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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm editor Kandis Keener, joined by fellow editor Katie Lambert. Hey, Candice, Here, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Today we're going to talk about the Stonewall Riots, which

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Speaker 1: was the beginning of the gay rights movement. And this

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Speaker 1: was a listener request that has come up several times,

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Speaker 1: and unfortunately we just missed the anniversary of the riots.

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Speaker 1: So here we are a couple of weeks later, finally

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Speaker 1: touching on this topic that deserves some history class time.

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Speaker 1: And to give some background, we're going to talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit about homosexuality at the time the Stonewall Riots

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Speaker 1: occurred in nineteen sixty nine, and then homosexuality was still

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Speaker 1: considered a mental illness. It was in the Diagnostic and

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Speaker 1: Statistical Manual, which is what psychiatrists use to figure out

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Speaker 1: what's wrong with you as a sociopathic disorder, and you

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Speaker 1: could be arrested and put in prison for life for

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Speaker 1: an act of homosexual sex. The FBI was tracking homosexuals

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Speaker 1: and seeing where they went and who their friends were.

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Speaker 1: The Post Office was keeping track of any sort of

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Speaker 1: homosexual materials that were going through the mail, and it

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Speaker 1: wasn't a good time to be gay. And in New York,

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Speaker 1: whereas we'll learn later, this genemal riots actually occurred, there

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Speaker 1: was a criminal statute that said anyone who wasn't wearing

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Speaker 1: at least three articles of gender appropriate clothing could be

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Speaker 1: taken into police custitute too. So whether you were a homosexual,

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Speaker 1: or someone who was transgendered, or even someone who was

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Speaker 1: just a transvestite, you still fell into this this grouping

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Speaker 1: of illegal people's And because homosexuality was considered a mental illness,

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Speaker 1: therapy is like electroshock therapy and lobotomy, UM were used

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Speaker 1: to quote unquote cure you. And had a couple good

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Speaker 1: quotes from people at the time. UM Bishop Geen Robinson

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Speaker 1: said that life before Stonewall was scary. Indeed, when I

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Speaker 1: was growing up, homosexual wasn't even a word you said

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Speaker 1: out loud. Anyone who was that way either committed suicide

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Speaker 1: or wound up a drug addict or alcoholic. And Eric

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Speaker 1: Marcus said it was not uncommon in those days for

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Speaker 1: gay people to attempt suicide. I remember many young people

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Speaker 1: who I met telling me about their attempted suicides. It

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Speaker 1: was not uncommon to see somebody with stitch marks on

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Speaker 1: their wrists. So we're talking about a pretty bleak time

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Speaker 1: to be a part of this subculture. But in Greened's

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Speaker 1: village in New York City, there was a mafia bar

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Speaker 1: called the Stone Wall in where these people felt welcome.

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Speaker 1: It was sort of a haven for them, and not

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Speaker 1: only for them, but people from others states who heard

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Speaker 1: about it would make a pilgrimage of sorts to New

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Speaker 1: York to to visit there, and the Stone Wall was

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Speaker 1: the place to be. It was this nasty dive bar,

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Speaker 1: but you could dance there and they didn't have a

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Speaker 1: liquor license because gay bars weren't allowed to have liquor licenses,

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Speaker 1: which is why was a mafia. Gay bars weren't allowed

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Speaker 1: to exist to exist that much less goal license. Um.

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Speaker 1: But it was pretty gross place. They didn't really care

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Speaker 1: about cleanliness and it was just the kind of place

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Speaker 1: she went if you wanted to dance and go out

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Speaker 1: and hang out with a bunch of other gay people.

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Speaker 1: And during this era, police frequently made raids on bars,

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Speaker 1: but because a gangster had paid off police to leave

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Speaker 1: it alone, uh Stanwell largely went unbothered for quite some

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Speaker 1: time and then on I wouldn't really call it an

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Speaker 1: auspicious day because it's sort of strange that it coincided,

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Speaker 1: but not too strange. But on the day of Judy

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Speaker 1: Garland's funeral, interestingly enough, Stonewall was was raided and it

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Speaker 1: was the second time that week actually, and this is

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Speaker 1: June in nineteen sixty nine, and again raids weren't unusual,

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Speaker 1: so it wasn't a huge deal at first. The police

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Speaker 1: walked in and the special cool dancing lights were turned off,

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Speaker 1: and it was kind of a code. Once the real

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Speaker 1: lights came on, Hey, everybody stopped dancing, stopped touching. Police

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Speaker 1: are in the place. And it was in the early

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Speaker 1: morning hours on June twenty eight that the police shut

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Speaker 1: it down and took all of the employees into custody

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Speaker 1: because they were operating and serving without a liquor license,

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Speaker 1: and according to that New York statute I mentioned earlier,

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Speaker 1: they also took some transvestites into custody as well. And

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Speaker 1: as the people walked out of the bar, because the

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Speaker 1: two hundred people who were there were mostly able to leave,

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Speaker 1: they were walking by and posing and the crowd would

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Speaker 1: cheer as they came out and everything at first seemed

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Speaker 1: like just another Friday night raid, but the crowd didn't disperse,

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Speaker 1: and in fact, more and more people came and gathered

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Speaker 1: until they were nearly four hundred that night, and they

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Speaker 1: began talking back to the police, and the police actually

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Speaker 1: had to call for backup and barricaded themselves inside the bar.

