The Stonewall Rebellion, 40 years later

Sometimes I fall in love with one of my own articles. Like this one, which I wrote for 365Gay.com on the 40th anniversary of the riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York, which marked the birth of the modern GLBT rights movement:

It was 1969, on a hot New York City summer night – the hottest June night in history. The police had just raided one of the only places in New York City where same-sex couples could dance together, a crappy Mafia club with watered-down booze and a sideline in blackmail.

The cops didn’t expect any resistance at all. It’s not like this was the first time they’d raided a gay club or even this particular club; this was their second raid on the Stonewall Inn that week. Their normal procedure was to check IDs, make a few token arrests, and send people whose gender they weren’t certain of into the restroom for examination by a policewoman.

No one ever objected or resisted, and the lucky ones who were allowed to leave got out of the area as quickly as they could, grateful not to have been arrested.

But not that night.

Activist Cleve Jones and transgender activist and actress Calpernia Addams spoke with me for the article, and you can read it here.

Comments

[Red]

Damn good article. And to think that I was just a wee Red back then. 7 years and 21 days old.

[Amber Waves]

You should be proud of this one, it made me cry, it's just that good.

[TheWeyrd1]

I was 6 years old when that happened. 15 years later I was living in Columbus, Ohio and heard that a parade was going on sponsored by the local gay political group, Stonewall Union. But it would be a few years later in Denver before I would really come to understand the history. Thanks for the reminder!