Relationships and Concepts of Liberation:
the Gay Liberation Front,
the Stonewall Riot,
and communal living projects
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‘essays by Keith Birch and Sylvia Rivera ‘xcept ftom the book Radical Record by Bob Cant and Susn Hemmings
A community of interests
Keith Birch
We believed everything would change, even ourselves. Days
Wl nights were an exhilarating turmoil of ideas, actions
and experiments, about politics, sex and our whole lives
For a few years in the early seventies, the Gay Liberation
Front provided the focus for a new experience of sexual
politics. This experience seems today to be glorious
Iemory, or sometimes a mad nightmare, but one that i
how difficult to make real in our very changed, climate
Many of the ideas remain valid. Some have been partially
fulfilled, though in ways. very different from those we
imagined. Others have been dashed or discarded in the wake
of "Victorian values’ and AIDS in the mic-eighties. But we
should not lose sight of the importance of that moment oF
‘ake for granted the changes thatare so recent,
GLF brought together politics which had been flowering
in the social movements ofthe sixties and other political
ideas. which had laid dormant for_many years. ‘The
immediate inspirations were the Civil Rights and Women’s
Liberation Movements, combined. with the style of the
‘ounter-culture. To this was added a variety of ideas
borrowed from socialist and libertarian tradition,
‘The particular emphasis that GLF gave a this brew came
from the experience of being homozexual in a hostile
Society. For lesbians and gay men as individuals it meant
coming out and taking pride in being gay. making the
personal political, and ying to live out our ideals, emcant,
(0, challenging the roles of the heterosexual nuclear family
and the ideal of monogamy.
8 Am
uss funeral. “Men have rights, women have rights
childcen have rghts, gays have rights, lesbians have rights, animals have
rights...we al got shit.”
Before I die, | will ee eur community given the respect we deserve
TM be damned if fm going tomy grave without having the respect this
community deserves. [want to goto wherever [go with that in my soul
and peacefully ay [ve finaly overcome
Editor’ Note: Sylvia died on February 19,
sold
102, from complications of
liver cancer She was 50 ye
rt Meech La
i)
ALL CHURCHES ‘We raised alot of hell back when STAR fst stated, even if twas
just afew of us. We ate and slept demonstrations, planning demen-
strations. Weld go from one demo to another, the same day. We were
doiig what we believed in. And what were doing no, the few of us
‘who are willing to unsettle people and rule up feathers, is what we
Delieve in doing. We have todo it hecause we can no longer stay inv
ible. We have to be visible. We should not be ashamed of who we are.
‘We have to show the world that we are numerous. There are many of
us out here,
Unfortunatly, many of us have to liv by night, because of the lack
of laws or protections. Jot of tranewomen are standing out on steet
comets ot wotking clubs, And many of them are highly educated, with
callege degrees. Many of us have to survive by selling our bods. I you
cant get a ob, you have to do whatever i takes to lie
ive at Transy House now with Julia. We've lve there forfour yeas
1s a communal house sun by Rusty [Mee Moore} and Chelsea
[Goodin]. They started it eight years ago and run i after the model of
STAR House. Chelsea as one of my orginal chikren at STAR House.
[a safe house for girs who are sll working the srets. Ie gives them
a roof over thee heads without having to hustle fr money They pay $50
a week f they can afford it If not, they help out around the house. One
irl cleans up for her board. The only rules are no drugs and no business
ddneon the premises by working gil. And one of the poltcl things we
do is loby forthe legalization of medical majuana for eance patents
and AIDS patients, long with the struggle for transgender rights.
is shame cha more people in the trans community dont open up
houses lke Rusty and Chelsea are doing with Transy House. We get
calls all che time from city and state agencies looking to place peopl,
ad we have to tell thems, "Look, we've constantly filled up and we're
‘doing this by ourseves without sipport from anyone." There are los of
shelters for people with AIDS but no safe house for people without
AIDS. There's no sae shelter for these kids, s they end up sleeping on
the streets, It hurts toe this still going on after 30 years, when
‘Marsha and I frst started tying to do something about i
Tin happy chat Ive seen this new civil rights legislation introduced
in the New York ety council I's historic, and I'm glad cht we all came
‘ut in-numbers at the hearing beeause it made an iipresson, even
though the major news media didnt cover us. Octavia St. Laurent said
23
This complex development of our polities meant that
challenges were dhrown out in all directions ~ to ‘straight
society; tothe state and various institutions to the lll and
not least to the ways of existence that the gay male
community hal earved out for isl.
1038 difficult vo describe the impact that GLF had without
referring to my own experience of those years, For me,
meeting with the flowering GLF in 1971 felt like an accident
of fate. There was no sense in which it was a natural
progression of what my life had been before. 1 was eighteen
having recently left school in a small Midlands, working.
class community. My polities were a confusion of socialist
ideals and sixties counter-culture, which had even had its
effects in Stoke. Practice, however, had been limited to
contacts withthe Young Socialists and teading International
Times. Sexuality meant very lite ~ oF perha
recognized that I desired men but had never metanyone who
realired to be gay. never even had the impulse to initiate
such a meeting or knew the means by whieh it might occur.
