Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren
Speaker 1: boglebaumb Here in the West Village neighborhood of New York City,
Speaker 1: the neat grid of streets collapses into a tangle of
Speaker 1: odd angles and jagged alleys. A few blocks from Washington
Speaker 1: Square Park, the streets converged like the center of a
Speaker 1: spider's web, seeming to meet at the Stonewall Inn. The
Speaker 1: stone Wall was never showy. It was a dive bar
Speaker 1: with one significant feature. It catered to queer people. On
Speaker 1: a hot summer night in nineteen sixty nine, the police
Speaker 1: raided the place, a lining up gay men, lesbians, trans people,
Speaker 1: and even the bar's mafia connected owners, demanding to see
Speaker 1: id before filing them off to be arrested or into
Speaker 1: the night. In recent years, police had raided gay bars
Speaker 1: hundreds of times and other cities across America, but something
Speaker 1: was different that night. The crowd vehemently fought back. The
Speaker 1: resulting riots galvanized the gay rights movement in the United States,
Speaker 1: which until then had been quiet and slow to anger.
Speaker 1: So what exactly happened that night? Why did the community
Speaker 1: there react so differently? Today? Let's talk about the Stonewall
Speaker 1: Riots and why they took on such a prominent role
Speaker 1: in the history of queer rights in America. As you
Speaker 1: may have noticed, queer people face many challenges here today,
Speaker 1: both social and political, but queer life before the Stonewall
Speaker 1: Riots was something else. Before the nineteen seventies, a web
Speaker 1: of local and state laws restricted the rights of queer people.
Speaker 1: Depending on the area, this might have included anything from
Speaker 1: the restriction of dancing in public with the same sex
Speaker 1: partner to antisodomy laws that criminalized private sexual acts performed
Speaker 1: consensually by adults in their own homes. Police used these
Speaker 1: laws to harass and intimidate, raiding gay clubs and enforcing
Speaker 1: gender pro clothing laws. These were laws requiring a person
Speaker 1: to wear a minimum of three pieces of clothing deemed
Speaker 1: appropriate for their sex, which of course were designed to
Speaker 1: target trans people, cross dressers, or anyone else who didn't
Speaker 1: conform two gender norms. In every state except Illinois, which
Speaker 1: became the first to repeal it sodomy laws in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty one, it was effectively illegal to be gay or
Speaker 1: otherwise queer. A quick side note here on terminology, the
Speaker 1: language used by members of these communities to describe themselves
Speaker 1: has changed drastically since the nineteen sixties and is still
Speaker 1: changing today. Some words like queer have gone from a
Speaker 1: slur to being considered one of the more egalitarian ways
Speaker 1: to describe humans of the LGBTQIA spectrum, and other words
Speaker 1: have gone from common use to something that I would
Speaker 1: personally not say into a microphone today. A little bit
Speaker 1: more on this later, but I did want to acknowledge
Speaker 1: it now, but okay to continue. A culture of silence
Speaker 1: and fear surrounded much of queer life in mid twentieth
Speaker 1: century America. Until a Supreme Court ruling in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: you could legally be fired from your job if you
Speaker 1: were revealed to be queer. Until nineteen seventy three, homosexuality
Speaker 1: was listed as a disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's
Speaker 1: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, or DSM. Being gay was viewed
Speaker 1: as a mental illness for so long that some people
Speaker 1: truly believed that they were sick and had a problem
Speaker 1: they needed to hide or overcome. People were under constant
Speaker 1: pressure to conform. The nineteen fifties were especially brutal due
Speaker 1: to the effect of witch hunt, sometimes known as the
Speaker 1: lavender scare. From around nineteen forty five to nineteen sixty nine,
Speaker 1: the anti communist scourge of McCarthyism also targeted queer people
Speaker 1: as perverts or criminals. This hysteria regressed gay rights and
Speaker 1: attitudes towards queer people, which had gradually become more relaxed
Speaker 1: since the beginning of the nineteen hundreds. People found themselves
Speaker 1: disowned or otherwise shunned by their families and wider communities.
Speaker 1: But the pre Stonewall era was not entirely without hope.
Speaker 1: A movement in favor of gay civil rights began to
Speaker 1: grow in the nineteen fifties, known as the homophile movement.
