Nowadays, LGBTQ+ Pride might seem like a big party, but it didn't start out that way. In 1969 New York City police regularly raided known gay bars, harassed patrons, and eventually started shutting the bars down for operating without state liquor licenses (even though, at the time, the NY State Liquor Authority refused to give licenses to any bar that served gay people). But on June 27, when the police came to shut down the Stonewall Inn, a bar that felt like home to drag queens, trans people, and gay teenagers, the gay and trans people who frequented the club started fighting back.
Newspaper coverage at the time claimed that the police pulled all of the people who were at The Stonewall Inn that night into the street (Christopher Street, which is still a largely queer neighbourhood in Manhattan). And the rebellion began. Police officers took sledgehammers to the jukebox, the cigarette machine, and other parts of the bar (and "confiscated" the cash register), and Stonewall patrons threw anything they could at the police. They formed dance lines to taunt police officers and chanted words like "Occupy — take over, take over," "Fag power," and "Liberate the bar," according to The Atlantic. On the first night of what would become a nearly week-long rebellion that drew an estimated 1,000 people, 13 people were arrested and four police officers were injured, the NY Daily News reported at the time.
Many credit the Stonewall Rebellion as the beginning of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. It was the first time the American people could remember queer and trans people demanding to be treated better.
So, we spoke with three members of the STONEWALL Rebellion Veterans' Association (S.V.A), a group made up mostly of people who attended at least one of the nights of protest, to learn what it was really like to be part of a history-making moment. Ahead, read about their experiences in 1969, how they've seen Pride change over the years, and the advice they'd give to young LGBTQ+ people today.
Willson Henderson, S.V.A Executive Director
What happened that night:
"It was the day of Judy Garland's funeral, which was the number one news story everywhere, because not only gays liked Judy but so did straights. So that night, you can imagine that there were more people at the Stonewall club that night than would have been. Then once the rebellion got going, people in the streets (mainly straights, by the way) would come out of their apartments and from the streets. But then I was taken away by the police, so I don't know what happened after that.
"I had a belt tied in the back, so one cop grabbed that and that's how he pulled me down on the ground. My friend was shouting 'Let him alone, let him go,' because I went down on the ground. So I said I was injured so they had to take me to the hospital.
"I figured I would be able to escape. But they kept a close eye on me, and no one else was there so I couldn't get away from them. So they took me from there down to the old 6th precinct. It was scary, because it was dark and very quiet and the cop at the front desk said to these two undercover cops, 'What is it, a him or a her?' Then after they did the fingerprinting and the mugshot, they took me downtown. It was underground, what they called tombs, and I was put into this big cell with a lot of people in it. It was many hours before I went before a judge with all of these charges, included 'crossdressing' because they deemed some things I was wearing as not for males. I got out, but I had to go to court many times before they dismissed the charges."
How he's seen Pride change:
"Pride represents a lot more now, and a lot of groups have elbowed their way into it with their own causes, like Gays Against Guns. For next year, for Stonewall 50, I expect the parade to have the Stonewall veterans front and centre, and giving credit to the ones who started it all."
His advice to LGBTQ+ kids:
"Be yourself. That's what I always did. People ask me, 'Did you ever change after [the rebellion]?' And I say, 'No, I was always myself.'"
Joni Sobel, S.V.A member
What happened that night:
"My best friends, Robert and Charlie, they couldn't get into the lesbian bars, so I had to go to the gay bars with them. I was at the Stonewall hanging out around there all the time, but we went to a lot of the men's bars. So I wasn't there the first night [of the rebellion], but I was there the second night and I saw everything happening and it was unbelievable. People were both scared and excited. There was a lot of anger with the cops, it was scary. These were such turbulent times we were living in, between Vietnam and we had Woodstock in the 60s, there was so much going on."
How she's seen Pride change:
"Pride is very different today, because it's a different world. It's a lot better now to be out and queer. People aren't hiding in closets anymore like we did. My family never knew anything about me. I never spoke because I knew not to, you just couldn't speak back then. I thought it was normal to be with other women but just not say anything. It wasn't until the 60s with the rebellion that people finally got up and spoke out."
Her advice to LGBTQ+ kids:
"Love yourself. I had such a hard time with that. I was bisexual, and it's not easy being bisexual because you've got one foot in the gay world and one foot in the straight world and to get those two worlds together is a lot of stress. But without loving yourself, you're in trouble."
Bert Coffman, Former S.V.A Vice President
What happened that night:
"I was around on the street at that time with all of the people moving around. It was exciting, it was representative of the economic and social justice movements that had been happening at that time in the 50s and 60s, like the [Civil] rights movement that turned into Black Power, the early feminists that turned into women's liberation, and the Ban The Bomb anti-nuclear movement.
"Being there was like the Nina Simone song, 'I wish I knew how it would feel to be free.' The liberation of the people were bubbling over, and emotions were running very high because that was the weekend of Judy Garland's (the gay icon) funeral. In the evening, the people came down to Greenwich village and they were in the bars and clubs and on the street drinking. I like to explain it like a scene from the movie called Network, where a TV news reporter has a meltdown on the TV station as they're doing the broadcasting and he yells out to the TV camera, 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.' And that's what people were feeling at that time. We were mad as hell, and we were not going to take it anymore."
How he's seen Pride change:
"Since the Stonewall Rebellion brought the gay rights agenda upon the radar screen of America's popular consciousness, there's so much gay stuff out there one person can't keep up with it. I can remember 60 years ago when the amount of science fiction produced was so little one person could keep up reading with all of it. But since the explosion of Star Trek and Star Wars there's so much science fiction out there that one person can't keep up reading all of it. And since the Stonewall Rebellion, there's been such an explosion in the interest of gay people, with universities and colleges having gay studies departments and there's so much gay stuff being published right now, that one person can't keep up with all of it."
His advice to LGBTQ+ kids:
"We've come a long way since where it was when I was a young kid, and at least there's the possibility with social media access for them to have the information that's going to empower them."
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