In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a small bar on Christopher Street in New York City's Greenwich Village. It was not an unusual event — raids on gay bars were routine in 1960s America, where homosexuality was illegal in every state except Illinois. But that night, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn decided they had had enough. What followed changed the course of LGBTQ+ history forever.
Life Before Stonewall
To understand the significance of the Stonewall Riots, it is important to understand what life was like for LGBTQ+ people in mid-20th century America. Homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder. Gay men and lesbians could be arrested, fired from their jobs, denied housing and forcibly institutionalised. The few bars that catered to the LGBTQ+ community were often run by organised crime and operated illegally, as serving alcohol to "known homosexuals" could cost a bar its license.
Police raids on these bars were frequent and humiliating. Officers would check IDs, arrest anyone wearing clothing deemed inappropriate for their gender, and sometimes assault patrons. Those arrested often had their names published in newspapers, destroying their reputations and livelihoods.
The Night of June 28, 1969
The Stonewall Inn was a popular gathering place for some of the most marginalised members of the LGBTQ+ community: young people, homeless youth, drag queens, transgender people and people of colour. When eight police officers entered the bar shortly after midnight, events followed the usual script at first — checking IDs, lining people up, preparing arrests.
But then something extraordinary happened. Those who were released from the bar did not quietly disperse as expected. They gathered outside. A crowd formed. When police began roughly handling patrons — particularly a lesbian woman who was struck over the head as she was forced into a police van — the crowd erupted.
Coins, bottles and bricks were thrown at the officers, who retreated inside the bar and barricaded themselves in. The crowd attempted to set the bar on fire. Reinforcements arrived, but the protesters — now numbering in the hundreds — refused to back down. Street battles continued for several hours into the night.
The Days That Followed
The protests continued for six days. Each night, crowds returned to Christopher Street, growing larger and more organised. Flyers were distributed, and the energy of the uprising spread throughout the city. The Stonewall Riots were not the first act of LGBTQ+ resistance — events at Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco (1966) and other locations preceded them — but Stonewall became the defining catalyst for the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
The Legacy
Within months of the riots, several LGBTQ+ rights organisations were founded, including the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance. On the first anniversary of the uprising, June 28, 1970, the first Pride marches were held in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.
In 2016, President Barack Obama designated the area around the Stonewall Inn as the Stonewall National Monument — the first US national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights. Today, the annual Pride celebrations held in cities around the world all trace their origins back to that pivotal night on Christopher Street.
The heroes of Stonewall — Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Stormé DeLarverie and countless others — remind us that progress often begins with those who have the least to lose and the most courage to act.