Speaker 1: It emphasized a quiet, conformist version of gayness. While their
Speaker 1: specific successes were limited, it helped craft a positive queer
Speaker 1: identity and also established a nationwide network that helped queer
Speaker 1: people communicate, mostly via newsletters. Still, during this time, there
Speaker 1: were few places queer people could openly meet up and
Speaker 1: enjoy the culture they were creating. The Stonewall Inn was
Speaker 1: one of them. The Stonewall Inn, on Christopher Street in
Speaker 1: the western part of Granenwich Village, was originally a pair
Speaker 1: of brick buildings that housed stables than a bakery. The
Speaker 1: Stonewall Inn restaurant opened at the location in nineteen thirty four. Later,
Speaker 1: as queer culture began building in New York, While being
Speaker 1: gay in public was practically illegal and many bars refused
Speaker 1: queer patrons, figures in organized crimes saw on opportunity to
Speaker 1: exploit a market that wasn't being served by legal establishments,
Speaker 1: So in nineteen sixty seven, a small group of mafia
Speaker 1: connected investors opened The Stone Wall as a gay bar.
Speaker 1: At the time, several gay clubs and bars around New
Speaker 1: York City had mafia owners. Primarily gay men went to
Speaker 1: The Stone Wall, though lesbians and trans people did as well.
Speaker 1: It was a multi ethnic crowd. There was an informal
Speaker 1: segregation between the main bar populated by masculine gay men,
Speaker 1: and the back room's dance floor, home to queens and
Speaker 1: other groups who were more vulnerable or held lesser status
Speaker 1: according to contemporary stigmas. Another terminology note. In the sixties,
Speaker 1: the word queens referred to effeminate gay men who may
Speaker 1: or may not have worn feminine clothing or presented themselves
Speaker 1: as women. This is a source of some confusion in
Speaker 1: historical accounts. Reports of the queens instigating the riot have
Speaker 1: led to disagreements over the role that trans women played
Speaker 1: its stone Wall anyway, despite the bar's popularity, its bafia
Speaker 1: connections created a lot of tension. It's likely the owners
Speaker 1: dealt drugs and operated a prostitution ring out of the joint,
Speaker 1: and it was no secret that they paid bribes to
Speaker 1: the cops of the sixth Precinct to look the other way.
Speaker 1: There's evidence that at least one owner ran a gay
Speaker 1: blackmail racket, but threatening to out patrons who didn't pay
Speaker 1: them off. The owners also didn't invest a lot of
Speaker 1: money or effort into the Stonewall In. It was a grimy,
Speaker 1: dark place, and the drinks were usually watered down. Even
Speaker 1: with its flaws, the Stonewall In was a refuge for
Speaker 1: many queer people, one of the few places they felt
Speaker 1: accepted and relatively safe from harassment, even if only for
Speaker 1: a few hours of dancing to motown hits. The night
Speaker 1: the Stonewall riots occurred was no exception until the police
Speaker 1: showed up a little after one am. Deputy Inspector seymour
Speaker 1: Pine of Manhattan's first Division of Public Morals had several
Speaker 1: undercover officers inside the Stone Wall in on Friday, June
Speaker 1: twenty seventh of nineteen sixty nine. He arrived at the
Speaker 1: door of the bar after one am, so technically the
Speaker 1: raid and riot occurred on Saturday the twenty eighth. It's
Speaker 1: notable that Pine and the officers who initially participated in
Speaker 1: the raid were not part of the sixth Precinct. Pine's
Speaker 1: officers entered the Stone Wall with the intention of shutting
Speaker 1: it down permanently and arresting the owners for selling liquor
Speaker 1: without a license. They had raided it once already that
Speaker 1: summer as part of a plan to shut down all
Speaker 1: of the Mafia owned gay bars in Manhattan. But for
Speaker 1: a variety of reasons, this raid went differently from the others.