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Speaker 1: And some eye witnesses account which I heard on an

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Speaker 1: NPR story back on anniversary fort anniversary of the General

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Speaker 1: Rights said that people were chanting things like police brutality,

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Speaker 1: killed the cops, We're not going to take this anymore.

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Speaker 1: Someone through a Molotov cocktail someone else tore up a

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Speaker 1: parking meter and actually used it to try to beat

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Speaker 1: down the police barricade. So in the past there had

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Speaker 1: been rather passive reactions to these police rates. But something

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Speaker 1: about this night, and I'm not sure people have put

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Speaker 1: a finger on precisely what it was, but um As

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Speaker 1: Allen Ratner, uh and openly gay journalist, says it was

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Speaker 1: sort of like that moment in the civil rights movement

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Speaker 1: where Rosa Park said that she sat down because her

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Speaker 1: feet hurt. She said that this night people decided that

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Speaker 1: they didn't want to be pacifists. Anymore. They wanted to

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Speaker 1: take an active stand for who they were. People started

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Speaker 1: off just throwing things like pennies, and then it escalated

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Speaker 1: to bricks, bottles, garbage and like you said, a parking meter,

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Speaker 1: and they started setting fires and the tactical police force

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Speaker 1: came in and that's when things got even uglier because

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Speaker 1: they brought out the billy clubs and there are people

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Speaker 1: lying on the ground bruised and beaten and bloody, and

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Speaker 1: so eventually the crowd did disperse that night, but perhaps

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Speaker 1: to the police surprised, they came back the following night

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Speaker 1: and for several nights thereafter, and so we had a

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Speaker 1: series of riots that were protesting how coarsely the police

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Speaker 1: treated the patrons of stern Wall. And Saturday was more

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Speaker 1: people came to the bar and they put signs all

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Speaker 1: over it about gay power and gay pride and again

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Speaker 1: they weren't going to take this anymore. That was the end,

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Speaker 1: and one of the signs said Inspector Smith looted our money, jukebox,

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Speaker 1: cigarette machine, telephones, safe cash register and the boys tips.

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Speaker 1: And the tactical police force was called in on Saturday

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Speaker 1: as well, and there were crowds all over the streets

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Speaker 1: which they were breaking up, even though a lot of

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Speaker 1: them had nothing to do with the Stonewall riots whatsoever,

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Speaker 1: and in general acting a little bit aggressive toward the crowds.

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Speaker 1: And Sunday it was still going on, and Alan Ginsburg

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Speaker 1: was hanging around and said, gay power, isn't that great.

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Speaker 1: We're one of the largest minorities in the country ten percent.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's about time we did something to assert

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Speaker 1: ourselves and was walking down the streets saying, defend the fairies,

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Speaker 1: and they were also chanting, we are the Stonewall girls.

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Speaker 1: We wear our hair and curls, we wear no underwear,

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Speaker 1: we show our pubic hair, we wear our dungarees above

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Speaker 1: our nelly knees. And I apologize for the coarseness, but

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Speaker 1: I did not make it up. But what was so

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Speaker 1: significant about the Stonewall Riots was that it was what

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Speaker 1: most people point at as the the catalyst for the

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Speaker 1: gay rights movement. And like Katie had said, the word

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Speaker 1: homosexual wasn't even used in the language. But after Stonewall,

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Speaker 1: the Gay Liberation Front was formed, and it was actually

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Speaker 1: the first organization to include the word gay in its title,

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Speaker 1: which was a huge l too openly identify yourself as

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Speaker 1: being gay. And then a newspaper named Gay was also launched.

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Speaker 1: And a year after stone Wall, which would have been

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Speaker 1: June nineteen seventy, there were Gay Rise Parade in Los Angeles, Chicago,

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Speaker 1: San Francisco, and in New York and today, of course

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Speaker 1: every June and several cities around the world there are

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Speaker 1: other gay Pride marches. But what is perhaps the most

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Speaker 1: important lesson to be learned about the inception of the

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Speaker 1: gay rights movement, and halsdone Will kicked that off, is

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Speaker 1: that a lot of the people who participated in the

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Speaker 1: riots were homeless adolescents. And you can't underestimate the damaging

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Speaker 1: effect being a homosexual in that time had on people.

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Speaker 1: Like Katie was saying, it was classified as a mental illness,

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Speaker 1: and so a lot of people who were gay turned

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Speaker 1: to prostitution, They took drugs, They were unemployed because many

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Speaker 1: places wouldn't allow homosexuals to be employed. They weren't accepted anywhere.

