Hailed as the start of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, the Stonewall Riots took place at New York City’s Stonewall Inn fifty-six years ago this month. On June 28, 1969, police attempted to arrest the people at the bar, many of whom were gay or transgender. But during the clash, the patrons, along with a growing group of neighbors and community members, fought back.
Witnesses remember Puerto Rican drag queens forming a chorus line while singing, “We are the Stonewall girls/ We wear our hair in curls/ We don’t wear underwear/ We show our pubic hairs” to the tune of the "Howdy Doody" theme. The riots, led by Marsha P. Johnson and others, lasted six days.
Public unease continued, and within six months of the riot, activists started several local publications, kicking off a larger push for fair treatment. During this era of institutionalized homophobia and transphobia, being LGBTQ+ was illegal, and clinically classified as a mental disorder, and it was against the law to “cross-dress” in public. These regulations were regularly used across the country to persecute LGBTQ+ people, especially individuals who we would now call nonbinary or transgender people.
"The Stonewall riots were a spontaneous collective effort," says Jen Manion, Professor of History and Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies at Amherst College. "It lit a fire that changed life for LGBTQ+ people.”
Here are some of the bar-patrons-turned-leaders that are responsible for this iconic turning point in the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson was a Black transgender woman, gay liberation activist, sex worker, self-identified drag queen and one of the founding members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). Johnson is often credited for launching the Stonewall Riots with a “shot glass heard around the world” but has said she didn’t arrive at the Inn until 2 a.m. and denied claims by witnesses that she shouted “I got my civil rights” and threw the glass. Manion says Johnson played an active role in instigating the crowd and fighting back against police the first night of the uprising and joined folks turning over cars.
Sylvia Rivera
Sylvia Rivera was a trans-Latina sex worker and civil rights activist involved in the Black Liberation Movement, Gay Activist Alliance and GLF. The New York Times reported that she shouted out, “I’m not missing a moment of this — it’s the revolution!” and she said she “just happened to be there when it all jumped off” in another interview. (Johnson disputed this account. She said Rivera wasn’t at Stonewall).
After Stonewall, Rivera and Johnson created the mutual aid organization, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), the first LGBTQ+ youth shelter in North America. STAR fought for the New York Transgender Rights Bill and a transgender-inclusive New York State Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act. “Her speech 1973 'Y’all Better Quiet Down' at the NYC Gay Pride Rally signaled a turning point when gay leaders sidelined BIPOC, trans people, sex workers and homeless youth,” Manion says.
Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt
Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt came to New York to study art in 1965 and immediately built community with other gay homeless youth. Lanigan-Schmidt recalled in an interview about his experience at Stonewall, that he made his way to the Village, and "I hung out with the other runaways who were living hand to mouth, mostly pan-handling, and living wherever I could find a place." Lanigan-Schmidt found community at the Stonewall bar. For him, Stonewall had been a safe place to be. In that same interview he explained that "going to the Stonewall grounded me and then the Stonewall riots just brought that feeling out into the real world." After the riots Lanigan-Schmidt became a celebrated artist, best known for mixed-media installations and collage based work.
Stormé DeLarverie
Eyewitness accounts claim the leader of the rebellion was the “Stonewall Lesbian” who threw a punch as the police roughhoused her. “Marilyn Fowler is the only documented arrest of a woman,” Manion says. According to the Inn’s website, a lesbian in handcuffs was hit in the head with a club. Many believe it was Stormé DeLarverie, a biracial lesbian drag king who’d often wear zoot suits and tuxedos off-stage.
DeLarverie allegedly called out to the crowd, “Why don’t you do something?’’ She claimed she was the “Stonewall Lesbian” and was bestowed the title of the “Gay Community's Rosa Parks”. DeLarverie said Stonewall “was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience – it wasn’t no damn riot.”
Zazu Nova
Zazu Nova, a Black transgender woman sex worker, was at Stonewall during the police altercation. “Nova joined the resistance outside the bar,” Manion says. According to “Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, the self-declared “Queen of Sex” is one of three people witnesses say were “in the vanguard" of the pushback against the police force in addition to Johnson and Rivera. Nova was a founding member of New York Gay Youth — a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth since the GLF only accepted members over 21.
Jerry Hoose
A young, gay, homeless youth, Hoose has been credited with fighting alongside homeless youth and drag queens. After Stonewall, Hoose was became part of early Gay Liberation Front an early LGBTQ+ rights organization founded in NYC after the riots. Hoose organized regular "gay community dances on behalf of hte Gay Liberation Front. The advertisements for these dances are credited as being the first time "gay community" was included in a paper NYC. These dances were a significant fundraiser to support the Gay Liberation Front's work, along with other social justice organizations including the Black Panthers. Later in life, Hoose became a fixture at the NYC LGBT Community Center and focused his work on supporting LGBTQ elders.
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a Black transgender woman, sex worker and prison abolitionist was present during the Stonewall Riots. She said she spit in the face of a police officer who knocked her out and was sent to a men’s prison. After her release from prison, she helped run the Transgender Gender-Variant and Intersex Justice Project.
Sassafras Patterdale (ze/hir) is an award-winning author and freelance writer. Sassafras’ work has been honored by organizations ranging from the American Library Association, and the Lambda Literary Foundation, to the Dog Writers Association of America and the Cat Writers Association. Sassafras’ work has been published widely, and ze is the author of twelve books. Follow Sassafras @SassafrasPatterdale and at SassafrasPatterdale.com.
