Watch Pose's Billy Porter give us a rundown on important political movements that have changed the course of LGBTQ+ history.
During Pride Month, we honor Pride's radical origins at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. But what we don't often hear about are the other political actions and uprisings that have advanced the LGBTQ+ rights movement from as far back as the 1920s through today. In this video (transcript below), our queero Billy Porter takes us through the LGBTQ+ history that doesn't get enough mainstream recognition, and reminds us to appreciate our queer legacies while we fight for our collective queer future.
You’re familiar with Stonewall, of course, but what about the activist movements throughout history that haven’t received as much attention? Groundbreaking queer political actions have been an active part of modern history, with almost 50 years’ worth before that fateful day in 1969. Today, in advance of this month’s Gay Pride celebrations, we’ll take a look at some of the more obscure political actions that have also changed the course of queer history.
1920s: The Society for Human Rights
When U.S. Army soldier Henry Gerber was stationed in Germany from 1920 to 1923, he saw the rise of homophile organizations, as gay rights groups were once called. Gerber was inspired by the work of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, founder of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, an organization dedicated to overturning Germany’s anti-homosexual rulings. Gerber believed there should be an organization like this in America, too, and upon returning to Chicago in 1924, he dedicated himself to developing one. The group came together in December 1924 as the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in America. They produced the first ever gay rights newsletter in the country, called “Freedom and Friendship.” Shortly after the newsletter was disseminated, Gerber’s home was raided by police. He was arrested, his papers were confiscated, he lost his job and life savings. The Society fell apart. Later, Gerber relocated to New York City and began writing activist works again, this time under the pen name “Parisex.” He continued his activism until his death in the 1970s.
1950s: The Mattachine Society
The Mattachine Society was formed in the early 1950s by Harry Hay. It started in Southern California but quickly spread across the state and the country, providing a space for gays and lesbians to gather and discuss their experiences as homosexuals. This was a radical concept at a time when few Americans were out and in some places it was illegal for homosexuals to gather at all. The organization would go on to declare that homosexuals were an oppressed minority, that developing a community was essential to overcoming oppression, and that anti-gay legislation in the U.S. needed to be overturned. However, in 1953, the group’s radical ideals were traded for more accomodationist ones, which stated that homosexuals should adapt to, not combat, heterosexual lifestyles in order to obtain equality. Historians today argue about the organization’s effectiveness after this, citing that it either flourished and helped make changes to legislation, or that membership declined leading to inefficiency. The Mattachines dissolved at the end of the 1960s, when gay rights activism became more aggressive.
1950s: The Daughters of Bilitis
The Daughters of Bilitis was formed in 1955 in San Francisco by Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. It was named after poet Pierre Louys’s The Songs of Bilitis, in which Bilitis was said to be a female lover of Greek poet Sappho. The Daughters of Bilitis was one of the first lesbian organizations ever established in the U.S. Chapters spread across the country and even Australia as the 50s went on. Originally assembled as a meeting place for lesbians, the group also held public forums to teach people about homosexuality and provided support to single and married lesbians as well as lesbian mothers. The group eventually evolved to promoting lesbian rights and lesbian feminist politics. The Daughters of Bilitis shut down in the early 1970s, but is known for its commitment to fostering understanding in and out of the lesbian community and setting a successful example for countless lesbian organizations to come.
1960s: Compton’s Cafeteria Riot
The riot at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood happened in August 1966. A policeman grabbed a drag queen in an attempt to arrest her and she threw a cup of coffee in his face. A riot began almost immediately, with glass windows smashed by thrown sugar shakers, tables flipped and cutlery thrown. These particular Compton’s customers had had enough. It was by no means unprovoked, either: cops had been arresting drag queens, gay hustlers, and transgender women at the 24-hour eatery regularly for cross-dressing, for obstructing the sidewalk, for any reason they could find to throw them in jail. It didn’t help that Compton’s owners preferred the queens, hustlers, and trans women leave and would call the cops to have them removed. After the incident, the diner banned trans women and the Tenderloin’s largely queer community rebelled, picketing the establishment and breaking its new windows. The Compton’s riot received no coverage at all in any of San Francisco’s publications, but today is recognized for its importance as one of the first queer uprisings against police brutality.