TThe move to London had not been a consciously positive
step, more adive into the anonymity that a lange eity seemed
to promise. But the sight of a GLF dance advertised in IT
held a fatal auaction,
An awestruck evening att Pancras Town Hall. when Iwas,
too fearful to speak with anyone, acted as the catalyst
Within a few days T had ventured to the weekly GLE
meeting in Covent Garden, attended by hundreds of
people. Inthe space of another few weeks I had set sail on
my first affair and had joined the youth group. a
consciousnessraising group and the comumtine group. My
whole life was soon taken over by the movement. My
felationships were made through it and eventually Twas
living in a GLF commune.
Involvement in GLF changed many lives radically, and
hnad a very wide influence on the way in which being gay
could be lived and was perceived by society The people who
‘ame to GLF were overwhelmingly male, white, young and
appeared independent of family and other restrictions. They
were students, people new to the city and those who hid
dropped-out; also people dissatisied with the lesbian and
ay subcultures and the political and social movements
2 Which ignored our sexualities and experience. Whatever its
hase, GLF felt enormously diverse in culture and ideas.
Anyone joined in, with no apparent hierarchy or rules,
though, ofcourse, this could be exploited by the experienced
and seli-confident who could speak in public and expound
their ideas. But even T was co-hairing one of the weekly
‘meetings attended by hundreds of people within a couple of
‘months. The mass democracy of GLF certainly threw people
jnto new situations and involved them in ways the socialist
‘roups Thad worked with, did not
‘The ideology espoused by GLF was indeed revolutionary
especially for gay people. What had been a secretive and
Isolated ‘ifeyle Became one of the most visible and
aggressive in making a public statement about itself. GLF's
exual politics, following the Women’s Movement, pte-
sented a challenge to what formed the public debate about
politics. I also confronted the ways in which the let had
fost sight of the arena of personal relationships. Like the
Women's Movement, GLE raised the question of power
between the exes and in sexual relationships. We opened wp
(o scrutiny the conduct of personal relationships and
everyday life Sexism and heterosexism, words so current
today, were new concepts for debate. ‘The notion of the
personal being political informed both the theory and
practice of GLP and was perhaps both its strength and
weakness, as the commune experience testifies.
twas with this notion of personal and political
development that a number of us came together to form the
commune group. We held meetings to discuss what we
wanted out of living communally a8 a group of gay men.
‘The members reflected the make-up of GLF. Only one oF
two women ever became long-standing members of the
commune group and though there were people of diverse
nationality, there was only one Black member. There were
no spoken ‘rules as to who joined the initial discussion
group, though a process of self-selection and exclusion
Inevitably took place. After some months of meeting, the
chance came of Somewhere to live and so a number of us
{ook this leap into new territory.
For more than two years the commune moved round
several, inadequate homes across London, some four oF five
When she died and I wrote an obituary for her, these freaking gay
ag newspapers didnt even have the ball to putin her accomplish
‘ments—even afer her death, Yes, im angry with this fucking commu
nity [wish sometimes that 1968 had never happened, they make me so
ngs. But it happened, and I have @ whole lo of children. One of my
most beautiful moments, all these years, was in 2000 at word pride
‘when the Kalan transexual organization in Bologna invited Julis and me
to participate, [goto speak tall those people that have oppressed our
‘community. Because its not just heye in the United States with the
mainstream community but all ver,
is astonshing o se how history repeats itself, But [ eminded all
"those 500,000 children out there that day that if ¢ wasn for us, they
would not be where they'e at today. They wouldn't have anything,
none of them, from one comer of the world to the other. Because i
was our community, the street kids, the street queens ofthat ere who
Fought for what they have today. And they sll tur around and give
us their backs,
So STAR has been officially restarted since January 6, 2001, What
happened is, we were at church services at the Metropolitan
‘Community Church and they were calling for monitors forthe upcom
‘ng tal of Amanda Milanis* assassins. So I spoke to Puli during this
whole thing, and! Reverend Pat was giving a sermon about it, and 1
thigh, We can? fe his just di, What are eourroomr monitors going
do? I said we go to keep Amanda in the public's es. That's the only way
people are going to realize the plight wee going through.
‘And during the sermon Reverend Pat talked about the thee kings.
And he said, “Who are we 0 say thatthe thee kings were not three
‘queens? Only queens would getup inthe midle ofthe night and throw
elaborate stuff into bags and wave tothe ache ends ofthe earth not
knowing where theyre going, but they knew they had to be these. And
they fllawed the star
So I tld hes, "We have todo it.
