Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad
She sat there with her legs crossed, the lashes of her mascara-coated eyes beating like the wings of a hummingbird. She was angry. She was so upset she hadn't bothered to shave. A day old stubble was beginning to push through the pancake makeup. She was a he. A queen of Christopher Street.
Last weekend the queens had turned commandos and stood bra strap to bra strap against an invasion of the helmeted Tactical Patrol Force. The elite police squad had shut down one of their private gay clubs, the Stonewall Inn at 57 Christopher St., in the heart of a three-block homosexual community in Greenwich Village. Queen Power reared its bleached blonde head in revolt. New York City experienced its first homosexual riot.
"We may have lost the battle, sweets, but the war is far from over," lisped an unofficial lady-in-waiting from the court of the Queens.
"We've had all we can take from the Gestapo," the spokesman, or spokeswoman, continued. "We're putting our foot down once and for all. "The foot wore a spiked heel.
According to reports, the Stonewall Inn, a two-story structure with a sand pained brick and opaque glass façade, was a mecca for the homosexual element in the village who wanted nothing but a private little place where they could congregate, drink, dance and do whatever little girls do when they get together.
The thick glass shut out the outside world of the street. Inside, the Stonewall bathed in wild, bright psychedelic lights, while the patrons writhed to the sounds of a juke box on a square dance floor surrounded by booths and table. The bar did a good business and the waiters, or waitresses, were always kept busy, as they snaked their way around the dancing customers to the booths and tables. For nearly two years, peace and tranquility reigned supreme for the Alice in Wonderland clientele.
more... (Reprinted from "The New York Daily News," July 6, 1969)
The Stonewall Riots: the flashpoint that launched the gay rights movement in the US
When it happened, it was totally unexpected. The New York City Police had done this sort of thing many times before: rousting gay bar patrons, fully knowing that in their shame and surprise they would not offer any resistance. But, in the early hours of 28 June 1969, the familiar script was torn up. When eight policemen arrived to raid the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village, they proceeded as usual: checking ID documents, arresting obvious ‘female impersonators’, and generally harassing the clientele.
However, the mood quickly took an unfamiliar turn. Instead of the usual compliance, people fought back inside the club. While this was going on, a crowd of forcibly ejected clubbers gathered outside: as it happened, the Stonewall Inn was on a block with a small public space, Christopher Park.
Something snapped. As the police began to load in transvestites and young hustlers – street prostitutes – into their vans, a fierce lesbian fought the arresting officers every step of the way. Inspired by her ferocity, the crowd moved from insult to action.
First it was bottles and loose change. Then it was bricks and paving stones, heaved at the police. Taken aback by the ferocity of a previously passive minority, the police ceded the streets and retreated back into the club. Once barricaded in, they were assaulted with parking meters, garbage cans and Molotov cocktails by an enraged crowd, which had swelled to several hundred people. “I was sick of being told I was sick,” one rioter remembered, while the general mood was “this has got to stop”.
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10 LGBT Uprisings Before Stonewall
The Cooper Do-nuts Riot, Los Angeles
May 1959
Picket at Whitehall Street Induction Center, New York
September 19, 1964
ECHO White House Demonstration, D.C.
April 17, 1965
Council on Religion and the Homosexual Ball, San Francisco
January 1, 1965
Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-In, Philadelphia
April 25, 1965
The Independence Hall "Annual Reminders," Philadelphia
July 4, 1965
The Julius' Sip-In, New York City
April 21, 1966
Compton's Cafeteria Riot, San Francisco
August, 1966
Black Cat Protests, Los Angeles
February 11, 1967
Patch Riot, Los Angeles
August 17, 1968
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How You Can Help Save the Stonewall Inn
Even if you've never been there, you've heard of it; The Stonewall Inn, one of New York City's foremost landmarks of the LGBTQ+ rights movement, is in danger of closing permanently in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
Stonewall has been a shining monument to the early fight for gay rights in the Greenwich Village for decades now, ever since the 1969 riots that put the bar under an international spotlight as a hub for queer liberation. Key patrons of the bar, like transgender rights advocates Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, were both the catalysts for and on the frontlines of the fight against police raids of queer bars and clubs in NYC. While the riots may have put the bar on the map, it was the work and iconography of queer and trans people of color that ensured its lasting impact as a community center for changemakers.
The once-crowded bar has been empty these days during an era of closures and social distancing. "The Stonewall Inn faces an uncertain future and we are in need of community support," a statement on the bar's Instagram reads. "The road to recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic will be long and we need to continue to safeguard this vital piece of living history for the LGBTQ community and the global human rights movement and we now must ask for your help to save one of the LGBTQ+ communities most iconic institutions and to keep that history alive."
The bar, made a national monument under President Barack Obama, is asking for donations via two separate GoFundMe campaigns. One is for supporting the business and its operations, and another is for its staff. While the business-wide campaign has reached its goal, its staff still needs help reaching a $60,000 goal. Donate to the staff campaign here.
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51 years ago...Queer History was made!
= new reply since forum marked as read
Love the video
I posted the video in the Video group too. 
What you do to one - you do to all. 
So happy to see you! Hope you are staying safe and doing well!
Hoping we will finally root out homophobia on du as well.
The Lindsey Graham posts, the rump/Putin posts...and on ad nauseum.
But, don't hold your breath. But we can dream, especially today!
