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06/19/2009
Nine Pages of New Stonewall Riots Police Reports Published
A fascinating new look at nine pages of NYPD records created early on the morning of June 28, 1969:
"Reproduced in facsimile with transcriptions, these sometimes hard-to-read but historic documents provide an immediate sense of what the police called an 'Unusual Occurrence' at the Stonewall -- the rebellion that has come to symbolize the start of the modern, militant LGBTQ movement for civil rights and liberation."
Posted 10:59 AM EST by Andy Towle in Activism, Gay Pride, Gay Rights, Law Enforcement, New York, News, Stonewall | Permalink
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As we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall, it is important to remember the full scope of what the fight has been about. It is important to note as today's debate focuses the very right to marriage equality. It was about something more than the right to claim a partner as a tax deduction.
I support monogamous relationships and any gay persons choice to get married and raise children in suburbia. I will vigorously defend your choice. I also fully expect the gay community to equally defend the choice of a man to live in a gayborhood, such as Chelsea or West Hollywood and cruise online for sex. We have to remember on this 40th Anniversary of Stonewall that the gay movement has always been 50% about equal rights and 50% about sexual liberation. We shouldn't sacrifice the former to win the latter. Marriage should be a choice, but we have to be extremely careful not to embrace the hetero-centric view that it is a morally superior choice. It would be a tragic end to gay liberation if our final message was, "See heterosexuals, in the end, we just wanted to be like you after all." That would dishonor Harry Hay, Harvey Milk, and all the faces pictured at Stonewall. We must never lose sight of the fact that gay discrimination is just one manifestation of the larger enemy - the sex-negativity of the American culture, which suppresses many of our heterosexual brothers and sisters as well.
Posted by: JimSur212 | Jun 19, 2009 11:08:01 AM
Excellent comment Jimsur212! I've always felt exactly the same, but alas I do think we are in the minority here.
Also, on the anniversary of Stonewall let us not forget that two years prior, at the Black Cat bar in Silver Lake Los Angeles, our gay brothers and sisters protested for two days for similar police oppression. THAT would be the spark to gay liberation. FYI.
Posted by: DannyJay | Jun 19, 2009 12:30:47 PM
well, i was 26 back then, and well i remember the electricity than ran through us when we heard that some queens had FINALLY stood up and fought back. it was far from the first time that a hardy soul or group had done so, but it was the fierce belief that we had had ENOUGH!
FROM THAT POINT ON, I VOWED NEVER TO STAND DOWN OR BE ABUSED BY THE SYSTEM.
and i never did. there was something different about the stonewall action. it was taken seriously and it scared the bejeepers out of police forces thoughout NYS and i don't know where else.
i may have been promiscuous back then, but it wasn't because it was my birthright, it was because in my cosmology, that was who gay men were, and when we settled down, we married... women.
brokeback mountain gave a pretty fair depiction of how well that worked. i am far from anti sex, or even anti kink, but i cannot bring myself to support the disease risking self abnegating, adolescent pursuit of new sensation by the numbers. it should be a choice, but as all choices do, it has consequences, and they are worse and longer lasting than any one person can calculate.
having lived through the ENTIRE hiv/aids epidemic and losing uncountable peers, random sex lost any notion of excitement for me. just sayin'.
Posted by: jack | Jun 19, 2009 2:46:52 PM
Thanks for this Andy.
Posted by: hank | Jun 19, 2009 3:06:47 PM
Tell me JIMSUR212 and DANNYJAY who it was that appointed you as the commission on what is the correct Bill of Rights for the homosexual movement that we should be fighting for? Perhaps if the fight had initially been for the right to be with whomever we wanted instead of to be with as many as we wanted we would not be in the position that we are today. Movements evolve over time. Often they evolve in a direction because clarity of purpose has won out. The homosexual movement of the 60s and 70s largely reflected the sexual permissiveness and liberation of the times and the vast majority of activists then, both homosexual and heterosexual were in their late teens, twenties and early thirties. As the generation grew older its own "common" sense kicked in and the vast majority came to recognize that the ideals and beliefs they had were at least somewhat flawed. I for one have no intention of becoming the jaded queen on the barstool just so that you can further your personal bedroom agenda. Grow the fuck up and get over yourself. Some of us have more worthwhile priorities than just getting laid and we want something to be proud of.
Posted by: The Phoenix | Jun 22, 2009 2:02:52 AM
Phoenix sweetie: you just proved his point. Being monogamous isn't morally superior, or 'grown up', as you so indignantly assume. It's merely another option. Get over yourself.
Posted by: Hot Slut Who Doesn' t Sit On Barstools | Jun 22, 2009 6:02:34 AM