Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, law enforcement officials tracked suspected homosexuals and the places that catered to them, regularly raiding bars, seizing alcohol, shutting down establishments, and exposing those arrested to public humiliation, job loss, jail, or confinement in mental institutions. On June 27, 1969, about 200 patrons filled New York City’s Stonewall Inn, and in the early morning hours of June 28 police attempted a large-scale raid on the Mafia-owned gay club. As police waited for patrol wagons to remove arrested suspects and seized alcohol, patrons began to resist: men refused to show identification, and those in drag refused to accompany female officers to a bathroom for gender confirmation. The atmosphere shifted from resignation to humor to anger, and when a lesbian arrested inside the bar was brutalized while being placed in a police car, rage erupted among the several hundred people gathered outside. Outnumbered by more than 50 to 1, the arresting officers barricaded themselves inside the bar. Within hours more than 1000 people had arrived, and five more days of rioting engulfed the streets around the club. Although these events were neither the first protest actions nor the first clashes between police and LGBT people in the U.S., the convergence of rage and circumstances at the Stonewall Inn became the flashpoint for the modern LGBT Civil Rights Movement, and Pride Month each June recalls the uprising led by some of the community’s most marginalized members, including homeless street youth and transgender persons.