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Speaker 1: Make it outright fire you if you admitted that you

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Speaker 1: were on a se exactly. And a man who's called

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Speaker 1: one of the founding fathers of the gay rights movement,

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Speaker 1: Dr Frank Cameney, actually was fired from his job. He

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Speaker 1: was employed by the government. He had his pH d

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Speaker 1: in astronomy from Harvard and he was a member of

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Speaker 1: the US Map Service, part of the U. S Civil

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Speaker 1: Service Commission. And you couldn't be a federal employee if

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Speaker 1: you were gay. And this was back in nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: seven that he was fired, and he knew, and he

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Speaker 1: was one of the first people to openly speak out

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Speaker 1: against this kind of mistreatment. He knew that it was wrong,

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Speaker 1: and he actually went too far as to file a

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Speaker 1: petition with the Supreme Court. And this is a direct

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Speaker 1: quote from him. He says, to my knowledge, it was

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Speaker 1: the first gay rights legal brief filed, and that was

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Speaker 1: in January nineteen sixty one, and in March nineteen sixty one,

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Speaker 1: the Supreme Court denied that petition, but reflecting on the

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Speaker 1: opportunities denied him because of his homosexuality, he points out

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Speaker 1: that that Map Service actually became incorporated into NASA, and

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Speaker 1: he says that he can imagine himself having worked as

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Speaker 1: an astronomer at NASA. Again, to quote him, for the

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Speaker 1: remainder of my professional career, and then he sort of

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Speaker 1: joked a little bit and said that he might have

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Speaker 1: been an astronaut or one of the first men to

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Speaker 1: be on the moon. And even though he's joking, it's

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Speaker 1: it's a bitter sweet reflection because what opportunities were denied

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Speaker 1: to other people based on their their sexual preferences. And

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Speaker 1: so in the nineteen fifties, the Managing Society and the

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Speaker 1: Daughters of Belidas were part of what was called the

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Speaker 1: homophile movement to stamp out sodomy laws and promote tolerance

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Speaker 1: and understanding. But this was largely a literary movement. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't a political effort. It was about printing for people

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Speaker 1: to read. It was about putting ideas into literature, but

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Speaker 1: not necessarily into practice because people weren't afforded those rights.

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Speaker 1: And so not until Stone Wall, that pivotal turning point,

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Speaker 1: did the movement become political and actually started to make

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Speaker 1: progress and become visible as well, which was one of

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Speaker 1: the things that Harvey Milk really tried to do as

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Speaker 1: the first openly gay man was elected to any office

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Speaker 1: of meaning. Really, he said that visibility was the key,

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Speaker 1: and there's a quote from him about never using the

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Speaker 1: elevator at city Hall, always take the staircase because it

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Speaker 1: is a better grander entrance. But when he was elected,

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Speaker 1: a woman wrote to him and said, I thank god

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Speaker 1: I have lived long enough to see my kind emerge

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Speaker 1: from the shadows and join the human race. And he

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Speaker 1: was very much involved with the Greenwich Village gay community

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Speaker 1: as well. So it was, you know, seeing one of

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Speaker 1: their own go to San Francisco and rise in the ranks.

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Speaker 1: And even though there was a gay community in Greenwich Village,

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Speaker 1: many historians would argue that there was never a cohesive

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Speaker 1: group of homosexuals until the Stonewall riots. People were so

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Speaker 1: downtrodden and so oppressed that they were, you know, they

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Speaker 1: were of themselves. You know, you had mentioned that there

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Speaker 1: were a lot of suicide attempts, people of very bleak existences.

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Speaker 1: But not until this turning point, and not really until

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Speaker 1: stone Wall, where there was a almost a salon of

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Speaker 1: like minds to come together and to find fellowship, did

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Speaker 1: this change really emerge and people became a community with

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Speaker 1: the voice and with a unified thought and deciding to

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Speaker 1: stop living double lives and maybe try for some more openness.

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Speaker 1: And so today, if you look at some of the

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Speaker 1: issues that the gay rights movement have yet to tackle,

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Speaker 1: we have things like marriage, retirement, financial security, and even

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Speaker 1: elder care. And there are many dissenting voices now speaking

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Speaker 1: out against the president of the United States, saying that

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Speaker 1: they've they've been hoping for and they thought that they

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Speaker 1: had been promised certain what we consider rights, but they

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Speaker 1: would consider rights they're hoping to retain, and perhaps in

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Speaker 1: their lifetime they would see marriage legalized. For the community

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Speaker 1: was very much behind Obama and his election process, and

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Speaker 1: I think some people are disappointed with maybe some of

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Speaker 1: his promises not being kept thus far. And of course,

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Speaker 1: the news changes on a daily basis, and so by

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Speaker 1: the time this podcast publishes, it will all be old news.

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Speaker 1: But for the sake of not politicizing our content and

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Speaker 1: presenting the facts, it is a definite perspective that people

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Speaker 1: out there should consider that the gay rights movement has

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Speaker 1: come so far, but many people feel that it's stalled

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Speaker 1: right now exactly and hasn't gone far enough exactly. But

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Speaker 1: we were very happy to share this important moment in

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Speaker 1: history for all of you, and for those of you

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Speaker 1: requested the topic, we thank you too, And for more background,

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Speaker 1: please visit the website at how stuff works dot com

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Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics, visit

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and be sure to check

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Speaker 1: out the stuff you missed in History Class blog on

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Speaker 1: the how stuff works dot com home page. In