves are architecturally undistinguished, with facades of brick and stucco , while the original bar's interior has been modified significantly over the years. The modern bar hosts various events and performances, and its owners also operate an LGBT advocacy organization. The Stonewall Inn became

13694-414: The city, there was a notation advising would-be patrons against giving out any personally identifying information at the Stonewall Inn, especially to employees. The bar was not openly used for prostitution, but drug sales and other cash transactions did take place, and Carter wrote that "there is little doubt" that a prostitution ring operated out of the second story. Six months before the Stonewall riots,

13861-473: The columns that flanked the original entrance. The operators also placed 2×4 pieces of wood behind the windows so the police could not easily enter through the windows during a raid. The interior was painted black because that color was used in other gay bars and it would hide the interior's burn damage. The new owners retained the Stonewall Restaurant's old name so they did not have to replace

14028-451: The crowd and knocked a few people down, which incited bystanders even more. Eventually, the police were barricaded inside; the crowd was not cleared until 4:00 a.m. Almost everything in the Stonewall Inn was broken in the riots, and what little liquor remained was given away for free afterward. Stonewall's windows were covered with boards the night of the riots, and graffitied messages in support of LGBT rights and gay bars appeared on

14195-432: The cultural institutions that support such relations, as in ancient Greece. However, in the 18th and 19th centuries, the word usually referred to male homosexuality in general. A pederast was also the active partner in anal sex, whether with a male or a female partner. This relationship is socially frowned upon in modern cultures while legally defined by the age of consent. The word homosexual translates literally as "of

14362-598: The dominant culture of the time. While the movement always included all LGBT people, in those days the unifying term was "gay", and later, "lesbian and gay", much as in the late eighties and early nineties, " queer " was reclaimed as a one-word alternative to the ever-lengthening string of initials, especially when used by radical political groups. Specifically, the word 'gay' was preferred to previous designations, such as homosexual or homophile , that were still in use by mainstream news outlets, when they would carry news about gay people at all. The New York Times refused to use

14529-608: The early 1890s, the trial of Oscar Wilde was widely reported in Germany and spurred discussion of homosexuality, leading to the homosexual emancipation movement in Germany , the first modern gay rights movement . The movements of the period immediately preceding gay liberation, from the end of World War II to the late 1960s, are known collectively as the homophile movement . The homophile movement has been described as "politically conservative", although its calls for social acceptance of same-sex love were seen as radical fringe views by

14696-574: The early 1960s, Dick Leitsch , the president of the New York Mattachine Society , advocated direct action, and the group staged the first public homosexual demonstrations and picket lines in the 1960s. Kameny, founder of Mattachine Washington in 1961, had advocated militant action reminiscent of the black civil rights campaign, while also arguing for the morality of homosexuality. The New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) did not allow homosexuals to be served in licensed bars in

14863-580: The early 5th century, Jerome , a priest, historian, and theologian used the forms Sodoman , in Sodomis , Sodomorum , Sodomæ , Sodomitæ . The modern German word Sodomie and the Norwegian sodomi also refer to bestiality . Sodomy in historical biblical reference may not pertain to the acts of homosexuality, but the acts of bestiality and female and male castration for the purpose of sexual slavery . Lesbian writer Emma Donoghue found that

15030-467: The early morning hours of June 28, 1969. According to a Daily News article from the time, the NYPD had obtained a warrant to raid the bar because it was illegally serving liquor; later accounts said the raid was precipitated by an anonymous tip that the Mafia was trading stolen bonds . In any case, it was the first time the NYPD did not give the managers advance notice of a raid. Around 1:20 a.m.,

15197-423: The emergence of the first terms in the mid-19th century. In English, some terms in widespread use have been sodomite , Achillean , Sapphic , Uranian , homophile , lesbian , gay , effeminate , queer , homoaffective, and same-gender attracted. Some of these words are specific to women, some to men, and some can be used of either. Gay people may also be identified under the umbrella term LGBT . Homosexual