That whole dey vas telling me what to do—the sermon and the fact
that Amanda's murderers were coming up for rial and we had not kept
pressure and visily on it. We were three queens following the STAR,
And thats, The only word I changed was Transvestite to Transgender
"zEearold wanswoman murdered on Manhattan stst Jane 20, 2000, by
ssalants who cat het
Fy hood because we had an abunclance of food the kids berated. It was @
revolutionary thing,
Wie dled in 1973, the fourth anniversary of Stonewall, That's when
we were told we were a threat and an emburrssient 10 women
because lesbians felt offended by our attire, ws wearing makeup. I
fame down to « brutal battle on the stage that year at Washington
‘quate Park, becween me and people I considered my comades and
friends,
This was at pride. Itwas the year Bette Midler came to sing "Happy
‘Birthday’ for us. 11648 happy forthe mainstream community, but it was
‘ot happy for us. They ted to stop diag queen entertainers from per-
forming, Isvas angry because I had been scheduled for many months to
speak at that rll; So Tim stubborn, and I wasnt going to have i
Because fr four years we were the vanguard ofthe gay movement, and
all ofa sudden it was being taken away. We were being pushed out of
Something we helped create
‘remember this man telling ie, a straight man who was my boss at
the time, sshen I was working in Jersej—he said, “Ray, the oppressed
becomes the oppressor. Be earefl. Watch i.” And I saw it, And I stil
See it Hiterally had to fight my way up ont tat stage. Iwas beat. Igo,
to speak Isa my piece. And [basically left the movement for many
years. I didnt come back into view until the 20th anniversary And tha
‘was with David ls’ Revnebering Stonewall
He found me where Fas in Tarjan, Fas living and working
there. And then slong came Martin Duberman and Stonewall, But as
really ur in 1974. 1 ied to Bill myself had 0 stitches om this arm
after that incident. And I wasnt ever going ta come back to the move
rent. But you know whe held fast to her word was Lee Brewster. When
she got up and spoke after Idi, she took of her ara, thre tito the
crowd and sid, "Puck gay iberation”
‘What people fil to remembers, here’ another drag queen who has
ot been recognized as a heroin our community. She put a majority of
‘he money up for the frst march in 1970. Lee Brewster changed the
Atinking laws for gay men tobe able to e served in public ata regular
bar instead ofan aftershours club. She did this, Lee Brewster, with her
‘own money, changed the laws on the books in New York aginst crim
ral impersonation tht was held over drag queens heads
2
of us surviving the whole process and always at east a group
of eight or more living together. There were other gay
‘communes during this time, such as the ‘radical erninists
(gay men) who mote exuberantly kicked over the aces. The
ay male radical feminists adopted a style of radical drag
And confrontation in rejecting traditional imate roles and
power. Their commune in Notting Hill scemed to oller a
‘much more challenging lifestyle ~ one that T remember
admiring and atte same time felt intimidated by. But
ILof us itoften appeared that we were wying to dey gravity
in overturning the accepted conventions
‘The ideal of the commune brought together two of
central features of GLF, consciousnest-raising and coming
‘out. Both were to be lived. out tothe fll!
“Consciousness raising’, while sounding like aterm from
the personal growth groups in the USA, had much mote to
«do with building a collective sense of identity. Lesbians ai
‘gay men had often been isolated in their oppression arid
possible guile, rarely getting support from others and having
no positive models. These groups in GLF opeyated as an
intimate forum for the excliange of personal histories and
feelings, bringing out a shared experience. This forged. a
greater personal strength and developed a sense of soda
amongst us. New members coming slong to GLF were all
encouraged to become part of such groups,
While some may have gone along the path of therapy
groups, most concentrated on. this building of socal
Awareness of ourselves as lesbians and gay men.
“The concept of coming out entailed the basic political
stand that GLF demanded and depended upon. Ie brought
fogether the positive selt-affirmation of our sexuality as
individuals and asa political acton which could be built the
‘whole edifice of the movement. Ie meant a ejection of sell-
Oppression and ofthe internalization of heterosexual values
For the commune it meant living openly together as gay
‘men, a statement that there were alternative lifestyles to be
followed.
By the combined forces of ideology and necessity, the
‘commune arrived at a system of making everyday life
possible. Every space was communal, including the sleepin
area of wall-to-wall-matuesses, Rotas and mutual respons ibility were the practical means of organizing living: We had
a house fund which we paid into and from which we pai
the rent and bills and bought all the food. Rotas for
Shopping, cooking and cleaning immediately appeared
necessary as practical meas for geting things done with
ome fairness. Shortage of money often meant bulk buying.
fof cheap food -and rotting sicks Of sprouts and three-course
neal based on carrots lor each course testified 1 our lack of
resources anid occasional poor planning. Simple things Tike
‘vashing-up remained 4 source of unending argument but
got done eventually, though sometimes: with severely
‘depleted stock after much crockery smashing
Tnitially many members were in paid employment but as
‘ime progressed more joined who were not, and others found
too great 2 conflict between out lifestyle and their job to
Continue with the latter. Paid employment also. meant
people had very different resources to put into the
Commune of both time and money and this was always a
Source of tension, never entitely resolved. Conflicts might
arise about responsibility to the collective good when we
ould not pay bills: conflits between the failure to pay into
the kitty compared to the loss of day-toxay commitment
thar an outside job meant.
