Stonewall: the mythical bar in New York, emblem of the LGBT + struggle in the world

It is the day of LGBT pride. More than half a century has passed since then the riots at the Stonewall Inn barin Greenwich Village, Manhattan, the landmark that changed everything.

There was the place where hundreds of homosexuals and trans men confronted the police on June 28, 1969. After that violent night, six days of street brawling in the Big Apple followed, creating a wave that would not stop until a year later, when New York’s first gay pride parade, an event that it would change the history of the gay community around the world.

The Stonewall Inn bar was popular with the gay community at the time. And police operations in gay bars repeated in the 1960s, but that summer day the “pride” was about to begin. The police have lost control of the situation. As more people joined the protests at the Stonewall Inn, the tension grew and fueled the fight for LGBT civil rights.

The Stonewall Inn, located at 53 Christopher Streetit was located in a key Manhattan location: a few meters from the Village Voice editorial office and The Lion’s Head pub, a meeting place for famous writers. Norman Mailer, James Baldwin and Frank McCourt. There was also the Eight Street Bookstore, the center of Beat literature. The name of the bar is attributed to Mary Casal’s autobiography “The Stone Wall”a key text of 1930s lesbian literature.

The American 1960s were the years of effervescence of social movements: environmentalism, pacifism, feminism, hippieism, black power … Everything was experienced in a climate of belligerence, which is why one of the most liberal neighborhoods in New York was a perfect breeding ground for these events in the gay community.

Stonewall Inn it was an almost clandestine place, as the LGBT community has been persecuted and discriminated against. Also, the place was owned by the mafia, more precisely Tony Lauria, son of Ernie Lauria, a member of the Genovese Clan. The police often went to the bar for operations. The agents forced everyone to identify themselves. They inspected local transsexuals and transvestites to confirm what their gender was. If they found a man dressed as a womanThey arrested him and took him to the police station.

The day the riots started

Every week the police came to the scene looking for a bribe, because of the place he did not have a license to sell alcohol. Generally these transfers were anticipated by the owners and were carried out in advance to allow the bar to operate for the rest of the night.

But there had been a change of commissioner, much more difficult than the previous one. And that’s why that night the raid was different, later than usual, without warning and under the pretext of detain undocumented and transvestite immigrants. It was later learned that the goal was the dismantling and permanent closure of the Stonewall Inn.

On June 29, 1969, while the officers were inside the premises, about 150 people gathered at the Stonewall gates. The crowd exploded on seeing an agent assaulted a lesbian girl who had been handcuffed.

Protesters broke the windows of the premises and overturned the police cars. Most also started shouting slogans like “gay power” and singing the protest song “We Will Win”, by Joan Baez.

The incident ended with 13 arrested and several people injured. In the following days, demonstrations and protests followed. In these acts, the demonstrators also clashed with the police. After a few months and following these conflicts, two gay activist organizations were created, the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activist Alliance.

These organizations have promoted the first actions to make the LGBT community visible and to reclaim their equality and rights. Here’s how the first liberation march, held on June 28, 1970in New York and Los Angeles.

What happened at the Stonewall Inn Bar

That October 1969 the Stonewall bar closed. It reopened intermittently in the 1990s and was included in the June 1999 United States National Register of Historic Places for its historical significance for LGBT history.

Since then it has been a meeting point for anyone who wants to know the history of minorities and persecutions. Open seven days a week, from 12:00 to 4:00. This was stated by former President Barack Obama National Historic Monument.

In 2020, the iconic bar has faltered due to the pandemic. The owners of the establishment have launched two campaigns, with the aim of raising funds and avoiding closure, through the Gofundme website. The first campaign to raise $ 60,000 was launched in April and the house raised $ 23,000. On June 13, 2021, a second collection was organized which raised the same amount. Then came the relief from the pandemic and it returned to normal. Today, behind closed doors, pride is still intact.