Speaker 1: A first, the officers wouldn't let people out of the
Speaker 1: bar without seeing id, which was one of many tactics
Speaker 1: meant to intimidate and humiliate queer people. Patrons exited the
Speaker 1: bar one by one, slowly forming a crowd outside as
Speaker 1: they waited for their friends to emerge. The crowd crew
Speaker 1: as onlookers joined, many of them disenfranchised street kids, a
Speaker 1: queer youth who had left home with nowhere else to go,
Speaker 1: and Eventually, this high spirited crowd erupted into a full
Speaker 1: scale riot for several reasons that have been debated, but
Speaker 1: here's a rundown. First, though Pine repeatedly requested backup officers,
Speaker 1: the sixth Precinct didn't send them. There's evidence that this
Speaker 1: was intentional because the sixth was getting kickbacks from the
Speaker 1: stone Wall and resented someone barging into their jurisdiction to
Speaker 1: conduct a raid. As a result, there were far too
Speaker 1: few officers on site to control the growing crowd. Also,
Speaker 1: because of the prior raids on the stone Wall and
Speaker 1: other queer bars around Manhattan, the people on site may
Speaker 1: have felt like their last refuge was being thretened, that
Speaker 1: they were being backed into a corner that had enough
Speaker 1: of police harassment. Further, with this tension in place, a
Speaker 1: few people physically resisted arrest, which transformed the incident from
Speaker 1: a shouting match to a physical confrontation. Most accounts described
Speaker 1: one lesbian woman who had been in the Stonewall fiercely
Speaker 1: battling cops who tried to stuff her into a patrol car,
Speaker 1: escalating the situation as she fought. Some accounts cite people
Speaker 1: like Jackie Hormona and Marsha P. Johnson as key players
Speaker 1: in inciting the riot. The physical altercations led to the
Speaker 1: crowd further escalating to throwing stuff at the cops. They
Speaker 1: started out with coins, then bottles, then bricks, either pried
Speaker 1: from the street or taken from a nearby construction site.
Speaker 1: At that point, Pines sensed the danger and retreated into
Speaker 1: the stone wall in with the other officers. A few
Speaker 1: of the bar's patrons and one reporter were also inside.
Speaker 1: The rioters grew even angrier that police now occupied the bar,
Speaker 1: and they battered the door open using a parking meter
Speaker 1: ripped from the street. Some of them even tried to
Speaker 1: light garbage near the stonewall's windows on fire. Meanwhile, from
Speaker 1: the CoP's perspective, it was a surprise that anyone even
Speaker 1: fought back. In multiple accounts of the incident, police who
Speaker 1: were involved expressed astonishment. They were used to gay men
Speaker 1: living in shame and fear of being exposed, and many
Speaker 1: saw them as stereotypically effeminate and passive. It was inconceivable
Speaker 1: to them that queer people would ever stand up for themselves. Eventually,
Speaker 1: fire trucks arrived, along with officers from the sixth precinct
Speaker 1: and beyond, including from New York City's Technical Patrol Force.
Speaker 1: They were equipped to deal with riots, and Pine and
Speaker 1: the officers with him were able to leave the Stonewall in. However,
Speaker 1: the crowd outside had swelled, attracting local residents and queer
Speaker 1: people from across New York City who were drawn there
Speaker 1: by phone calls from friends. Estimates of the crowd sides
Speaker 1: ranged from five hundred to a thousand people or more.
Speaker 1: A protracted series of street skirmishes and chases between cops
Speaker 1: and the crowd lasted a few hours and resulted in
Speaker 1: property damage and some injuries. The tangled geometry of the
Speaker 1: neighborhood's streets made it difficult for the police to maintain control.
Speaker 1: Multiple witnesses reported police attacking and beating rioters, who, in
Speaker 1: many cases were just dancing and singing in the street. Eventually,
Speaker 1: the crowd did disperse and the riot ended. If nothing
Speaker 1: else had happened afterwards, it may have been an isolated
Speaker 1: incident with minor importance in LGBTQIA history. But on Saturday night,
Speaker 1: news of the riots drew hundreds or possibly thousands of
Speaker 1: people to Christopher Street. The Stonewall Inn reopened and served
Speaker 1: as a central point and signboard. The crowd was made
Speaker 1: up predominantly of queer people, but it also became something
Speaker 1: of a more general counterculture event, drawing hippies, civil rights protesters,
Speaker 1: and even tourists. The crowd on the second night also
Speaker 1: threw bottles and garbage at the police and engaged in
Speaker 1: street chases with them, but it was much more political.
