Today is the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall

That’s right, it was on this day in 1969 the patrons of a gay establishment in NYC had decided they had endured enough.

The Stonewall riots were a series of unplanned, yet often violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, which still stands today in the Greenwich Village area of New York City.

The riots are commonly referred to as the first time in American history that gays and lesbians fought back against a government-sponsored police system that persecuted homosexuals, and were they have come to be the events are known as the beginning of the modern day gay rights movement not only here in the United States but across the globe.

Prior to laws that have been passed since the riots, it was illegal in many states for 3 or more gay men or lesbian women to congregate in any one place, and during the 50’s and 60’s the LGBT community faced an extremely anti-gay legal system which left our community virtually less than second class with literally no rights or legal recourse to challenge discrimination. This, along with the horrible treatment of lesbians gays by police and others set the riots in motion.

At the time of the riots, the Stonewall Inn, was owned by the Mafia and it served a variety of patrons, but it was best known as a popular place for the more “flambouyant” people in the gay community including trans, more effeminate men, male prostitutes and homeless youth.

Raids on gay bars by police were routine in the 60’s, on this particular day, officers lost control of the situation and the crowd broke into a riot. The tension between NYC police and gay NY residents continued to escalate and spurred on even more protests that would continue on for the next several nights.

In only a couple weeks, gay residents of Greenwhich Village organized themselves into activist groups who concentrated their efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested.

You can read more about the Stonewall Riots and the Gay Rights Movement at OUTHistory.org!