‘Our beliel in personal and political change through this,
proces of living together led us to hope thatthe differences
tve had, in background ot objectives, or on the level of
‘whether we actualy liked one another, could be overcome.
‘We had weekly formal sessions to iron out problems and
discuss future plans. This was combined with intense house
discussions where we talked about how we were experiene-
the commune and our feelings towards one another. To
be honest, perhaps we were never honest. At times the
tension was so great, especially around the formal sessions
themselves, that everyone dealed the house meetings. ‘The
commitment tothe ideal prevented us from asking whether
‘wereally liked or understood one another: “Are these really
the people T want t0 share so much of my life so dosely
with?” There had of course been the subtle process of
excluding people whom an unspoken consensus felt would
no fit in
"There was the involve
nt with GLF whieh provided a
5
right afier a sivin we had at New York University, with che Gay
Liberation Front. We took over Weinstein Hall for thre days. I hap
pened when there had been seveal gay dances throvsn there, and all of
4 sueden the plug was pulled because the ric families were offended
that queers and dykes were having dances and their impressionable
children were going to be harmed
So we ended up taking that place ove. ‘Thats another piece of his
tory thats very seldom told, even in regular gay history, about that st
in. Maybe thats because it was the street queens once again wih were
sill hanging around from 1969 with some of the radials like Bob
Kohler He isa radical who i 75 yeas old and still out there working
very hard doing his thing, He been an ally tothe trans community
since I knew hin and before I knew him. He's insulted and offended
‘when the ay community doesn't turn out for our demes.
STAR House was botn out of the Weinstein Hall demonstration,
because there were so many of us living together, with Marsha and
nyse renting two rooms and the hotel room, and even then we sil
didn't have enough room to house people. With the help of GLP and
Gay Youth, we threw our first fund-siser and raised enough money to
40 fo the Mafia and rent ou fist building, You can say anything you
want about the Mafia—yes, they took advantage of us, but when we
needed chem, they were thet.
“They dd open up tacky places for usta partyin. And they got us 2
building for $300 4 month. They were therefor us. Marsha and {and
Bubbles and Andore and Bambi kept that building going by selling our-
selves out on the streets while trying to keep the children off the
streets And lot of them made good. la of them went home. Some
of them I lst they went tothe strets, We lost hem, but we tried to
do the beste could for them. The contebution of the ones who did
nt make it out into the streets, who wanted something diferent, was
toliberate food from in front ofthe ARP and place like that, because
back then they used to leave everything
opened
So the house was well-supplied, the building's rent was pad and
cverybody in the neighborhood loved STAR House. ‘They were
Impressed because they could leave thelr kids and we'd babysit with
‘hem. If they were hungry, we fed them. We fed half ofthe neighbor
26
In fone ofthe store before ut you up on a pedestal. You will be a stat” Tit lke, “Yeah, yeah,
yeah..." So we did an interview on the bus, and then he followed me
for about a week on 42nd Steet, collecting signatures from people:
‘nature women and men, couples heterosenuls, and gay people. That's
Drs things started for me
And U was happy at GAA fora while, But it wasnt my calling. I
found out later on that they only belleved in acquiring civil rights for the
497 community as 2 whole. Which is fine, They did lot of good just
‘concentrating on the gay issue. But they Ife the queens behind
"enjoyed Gay Liberation Front better because we concentrated on
‘many issues for many diferent strugles. Were all in the same boat as
long as we're being oppressed one way or the other, whether we ae aay,
straight, trans, black. yellow, green, purple, or whatever If we dont
fight foreach other, well be put down. And afterall these year, the
trans community is stil atte back of the bus,
[despise that. I'm hurt and get depressed aloe about it. But I will
not give up because I wont give the mainsteam gay organizations the
satisfaction of keeping us down, If we ive up they win. And we cant
allow hem co win, The reason we, right now a & trans community,
don't haw all che rights they have is that we allowed chem to speak for
1s for so many dan yeas, and we bought everyting they said co us
‘Oh, let us pass our bil, then well come for you.”
Yeah, come for me. Thirty-two yeas later and theyre stil coming
for me. And what have we got? Here, where ital stared, ranspeo-
ple have nothing. We can no langer lt people like the Empire State
Pride Agenda, the HRC in Washington, speak for us. And it really
hurts me thet some gay people don't even know what we gave for
their movement
Tes like 1 as saying allthis year during pride month: “e's not my
bride, iG their pride. It your pride, not mine. You haven't given me
‘mime yet” Ihave nothing to be proud of except that Ive helped liberate
238 around the word. Fhave so many children and I'm stil siting on
the back ofthe bus, sll strgeling to get kide into proper housing, and
to got them edueation, to get them off dug.
