Stonewall Riots - 40 Years On

"YOU'VE BEEN TREATING US LIKE SH*T ALL THESE YEARS. UH-UH. NOW IT'S OUR TURN!" SYLVIA (RAY) RIVERA, STONEWALL VETERAN

On June 28 2009, it will be 40 years since the Stonewall Riots in New York City - the revolutionary event that is commonly referred to as the start of the gay rights movement.

American society in the 1950s and 1960s was rabidly homophobic, the FBI and police departments kept lists of known gay people, their favoured establishments, and friends. Bars catering to gay people were shut down, and their customers were arrested and exposed in newspapers. Cities performed "sweeps" to rid neighbourhoods, parks, bars, and beaches of homosexuals. They outlawed the wearing of opposite gender clothes, and universities expelled instructors suspected of being gay. Thousands of gay men and lesbians were jailed, fired, or institutionalized in mental hospitals. Many lived double lives, keeping their private lives secret from their professional ones.

The riots kicked off after police raided the Stonewall Inn - a gay bar - in the heart of New York's bohemian Greenwich Village in the early hours of June 28 1969. Instead of fleeing or quietly going along with the police as was the norm, the 200 strong crowd in the Inn fought back.

Stonewall veteran Jim Fouratt told Attitude magazine:" The police weren't use to queers getting uppity and began to make arrests."

By this point a crowd had began to grow outside the Inn, the raid wasn't going to plan and one woman who had been arrested managed to break free of the patrol car and her handcuffs and started to play the crowd.

Fouratt added: "She pushed her bulky body against the car and that was the spark that changed everything. And it wasn't a political person, it wasn't planned, it was just one of those moments in history that happened."

From that point on disparate elements of New York's queer scene came together and the riots escalated and raged for days.

For the last 40 years people having been debating why Stonewall flared up when it did; perhaps the most bizarre is that the queer community were so cut up by Judy Garland's death the week before, that the death of Dorothy sparked the riots! It seems the reality is that the raid was the straw that broke the camels back! The Stonewall Inn was home to the homeless gay street kids who were no strangers to Police run ins. When it was raided, they fought for it.

LGF online have spoken to people on both sides of the Atlantic; some of whom were there when the riots blazed and others who it has deeply resonated with throughout their lives. We get their take on Stonewall and its legacy.

PETER FISKE IS A STONEWALL VETERAN, ACTIVIST & RESIDENT OF SAN FRANCISCO FOR 43 YEARS.

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. An age of excess. It hardly seems possible that forty years have passed since the queers fought back. When the cops came that night at 1AM June 28th 1969, to shut the Stonewall down because someone didn't pay-off enough, to arrest and take people away and publish their names in the Daily News the next day, it was the straw that broke the camels back and the queens said 'No More'. No more raids closing our places, no more arrests, no more second class.

I am a veteran of Stonewall: the bar not the riots, which lasted for five nights and were the start of the modern LGBT liberation movement. What a great place the Stonewall was!

Hustlers, drag queens, Puerto Ricans, latinos, blacks, white guys from the suburbs, leather men, dykes...they all came to dance and hang out together. Think of the hottest dance club ever and that just starts to describe the Stonewall.

This year, the 40th anniversary of Stonewall and the Gay Liberation Front, we have much to celebrate. They don't arrest us for gay sex or just being somewhere. We don't usually lose our jobs if we are outed at work, but we are still fighting for the full equality promised under the Constitution of the United States. Our relationships are still not recognised, we cannot bring a partner to this country but must choose between partner and country. We cannot openly serve our country in the military. In some states, we still have no employment protection. Our children are harassed and bullied in schools...and taken from us. Sometimes we are murdered just for being different and hated...how many transgender people have been killed just for being different? So we fight on.

To celebrate this milestone, San Francisco LGBT Pride has placed the Stonewall Gay Liberation Front contingent in the lead position at Pride, right behind Dykes on Bikes.

For those of us who were there, it is a time of remembrance and to reconnect. For all LGBT people it should be a time to remember and reconnect with our shared history. Because of Stonewall and the Gay Liberation Front and all the other groups and individuals, we live our lives openly and without fear. We still fight on but each day we win a bit more ground.

Anyone who believes in the principle of liberation is welcome to join us at Pride no matter what your age, gender, race or income level. We are the Stonewall - Gay Liberation Front 40th Anniversary contingent. We will have a 15 foot long banner with the purple raised and gloved fist that says Gay Freedom- Gay Power.

