Stonewall lessons
On June 28, 1969, people in a small, working-class gay bar in New York City rose up against police harassment. The Stonewall Rebellion marks the beginning of the modern queer movement and holds important lessons for us today.
In 1969 to be gay, lesbian, or trans was illegal everywhere but in the state of Illinois. In New York City, queer culture was shaped by the heavy hand of police harassment, subjecting people to physical violence, arrests, and threats, especially in the small bars and clubs that served as gathering places.
But on a hot night in June, at a time when the country was bursting with new political energies, the crowd of mostly young, black, Latinx and white working-class people pushed back, forcing the police to take cover in the bar. For five glorious nights people claimed the streets and the idea of “gay power” was born.
Influenced by the emergence of black power and revolutionary thinking, two of the activists Marsha P. Johnson, a black tans woman, and Sylvia Rivera, a Latina drag queen, co-founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) dedicated to working with young people who were mostly living on the streets, finding their ways to claiming their identities within the queer community. They also contributed to the creation of the larger Gay Liberation Front.
The details of Stonewall are contested and often unclear. Many of those involved have been lost to us. Yet one thing should be abundantly clear. The disruption by police of spaces that are critical to communities will only be tolerated for so long. At some point, people say “enough is enough.” At some point, out of a desire for basic decency and respect, people will not forever endure indignity. We will react.
Stonewall was such a moment.
Two years earlier, in 1967, the Detroit Rebellion, was such a moment.
Today, the mayor of Detroit and his police department are playing a dangerous game. It is rarely the political protest or meeting that leads to uprisings. The primary reason for a rebellion is the righteous response to police violence by ordinary people, doing ordinary things they love. Often it is a desperate response to violence repeatedly directed at the gatherings that are most precious to us, most essential to where we feel at home and fully ourselves. This is precisely the pattern Detroit police are now following in their actions in many of our neighborhoods.
This year promises to be another very hot summer. It is obvious that the Detroit Police think that by constantly disrupting and discouraging gatherings in our communities they are creating safe streets. In reality, as our history tells us, the police are pushing people toward the need to protect one another and the places we cherish. Remembering Stonewall is more than a reminder of what it has taken for queer people to establish dignity. It is a vivid acknowledgement that people will not be defined by forces that see us as problems, or as disruptive and dangerous. At some point, we will demand that we move with freedom, to define ourselves, the people we love, and the places that nurture us.