15364-441: The exterior sign (although the word "restaurant" was officially dropped from the name, that word was not painted over on the sign). At the time of the conversion, LGBT bars and straight bars had similar facades, though LGBT bars tended to have an intentionally rundown appearance so straight patrons would be discouraged from going to these bars. Stonewall opened as a gay bar on March 18, 1967. It had two dance floors in addition to

15531-547: The fact that it had no liquor license, and resentment toward the mafiosos who operated the bar. Pine claimed that he had been ordered to raid the bar because it was blackmailing wealthy patrons, but Carter could not find evidence to corroborate this claim. A Newsday article from 1970 described Stonewall as "still a battered, broken place, with a For Rent sign on it now". Another Stonewall opened at 211 22nd Street in Miami Beach , Florida, in 1972. Two patrons there filed

15698-405: The first day of the Stonewall riots. Aside from black paint, the spaces had temporary wooden bars. According to a description of the bar from the 1960s, the decoration was so sparse that it looked "to have only recently been converted from a garage into a cabaret in about eight hours and at a cost of under fifty dollars". Originally, service spaces such as the coat room were placed at the front of

15865-421: The first page of chapter 1, he discusses the terminology, naming Ulrichs' use of Uranian ( German : Uranier ) from 1862, which later morphed into Urning , and using Urningtum as the name of the condition. Ellis reported that the first accepted scientific term was contrary sexual feeling ( Konträre Sexualempfindung ), coined by Westphal in 1869, and used by Krafft-Ebing and others. This term

16032-408: The fringes of the gay community. Stonewall operated as a private club because it was not allowed to obtain a liquor license; police raided the bar frequently, in spite of bribes from the owners. The Stonewall riots of June 28 to July 3, 1969, took place following one such raid. The bar went out of business shortly after the riots, and the two buildings were divided and leased to various businesses over

16199-406: The gay community, they reflected the countercultural movement more than any other homosexual group. Refusing to hide their homosexuality, they were brutalized, rebellious tearaways who took drugs, fought, shoplifted and hustled older gay men in order to survive. Their age, behavior, feminine attire and conduct left them isolated from the rest of the gay scene, but living close to the streets, they made

16366-600: The gay press can be summed up by his 15-year battle to gain membership in the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association one of the nation's oldest and most respected organizations for daily and weekly newspapers. The battle ended after The Philadelphia Inquirer , Philadelphia Daily News and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette joined forces and called for PGN's membership. In 2005, he produced Philadelphia's official July 4 concert for

16533-558: The growing LGBT community, in 1966, four mafiosos associated with the Genovese crime family paid $ 3,500 for the Stonewall Inn, turning the restaurant into a gay bar. The team of owners were led by "Fat Tony" Lauria; he paid $ 2,000 for the restaurant, and three other mobsters named Zookie Zarfas, Tony the Sniff, and Joey paid $ 500 each. It was one of several gay bars operated by the Genovese syndicate in New York City. Matty Ianniello ,

16700-585: The heterocops!" The protesters stormed the stage, one young woman taking hold of the priest's head and pounding it repeatedly against the table. The control room quickly cut off the microphones and switched to recorded music. Later on the 15th of May the first specifically Gay Power march takes place in Europe in Örebro , Sweden, led by a group known as Gay Power Club  [ sv ] . In 1971, Dennis Altman published Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation , considered an important intellectual contribution to

16867-471: The homosexuals and women as oppressed groups), we should try to unite with them in a revolutionary fashion. ... Some people say that [homosexuality] is the decadence of capitalism. I don't know if that is the case; I rather doubt it. But whatever the case is, we know that homosexuality is a fact that exists, and we must understand it in its purest form: that is, a person should have the freedom to use his body in whatever way he wants. This statement by Newton

17034-595: The ideas that shaped gay liberation movements in the English-speaking world. Among his ideas were "the polymorphous whole" and his posing of the notion of "the end of the homosexual", in which the potential for both heterosexual and homosexual behaviour becomes a widespread cultural and psychological phenomenon. Similarly, Allen Young's 1972 manifesto "Out of the Closet, into the Streets" envisions gay liberation as