Thats why we decided to resunect STAR atthe beginning of the
seat, Something has to be done. You need a grassroots organization
that’ willing to raffle feathers and step on toes. STAR was born in 1971
considerable communality of goals. ‘The practicalities of
everyday life also. pressed us together along with the
‘excitement of taking part in such an experiment. AIL this
provided strong momentum which kept us together lor so
Tong:
Day-to-day practice was often a ods with how we felt we
should behave. GLF strongly rejected monogamous role
playing relationships. ‘The emphasis was on developing
sexual friendships and overcoming the dependency. and
Jealousy associated with couples. There was much less ofthe
debate about sexual practices and the expression of deste
hich has dominated recent times, The communal bedroom
was one expression of breaking down barriers, one which
‘was always the frst to be commented upon by vistors Ta
fact, thete were several couples in the commune and there
was, alter some initial attempts to extend friendships
sextaly, relatively litle sexta eomtact amongst us outside
‘of this. I was in one of these couples and perhaps gave the
least, having almost no other sexual involvement daring all
{hat period. Being part of acouple ina commune comnited
to breaking down personal barviers was a contradiction but
hot one which Tever overcame, Making love in a communal
Dedioom never ignited -any spark that would lead.
communal sex! The closenes or the tensions hetween lovers,
‘of course, had ther effects on the life ofthe commune as 8
‘whole and they were played out in this open forurn. Rather
surprisingly, I was rarely challenged by: the commune
members as.a whole for my very conventional behaviour on
But sex and sexual practice were probably the areas of ie
that were confronted the least by us collectively, though
the outside world itmight have appeared tobe the very basis
for us being together
‘Much of our energy was directed into the activities of
GLE. Asa semi-olficial commune and crash pat we had a
never-ending steam of people passing through. ‘Those on
holiday, people on the run, people in need of help oF those
just interested in the idea. This was a source of positive
{Input as well a regular crises. Relationships could blossom
‘or police rads follow. Itis hard to disentangle the life othe
‘commune from GLF because it touched on $0 imuch. The ‘weekly meeting of GLF and is action groups led on to the
‘more public face of our activities Demonstrations dances or
Communes were all parol our politic. Any even or simply
‘wearing lesbian or gay badge inthe street, was» politial
temnen of our existence an ident.
LF had almost 8 many confonations with the gay
community as it did with the wider world. We crtcited
tnainatream male gay cultre for ts secretvenes, timidity
dnd acceptance of the status qu. We were often excluded
trom pubs aier the weekly mestings in Notting Fil, as
tach by the gay ones the rest, in the test of lls about
whit was aceptale gay behaviour, We alo had
demonstrations through ine gay male ghetto’ of Eals Court
opr fut which ok wt he mos amos yp
Chanting slogans shout coming out to a shocked an
‘unwilling etentele: Tt remember the closed doors and
emptying sects that our appearance cased, GLF never
‘manage wo bridge the gap wih the mainstream gay and
Tesbian communities even though ils growing confidence
av aareness helped make possible the wider changes that
sare to ake place during the sevens
Relations withthe socialist left in those years were also
limited and tense Tt was easy to dismie the Tela
Heterosexual and mate, and mut of the lel easily dissed
usin return. GLE a a whole was perhaps more influenced
by libertarian and counter cultura thinkang than a scilist
one in speaking of revoluionary change, But_we had
the bourgeois state and institutions at a source of this
‘oppression and believed in mass, popular action by the
oppressed 10 achieve ‘liberation’. Common cause could
therefore be made with the left on occasions such 38 in
opposition to the Tory government's attack on trade wmtion
rights, hough on major demonstrations we were met with
some discomfort and disbelief by many ofthe other marchers
and put at the back by the stewards, a not unfamiliar
‘ccurrence in following yeas.
Central to our polities was direet_action against
organizations identified as being antigay. This ranged from
today: Bebe. She was siting there, and 1 sarted talking to Josie in
Spanish, I sid, "Hmm...she looks like one of us,” refering to her as 3
‘dag queen. She wat a young child. We were just 19 yeas old. She tamed
and answered me in English "T understood everything you sid about me,
and, yes, Im one of you. Fike you." And we became the best of friends
The reason I stayed in GAA sas che simple fact that | ike the idea
that we, as an organization, were going ta change the world. And thete
was a place fr us. [fll ight into the grand scheme of things, I remem
ber I was out petitioning, fd been doing it for a couple of weeks, and I
remember that on April 15, 1970, I was petioning on 42nd Street, 1
Inadnt picked up why no gay men had come into the Times Square area
[figured tht while they were up on 72nd Steet, where most of the gay
‘men were living at that ime, or in the Village, I could take care of 42nd
Street—y home tut.
