Sarah Kubat Molloy College COR 390: NY Experience Paper 2 The Sociological Impact of Stone Wall Inn Riots

The Stone Wall Inn riots in 1969 initiated the gay rights movement, a movement geared at tolerance, acceptance, and equality for homosexuals. Prior to the event in New York City, life as a homosexual was made extraordinarily difficult by a societal view which disowned the lifestyle. It has been only in recent years that gay men and lesbian women have been being viewed in a positive light. Gay rights activists were fighting for the rights of homosexual couples even before the Stone Wall Riots, but it was not until after the riots that the movement was truly given momentum. The 1960s was a decade with old fashioned values and opinions which rejected the gay lifestyle. It was not uncommon at this time for local New York City gay bars to be raided by the police in an effort to disperse the evening socializers (Armstrong and Crage, 2006). On June 27, 1969 the mayor of New York, John Lindsay, commissioned another one of the many police raids at the Stone Wall Inn, a gay hot spot, as part of his plan to get re-elected (Poindexter, 1997). Typically, the police raids would result in a docile breaking up of the social events but during the incident at the Stone Wall Inn a massive fight broke out in which the crowd rebelled against the police force (Poindexter, 1997). The angry mob outside of the Inn entrapped police officers inside and began to barrage the club with whatever they could get their hands on including bricks (Armstrong and Cage, 2006). It is reported that the violence began when an arrested lesbian woman fought against the arresting police officers while she was being escorted to a police car (Hall, 2010). The fighting outside the Greenwich Village club lasted for several hours and gave birth to a new social movement. Although the Stone Wall Inn riots became the launching pad for public and supported gay liberation, it is important to note that even before the riots at Stone Wall gay

activists were working hard towards a future of acceptance. Not only were activists hard at work but incidents quite similar to the Stone Wall Inn were happening throughout the country, including in Las Angeles. However, the riots occurring in other geographic points in the nation did not achieve the publicity which the Greenwich Village riots had obtained (Armstrong and Crage, 2006). In the wake of the Stone Wall riots, many organizations were formed advocating and working hard towards gay freedom (Hall, 2010). Fejes (2008) states that in the years after the riots many locations put policies in place which protected homosexuals against discrimination, the first gay officials were elected into offices, and the American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, a comprehensive list of mental disorders. Armstrong and Crage (2006) have attributed the overwhelming success of the Stone Wall Riots, in contrast to the other riots at the time, to the location of the Inn. New York City has a reputation for being tough and Greenwich Village was a densely populated, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood at the heart of the citys gay life. It was the home and playground of an array of gay men and lesbians- including some of the most radicalized, skilled, and visionary gay activists in the country (Armstrong and Crage, 2006, p. 737). These two factors as well as the mass media coverage of the event contributed to the everlasting effect the Stone Wall Inn riots would have on the nation. Greenwich Village is traditionally considered the citys center for gay, lesbian, bi and transgender people. While there is still a large population of homosexual individuals in the village area, New York City is currently a much more accepting place and so those in the gay community have branched outward and can be found living happily all over the city. Today, New York City is one of the most diverse cities in the country accepting not

only people of all ethnicities but also people of all sexual orientations. The Stone Wall Inn was declared a national landmark under President Clinton in the year 1999 (Armstrong and Crage, 2006). New York City was the very location where the gay liberation movement truly began to ignite and is still to this day considered to be the most tolerable city in the nation and possibly even the world. For this reason, it seems strange that the state of New York would act so late to approve gay marriage. However, even though homosexual couples were not granted the right to get married until 2011, gay and lesbian couples, and transgender men and women have always been welcomed into the array of diversity within the city. Due to the events which occurred during the riots, the gay rights movement was able to progress, succeed, and have a permanent impact on society. Every year towards the end of June a gay pride parade is held in NYC, ending outside of the Stone Wall Inn, to commemorate the incident which marked the first battle in the war against discrimination based on sexuality. The Stone Wall riot which began on June 27, 1969 was a turning point for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender peoples and began to pave the pathway towards equality.

References Armstrong, E. A., & Crage, (2006). Movements and memory: The Making of the Stonewall Myth. American Sociological Review. 71, p. 724-751. Fejes, F. (2008). Gay Rights and Moral Panic: The Origins of Americas Debate on Homosexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, 291- 294. Hall, S. (2010). The American Gay Rights Movement and Patriotic Protest. Journal of the History of Sexuality, (19)3, p. 536-562. Poindexter, C. C. (1997). Sociopolitical Antecedents to Stonewall: Analysis of the Origins of the Gay Rights Movement in the United States. National Association of Social Workers, p. 607-615.