1970s: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence first emerged in 1979 when four gay men bored with the sameness of San Francisco’s Castro district put on retired nuns’ habits. Realizing their presence could bring joy and initiate social change, they formed an order of queer nuns, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Today, donning drag versions of nuns’ habits, they draw attention to queer discrimination and religious hypocrisy, promote safe sex and educate against the dangerous effects of drug use, all the while raising money for AIDS, LGBTQ+, and community-related causes. Chapters have since expanded across the globe.
1970s: Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR)
Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR, was organized by queer historical icons and self-described drag queens Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Both had been present at Stonewall and active in the GLF, and decided to organize homeless trans youth, drag queens, sex workers, immigrants, and low-income people in New York. Rivera and Johnson were homeless themselves, and saw STAR as a way to help and provide shelter for the people they knew as their children. They bought a building, fixed it up, provided shelter and clothes for the people who came through. STAR grew from New York to Chicago, California, and even England and lasted for approximately three years before it shut down.
While the riots at Stonewall are of course important, their story starts decades before and continues today. Thanks to people like Henry Gerber, Phyllis Lyon, Sylvia Rivera, Larry Kramer, and countless others, queer activism still has a loud and forceful voice in and out of the community. We owe so much to their legacy. We’ll continue to to speak out in honor of the strides they made for us, and the lives we hope to change in the future.
www.them.us/story/queer-history-beyond-stonewall
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Stonewall Riots: The Beginning of the LGBT Movement / The Stonewall Riot / Beyond Stonewall: 9 Lesser-Known LGBT Uprisings
Stonewall Riots: The Beginning of the LGBT Movement
At the time, there were not many places where people could be openly gay. New York had laws prohibiting homosexuality in public, and private businesses and gay establishments were regularly raided and shut down.
In the early hours of June 28, 1969, a group of gay customers at a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village called the Stonewall Inn, who had grown angry at the harassment by police, took a stand and a riot broke out. As word spread throughout the city about the demonstration, the customers of the inn were soon joined by other gay men and women who started throwing objects at the policemen, shouting “gay power.”
Police reinforcements arrived and beat the crowd away, but the next night, the crowd returned, even larger than the night before, with numbers reaching over 1000. For hours, protesters rioted outside the Stonewall Inn until the police sent a riot-control squad to disperse the crowd. For days following, demonstrations of varying intensity took place throughout the city.
In the wake of the riots, intense discussions about civil rights were held among New York’s LGBT people, which led to the formation of various advocacy groups such as the short-lived Gay Liberation Front, which was the first group to use the word “gay” in its name, and a city-wide newspaper called Gay. On the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the first gay pride parades in U.S. history took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and near the Stonewall Inn in New York.
The Stonewall riots inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize in support of gay rights, and within two years after the riots, gay rights groups had been started in nearly every major city in the United States.
www.civilrights.org/archives/2009/06/449-stonewall.html
The Stonewall Riot
Just after 3 a.m., a police raid of the Stonewall Inn–a gay club located on New York City’s Christopher Street–turns violent as patrons and local sympathizers begin rioting against the police.Although the police were legally justified in raiding the club, which was serving liquor without a license among other violations, New York’s gay community had grown weary of the police department targeting gay clubs, a majority of which had already been closed. The crowd on the street watched quietly as Stonewall’s employees were arrested, but when three drag queens and a lesbian were forced into the paddy wagon, the crowd began throwing bottles at the police. The officers were forced to take shelter inside the establishment, and two policemen were slightly injured before reinforcements arrived to disperse the mob. The protest, however, spilled over into the neighboring streets, and order was not restored until the deployment of New York’s riot police.
