1 janv. 1969 - Stonewall riots in NY

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Stonewall INN: A gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village that was raided by police in 1969; the ensuing two-day riot contributed to the rapid rise of a gay liberation movement.


A Lesbian and Gay Rights Protest in Greenwich Village, New York City, 1970

Building on the momentum of the Black Power and women’s liberation movements of the late 1960s, a gay liberation movement had emerged by the early 1970s. Its history was longer than most Americans recognized, dating to the homophile movement of the 1950s, but the struggle for gay and lesbian rights and freedoms gained new adherents after the Stonewall riots of 1969. Under the banner of “coming out,” lesbian and gay Americans refused to accept second-class citizenship.



The idea of liberation transformed the gay rights movement as well. Homophile activists in the 1960s had pursued rights through protest, but they adopted the respectable dress and behavior that straight society demanded (see “Challenging Middle-Class Morality” in Chapter 25). Meanwhile, the vast majority of gay men, lesbians, and transgender persons remained “in the closet.” So many were closeted because homosexuality was considered immoral and was effectively illegal in the vast majority of states — sodomy statutes outlawed same-sex relations, and police used other morality laws to harass and arrest gay men, lesbians, and transgender people. In the late 1960s, however, inspired by the Black Power and women’s movements, gay activists increasingly demanded immediate and unconditional recognition of their rights. A gay newspaper in New York bore the straightforward title Come Out!

This new gay liberation found expression in major cities across the country, but its defining event occurred in New York’s Greenwich Village. Police had long raided gay bars, making arrests and harassing customers simply for being gay. Decades of such repression took a toll, and a routine police raid at a bar called the Stonewall Inn in the summer of 1969 touched off two days of clashes between gay people and the police. Local gay, lesbian, and transgender organizations proliferated after Stonewall, which became a powerful symbol of gay militancy. Activists began pushing for nondiscrimination ordinances and consensual sex laws at the city and state levels. By 1975, the National Gay Task Force and other national organizations were lobbying Congress, serving as media watchdogs, and advancing suits in the courts. Despite all this activism, progress was slow; in most arenas of life, gay men, lesbians, and transgender people did not enjoy the same legal protections and rights as other Americans.

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