On 26 May 2009 I was arrested for non-violent civil disobedience protesting the cowardly decision that took away our marriage rights. There were over 170 of us including over 30 clergy who were arrested with us. So the struggle continues. We need to follow the wise council of Harvey Milk: Come out. Get allies by supporting other minorities and poor and working people. Keep working and never give up. You gotta give em hope. By doing these simple things we continue to fight back and stand up for ourselves. Silence = Death Action = Life.

Just before I was arrested, I told the reporter from the Chronicle " Its a damn shame I still have to do this after forty years.'

I feel great hope. I have seen a new generation of activists who will never settle for anything less than full equality and who are making it happen every day. They inspire me and I hope they inspire you too. See you at Pride in San Francisco on June 28th, the actual 40th anniversary of Stonewall. I will be proudly wearing my leather and my large pin that says Stonewall veteran. Take some time that day to remember those drag queens and hustlers and leather guys and homeless youth who had the courage to fight back at Stonewall.'

ROBERT WOODWORTH, LGBT COMMUNITY CENTRE, NEW YORK CITY

'How did a commonplace police raid on a seedy bar in Greenwich Village become a world-wide symbol of gay - and now lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender - pride?

Because we told the story over and over for 40 years.

Stonewall became remarkable because people created the Christopher Street Liberation Day March on the first anniversary in 1970 and repeated it. Every June since then, we have marched and mythologized the event so that it has taken on a meaning greater than what happened during the 1969 riots or - as some would prefer to say - rebellion.

The symbol has been carried around the world, even though very few people know much about the raid and the unrest it provoked.

Regardless of the accumulation of meaning over time, the moment of Stonewall and what came immediately afterwards marked a significant change. Sodomy was Still a crime, but instead of hiding, they celebrated being outlaws. Their numbers grew and they told their stories and celebrated in public. That was new. Coming out was far from a universal experience, but it had started. After Stonewall there was something to come out into.

What followed was a stream of organizing and institution-building. Right after Stonewall came the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) the Lavender Menace, Lesbian Feminist Liberation, and Parents and Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG), among many others. They were followed by - and in some cases gave birth to - the first national organizations, such as the National Gay Task Force and Lambda Legal Defence & Education Fund. Today organizations abound in many fields to strive for many ends.

Looming large in any story of LGBT people is the AIDS epidemic. Heartache, tragedy and superhuman organizing efforts overshadow almost everything else in 1980s and 1990s. The community grew up in order to battle the disease. That story is so daunting to tell that one is tempted not to mention it in a short piece. But even if it can't be told, a nod to the activism and institution-building of that period is essential to understand how the community has achieved the successes of the last number of years.

No one can tell the whole story of the last 40 years. In 1979, most corporate employees were so terrified that they would lose their jobs that they couldn't join a gay business group - even one that didn't use the words gay and lesbian in its name. This June, I sat on a panel in the Stock Exchange Board Room with the lesbian diversity officer of a major accounting firm, moderated by an anchor from CBS TV news. What are we there to talk about? What Stonewall means and how the community has changed in 40 years. In that moment, we were the change.'

JACKIE CROZIER, MANCHESTER PRIDE (UK)

"It's hard to believe it's 40 years since the inspirational Stonewall Riots - the catalyst that started the gay and lesbian political movement. Since then there have been many high profile Pride events across the globe that progress the debate for equality as well as being huge celebratory events. Manchester Pride is proud to continue this tradition.

Progress achieved in the UK since the Stonewall Riots includes an equal age of consent, the repeal of Section 28, the armed forces permitting gay men and lesbians to serve, equal rights granted to same sex couples applying for adoption, the introduction of civil partnerships and outlawing discrimination on the provision of goods and services on the basis of sexual orientation.

There are still areas in which the LGBT community face conflict and inequality, therefore there is still something to fight for. The Stonewall Riots started the fight, and though great progression has been made, there is still a long way to go."

DAVID HENRY, QUEER YOUTH NETWORK (UK)

"The Stonewall Riots represented the tip of a very large iceberg, a pinnacle point in civil rights history, a mass social uprising against oppression, marginalisation and police brutality suffered by people of many communities.

