The Stonewall Riots: A Pivotal Moment in Twentieth Century Queer Rights Activism by Amy Maloney

"The Stonewall Riots alerted to the power of unity, and the strength required to defy restricting societal norms."

In the early hours of June 28,1969, the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village witnessed a police raid as a response to a crackdown on bars selling alcohol unlawfully. This unprovoked attention aimed to further alienate patrons of the Stonewall Inn. As many attendees used this intended safe space to authentically and vibrantly portray their identities, the raid simultaneously granted police heightened powers to enforce New York’s controversial anti-cross dressing laws. As a result to the subsequent raid, the LGBT+ community, united to fight against their oppression, igniting five days of rioting. The existence of the Stonewall Riots signified a long history of brutal policing and suppression of queer people in social spaces, which the queer rights movement would aim to address in the 1970s. This inevitably transformed LGBT+ individuals’ presence in activism consequently creating a cultural legacy which remains prominent in modern queer rights activism. In this instance, ‘queer’ will acknowledge the multi-faceted identities that defied the contemporary societal norm. It incorporates the struggles and activism of gay men, lesbians, drag queens and transsexuals. The Stonewall Riots made a lasting impression. They alerted to the power of unity, and the strength required to defy restricting societal norms in order to acknowledge and celebrate the multi-faceted nature of identities.

Prior to the Stonewall Riots, the queer community faced multiple attempts of socio-political erasure. In 1953 President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450 which prohibited Federal Government from employing homosexual individuals. This was an apparent attempt to repress queer identities from the societal ‘norm’ whilst creating a ‘closet culture’ which forced queer individuals to hide and feel ashamed of their identities. LGBT+ individuals separated aspects of their ‘queer’ and ‘straight’ lives for their own safety, dividing social spaces into distinctive ‘straight’ and ‘queer’ labels. The queer community, therefore, gravitated towards stereotypically ‘queer’ spaces, like the Stonewall Inn, through the protectionism they provided when individuals provoked the societal norm. LGBT+ bars provided a communal haven for individuals to find community, friendship and even, a partner. When the police raid took place on June 28, the queer community were determined to fight their oppression as their safe spaces were arguably in jeopardy. The geographical and social climate which the Stonewall Riots surround identifies an evident source of their significance. The Stonewall Inn’s location in New York reflected the liberality associated with larger US cities. New York’s location promoted population growth which with large quantities of people with varying identities in one area, allowed queer individuals to challenge contemporary sexual and gender expectations as they encountered higher tolerance and greater accessibility to inclusive spaces. For this reason, smaller queer communities did not have the same exposure and success when resisting queer repression. A singular protest did occur after the Black Cat tavern was raided by police in Los Angeles in 1966, however, its occurrence did not facilitate a broader grassroots movement of queer activism. This further determines the importance of geographical location. It was not attainable for a growing queer city to generate the same success of evoking change like the more advanced city of New York. So much so, the queer rights movement that was adopted post-Stonewall alerted to a new direction taken by activists. The legacy of the Stonewall Riots notified activists towards the necessity of unity and inclusivity in activism to achieve liberation and equality. This is because the Stonewall Inn provided solace to working- and middle-class white, African-American and Latino individuals. There was a recognition that the oppression individuals encountered due to their gender, sexuality, race and class were inflicted by the strict societal norms entrenched in American socio-political foundations. It was inevitable that the activism that emerged through the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots would have an element of unity and intersectionality embedded within it given the array of identities that were prepared to fight the restrictive system around them. As the post-Stonewall queer rights movement appeared vis-à-vis other activist movements in the United States, queer activists placed inclusivity at the forefront due to the somewhat unintentional neglection of broader identities within the women’s and civil rights movement. For instance, Betty Friedan, the president of The National Organisation for Women (NOW) referred to the presence of lesbians in the women’s movement rather controversially as the “lavender menace”, whose presence prevented the achievement of gender equality.

Searching for authenticity and acceptance is a prevalent experience for many queer individuals. Individuals within the LGBT+ community were growing more determined to combat their oppression and express their identities. This is why the outburst of riots at the Stonewall Inn was a distinctive and blatant attempt of the LGBT+ community to openly fight their societal constraints whilst completely owning their identities. The actions of patrons of the Stonewall Inn rejected the very ‘closet culture’ they had been a part of, demonstrating their determination to blur the boundaries between ‘straight’ and ‘queer’ spaces, as an attempt for them to potentially co-exist. As the potential for a peaceful co-existence was encouraged, the Stonewall Riots marked a transformation in how the LGBT+ community saw themselves in a national and even, global stage. LGBT+ activism became more assertive in nature; this surrounded the community making themselves known and identifiable; loud and proud. Activists utilised ‘coming out’ as a political-cultural strategy to actively defy the laws, social hostility and obstacles which prevented queer emancipation, whilst attempting to create a noticeable population that politics and society could no longer hide, ridicule, and repress. Coming out illustrated a productivity from activists and their aim to empower not only themselves but their community, as they fought for the normalisation of their identities. In doing so, activists were given the freedom to vibrantly be themselves and comprehend how to authentically portray themselves in a newly open queer culture. As queer activists were taking ownership of their identities, the assertive and confrontational nature of their activism reflected a change in attitude surrounding individual relationships to identity and the modes of activism which permeated throughout many liberation movements of the 1960s. Drag queens, transgender and gender non-conforming individuals (for instance the likes of Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and Stormé DeLarverie) are depicted as the pioneers of the Stonewall Riots, known for their conduct of shouting protest slogans to unite activists during the riots and throwing pennies at police officers to obstruct the raid. Unity amongst identities and social movements excelled as a result of the Stonewall Riots. In ‘Gay Freedom 1970’ published in the Queen’s Quarterly, in a photograph displaying the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, an individual can be seen wearing a t-shirt stating, “Suck Cock to Beat the Draft.” Although this is quite a potentially esoteric statement to make during a commemoration march, it depicts the growing solidarity within activism. The t-shirt advertises homosexuality to condemn the Vietnam War, as anti-war and anti-Vietnam demonstrations dominated the interconnections of activist movements in the 1960s. This is significant as the illegality of homosexuality meant LGBT+ individuals were still openly dismissed from the military for the ‘outward promotion’ of their sexuality well into the 1970s. The promotion of homosexuality to avoid the military draft signified the strategic use of provocative statements and negative stereotyping which remained at the forefront of activism. This manipulated society’s negative connotations of sexuality and identity to further prove that social expectations were confining individuals and preventing modernisation. Year after year, the Stonewall Riots are commemorated as a revolutionary moment which ignited LGBT+ resistance and solidarity. The occurrence of the Stonewall Riots catalysed the process of modern LGBT+ activism which we still see today. Inclusivity, intersectionality and authenticity remained pertinent within the riots and continues to inspire contemporary activism. In discussions of historic LGBT+ moments the Stonewall Riots are often mentioned. This article has attempted to address the vacuum in contemporary educational curriculums which have not yet comprehended the significance of the riots, in accordance with a wider LGBT+ History and for understanding the necessity of intersectionality in activism.

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