The Stonewall Riots

June 27th – 28th, 1969

In the middle of the night on June 27^th, 1969, the New York City Police Department conducted a raid against the Stonewall Inn, a prominent gay bar which served as a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community of NYC throughout the late 1960s. This establishment served, at the time, as the sole bar in the city specifically catering to gay men, and one of the few which additionally served as a dance club in the later hours. From early on in its history, the Stonewall Inn was particularly noted as a safe haven for underprivileged members of the LGBTQ+ community, most especially the transgender community and homeless LGBTQ+ youth.

13 violent arrests were made during the police raid that night, in addition to resistance on the part of cross-dressing and transgender individuals to being searched by NYPD. Multiple lesbian women report having been roughed up and assaulted by the police during their frisking that night, with other patrons recounting being shoved/forcibly removed from the establishment. Hundreds of individuals gathered outside the Stonewall Inn for days to violently protest against the unjust police brutality against the LGBTQ+ community, with the riots and violence spreading throughout Greenwich Village over the coming days.

One year following these riots, New York City hosted the first ever Pride parade and festival in celebration of the strides made by the queer community in the face of violent oppression, sparking a worldwide movement towards the normalization and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community and equal rights for individuals who identify as different manners of queer. The Stonewall Riots are credited in modern American history as the primary catalyst for the Gay Rights Movement, and are further noteworthy for their prominent role in bringing the LGBTQ+ community into a more visible social space.