Stonewall Riots

Ella Val

Stonewall riots

Stonewall riots began in 1969 in New York City where the police raided Stonewall Inn, a gay bar/club. The raid caused a rising of riots among the people of Greenwich village. The riots lasted about 6 days and outside the bar and thought the neighborhood, the riots served as one of the catalysts for the gay rights movement. 

  • In the 1960s and decades before people of the LGBT community ere not welcomed nor treated as equals, In fact, during that time soliciting same-sex relations was illegal in New York 
  • Because of theses horrid restricts the LGBT community went to bars or clubs because it was a p[alce where they could openly be themselves without fear. 
  • As suspected those clubs that served alcohol were penalized and shut down by the New York liquor authority
  • Soon after (1966) those regulations were put to an end but it was still illegal to engage in “gay behavior” - police harassment continued especially around bars/clubs 
  • The Stonewall Inn club became very popular as years past and they were considered one of the more progressive of the gay clubs because they allowed drag queens and was one of the few gay bars left that allowed dancing
  • Was considered to be a home for many gay runaways and gay youth
  • June 28 the police raided the bar and arrested 13 people (even some cross-dressing customers were taken into the bathroom with a female officer to check their sex(which was obviously harassment and traumatic) 
  • The community was more than fed up with the discrimination and harassment they faced on a day to day basis they discoed to stay outside the bar together instead of dispersing
  • They were aggressively manhandled and the topping point for the riot was when a lesbian woman was hit over the head by an officer and soon after the activists barricaded themselves in the bar
  • After many times of others trying to break the barricade, the mod attempted to light it on fire
  • Due to that dangerous fire, the barricade was forced to disperse but after that day protests continued around the neighborhood


-correlation to current events: marriage laws, LBGTQIA+ rights movement 

- LGBTQ rights are still being fought for to this day, it was only 2015 that gay marriage became legal in all 50 states.