17201-501: The language of sexual orientation by making no claim about the individual's own gender identity. However, they are not commonly used. Side describes someone who does not practice anal sex and therefore does not define himself as top , bottom or versatile . This term is sometimes used in American literature to present an alternative to the binary classification which notes the preferred sexual position, such as top or bottom ;

17368-484: The main Christopher Street entrance. The city government charged the club's owners with several safety violations during this decade. According to one member of Manhattan Community Board 2, the owners were reportedly closing curtains (which was disallowed because the club held a New York state liquor license) and allowing sexually explicit shows inside. By early 2006, Stonewall's beverage suppliers were suing its operators. The LGBT community generally either did not know

17535-405: The mid-1990s. At the end of 1996, Ben Duell, who owned the building, refused to renew DeSimone's lease unless the latter agreed to expand the bar into the vacant second story. The space at 53 Christopher Street was renovated into a multi-floor nightclub at a cost of $ 200,000. it included a 95-seat bar room on the second floor. DeSimone needed a permit to operate a dance club within the bar, as it

17702-648: The modern conventional neutral term. However, in Norway, the Netherlands and the Flemish/Dutch part of Belgium, the term is still widely used. Not all terms have been used to describe same-gender sexuality are synonyms for the modern term homosexuality . Anna Rüling , one of the first women to publicly defend gay rights, considered gay people a third gender , different from both men and women. Terms such as gynephilia and androphilia have tried to simplify

17869-564: The modern gay liberation movement in France occurred on 10 March 1971, when a group of lesbians from the Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire (FHAR) disrupted a live radio broadcast entitled: "Homosexuality, This Painful Problem". The expert guests, including Ira C. Kleinberg, Herman Kleinstein, a Catholic priest, and a dwarf, were suddenly interrupted by a group of lesbians from the audience, yelling, "It's not true, we're not suffering! Down with

18036-475: The most popular beer brands sold at the bar when Stonewall stopped selling it. A Condé Nast Traveler review from 2009 described the beverages as "unfussy and mainstream". Time Out and New York rank the bar's drinks as being moderately priced. The Telegraph wrote in 2018: "All that said, Stonewall is a fine place to sip a vodka soda and meet new friends." Homophile Terms used to describe homosexuality have gone through many changes since

18203-553: The negative clinical association of the word stemming from its use in describing same-gender attraction as a pathological state before homosexuality was removed from the American Psychiatric Association 's list of mental disorders in 1973. The Associated Press and New York Times style guides restrict usage of the terms. Same-gender oriented people seldom apply such terms to themselves, and public officials and agencies often avoid them. For instance,

18370-455: The news division, Segal went on to disrupt The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, and Barbara Walters on the Today show. The trade newspaper Variety claimed that Segal had cost the industry $ 750,000 in production, tape delays, and lost advertising revenue. Aside from publishing, Segal has also reported on gay life from far reaching places as Lebanon, Cuba, and East Berlin during the fall of

18537-479: The novelist Edmund White , the new captain of the NYPD's 6th Precinct had ordered the raids in Greenwich Village. In a 1987 retrospective, Robert Amsel wrote in the LGBT magazine The Advocate that many LGBT people were in favor of the raids because they did not want the bars to be operated by the mafia; according to Amsel, these critics did not see that "without the mafia's money, there might not have been any gay bars to legitimize". The Stonewall riots started in

18704-422: The original bar closed. The bar at 53 Christopher Street, and the visitor center at 51 Christopher Street, function as separate entities. 53 Christopher Street largely retains its original layout, but the finishes have been completely replaced. The ground floor's interior decorations include a mirror occupying one wall, as well as wood paneling along the other walls. A 2009 article on the bar characterized it as

18871-402: The owner of 51 Christopher Street came to an agreement, work on the visitor center there commenced in June 2022. MBB Architects designed the visitor center, and Local Projects was responsible for designing the exhibits. The visitor center opened on June 28, 2024, as the United States' first official national visitor center for LGBTQ culture. Numerous politicians and celebrities, including

