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Wgss Aftermath of Stonewall

The Stonewall riots in 1969 are considered a pivotal event in the gay liberation movement in the US. Following the riots, thousands protested over several days against police raids on the Stonewall Inn gay bar. This led to an explosion in gay rights organizations and political activism. It encouraged many LGBT people to come out publicly and fight for their rights. Major national advocacy organizations were formed in the aftermath. The first Pride parades commemorating Stonewall took place in 1970 in New York City. Stonewall helped transform the issue of sexual orientation into a political matter and challenge the view of homosexuality as immoral or mentally ill. However, the gay liberation movement built on earlier foundations laid in the 1950s and 1960s by earlier advocacy groups.

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93 views2 pages

Wgss Aftermath of Stonewall

The Stonewall riots in 1969 are considered a pivotal event in the gay liberation movement in the US. Following the riots, thousands protested over several days against police raids on the Stonewall Inn gay bar. This led to an explosion in gay rights organizations and political activism. It encouraged many LGBT people to come out publicly and fight for their rights. Major national advocacy organizations were formed in the aftermath. The first Pride parades commemorating Stonewall took place in 1970 in New York City. Stonewall helped transform the issue of sexual orientation into a political matter and challenge the view of homosexuality as immoral or mentally ill. However, the gay liberation movement built on earlier foundations laid in the 1950s and 1960s by earlier advocacy groups.

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The Aftermath of the Stonewall Riots

Stonewall is considered a key event in U.S. gay liberation movement, some even consider
it a foundation for it and that’s right Following media coverage of the event in the mainstream
press and gay news outlets, thousands protested and clashed with riot police over the next six
days. There was an explosion in gay movement organization, pride, and political activism.
Stonewall layed a foundation for a new era for gays and lesbians in the United States: an
era of pride, openness, and activism. It led many gays and lesbians to "come out of the closet"
and publicly express their sexual identity and to organize politically. In Stonewall's wake,
activist organizations like the Gay Liberation Front transformed sexual orientation into a
political issue, attacking customs and laws that defined homosexuality as a sin, a crime, or a
mental illness. Two of the ​Organizations created were after the Stonewall riots: The Lesbian
Alliance in St. Louis, Missouri; and the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA). Activists
within the gay liberation movement established several national organizations still in existence
today, including the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (now
the National LGBTQ Task Force), the Log Cabin Republicans, and Lambda Legal.
June 28, 1970: the first Gay Pride parade was held in NYC as an anniversary to the
Stonewall events.
1973 the APA removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses
​1986: the Supreme Court upheld state sodomy laws, ruling that private acts of
homosexuality were not protected by the Constitution. Gay advocacy groups responded to the
decision by lobbying for passage of state and city civil rights acts that would ban
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment and housing.
In the meantime New York and Vermont extended health and dental insurance to the gay
and lesbians domestic partners of public employees.
Some municipalities and states, including Colorado, responded to these initiatives
by passing referenda prohibiting government from extending special rights to
homosexuals. State courts found these to be unconstitutional infringements on
the rights of gay and lesbian citizens to petition government.

1993: Bill Clinton proposed a policy to allow gays and lesbians to openly serve in
the military. Federal courts refused to permit the expulsion of gays from the military.
Stonewall events inspired not only organizations in the US, but in UK and all over Europe.
However, Gay Liberation movement did not start with Stonewall Riots, It built on the
foundation laid in the 1950s and 1960s by gay organizations such as the Mattachine Society,
Janus Society, and the Daughters of Bilitis, and it took advantage of the existing political
networks of Black Power, New Left, anti-war, women’s liberation, and youth counterculture.

Challenges to the Gay Liberation Movement

● The Splits in the movement: Men/feminist lesbian women, Generational differences


● Activists came from all races and classes (1976 West Coast Conference on Faggots
and Class Struggle in Wolf Creek, Oregon, and Dynamics of Color lesbian conference in San
Francisco in 1989)
● 1975 hundreds of women attended Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.
● In 1987 the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) formed to fight for
destigmatization of the AIDS virus

Why do we remember Stonewall?


● New Year’s Ball Raid, San Francisco - 1965, no attempt of commemoration?
● Compton Cafeteria Riots - 1966
● Julius “Sip In”
● Storme De Larverie: “Why don’t you guys do something?”
● Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Bloomington University: “Stonewall Riots met two
conditions: activists considered the events memorable and they had the mnemonic capacity to
create a commemorable vehicle”
● Unannounced​ Raid of Stonewall on June 29 “The brutality was intolerable”
● “The activists were ready, they had had enough”

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