‘There was a “Stop the War in Vietnan"demo and people stated
‘coming. The cops had dispersed the demo, ad [nv standing out there
collecting signatures, and two cops come by. and they ay, "Nou have
‘move. And I'm like, “Why? All Tim doing is collecting signatures. fm
Pettioning for guy rights,
“Ics against the law
"sald, “What? [thoughe it said in the Constitution we have the right
to acquit signatures.
"You don't have an American flag,
"What does an American flag have to do with me collecting signe
“ou have to have an American flag.”
1 sai, “Ie wouldn'’ make a diference. Ive been to jail with poor
Rosie over there, who i asays being arested with her American flag
tnd her Bible fr preaching the gospel” Rosie was a right-wing Bible
thumper. Well, Igo arrested for petitioning For gay rights
That’ how my whole activist career stated, Besides, {did't com
sider that night atthe Stonewall tobe so important out of all the other
‘movements going on. Getting that fst arrest for something that
believed in was..wow, what ars
"riled myself out of jai, and went to GAA the following dey and
told them what happened. We had a press conference, and Arthur
Bell—may his soul rest in peace—grabhed me out of that meeting and
ragged me to his epartment up inthe 60s. And he say, “Tim going to
24 ic was back to business—drinking watered-down booze, buying drugs,
and dancing.
What people fal to realize is chat the Stonewall was not « drag
‘queen bar. twas a white male bar for midale-class males to pick up
young boys of diferent races. Very few drag queens were allowed in
there, because if they had allowed drag queens into the elub, it
‘would have brought the club doven. That would have brought more
problems tothe club. I's che way the Mafia thought, and so did the
ptrons. So the queens sho were allowed in basically had inside com.
‘nections. [used to go thereto pick up drugs to take somewhere else.
Thad connections
“The main drag queen ber at that time was the Washington Square
Bar on Third Sizeet and Broadway. Thats where you found diesel dykes
and drag queens and their lovers. Oh, yeah, we mixed with lesbians.
We alvays got along together back then. All that division between the
lesbian women and queens came after 1974 when Jean O'Leary and
the radical lesbians came up. The radicals did not accept us mas:
culineoking women who dressed like men. And those lesbian
‘women might not even have been trans, But we did get along famous
Ip inthe early'60s. ve been to many a dyke pay. And transgendered
men back then were living and working. I met many who were work
Ing and living as men with their female lovers, They were highly
respected. The lesbian community today has alt to lean from the old
‘ways of the lesbian community.
1 ido really get involved in gay polities until 1970. After
Stonessall, I was gesting my news from the Gay Power newspaper, and
1 as atthe founding ofthe Gay Activists Allnce, ‘That vas the Fist.
real political meeting I went to. They were just getting their platform
Statement, their mission statement. I saw an ad in the paper, end I
called the number and sui, “Hello, do you take drag queens?”
They said yes and I got Miss Jose, and off to this meeting we go
First ching we get there is "Whats your name?” and I, ike, "Syvia.
And the guy atthe door said, "Dont you have a boys name?" And Tm
like, "Who? What?" So right away that was a setbeck. But gt involved,
and the reason I stayed with them was forthe gay rights bill. That's
‘when we started petitioning forthe gay tights bill, the New York City
bil. And I fle comfortable being there.
‘That frst meeting was where I met ane of my best glrends even
{he medical profession, dhe media, education and the law
Action was taken against the mica potesion and the
Harley Stet practices, identified as he home of tice
and psychiatric abuses against lesbians and gay mien what
clase homosexuality asa sickness Thee wens tons
against bookshops selling antigay material and. agsieet
conganicaions such as the Festival of Light which nee
Jaunching an ant-gay crusade, While thete was ten rec
og ther was alto iegination used in eonironing tee
‘enemies Demonsuations agains the highlynpad. ee
suide All You Ever Wanted to know About Sev arched es
Steet heate group ina very sivd and bloody ‘abonion oy
couthanger" scene in a Charing Cioss Road. bookshop
following advice to wornen contained inthe book A meg
Festival of Light rally was infiltrated and di-organg,
Iie the rly st was disrupted wih nontalentand
humorous "happenings every few ‘minutes by groupe
amongst the audience GLFs confrontational pais eee
tad humour, however serious the point beng wade, Weaee
‘made evenday events ino political spectacles Dances were
major poliical evens around the staid. tows: halle of
London. Gay-days around the main parks wete a eros
brtween picnics and carnivals where we made our exons
‘pubic
White this may seem Gippant and superticia, i was an
important aspect of the energy tat flowed through CLE
fuming contene and gen noticed, There wee move
Serious activities the establishment of seilp eros
which were forerunner of the present switchbeas ed
counselling groups
‘The police also for atime wanted to believe that there
vere links between groupe such as GLF and the Amer
Brigade who had se off series of bombs during dat pore
in 1972, Communes seemed tobe a particilar tiger dle
‘hid not escape police attetion or tet nights rae
‘The whol experince was intense, ames claustrophobic
and let us politically and emotionally exhausted trade
the end of both the commune and GLE. We ha changed,
the world had changed a lie and we went of an our
ditferen directions with new involvements and lives tele
{Twas sll with the same lover and we continual to ice
8 gether, sharing flat with other finds
Gor groupe end policy remained central to my lle,
although the overwhelming coherence that GLF_ had
provided fragmented fora time, Dail if, relationships, ex
Jind polities rere no Tonge sa invmediately mixed together
tormake sense of my hopes and ideals. But GLF had made
possible many developments in the following few yeas The
txpansion of theo find gay scenes a8
fazed on a ch more con vinble Hiletye. We
‘iso sate formation of lesbian and gay groups in many of
the woctlist parties which began to take sexual polities more
sein Ant there was the growth ol Sl-ep ous,
Switchboard, papers and pressure groups». inal, positive
new ways to understand and live being lesbian and gay that
sree ail exploring
The night Stonewall happened everybody was out partying, People
were mourning, even me. We were mourning Judy Garlands death
‘Some authors have sid thatthe sot came out of Judy Garland’ death,
‘but that’s not tue Judy had nothing to do with the riot, Nor vas any of
it planned. It vas something that just happened
1 guess there vas tension in the ale. eas a hot, muggy night, nthe
805 0F 90s ike when mos riots happen. I donit know how many other
Patrons in the bar were aetvsts, but inany of the people were involved
in some siuggle. U had been doing work in the civil tights movement,
‘gains the war i Vietnam, and for the women's movement.