The so-called Stonewall Riot was followed by several days of demonstrations in New York and was the impetus for the formation of the Gay Liberation Front as well as other gay, lesbian, and bisexual civil rights organizations. It is also regarded by many as history’s first major protest on behalf of equal rights for homosexuals.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-stonewall-riot
Beyond Stonewall: 9 Lesser-Known LGBT Uprisings
Thanks to the Stonewall uprising, New York’s Greenwich Village has long been viewed as the flashpoint of the LGBT rights movement. While Stonewall — which occurred in the early hours of June 28, 1969 — will inorexably be tied to our annual Pride celebrations and the struggle for equality, it wasn’t the first nor the last time we stood up to defend ourselves. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. (and New York, of course) all played important roles in the emerging gay and trans rights movements, even if at that time it meant simply being allowed a cup of coffee.www.advocate.com/pride/2015/06/25/beyond-stonewall-9-lesser-known-lgbt-uprisings
Los Angeles: Cooper’s Donuts 1959
A group of drag queens and hustlers took action against the Los Angeles Police Department for arresting their friends for simply congregating in Cooper’s Donuts, a popular downtown LGBT meeting place. When police tried to haul away three gay patrons of Cooper’s, an angry mob pelted the officers with doughnuts, coffee, and paper plates until the cops were forced to retreat and return with backup. When the officers returned, a riot ensued, shutting down busy Main Street for an entire day.10 Years Before Stonewall, There Was the Cooper’s Donuts Riot
In May of 1959, a group of drag queens and hustlers fought cops in a donut shop in downtown Los Angeles, furious that LAPD officers were arresting their friends purely for legally congregating in Cooper’s Donuts, a popular gay meeting place.
Cooper’s was located on Main Street, the Los Angeles “gay ghetto” of the 1950s and ‘60s. In his landmark novel City of Night, novelist John Rechy describes the area as teeming with hustlers and transvestites, who were routinely arrested and locked up by the LAPD just for being seen together on the street or in a raided bar.
Rechy was in fact one of three people the police tried to arrest that night in May of 1959, when the patrons of Cooper’s had had enough. A large group of transgendered women and others pelted the officers with donuts, coffee, and paper plates until they were forced to retreat and return with larger numbers. Rechy managed to escape, but when the police returned a riot ensued that shut down Main Street for an entire day.
That night is widely considered to be the first gay uprising in modern history, seven years before the Black Cat Riot in L.A.’s Silverlake neighborhood, and ten years before the Stonewall Rebellion.
The event is chronicled in detail in Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians, a meticulously researched book that positions Los Angeles—and not New York—as the most influential gay city of modern times.
It includes an exhaustive account of the landmark Mattachine Society, which was founded by a group of brave gay L.A. men in 1950. Harry Hay, one of its founders, became an institutional voice for the burgeoning gay rights movement, and Hay’s accounts of early LGBT history are included at length.
By Hay’s recollection, there were even earlier riots and uprisings in which gays and transgendered Angelenos were instrumental in resisting police, but Cooper’s was the first such uprising specifically against police treatment of LGBT people. The LAPD had a reputation for brutalizing LGBT residents, one that continued well into the 1980s, and the arrests in May 1959 were the first of last straws.
People around the world will celebrate international Pride Month this June, in honor of the June 1969 Stonewall uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village. The Inn itself still stands, and will be made an official New York City landmark soon. In Germany, Pride celebrations are known nationally as “Christopher Street Day,” in honor of the Stonewall’s address. Yet, there a few celebrations of the first uprising of this kind, a night of queer empowerment and resistance in the midnight hours of the 1950s. If June is dedicated to Christopher Street, May should most certainly be dedicated to Main.
www.out.com/today-gay-history/2015/5/31/today-gay-history-10-years-stonewall-there-was-coopers-donuts-riot
Whitehall Street Induction Center: New York City 1964
Five years before Stonewall, Randy Wicker, Jefferson Poland, and eight other members of the Sexual Freedom League, gathered outside the U.S. Army’s induction center at 39 Whitehall St. in New York City to protest the military’s antigay discrimination and complicity in witch hunts. While no one seemed to pay much attention to them that day, they paved the way for open service by gay, lesbian, and bisexual people in the military, which eventually came in 2011.
That was the day Randy Wicker, Jefferson Poland, and eight other members of the Sexual Freedom League, six of them straight, gathered outside the army’s induction center at 39 Whitehall Street in New York City to protest the armed forces’s anti-gay discrimination and complicity in witch hunts. Their voices were for the most part ignored that day, but we all know that in the end they won: the army’s official discrimination against gay and lesbian members ended in 2011.