19038-419: The perfect warriors for the imminent Stonewall Riots. These emerging social possibilities, combined with the new social movements such as Black Power , women's liberation , and the student insurrection of May 1968 in France, heralded a new era of radicalism. After the Stonewall riots in New York City in late June 1969, many within the emerging gay liberation movement in the U.S. saw themselves as connected with

19205-470: The press that three members of Mattachine New York would turn up at a restaurant on the Lower East Side, announce their homosexuality and, upon the refusal of service, make a complaint to the SLA. This came to be known as the "Sip-In" and only succeeded at the third attempt at Julius in Greenwich Village. The "Sip-In", though, did gain extensive media attention and the resultant legal action against

19372-463: The recognition of humanity's innate bisexuality and androgyny within relationships that are free, expressive, and equal. Young portrays lesbians and gay men as the vanguard of sexual and human liberation. Sociologist Steven Seidman interprets these intellectual productions as precursors to queer theory . Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn (also known as Stonewall ) is a gay bar and recreational tavern at 53 Christopher Street in

19539-437: The restaurant closed, the buildings were vacant; the signs above the ground-story windows were removed, and the second story of the facade was patched. Greenwich Village had become an LGBT neighborhood as early as the 1930s. The neighborhood's LGBT community was originally concentrated around Greenwich Avenue and Washington Square Park , but, by the 1960s, had started to move westward along Christopher Street. To cater to

19706-406: The revived bar includes a room with a capacity of 150 people; this dance floor has a stage, a disco ball, seats with leopard print upholstery, and velour curtains. A New York magazine article described the dance floor as having a "bar mitzvah vibe" because of its decoration. According to a 2019 account, there was also a basement performance space. 51 Christopher Street has been converted into

19873-407: The right is a segmental arch, with a fanlight above wooden double doors. The bay furthest to the right has a stucco facade at ground level, with a rectangular door leading to the second floor. On the second story, the stucco facade is scored horizontally, and there is a curved iron flower-box holder beneath each of the four windows. At the time of the 1969 riots, the second floor of number 51 had

20040-423: The riots, and the station itself was renamed after Stonewall National Monument in 2024. A crosswalk at Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue South to the west, the closest intersection to the Stonewall Inn, has been painted in the colors of the LGBT rainbow flag since 2017. To the east, Christopher Street intersects Grove Street, Waverly Place (twice), and Gay Street . Parts of these roads are protected on

20207-476: The riots, the park has contained the Gay Liberation statue by George Segal since 1992. It also displayed a sculpture named A Love Letter to Marsha (a temporary tribute to the transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson , who was present during the riots) during 2021. The New York City Subway 's Christopher Street–Stonewall is next to the park. The station's artwork includes a triptych that depicts

20374-520: The same potentially offensive connotations that using homosexual to describe a person does. When referring to people, homosexual might be considered derogatory and the terms gay and lesbian are preferred. Some have argued that homosexual places emphasis on sexuality over humanity, and is to be avoided when describing a person. Gay man or lesbian are the preferred nouns for referring to people, which stress cultural and social matters over sex. The New Oxford American Dictionary says that gay

20541-608: The same sex", being a hybrid of the Greek prefix homo- meaning 'same' (as distinguished from the Latin root homo meaning 'human') and the Latin root sex meaning 'sex'. The first known public appearance of the term homosexual in print is found in an 1869 German pamphlet 143 des Preussischen Strafgesetzbuchs und seine Aufrechterhaltung als 152 des Entwurfs eines Strafgesetzbuchs für den Norddeutschen Bund ("Paragraph 143 of

20708-618: The same year, Huey Newton , the leader of the Black Panthers, publicly expressed his support for gay liberation in his letter titled "A Letter from Huey to the Revolutionary Brothers and Sisters About the Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements" stating that: Whatever your personal opinions and your insecurities about homosexuality and the various liberation movements among homosexuals and women (and I speak of

20875-414: The screening process paid an admission fee of $ 3 on weekends and $ 1 on weekdays. Patrons were predominantly in their teens or early twenties, though men in their late twenties and early thirties congregated around the main room's bar. Most patrons were young gay men of various races and occupations, though Stonewall did also accept women (regardless of sexuality), transsexuals , and transvestites . It