Speaker 1: People gave speeches, Chants of gay power were prominent, and
Speaker 1: groups hinted up pamphlets about gay rights, police corruption, and
Speaker 1: mafia involvement in queer spaces. By Sunday night, the crowds
Speaker 1: were smaller. The police outnumbered the protesters, who mainly gathered
Speaker 1: at a nearby park, holding hands, kissing, and dancing. In total,
Speaker 1: the Stonewall riots and protests lasted six nights, but the
Speaker 1: repercussions were not so confined. A few months later, a
Speaker 1: commemorative march took place in New York, and similar marches
Speaker 1: were held in cities across the US. On the first
Speaker 1: anniversary of the riots, thousands of people marched from Christopher
Speaker 1: Park to Central Park. It was the first queer pride
Speaker 1: parade in America, creating a precedent for annual celebrations around
Speaker 1: the world. In following the riots, groups like the Gay
Speaker 1: Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance organized and made
Speaker 1: a prolonged and focused push for gay rights in a
Speaker 1: far more visible and vocal way than groups had before.
Speaker 1: Of course, civil rights work is always an ongoing process,
Speaker 1: and the Stonewall Riots weren't the first time queer people
Speaker 1: reacted violently to police harassment. Uprisings due to law enforcement
Speaker 1: raids and misconduct occurred in San Francisco in nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: five and sixty six and in Los Angeles in sixty seven.
Speaker 1: Mainstream newspapers virtually ignored all of them, including Stonewall, But
Speaker 1: Stonewall is considered a key turning point today for a
Speaker 1: few reasons. For one thing, the Stonewall riots were larger
Speaker 1: in scale and lasted longer than other instants. Also, gay
Speaker 1: rights activists succeeded in finding an effective way to commemorate
Speaker 1: the riots, using a march, which became an inclusive parade
Speaker 1: that allowed a wide range of queer people and allies
Speaker 1: to participate. But an ironic reason that the Stonewall Riots
Speaker 1: are considered the start of the gay rights movement is
Speaker 1: precisely because the riots were not the start of the
Speaker 1: gay rights movement. One of the most important factors of
Speaker 1: an events legacy is the existence of a community with
Speaker 1: the desire and capacity to remember it. Those quiet gay
Speaker 1: rights organizations that were working in the fifties and sixties
Speaker 1: created an organized, nationwide community of queer people who communicated
Speaker 1: with each other. That existing infrastructure is a major part
Speaker 1: of the story of Stonewall. For the article of this
Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke via email
Speaker 1: with Susan Freeman, Associate professor and chair of the Department
Speaker 1: of Gender and Women's Studies at Western Michigan University. She
Speaker 1: said a longer view of gay and lesbian history works
Speaker 1: to de center Stonewall as the all important turning point,
Speaker 1: as does recognition of the impact act of young liberation
Speaker 1: activists who moved homophile organizations toward greater militancy. Stonewall as
Speaker 1: an event took hold of people's consciousness, largely because of
Speaker 1: the grassroots organizing that followed it, plus the annual commemorations
Speaker 1: and organizations that adopted the name. Today, as with any
Speaker 1: event that's reached mythic status, there's a lot of disagreement
Speaker 1: over exactly what happened during the Stonewall Riots. There are
Speaker 1: conflicting claims about who was involved, including the identity of
Speaker 1: the lesbian who fought the cops or the person who
Speaker 1: threw the first brick. Of course, it would be great
Speaker 1: to know those people, but the larger story is what's important.
Speaker 1: A truly diverse crowd, by many accounts, led by the
Speaker 1: most marginalized people in it was part of a movement
Speaker 1: of people who worked together, Freeman said, similar to Rosa
Speaker 1: Parks refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus,
Speaker 1: there was a much broader social movement content in which
Speaker 1: the Stonewall Riots took place. The Stonewall Inn is still
Speaker 1: a privately owned bar. In twenty sixteen, the Stonewall Christopher
Speaker 1: Park and some nearby streets were designated a National Monument
Speaker 1: by President Obama, the first dedicated to queer rights. The
Speaker 1: annual New York City Pride March still ends on Christopher
Speaker 1: Street every year on the anniversary of the riots. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is based on the article how the Stonewall Riots
Speaker 1: worked on how Stuffworks dot com, written by Ed Grabanowski.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff That's production by Heart Radio and partnership with
Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot com and is produced by Tyler Klang.
Speaker 1: The four more podcasts from my Heart Radio visit the
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