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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJune 28,1969 THE STONEWALL RIOT Greenwich Village, NY (first major protest on behalf of LGBT Rights)
http://www.civilrights.org/archives/2009/06/449-stonewall.html---------------------------
This Sunday, June 28, will mark the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the event largely regarded as a catalyst for the LGBT movement for civil rights in the United States. The riots inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize in support of gay rights, and within two years after the riots, gay rights groups had been started in nearly every major city in the United States.
At the time, there were not many places where people could be openly gay. New York had laws prohibiting homosexuality in public, and private businesses and gay establishments were regularly raided and shut down.
In the early hours of June 28, 1969, a group of gay customers at a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village called the Stonewall Inn, who had grown angry at the harassment by police, took a stand and a riot broke out. As word spread throughout the city about the demonstration, the customers of the inn were soon joined by other gay men and women who started throwing objects at the policemen, shouting "gay power."
Police reinforcements arrived and beat the crowd away, but the next night, the crowd returned, even larger than the night before, with numbers reaching over 1000. For hours, protesters rioted outside the Stonewall Inn until the police sent a riot-control squad to disperse the crowd. For days following, demonstrations of varying intensity took place throughout the city.
In the wake of the riots, intense discussions about civil rights were held among New York's LGBT people, which led to the formation of various advocacy groups such as the short-lived Gay Liberation Front, which was the first group to use the word "gay" in its name, and a city-wide newspaper called Gay. On the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the first gay pride parades in U.S. history took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and near the Stonewall Inn in New York.
The Stonewall riots inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize in support of gay rights, and within two years after the riots, gay rights groups had been started in nearly every major city in the United States.
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June 28,1969 THE STONEWALL RIOT Greenwich Village, NY (first major protest on behalf of LGBT Rights) (Original Post)
misterhighwasted
Jun 2015
OP
marym625
(17,997 posts)1. 41st
But yeah!
But yeah! Today is a great day to be gay in America...
TYY
Lol! Hey, sometimes I'm still stuck in the 80s
mulsh
(2,959 posts)4. 3 years before Stonewall there was Comptons Cafeteria riots in SF.
Not to denigrate Stonewall's importance but there was a steady build up of frustration that even little straight kids like me heard about back in the day.
here's a pretty good list of pre-Stonewall actions:
[link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LGBT_actions_in_the_United_States_prior_to_the_Stonewall_riots|