21042-446: The second story. The Gay Activists Alliance planned to install a plaque on the buildings, as it did not have enough money to buy the structures for preservation purposes. There were numerous attempts to install a commemorative plaque or a statue on or near the bar buildings, but these efforts received criticisms for failing to sufficiently acknowledge nonwhite or transgender people. LPC documents show that, in 1975, Duell leased out

21209-646: The seventies (in urban gay centers) and well into the eighties (in smaller communities) did the marches begin to be called " gay pride parades ". The movement involved the lesbian and gay communities in North America, South America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Gay liberation is also known for its links to the counterculture of the time (e.g. groups like the Radical Faeries ) and for some gay liberationists' intent to transform or abolish fundamental institutions of society such as gender and

21376-402: The sex-role structure and nuclear family structure." In December 1969 the Gay Liberation Front made a cash donation to the Black Panthers, some of whose leaders had expressed homophobic sentiments. Prominent GLF members were also strong supporters of Fidel Castro 's regime. These actions cost GLF, a numerically small group, popular support in New York City, and some of its members left to form

21543-595: The significance of the new John Lindsay administration and the use of the media by Mattachine New York should not be underestimated in ending police entrapment. Lindsay would later gain a reputation for placing much focus on quelling social troubles in the city and his mayorship coinciding with the end of entrapment should be seen as significant. By late 1967, a New York group called the Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN), essentially

21710-565: The singer Elton John and U.S. President Joe Biden , participated in the inauguration ceremonies, and the New York City Subway 's Christopher Street–Sheridan Square station was renamed the Christopher Street–Stonewall station on the same day. The first Stonewall Inn occupied a pair of repurposed horse stables at 51 and 53 Christopher Street, on the northern side of the street. The modern-day bar occupies only

21877-617: The society. Maybe they might be the most oppressed people in the society. Furthermore, Newton called for the removal of derogatory terms in the Black Panther's vocabulary. This helped advance the Gay Liberation Movement and legitimized it even further. Although a short-lived group, the Comite Pederastique de la Sorbonne , had meetings during the student uprising of May 1968, the real public debut of

22044-467: The state under penalty of revocation of the bar's license to operate. This denial of public accommodation had been confirmed by a court decision in the early 1940s. A legal study on the city's alcoholic beverage law commissioned by Mattachine New York concluded there was no law per se prohibiting homosexuals gathering in bars; however, laws did prohibit disorderly conduct — which the SLA had been interpreting as homosexual behavior — in bars. Leitsch informed

22211-479: The stretch of Christopher Street outside Stonewall Inn as Stonewall Place in early 1989, and the New York City Council overwhelmingly approved the plan that April. The new street signs were installed at the beginning of that June. The bar at number 51 closed in 1989, upon which the sign on the building's facade was disassembled. By the early 1990s, the building at 51 Christopher Street had become

22378-481: The structure at 53 Christopher Street. The neighboring building to the east, at 51 Christopher Street, opened in 2024 as the Stonewall National Monument's visitor center. Because the structures were developed separately, the roof of number 51 is slightly higher than that of number 53, and there is a party wall separating both buildings. The two buildings share a land lot with five other structures; as of 2022 , these seven structures contained numerous storefronts and

22545-561: The style of a hunting lodge. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) wrote that, despite a lack of documentation on Stonewall's early history, "sources suggest that it was among the most notorious of the tearooms operating in the Village in the early 1930s". The restaurant hosted various banquets and weddings, as well as events including a 1935 dinner for the Greenwich Village Association and

22712-445: The term lesbian (with its modern meaning) has been in use in the English language from at least the 18th century. The 1732 epic poem by William King , The Toast , uses "lesbian loves" and "tribadism" interchangeably: "she loved Women in the same Manner as Men love them; she was a Tribad". Named after the female Greek poet Sappho who lived on Lesbos Island and wrote love poems to women, this term has been in use since at least

