Stonewall gay movement
The Stonewall uprising: 50 years of LGBT history
On this day 50 years ago, an uprising took place at the Stonewall Inn in New York City.
As it was raided by the police in the first hours, three nights of unrest followed, with LGBT people, prolonged frustrated by police brutality, finally fighting back. Lesbians and transsexual women of colour were some of the key people emotionally attached in the act of resistance, including Stormé DeLarverie, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. This anniversary is a reminder of the power of standing together in defiance of those who seek to divide us.
The Stonewall uprising took place in the context of broader civil rights movements. The Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention in was a key moment in which activists from Black Power, feminist and queer liberation movements came together, saw common cause and learned from each other.
The Gay Liberation Front was the main organisation that formed out of the uprising and these wider movements. The GLF first formed in the US and were part of the original discussions to design the first Pride, which took
Written by: Jim Downs, Connecticut College
By the end of this section, you will:
- Explain how and why various groups responded to calls for the expansion of civil rights from to
After World War II, the civil rights movement had a profound impact on other groups demanding their rights. The feminist movement, the Black Influence movement, the environmental movement, the Chicano movement, and the American Indian Movement sought equality, rights, and empowerment in American community. Gay people organized to resist oppression and request just treatment, and they were especially galvanized after a New York Town police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a lgbtq+ bar, sparked riots in
Around the same moment, biologist Alfred Kinsey began a massive study of human sexuality in the United States. Like Magnus Hirschfield and other scholars who studied sexuality, including Havelock Ellis, a prominent British scholar who published research on transgender psychology, Kinsey believed sexuality could be studied as a science. He interviewed more than 8, men and argued that sexuality existed on a spectrum, sa
The Stonewall Riots (June 28, )
In , a riot at the Stonewall Inn (later known as the Stonewall Riots) became a turning point in the fight for LGBTQ civil rights. Though few records of the actual raid and riots that followed exist, the oral history of that time has been captured by the participants -- both those who rioted and the police. The Stonewall Riots ignited after a police raid took place at the Stonewall Inn. The tension from ongoing harassment galvanized the LGBTQ community to riot for six days. The protest through the streets of Recent York City is memorialized as the annual Gay Lgbtq+ fest parades that are now celebrated around the world.
It's very American to say, 'This is not right.' It's very American to say, 'You promised equality. You promised freedom.' And, in a sense the Stonewall Riots said, 'Get off our backs. Deliver on the promise.' So in every lgbtq+ pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. -Virginia Apuzzo, quoted in&nb
June 28, Stonewall Riots
On June 28, , New York City police arrived at the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village that catered to the gay community, to behavior a routine raid and arrest any individuals set up to be cross-dressing.
The raid did not proceed routinely, and resulted in resistance and demonstrations by the bar&#;s patrons and other individuals who gathered around the scene. The Stonewall Riots are considered to be a spark that ignited the gay rights movement.
However, in Teaching Stonewall’s 50th Anniversary, Teaching Tolerance editors note that it is important for students to learn that the gay rights movement did not begin with Stonewall.
Before, during and after Stonewall, activists in New York City were fighting against a system that criminalized their love lives and outward expression. Jason Baumann, who curated the Brand-new York Public Library’s exhibit honoring the Stonewall Uprising’s 50th anniversary, points out that as early as the s, groups like the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis were opposing position discrimination. Queer people at San Francisco