While we’re on the subject of Whitehall Street induction center, here’s some bonus history: the location became so notorious during the Vietnam draft that it found its way into Arlo Guthrie’s classic “Alice’s Restaurant:” “They got a building down New York City, it’s called Whitehall Street/Where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected/Neglected and selected.” The center was such a symbol of military might that it became a target for an anti-war bombings in 1968 and 1969. The damage was minimal, but the center moved to Varick Street in 1972.
www.out.com/entertainment/today-gay-history/2013/09/19/today-gay-history-first-gay-protest
Council on Religion and the Homosexual Event: San Francisco 1965
A group of progressive Christians, civil rights activists, and gay activists formed a group called Council on Religion and the Homosexual in 1964. In order to raise money for the new organization, the group scheduled a costume party for January 1, 1965, and dutifully informed the San Francisco Police Department of their intentions; the police attempted to force the owners of the rented hall to cancel the event. Although the police eventually agreed not to interfere with the dance, guests arrived to find cops snapping pictures of them as they entered in an attempt to intimidate them. When the police demanded to enter, the council’s lawyers informed them it was a private event and they were not allowed in without a ticket. This caused the police to arrest the lawyers, which helped incite a brief riot.
Dewey’s Restaurant Sit-In: Philadelphia 1965
A Philadelphia coffee shop called Dewey’s was a popular late-night hangout for young gays, lesbians, and drag queens in the mid-’60s. When the establishment started refusing service to the LGBT patrons, a protest rally ensued; Dewey’s management turned away more than 150 customers while the demonstration raged outside. Four teens refused to leave and were arrested and later convicted of disorderly conduct. Over the next several weeks, LGBT locals formed a picket line and staged a sit-in. The restaurant finally backed down and promised “an immediate cessation of all indiscriminate denials of service.”
East Coast Homophile Organizations’ Annual Reminders: Philadelphia 1965-1969
On July 4, 1965, gay rights activist groups joined together under the collective name East Coast Homophile Organizations to picket outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, demanding legislation that would secure the rights of LGBT Americans. Four events followed on Independence Day, each called the Annual Reminder, with hopes America would be reminded that a large number of its citizens were actually denied the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” A plaque now commemorates the work of the brave activists, and a reenactment is planned during the National LGBT 50th Anniversary Ceremony in Philly.
It was called the “Annual Reminder” to remind the American people that a substantial number of American citizens were denied the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Enthused by Rodwell’s idea, ECHO put together the first Reminder picket in just over two months. Thirty-nine people attended the first picket, including veteran activists Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, and Kay Tobin. As with the Washington, D.C. picket Kameny insisted on a strict dress code for participants, including jackets and ties for the men and dresses for the women. Kameny’s goal was to represent homosexuals as “presentable and employable.” Picketers carried signs with such slogans as “HOMOSEXUAL BILL OF RIGHTS” and “15 MILLION HOMOSEXUAL AMERICANS ASK FOR EQUALITY, OPPORTUNITY, DIGNITY“.
The Annual Reminders continued through July 4, 1969. The last Annual Reminder took place less than a week after the June 28 Stonewall riots. Rodwell received several telephone calls threatening him and the other New York participants, but he was able to arrange for police protection for the chartered bus all the way to Philadelphia. About 45 people participated. The Annual Reminders were commemorated in 2005 by the placement of a Pennsylvania state historical marker by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission at 6th and Chestnut Streets where it is viewed by thousands of visitors daily.
www.phillygaypride.org/philly-pride-celebrate-50th-anniversary-independence-hall-1964-lgbt-picket/
San Francisco: The Compton’s Cafeteria Riots August 1966
It was illegal to cross-dress in San Francisco in 1966, and for men specificially, it was unlawful to “impersonate a female.” At the time, drag performers, transgender women, lesbians, and gay and bi men experienced regular harassment by police and local officials. The Glide Memorial United Methodist Church fought back against the mistreatment of LGBT people by organizing political action and picketing Compton’s Cafeteria, a Tenderloin establishment long known for mistreating its LGBT customers. After a transgender woman was arrested inside the restaurant, she threw her drink in the cop’s face and other customers fought back, breaking windows, dishes, furniture, and damaging a police car outside.In the 1960s, Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s gritty Tenderloin neighborhood was virtually the only place in the city where transgender folks could congregate publicly, as they weren’t allowed in gay bars at the time. Cross-dressing was still illegal in the city, and the local police often used the presence of trans women as a pretext for raiding and closing gay bars.