22879-582: The term sodomite usually refers to a homosexual male even though the real meaning is of unreproductive sex. The term is derived from the Biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah , and Christian churches have referred to the crimen sodomitae (crime of the Sodomites) for centuries. The modern association with homosexuality can be found as early as AD 96 in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus . In

23046-681: The term side indicates one's affinity for neither of this binary classification. There are established languages of slang (sometimes known as cants ) such as Polari in Britain , Swardspeak in the Philippines , Bahasa Binan in Indonesia , Lubunca in Turkey , and Kaliardá ( Καλιαρντά ) in Greece . A variety of LGBT slang terms have been used historically and contemporarily within

23213-421: The term offensive, some people in same-gender relationships may object to being described as homosexual because they identify as bisexual+ , or another orientation. Some style guides recommend that the terms homosexual and homosexuality be avoided altogether, lest their use cause confusion or arouse controversy. In particular, the description of individuals as homosexual may be offensive, partially because of

23380-549: The terms sexual inversion and homosexuality in the 3rd edition, with slightly different meanings. The first known use of homosexual in English is in Charles Gilbert Chaddock 's 1892 translation of Richard von Krafft-Ebing 's Psychopathia Sexualis , a study on sexual practices. The term was popularized by the 1906 Harden–Eulenburg Affair . The word homosexual itself had different connotations 100 years ago than today. Although some early writers used

23547-552: The time, the New York State Liquor Authority (NYSLA) regarded any LGBT person in a bar as engaging in disorderly conduct. Frequent raids against gay bars forced most to close, except for those operated by mobsters. Furthermore, gay people who were arrested risked losing their jobs, homes, and families. By contrast, members of private clubs could bring their own alcoholic beverages under New York state law. Accordingly, Lauria and his co-owners acquired

23714-474: The two storefronts there as distinct spaces. Thereafter, the buildings were used by a variety of businesses, and subsequent renovations removed all of the original gay bar's decorations. Documents indicate that the owners of 51 Christopher Street filed plans to widen that building's entrance in August 1975. The structure at 53 Christopher had become a bagel shop known as Bagels And by 1976. Mimi Sheraton , in

23881-773: The visitor center's "informational softness". The modern Stonewall Inn serves only drinks and not food. The drinks that have been served at the bar have included Off the Wall, a pomegranate-and-lime-juice cocktail. The bar's official beer is Brooklyn Brewery 's Stonewall Inn IPA, a lemon and grapefruit IPA that is 4.5% alcohol by volume . Co-owner Stacy Lentz said in 2021 that she mainly wanted to sell beer brands made by LGBT–friendly companies, including Brooklyn Brewery, Gay Beer, and Dyke Beer. The bar stopped selling Anheuser-Busch brands such as Bud Light in 2021 because of Anheuser-Busch 's donations to numerous politicians who had introduced anti-LGBT legislation. Bud Light had been among

24048-555: The way to New York City, as was the Berkeley Barb with Laurence's stories on CHF's gay guerrilla militant initiatives and Mother Boats' photographs. CHF was soon renamed the Gay Liberation Front (GLF); the Gay Liberation Front was a loose network of organizations throughout the US and abroad that determined their own political goals and modes of organization. One GLF statement of purpose explained their revolutionary ambitions: We are

24215-582: The word 'gay' until 1987, up to that time insisting on 'homosexual'. Early 1960s New York City, under the Wagner mayoral administration , was beset with harassment against the gay community, particularly by the New York City Police Department . Homosexuals were among the targets of a drive to rid the city of undesirables. Consequently, only the Mafia had the power and financial resources to run gay bars and clubs. By 1965, influenced by Frank Kameny 's addresses in

24382-528: The world, such as Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP, Inc.), and Gay Liberation Front groups in Australia, Canada, the US and the UK. The lesbian group Lavender Menace was also formed in the U.S. in response to both the male domination of other Gay Liberation groups and the anti-lesbian sentiment in the Women's Movement. Lesbianism was advocated as a feminist choice for women, and the first currents of lesbian separatism began to emerge. In August of

