Happy Stonewall Day!
On this day, June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Uprising began. Many of us think of Stonewall as the beginning of Pride, and in many ways, it was - but the events at Stonewall had been brewing for years, as LGBTQ+ activists, especially LGBTQ+ people of color, fought back against the systematic harassment, intimidation, and brutality of police in queer spaces such as the Stonewall Inn.
The following are just some of the uprisings and protests LGBTQ+ activists engaged in before Stonewall:
Pepper Hill Club Raid, Baltimore, Maryland, 1955
Hazel's (Hazel's Inn), Sharp Park, California February 1956
Black Nite Brawl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 5, 1961
Compton's Cafeteria Raid, San Francisco, California, 1966
Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1967
Coopers Do-Nut Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1959
You can read more about these uprisings here: https://www.history.com/news/lgbtq-uprisings-before-stonewall-riots
You can hardly talk about Stonewall without talking about the people who stood strong against opposition from police night after night. Two transgender women of color, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, were key figures at Stonewall. After the Stonewall Uprising, they continued their work and activism within the queer community by founding STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) and opening the first LGBTQ+ youth shelter in the country, becoming the first two trans women of color to lead an organization in the country.
They aren’t the only Stonewall veterans, though - 200+ people were at the bar when it was raided. Read more of their stories this Stonewall Day here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/stonewall-participants/
Learning about LGBTQ+ history is one of the most powerful ways to honor the sacrifices and bravery of those who fought for our right to freely express ourselves, love (or not love) who we want, and exist as our true selves. Tragically, so many of the queer people who lived through the Civil Rights Movement throughout the 1960s and beyond did not make it to see where we are today due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has taken over 40 million lives to date, many of them our queer siblings. We continue to fight to preserve and expand our rights as LGBTQ+ people in the memories of those who are no longer here to fight with us, today on Stonewall Day, this month of Pride Month, and every other day of the year.
Sources:
https://guides.loc.gov/lgbtq-studies/stonewall-era
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/26/us/marsha-p-johnson-biography/index.html
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/marsha-p-johnson-sylvia-rivera.htm#_ftn1