The har paid off the cops atthe beginning of the week, supposedly,
‘on Monday night loc of bars were sun bythe Mafia, They paid of the
police in the sith precinct. Inspector Pine, who officiated the raid on
Stonewall, had Just been given his job as head of the mocals squad
‘They were out to busta he corruption in the police department and
also close doin these bas
So the Stonewall was the frst place he hi on in his nev job, fm in
«book ith him by David say He says he thought it was going to be a
‘outne bust: That’ why they went in with only a few men. But to his
surprise, we Fought back. As he put it, "Those people would never give
1s any problem, because they had a lotto lose.” So this nighe was df=
ferent. This vas the stat of our talking back, speaking up for aurselres,
‘They came in; the lights went on. People ran for the bathrooms
and got cid of thee drugs. We stopped dancing, People started paiting
off with someone ofthe opposite sex o try to make it look as “normal”
185 we could, And here the law walks in and if, “Faggots here, djkes,
here, and freaks over here." The queens and the veal butch dykes were
the freaks
‘Then we were proofed. You had to have on three articles of cloth
ing that accorded to your gender. That was a law: So females had'to
have thre pieces of women’s clothing. It could be whatever, as long
as the cop decided to accept it. At that tne, the “6, we called it
seare drag. We were out a lot during the day with makeup, blouses,
‘women’'slacks—but no tts, We called it seare drag so we could say
we weren't in drag.
‘To that point twas atypical bust. They proofed us. We went out the
‘dor. But noone dispersed. ‘Cause usally we'd go somewhere and have
coffee and come back in 15, 20 minutes. The padlock was cut off, and four vacation spot and you are ere..J guess. because you want to get
your dick sucked...” Many of those boys who claimed to be straight and
signed the papers as homos were the frst ones to fall down to thet
knees wisen you were in the cell with them or turn on their stomachs
‘wanting to get fucked. There’ reason behind everything
[ thought about having a sex change, but I decided not to I feel
comfortable being who | am. That final journey many of the
‘ranswvomen and trnsmen make i a big joumey Is «big step and 1
applaud them, but I dont chink I could ever make that journey: Maybe
iteomes of my prejudice when so many inthe late '60s and early "70s,
ran up to the chop shop up at Yonkers General. They would get a sex
‘change and a month, maybe sic months, later they'd kil themselves
because they werent ready. Maybe that made me change my mind. |
really don know, bu L always like tobe an individ. Inthe beginning
T decided that not geting the operation was because I wanted to keep
the “babys arm."
(My fst lover taught me how to make love to another man, and in
my youth I as akways supposed to be the bottom, This isthe way
thought a relationship was..an effeminate gay boy was solely to be the
bottom. My lover was « butch-looking boy very butch. Actually, no one
‘even ke he was gay
Hee showed me how to make love. He sai, "When you'e with
another man, this i the way men make love" I was very hardin the
Deginning. He would ask me and I would refuse to make love to itn
‘ause Idd think he as telling me the truth, But he kneve exactly
‘what I vas doing. After we would make love he'd go out, and he'd tell,
tne, “You wait for me to leave co masturbate, to jerk off when we can be
doing that together That’ what love is about.”