24549-401: The years. In 1990, Jimmy Pisano opened a new bar at 53 Christopher Street, which was initially named New Jimmy's before becoming Stonewall. After Pisano's death in 1994, his boyfriend Thomas Garguilo took over the bar, followed by Dominic DeSimone and Bob Gurecki. The Stonewall Inn closed in 2006, and it reopened in March 2007 after Bill Morgan, Tony DeCicco, Kurt Kelly, and Stacy Lentz acquired

24716-725: Was a gay rights youth organization active from 1965 into 1967 in San Francisco. It was founded by Adrian Ravarour and Billy Garrison, and Vanguard magazine was founded by Jean-Paul Marat and Keith St.Clare. Ravarour had been asked by Joel Williams to help the Tenderloin LGBT youth who suffered discrimination. Seeing their conditions, Ravarour, a priest, led Vanguard for ten months and taught gay rights, then led Vanguard members in early demonstrations for equal rights. After he resigned in May 1966, J. P. Marat joined Vanguard and led it in six months of protests. Glide Church began to sponsor it in June 1966 assisting Vanguard to apply to become

24883-410: Was a secret speakeasy that illegally sold alcohol during Prohibition in the United States ; as a consequence, it was raided in December 1930. Bonavia relocated to 51–53 Christopher Street in 1934, after Prohibition was repealed. The architect Harry Yarish installed a large vertical sign on the facade and a doorway with columns around the entrance to 53 Christopher Street. The interior was designed in

25050-469: Was also Stonewall's international ambassador. One commentator described the bar in 2019 as displaying sponsorship banners above the entrance, while the vacant storefront at 53 Christopher Street contained posters decrying violence against LGBT people . The bar closed temporarily in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City , and Stonewall's owners unsuccessfully applied for a loan. Though

25217-657: Was also installed outside the bar's entrance. In a contrast to the first iteration of the gay bar, the NYPD did not raid the revived Stonewall Inn, and gay officers sometimes even ordered drinks from the bar. New Jimmy's was renamed Stonewall in 1991. During the early 1990s, Stonewall gained a poor reputation among neighborhood residents after several incidents in which the police were called to remove drug dealers there. Stonewall also suffered from low patronage due to competition from other taverns; according to DeSimone, Stonewall frequently did not see more than 50 or 60 patrons even on its busiest nights. Garguilo similarly said that

25384-516: Was also located on a busy road and was cheaper than comparable gay bars. The artist Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt recalled that Stonewall was one of the only bars in the city where couples could slow dance together, while the historian Martin Duberman said that the bar was frequented by a "non-vanilla mix of people: people in suits and ties, street hustlers, drag queens, a few dope pushers, a fair number of nonwhites". The New York Daily News called

25551-471: Was called the black room or the Puerto Rican room, as it was frequented by black and Hispanic customers, as well as youth. The back room was even more dimly lit than the main room, and it had numerous waiters, all of whom cajoled guests to buy drinks. The south end of the back room, near Christopher Street, was occupied by "the most marginal of the Stonewall's customers". Around 1968, the owners removed

25718-535: Was coined and originally used primarily by German psychiatrists and psychologists. Havelock Ellis in his 1901 Studies in the Psychology of Sex wrote about the evolving terminology in the area, which ended up settling on homosexuality . In the preface to the first edition (1900), Ellis calls it sexual inversion , and volume 2 of the book is titled "Sexual Inversion". In the preface to the third edition (1927) Ellis referred to it as "the study of homosexuality". On

25885-404: Was coined in German in 1868. Academia continues to coin related terms, including androphilia and gynephilia which designate only the object of attraction, thus divorcing the terms from sexual orientation entirely. Numerous slang terms exist for homosexuals or homosexuality. Some communities have cants , a rich jargon used among a subgroup almost like a secret language, such as Polari in

26052-498: Was during this time that Los Angeles saw its first big gay movement. In 1967, the night of New Years, several plainclothes police officers infiltrated the Black Cat Tavern . After arresting several patrons for kissing to celebrate the occasion, the officers began beating several patrons and ultimately arrested 16 more bar attendees including three bartenders. This created a riot in the immediate area, ultimately bringing about

