Brief History

LGBTQ+ history has many important events and people with far reaching impact. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Stonewall Uprising that began in New York City on June 28, 1969 and lasted for several nights. It took place at a sketchy, mafia-run bar in the Greenwich Village neighborhood. The Stonewall Inn was a safe haven for street kids, drag queens, poor students, and other LGBTQ+ people who wanted to be themselves and were not welcome elsewhere. When police raided the bar and roughed up the patrons, people resisted, unlike during other raids. The rebellion was not widely reported and would likely have simply taken its place on the long list of gay rights activism along with the many preceding protest marches, sit-ins and sip-ins, and rebellions at cafes and restaurants that preceded it. But on the first anniversary of the uprising, queers in New York and San Francisco organized "Christopher Street Liberation Day" marches, the first of what became known as Pride Parades, keeping Stonewall's reputation alive and growing. The Uprising was unique-- not the beginning of the Gay Rights Movement but an important flashpoint.