Impact of Stonewall Riots (1969)

Organization of the Gay Rights Movement

Photo Credit: Kay Tobin, The NY Public Library Collections.

The Stonewall riots were a series of protests and passionate outbursts by citizens of New York City’s gay community. The New York City Police Department were targeted by the anger and injustices faced by members of the crowd. More specifically against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of mid-Manhattan. New York’s gay community had grown exhausted of the police department targeting gay clubs. As soon as the police arrived, a crowd began to form outside the club. The crowd watched quietly as Stonewall’s employees were arrested, but when the police started using force on the customers, the crowd began pelting them with coins, rocks, bottles, and bricks. The officers were forced to take shelter inside the establishment and were forced to call in reinforcements in hopes to disperse the crowd. The group, however, would not be cooperate, and the spontaneous protest spilled over into the neighboring streets. It was so disrupting that order was not restored until the deployment of New York City’s riot police. The riot was followed by several days of demonstrations all over the city. This incident was also the impetus for the formation of gay civil rights organizations like the Gay Liberation Front, the Gay Activists Alliance, Lavender Menace, and STAR (Marotta). This is, by far, is the monumental event that gave rise to the modern gay rights movement.

The Society for Human Rights

However, before the Stonewall Riots, the gay community in the United States was not unrepresented. The Society for Human Rights was a gay rights organization established in Chicago in 1924. Society founder Henry Gerber was inspired to create it by German doctor Magnus Hirschfeld and his work with the Scientific Humanitarian Committee in Germany. It was the first recognized gay rights organization in the United States, received an official charter from the state of Illinois, and produced the first literature publication for the gay community, Friendship and Freedom. However, just a few months after being chartered, the group ceased to exist. This was, unfortunately, because many of the group’s top members were arrested on charges of sodomy and immoral behavior. Despite its short existence and small size, the group is recognized to have contributed an early push for the gay rights movement.

The Mattachine Society

Photo credit: Emaze

The Mattachine Society was founded in 1950. Harry Hay, and other members of the Las Angeles gay community, founded the group to protect and improve the rights of gay men. To secure anonymity because of anti gay laws in California, they adopted an independent cell style structure (Peacock). By 1961, as they expanded, however, they began to form more cohesive regional groups. In the early 1960s, the various unaffiliated Mattachine Societies, especially those in San Francisco and New York, were among the foremost gay rights groups in the United States. Beginning in the middle 1960s, however, things began to change. Especially, following the Stonewall riots. The Mattachine Society was increasingly seen as too traditional, and they were criticized for not being willing to get confrontational (Peacock). No longer able to meet the needs of the gay community, the Mattachine Society eventually disappeared, replaced by organizations that were more willing to address the community’s issues in the manner that they believed best suited their situation and social conditions (Peacock). These organizations were also better equipped to get involved in the larger social upheaval of the day, opposing the Vietnam War and pushing for the advancement of the sexual revolution.

The Daughters of Bilitis

Photo Credit: Kay Tobin, The NY Public Library Collections. Featured: Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon

You can’t talk about the Mattachine Society without talking about The Daughters of Bilitis. The Daughters of Bilitis, more informally referred to as just the Daughters, was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. The organization was founded by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, in 1955. They had been together for three years when they complained to a gay couple that they did not know any other lesbians. The gay couple introduced Martin and Lyon to another lesbian couple, one of whom suggested they create a social club. One of their priorities was to have a place to dance, as dancing with the same sex in a public place was illegal. After bar raids, police often informed employers or gave lists of arrestees to the newspapers. Parents disowned their adult children. Minors were sent to a shrink or were institutionalized and given shock or other treatments. Purges occurred periodically on military bases. According to Martin and Lyon, just having “tendencies” or being friends with lesbians could get you a court martial and a dishonorable discharge. Many people lost licenses and their professional careers. Lesbian mothers were denied custody of their children and even visitation rights in some cases (Martin & Lyon). The law, religion, and psychiatry played prominent roles in the cruel treatment of lesbians and gay men by society and family. Although unsure of how exactly to proceed with the group, members began to meet regularly. From the beginning, the Daughter of Bilitis was engaged in peer counseling and internal discussion groups to allay fears and build self-esteem. Holding “public” forums allowed lesbians and some gay and transgendered men to attend without committing themselves (Martin & Lyon). The organization endured for fourteen years. During this period, it evolved into an educational resource for lesbians, gay men, researchers, and mental health professionals. Unfortunately, by the end of the sixties, it too found itself outmoded, and the organization was overtaken by the more militant organizations of the seventies.

