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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Welcome to This Day in History Class, where

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Speaker 1: History waits for no One. Today is June nineteen. The

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Speaker 1: day was June nineteen sixty nine. Early in the morning,

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Speaker 1: New York City police raided the stone Wall in a

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Speaker 1: gay bar in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. The raid inside

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Speaker 1: it a riot, intentions between the LGBTQ community and police

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Speaker 1: reached a breaking point. The raid in subsequent riots catalyzed

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Speaker 1: the organization of pride marches and marked a major moment

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Speaker 1: of resistance in the US movement for lgbt Q rights.

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Speaker 1: Anti LGBTQ policies and views were prevalent at the time.

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Speaker 1: Homosexuality was still deemed a psychiatric disorder by the American

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Speaker 1: Psychiatric Association, and LGBTQ people faced institutional and interpersonal discrimination.

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Speaker 1: They were at risk of being locked up in psychiatric

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Speaker 1: institutions or jail, being fired from their jobs, or losing

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Speaker 1: custody over their children because of their sexuality or identity.

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Speaker 1: In New York in the years leading up to the

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Speaker 1: Stonewall riots, the state Liquor Authority banned gay people from

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Speaker 1: being served alcoholic drinks and bars, and it would close

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Speaker 1: bars that violated this rule. This rule was overturned in

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six, and the s l A stopped closing

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Speaker 1: licensed bars that served LGBTQ folks. Though LGBTQ activists have

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Speaker 1: been working for decades to advance lgbt Q rights and

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Speaker 1: demand better treatment, so listening homosexual acts and publicly expressing

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Speaker 1: homosexuality was still illegal in New York. They could be

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Speaker 1: arrested for displays of affection, for dancing with each other,

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Speaker 1: and for wearing clothes that were not quote gender appropriate.

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Speaker 1: LGBTQ people sought out gay bars, one of the few

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Speaker 1: places that accepted them where they could express themselves without

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Speaker 1: judgment or persecution, but police continued to harass patrons at

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Speaker 1: gay bars, many of which operated without liquor licenses since

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Speaker 1: they were ran by the mafia. The stone Wall in

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Speaker 1: was one of those unlicensed bars, so police raids on

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Speaker 1: gay bars were still common in New York City. Stone

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Speaker 1: Wall had seen its fair share of raids, but staff

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Speaker 1: were usually given a heads up and warned customers so

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Speaker 1: nobody would get arrested. In the days leading up to

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Speaker 1: the stone Wall Riots, police raided many bars, including the

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Speaker 1: stone Wall, on the Tuesday before the events took place,

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Speaker 1: but on June at one a m. Police entered the

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Speaker 1: Stone Wall in and announced that they were conducting a raid.

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Speaker 1: Employees had not been alerted that there would be a

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Speaker 1: raid that night. It's been suggested that the bar owners

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Speaker 1: failed to pay off the police, who took money for

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Speaker 1: not arresting them for serving drinks without a license and

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Speaker 1: not telling media about the bars notable patrons. But as usual,

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Speaker 1: the police lined people up, checked their i d s,

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Speaker 1: assaulted some of the patrons, and checked people who they

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Speaker 1: suspected of cross dressing, which was an offense. The police

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Speaker 1: ended up arresting several patrons and employees. As people in

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Speaker 1: the area began to notice the commotion, they gathered outside

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Speaker 1: the bar along with patrons who have been sent out

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Speaker 1: of the bar. As a police van arrived at the

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Speaker 1: scene and arrested patrons were sent to the police station,

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Speaker 1: the growing crowd became more rowdy and through bottles, coins,

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Speaker 1: and other objects at the police. Transgender rights activists Marshall P.

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Speaker 1: Johnson has been cited as one of the key figures

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Speaker 1: in the uprising, along with Sylvia Rivera police barricaded themselves

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Speaker 1: inside the bar, but people through trash cans, rocks, and

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Speaker 1: bricks at the building, and they even set it on fire.

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Speaker 1: A few hours after the rioting started, the area was quiet,

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Speaker 1: though a lot of the stone Wall in had been

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Speaker 1: destroyed and people have been injured, But rioting began again

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Speaker 1: the next night and protests continued for a few more days.

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Speaker 1: The Village Voice published reports on the riots. Historians assert

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Speaker 1: that the riots were spontaneous, but we're a culmination of

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Speaker 1: social turbulence related to anti LGBTQ sentiment, the civil rights movement,

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Speaker 1: the Vietnam War, and other conflicts occurring at the time,

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Speaker 1: as well as the climate of sexual openness in the sixties.

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Speaker 1: Rates continued after the riot. Though the riots at stone

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Speaker 1: Wall were not the beginning of LGBTQ activism, they are

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Speaker 1: viewed as a watership moment in the history of the

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Speaker 1: movement that activated interests in l g b t Q

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Speaker 1: rights organizations, the gay liberation movement, and l g b

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Speaker 1: t Q inclusion and advocacy. I'm Eve Jeff Cote and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. And if you like to follow us

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Speaker 1: on social media, you can find us at t d

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Speaker 1: I h C podcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And

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Speaker 1: if you have not listened to a new show I

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Speaker 1: host called and then Popular, you can get it anywhere

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Speaker 1: you listen to this Day in History class. Thanks again

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Speaker 1: for listening and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts

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