Stonewall Rebellion

The Stonewall Rebellion, also called the Stonewall Riot, is the name given to a conflict between the patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village gay bar, and members of the New York Police Department. Police officers and members of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board raided the Stonewall Inn late on the evening of June 27, 1969. The officials asked customers for identification before throwing them out of the bar one by one to be loaded into waiting paddy wagons. Onlookers gathered in front of the Christopher Street bar and ultimately, the growing crowd of bystanders and bar patrons responded violently, trapping the officers inside for several hours. For several nights following, crowds [Page 1337]gathered outside the bar to protest the treatment of the gay community.

Homosexuals living in the United States at the time faced a number of forms of oppression. Raids on gay bars, clubs, and businesses had been common in the first half of the 20th century, though by the 1950s they had become less frequent. Government agencies such as the State Department, which viewed homosexuals as morally weak and therefore, potential security risks, dedicated a great deal of energy to exposing and firing gay employees. So-called blue laws in a number of states effectively made homosexual sex practices illegal, though these laws were often arbitrarily enforced.

A number of organizations had developed in response. Of particular significance to Stonewall was the Mattachine Society, a gay rights organization founded in 1950. Complaints filed by the Mattachine Society in 1966 had helped end the entrapment of gay men by plainclothes police officers in New York City. That year also marked a “sip in” organized by Dick Leitsch. The state liquor authority (SLA) in New York had a regulation stating that a bar could be forced to close if it knowingly served liquor to three or more gay men. Leitsch and two friends notified members of the press before attempting to buy drinks at a bar, which turned them away. Subsequently, Leitsch filed a complaint with the city's human rights commission. The SLA responded with a public statement that it did not prohibit the sale of liquor to homosexuals. By 1969, gay bars were perfectly legal in New York City, though they were still the subject of police scrutiny and harassment.

The Stonewall Rebellion, then, was the culmination of several decades of struggle between the New York City gay community and the city government. Often cited as the birth of the contemporary gay rights movement, the riot holds a significant, if contested, position in the history of the gay rights movement. The anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion is frequently commemorated with gay rights parades and festivals, the first of which was held in New York City in 1970. June is also considered Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in the United States, and in 2000, the Stonewall Inn was declared a national historical landmark.