People now want to call me a lesbian because fm with Julia, and 1
say, “No. Tm just me. Tim nota lesbian,” Tin tired of being labeled. 1
dont even ike the label ronsgnue.' red of living with labels. [just
want to be who I am, Lam Sylvia Rivera. Ray Rivera lft home atthe
‘age of 10 to become Sylvia. And that’s who I am
| wil be 50 years old this coming Monday. | dont need the oper
tion to find my identity have found my niche, and Um happy and eo
tent with it Hake ay hormones. living the way Sylvia wants to live
ono living inthe straight word Tim not living inthe gay work: Tim
Just ling in my owe word with Jus and my fiends,
2
Si Rin tt tt Sel Rl i 36a ra eg
‘tents Rina fase a ere fae ee STAR
Sa Tra ie RNa Yor Gis 10. se te
sem oe ntefNw Yoh oa gh Cn ig en
hat followed: a
1efhome tag tin 1961. Ide on Sn Stet The aye ws wo good dine
for dng que eerie boy x bos that wore mike ke we dd Back tc we we
‘atu bree pais, by ered ely cme out as sg queen nl ee
‘When dug guns were ste what degrion sere was, Temembet th et ie
gota, waste crenin ll wu ling don te sic! ad the cop ie
Stnched me. We ays flee pole were te se enemy We expected sang
Ueserhan to be ated he parle sand we were We wer ck na alpen te Enc
of feaks We were diespeced. lot of w were beaten op and raped. When ended up
{ing jalodo 90 ds hey eed ae me vey ty este anf
Savane. queen Tsar tag outon dope.
rete hough ital
1 1905, the igh of de Stonewal eit ita a very ho, mig ight We wee inthe
Stonewall andthe ifs came on. We ll ppd dancing. The pez came, They ad
_goten th pop ener in the mek Bu Inspect Piece n= hin ad bs Bane
{Sad sto spead more ofthe ovement we.
‘Wem ed eat of the ba pd she ade wall api the poi vans The ope
pushed up apne the ges a the feces, People stare owing pene ly
nd guers tthe cope thn the bes sated. And then we fly ad he News
Spun banca in the Stoawal bn ec hey mee atl af of we oe
{ite They did't know we were ging ore th
‘Were ao king my mot ofthis shi, Weld dane 0 mach for other moines e
sesine ewes et py people or the Vilige os nt -homces pope who edn
th pt in Shesdan Sune oui the ba-and hen dag quer bel em nd
‘rerjbody bend es. The Stonewall In eepoe ine ctl theyre tin te
(One Vile Vaso wasn the ar a the time and acconding to thas of te
lige Vac be was hand's foe nec in nd tlt Wego igh out way
cot bere This wa air on Molo cocka'wns thn ad we wet ting toe
{oor ofthe Stonewall bar with an upooed pring ete So they were ea to cre ot
‘ooung ht igh. Fl he Tacical Pode Foee shows up afer 45 minutes slosh
people forged for 4S minute aden appa hee
Allofut wee woking fot mins movement a ta kine. Everroe as ncled wih
‘he women’s movement, the peace movement the Gr Rigs movement We wee all
fuer There tats wt beughc around. You get ed of being ped rand
Wesrepeope. Weare people
except from the book Trniberntion by Les Feinberg
a0 STAR came aboot afera sic in Weiein Halla New York Unive in 1970. Late we
hada chaperin New York one in Chega, nen Carin and England, STAR was for
he tet py people the set orale people ad apo that ede bel ata
Mana nd] fad aay nesked people ino our hcl oom. Mar nd ede opt
2 ung. We wee eying get aay fm the Ma's comma athe ars -Ams you cat
‘eH 50 peopl in vo ot tooms, We gots baling ot 213 Eat 2 ema Mase
{nd js died it was tne wo el each tes an por ner id, We fel ppl ard
Sloth peopl. We lp the bulla going. We'wee utd ted he sees” We pid
‘heranc| We did’ wan de ke ourn the see busta. ‘They wool go ot and po
‘God There was lays oon dc houe ad eveyone a Gone or 2.3 ys.
‘We wou sith nd "Why do we a" Ae we got motivo in He
!movetnents, we ni "Why de le ptt take the bo ha
Lar on when be Your Lord ce aout in New Yok iy wt lea in GLE ay
LUbeon Fon). There wat mast demonsraon sued in Es Hann th lof
1970. "The poe was put perpen a we deed ode demenseston|
vihow STAR baer That aon the est mer heSTAK Umer chown
bbl where STAR was peseneas group. Tended up mesing sme of he Young Lends
Sav diy Toecame oe of tem ny ine te esi any ep. ws abe theo the
‘Young Lond. Twas jhe respet hy peas husan ngs They pve slo of
respect Teas abu eng foc ne tsb mpl bing pat ofthe Young Lo
laequeen “and orion STAR) beng prot te Young Lode
1 mex ck Pathe Pay ede Huey Newton athe People’ Rerlaoary Convention
‘sPhllphia in 1971. Hoey deed we wer pat ofthe eveeion rnc wee
raludonary people
{asa rata aestonst. 4m la revlon, [wae proud to ma he oad and
help clang lave nd what ae wasn proud sing a ind proud awh ll
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