Guest Author - Guest Writer - Rae Schwarz - Body Art Editor

The Stonewall riot stands historically as the birth event of the moden gay rights movement. Some of what fueled actions that night was the result of longtime oppression and some was due to energy provided by events that very day. The last Sunday in June after 1969 would never be the same again.

The Stonewall Inn was a known gay hangout. During the 1960s, the police frequently came into gay-oriented bars and clubs, often taking down the identities of all present and often making arrests on various indecency charges. Wearing clothing of the opposite gender and any same-sex public displays of affection were viewed as arrestable offences. By 1969, it was legal to run a gay bar in New York City, however the city was in the middle of a mayoral campaign that year and was “cleaning up” businesses viewed as being unsavory. Some accounts tell that the Stonewall had already been shaken down earlier in the week and that tempers ran higher as this was a second raid.

One factor that contributed to the emotional state that evening was the death of Judy Garland. She had passed of a barbitutate overdose on June 22nd and her funeral was held in Manhattan on June 27th. It has been reported that 22,000 people filed past her coffin, and that more than half that crowd were gay men. The gay community was deeply in mourning for one of their first great icons that night.

Approximately eight police officers came into the bar after 1am. No one is sure what specific actions turned the crowd from passive to active, but quickly violence broke out. People were beaten, rioters tried to light the bar on fire, parking meters were torn out of the sidewalk and the police were driven out. More police were called and residents from the Christopher Street area and other bar patrons rushed to join the melee. Bricks and bottles were thrown, the crowd chanted gay pride slogans and fires were lit in trash cans. Rioting continued throughout the night and occurred sporadically over the next five days.

Within two months the Gay Liberation Front had formed in New York, quickly spreading chapters throughout the country and throughout the world. In June 1970, the GLF decided to commemorate the Stonewall Riots by holding a march from Greenwich Village to Central Park. Gay pride parades and celebrations are traditionally held on the last Sunday in June as a way of marking this seminal event. The definition of the queer community has expanded over the years and now includes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender populations.


Links for a Gay Pride Subject, or Related Links:

Pride Toronto - http://www.pridetoronto.com/parade/
New York Heritage of Pride - http://www.hopinc.org/
Boston Pride - http://www.bostonpride.org/
Chicago Pride - http://www.chicagopridecalendar.org/
Atlanta Pride - http://www.atlantapride.org/
North California Pride - http://www.ncpride.org/pride/index.shtml
Los Angeles Pride (June 10-12) - http://www.lapride.org/
San Francisco Gay Pride - http://www.sfpride.org/
Seattle Pride - http://www.seattlepride.org/
London Gay Pride (July) - http://www.prideinthepark.com/
Sydney GLBT Mardi Gras - http://www.mardigras.org.au/
Amsterdam (Aug) - http://www.amsterdampride.nl/engels/indexeng.htm

For further reading on the topic:
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Rae Schwarz - Body Art Editor
bodyart@bellaonline.com
http://bodyart.bellaonline.com