The Gay Liberation Front

Photo Credit: The Grand Rapids Institute for Informational Democracy

The Gay Liberation Front was formed in New York City in July of 1969, immediately after the Stonewall Riots of late June. It was discussions among the leaders of the local gay community immediately after the riots that lead to the formation of group. Mark Segal and Martha Shelley, both now known for their many positive contributions to the gay rights struggle, were among the group’s founding members. As these leaders began to push the group’s agenda, the word, Stonewall, became a rally cry for the people fighting for equality in the gay community (Lauritsen). One of the group’s first acts was to organize a march that would maintain and boost the momentum of the Stonewall uprising. Their first demand was that an end be put to the persecution of the gay community. The group also developed a broad political platform, denouncing racism, denouncing the war in Vietnam, declaring support for various struggles in the developing world, and offering solidarity to the Black Panther Party (Lauritsen). They took an anti capitalist economic stance, and they challenged the boundaries of the post World War II nuclear family, as well as, traditional American gender roles (Lauritsen). Additionally, to supplement the marches held immediately after the Stonewall Riots and to commemorate the riots, themselves, Gay Pride marches were organized around the country and held every year on the anniversary of the riots. When the group stated that it advocated for sexual liberation, however, they were not just referring to the gay community. They were, in fact, advocating for all people. They believed that heterosexuality was a remnant of cultural inhibition and felt that change would not come about unless the current social institutions were dismantled and rebuilt without defined sexual roles (Lauritsen). Members were also active outside the group. Many were active in other anti war organizations, as well as, the latter stages of the Civil Rights Movement. Some members even got involved in other anti sexism movements. The only problem for the group was that philosophical differences amongst the leadership limited their ability to take action for the cause (Lauritsen). By 1972, unfortunately, these differences came to head, and the group was disbanded.

Lavender Menace

Photo Credit: HomoNormativity and the American Ideal

Lavender Menace was an informal group of lesbian feminists who banded together to protest the exclusion of lesbians and lesbian issues from the feminist movement at the Second Congress to Unite Women in New York City on May 1, 1970. The founding membership included Karla Jay, Martha Shelley, Rita Mae Brown, Lois Hart, Barbara Love, Ellen Shumsky, and Michela Griffo. They were mostly members of the Gay Liberation Front and the National Organization for Women. The story behind how the group got their name is an interesting one. The term, Lavender Menace, was first used in 1969 by Betty Friedan, then President of the National Organization for Women (Adams). She used it to describe the threat that she believed associations with lesbianism posed to her organization and the emerging women’s movement. The women that soon took Lavender Menace on as a badge of pride, got off to a quick start at the opening session of the congress. To make their presence known, they organized an outdoor demonstration that used humor and nonviolent confrontation to raise awareness of lesbians and lesbian issues. It was their goal to show that these were vital parts of the emerging women’s movement. Next, they passed out mimeographed copies of “The Woman-Identified Woman,” a manifesto of sorts, moved inside, and took the stage of the congress by force (Adams). Once there, they explained how angry they were about the exclusion of lesbians from the congress. A few members of the congress’ planning committee tried to take back the stage, so that they could return the event to its original program, but they were soon forced to give up. The group and the audience then used the microphone for a spontaneous speak out on lesbianism in the feminist movement. At the end of the congress, straight and gay women alike joined together in an all-women’s dance to show their support for lesbian issues.

STAR

The Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries organization, or STAR, was a gay and transgender activist organization founded in 1970 by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, both famous in the New York City transgender counterculture. Both founders were long term civil rights activists, and they were present during the Stonewall Riots, as well ass, the intense period of gay organizing that came afterwards (Hillman). Johnson and Rivera were often homeless and both of them were part of the gay community at the Christopher Street piers. However, they were constantly vigilant; and when they could, they took in homeless gay youth, especially young transgender youth. They used to hustle the streets every day in order to keep everyone fed and sheltered. They also worked as hard as they did because they wanted to keep the younger members of their community from having to do the same things that they were doing. The group began as a caucus of the Gay Liberation Front, and with the help of that organization, they were able to create the STAR House, a shelter for transgender citizens that found themselves rejected and homeless (Hillman). However, as time passed, the mainstream gay community moved away from confrontation as they pushed to show America that gays and lesbians could integrate into normal society without the apocalypse occurring. As a result, Rivera, in particular, often found herself at odds with the mainstream gay community, which practiced what she called, respectability politics. Despite this opposition, she continued to press for the inclusion of trans, and all gender nonconforming people, in the gay community and its social organizations. By 1992, however, the year that Johnson died, under what now consider to be questionable circumstances, the organization had faded.

All these movements were ignited and inspired by the passion displayed at Stonewall. Bringing it back to contemporary times, Stonewalls significance has yet to waiver. In 2016, President Barack Obama designated a new national monument at the historic site of the Stonewall Uprising in New York City to honor the broad LGBT equality movement. The fight for equal rights isn’t over but by remembering the victories won by the LGBT community in the past, the passion continues to push for a better future. Remember Stonewall!