Mainstream Gay and Lesbian movements may have championed it's recognition within the establishment, partially by right but also through privileges not afforded to others directly involved with or affected by the rebellion. The mafia-owned Stonewall Inn where the riots became most violent, was where police came in to direct confrontations with some of the most vulnerable and marginalised people living in New York city at the time - not just the predominately white, gay and lesbian middle classes. Street homeless people both young and old, transsexuals, and sex workers; mostly from poorer working class backgrounds or African American descent had little to lose other than their lives by rioting.

Whereas many of those with jobs, homes and families who frequented the bars of world's first "gay ghetto" in the Greenwich Village went back to their "normal lives". Whilst those who were carried away in police vans who are often forgotten about and their stories are dropped from the history books.

At the time it was technically illegal to wear clothes that could mean you were mistaken for another gender under clandestine "imitation" laws. Many transgender people could not safely live full time as one gender and were restricted to hiding in places like the Stonewall Inn in relative safety. This continues today, even though we've come a long way from Stonewall, society continues to impose restrictions on our civil rights that prevent us from being who we are.

For most people the phrase "civil rights" tends to conjure up images of Martin Luther King, the Suffragettes or Mahatma Gandhi. The achievements of their respective movements transformed the world and continue to do so. Their names have gone down in history, the values they fought for are now firmly embedded within modern society, but there can be no denying racial inequality, sexism and class divides still haunt us around the world today. These battles continue to be fought, and there are still elements of society determined to deny us our human rights.

Since the 1960's not even the fall of the Berlin wall, the abolition of apartheid in South Africa or the election of the first African-American President have managed to halt the rise of the far-right across Europe or around the globe. Notably the people of California voted to criminalise same-sex marriage, and in Europe, the UK elected it's ever first far-right members of parliament.

We must never forget the lessons history has taught us - such as the Stonewall Riots - in ensuring the future of all our community's fundamental freedoms we currently take for granted."

ANDREW GILLIVER, LESBIAN & GAY FOUNDATION (UK)

"I don't think we can underestimate the importance of Stonewall on the modern LGBT rights movement.

It is ironic that our fellow American queers were fighting for equality and inclusion in the 1960's, and still today it is America that is far behind countries like the UK in accepting LGBT people.

If you were growing up gay or lesbian in post war America you faced more anti-gay legislation than if you were growing up in Eastern Europe!

Ironically today we are still campaigning for the rights of LGBT people across Europe, just as our American friends are across the 'United' States.

Sexual apartheid is still alive and well and if President Obama does not address this soon, then who will?

For us over here in the UK, when we are enjoying Pride events from big cities to small towns, we must remember that if it wasn't for the Stonewall riots and those who fought back in the 1960's, Pride would probably not exist.

Many countries around the world are still fighting to celebrate LGBT pride and those of us that can do so freely must continue to lobby politicians, increase our visibility and educate others on the importance of equal rights both at home and abroad."

COUNCILLOR PAUL FAIRWEATHER, MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL (UK)

The Stonewall Riots are hugely important. I remember coming out three years after the riots and reading the Gay Liberation Handbook which was a mixture of people's stories who were at the Stonewall bar that night and what had happened since with the birth of the Gay Liberation Front.

For me, the importance of coming out and of being proud about being gay was the key message and is as important today as it was 40 years ago I remember meeting the people who started the GLF in this country and being so impressed by their courage and their complete belief in the need to challenge everyone who tried to tell us that being gay was wrong.

It's easy to forget today when we have much greater legal protection and openly lesbian and gay people in all walks of lives how much hostility there was. Many lesbians and gay men argued that the GLF were rocking the boat and we needed to not offend straight people.

I believe today that we still need that same sense of urgency and the need to be proud and open about our sexuality and to challenge homophobia in whatever form it appears.

Stonewall has taught us exactly what the LGBT community is capable of when we unite together. Let us know what Stonewall means to you by leaving a comment below.

Get involved! Reflecting on Stonewall highlights the sacrifices and fights that have gone before us, and that fight for equality still exists today. To get involved, volunteer for your local LGBT charity or organisation. To find out about volunteering opportunities at the Lesbian and Gay Foundation, click here.

Donate! If you don't want to volunteer you can always donate to the LGBT charity of your choice to help challenge homophobia and fight inequality. To donate to the LGF, click here.

Tune into Tom Robinson's Radio 2 show Stonewall: The Riots That Triggered The Gay Revolution on Tuesday 30 June.