The 1969 Riots of Stonewall Inn

Recognizing that the mafia’s link to the police could have instigated the severity of the raid on Stonewall Inn, Craig Rodwell, founder of the Homophile Youth Movement, started distributing pamphlets urging gays to fight against the corruption between cops and the mafia. Similar campaigns and protests continued at various levels for up to five days after the final riot. While most of the gay activists of the time viewed the Stonewall Inn riots as a positive thing, the Mattachine Society was hardly impressed with the display. Shortly after the riots, a message was posted by the Mattachine Society on Stonewall Inn’s door, stating: “We homosexuals plead with our people to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village.”

Due to the damage done to not only the building’s structure but to the owner’s reputation, Stonewall Inn was never reopened after the riots. Despite this, its name it still used in organizations and businesses worldwide.

In merely two days, the Stonewall Inn was able to bring the problem of gay rights into mainstream United States, a feat that the previously established organizations had been unable to do. Of the many groups created after the riots, the Gay Liberation Front was the most popular, which was created within a year of the riots. However, the Gay Liberation Front has since disbanded. One of the rioters, Sylvia Rivera, co-founded the Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries in 1970. This group worked to help house and feed the homosexual and transvestite community, as well as taking part in protests. They were even involved in rallies conducted by the revolutionary group, the Black Panthers.

With the help of the Stonewall Inn riots, the homosexual community managed to unify themselves across the United States. Due to this, laws and behaviors have since then been questioned and argued against in defense of this minority. For example, in November of 1978, the California Briggs initiative was successfully defeated. If this had passed then it would be legal to bar openly gay or lesbian teachers from the classroom. This sort of movement has continued on to today, where gay rights lobbyists are working on such topics as gay marriage and gay adoption. However, while many steps forward have been made, there are still moments of resistance.

In the beginning of the gay rights movement the United States was the leading country, but it has since been surpassed by Canada, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland, and even Spain. Still, there is a great satisfaction to be found in seeing how much gay activism has taken root since the Stonewall Inn riots. The Stonewall Inn riots helped do the impossible by bringing together a large group of people in unity, a feat that emphasizes the importance of these events in the gay rights movement.