26219-431: Was forced to close again later in 2006 after losing its liquor license, and the storefront at number 53 was available for rent by that August. Stonewall's furnishings, such as bar stools, were placed on sale. At that point, Stonewall's monthly rent was $ 20,000, making it unlikely that it would reopen as a bar. Kurt Kelly, a local businessman who later helped take over the bar, said: "This is gay history. It's like abusing

26386-498: Was known for sitting motionless around the bar and watching patrons. Visitors were greeted by bouncers who inspected them through the peepholes in the door. The bouncers accepted almost any LGBT individual who wanted to enter, but they screened out straight patrons and undercover police officers. Admission was granted to would-be patrons who "looked gay" or who had visited the club before, as well as new patrons who were accompanied by someone that could vouch for them. People under

26553-406: Was less than 100 feet from a residential building, but the local Manhattan Community Board 2 unanimously voted against giving him a dance-club permit in early 1997. Despite not having a dance permit, DeSimone decided to open a dance floor on the second story in June 1997, prompting complaints from residents of the nearby condominium building at 45 Christopher Street . By 1999, number 51 was still

26720-425: Was never used outside Germany, and soon went out of favor even there. The term homosexuality was invented by Kertbeny in the same year (1869) but attracted no attention for some time, later achieving prominence, and was easily translatable into many languages, including by Hirschfeld in his 1914 book Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes , one of the top authorities in the field. Ellis continued to use both

26887-470: Was not insignificant. Many homeless young men slept across the street in Christopher Park and would often try to enter so customers would buy them drinks. The Stonewall Inn was a popular hangout for gay men. The bar was called "one of the most active spots in town currently; very crowded on weekends" in a 1968 guidebook, and it was New York City's only gay bar that allowed open dancing. It

27054-419: Was ordinarily placed in the window, while pride flags were hung on the facade. The building at 51 Christopher Street is two stories high (previously three), with a one-story rear annex, and is four bays wide. At ground level, the left half of number 51's facade contains a rectangular, 4-by-8-foot (1.2 by 2.4 m) storefront window with a brick windowsill, similar to the window at number 53. Immediately to

27221-452: Was originally used by Mark Spencer before becoming a bakery operated by Baptiste Ycre in 1914. The then-owner of the buildings, Henry J. Harper, hired the architect William Bayard in 1930 to combine and redesign the structures in the Arts & Crafts style. The two structures were reclad in stucco , and the third story atop 51 Christopher Street was removed. The ground floor continued to host

27388-461: Was raided even more frequently before elections or when local residents complained. Seymour Pine , a police inspector who later led the raid that caused the Stonewall riots , said his team frequently raided gay bars because LGBT people did not fight back when they were arrested. Pine recalled that limousines carrying wealthy patrons would come to the bar on Saturdays, so he tried to avoid raiding

27555-526: Was revolutionary. There has been another black civil rights organization that saw gay and lesbians as another oppressed group in the United States during this decade. Newton recognized the same challenges that both oppressed groups face. He writes in his letter: We haven't said much about the homo- sexual at all but we must relate to the homosexual movement because it's a real thing. I know through reading, and through my life experience, my observations, that homosexuals are not given freedom and liberty by anyone in

27722-421: Was seized. During a typical raid, the lights were turned on, and customers were lined up and their identification cards checked. Those without identification were often arrested, along with the bar's staff. Also liable to be arrested were people who did not wear at least three pieces of gender-conforming clothing, such as men in full drag. Anyone who was detained in a raid was often released within hours, and as

27889-550: Was stored in cigar boxes. The activist Craig Rodwell described Stonewall as "one of the [...] more financially lucrative of the Mafia's gay bars in Manhattan". The spaces were poorly lit, giving it the impression of a dive bar . At the rear of the bar, the men's restroom had its own attendant, and the women's restroom had a red lightbulb. The main room's bar lacked running water, forcing barkeeps to run dirty glasses through rubber tubs and immediately reuse them. The bar had

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