The patrons at Compton’s were used to being rousted by the police, but one night, after a cop attempted to arrest one trans woman, that “street queen” (as the women were often called) fought back and tossed her drink into the officer’s face. A huge riot broke out and spilled into the neighborhood, becoming one of the first transgender uprisings in the U.S., three years before New York’s Stonewall. (There was a much smaller riot in L.A. in 1959.)
Trans people weren’t the only ones rioting as the hours went on; they were joined by many from the country’s first youth group, Vanguard Youth, as well as numerous street dykes, queer hustlers, and neighborhood locals. Later LGBT folks from other parts of the city joined in.
The Compton’s riot was a turning point in trans liberation, and by 1969 the first transgender advocacy group in the nation – and the world
Los Angeles: Black Cat Protests January 1967
In the first minutes of New Year’s Day, 1967, undercover police officers raided a popular gay bar in Los Angeles’s Silver Lake neighborhood called the Black Cat and arrested men kissing each other and those dressed in drag. Those affected in the raid decided it was time to fight back and planned a protest, which became the first time LGBT people organized against police harassment. Because this happened prior to the Stonewall riots, some believe the Black Cat protests are the real beginning of the LGBT rights movement. One thing is certain, this publication wouldn’t be around without it; two men were compelled to start a gay newsmagazine, which could eventually become The Advocate, following the raid and protests.
As we celebrate 45 years of The Advocate’s history, we look both inward, to our long record of reporting on the struggle for LGBT rights, and outward, to a new generation of activists carrying the torch for equality. This original photo of the protests (participants’ names and photographer unknown) has been re-created by Bradford Rogne and features activists (above, from left) James Duke Mason, 19, founder of the Trailblazer Campaign; Eileen Ma, 40, executive director of API Equality L.A.; and Jake Finney, 40, Anti-Violence Project manager for the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center and organizer of Trans Pride in Los Angeles.
Committee for Homosexual Freedom Pickets: San Francisco 1969
Two young gay men, Gale Whittington and Leo E. Laurence, were fired by their employers in 1969 after a picture of them embracing was printed in a small newspaper. Whittington worked at a freight company, the State Steamship Line, and he and Laurence picketed the company’s San Francisco offices every workday for several weeks. Though Whittington never got his job back, he and Laurence formed the Committee for Homosexual Freedom, which also picketed Tower Records after it fired a gay employee; the man was eventually rehired.San Francisco: The White Night Riots 1979
After San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White shot Mayor George Moscone and gay Supervisor Harvey Milk to death in 1978, a jury of 12 people the following year found White guilty of manslaughter, saving him from the death penalty, and gave him a light sentence of less than eight years in prison. LGBT San Franciscans and straight allies were enraged at the outcome and proceeded to march to the Civic Center to protest the decision. The protest turned into a riot, with people smashing windows and setting fire to police cars; in retaliation, police raided the Elephant Walk, a gay bar in the Castro, and beat many of the patrons.Just as today’s LGBT community awaits on pins and needles for a court decision on whether voters had the right to rescind marriage rights to same-sex couples through the ballot box, gay residents of San Francisco 30 years ago today (Thursday, May 21) were also anxious to learn about the outcome of another courthouse drama.
Inside a jury room 12 people were deliberating whether to find former Supervisor Dan White guilty of murdering then Mayor George Moscone and gay rights leader Supervisor Harvey Milk on the morning of November 27, 1978. White’s attorney mounted what became known as the Twinkie defense, arguing that he had temporarily lost his mind due to the sugary snacks he had consumed.
Having witnessed a trial many found rigged in favor of White, the LGBT community did not have high hopes that White would be convicted of murder. Their fears were realized when the jury, which included no out LGBT people, rendered its verdict finding White guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter, thus saving him from being sentenced to death.
Their pain and shock over the assassinations of the two beloved progressive politicians still simmering, many LGBT residents, as well as straight allies, were angered and outraged by the outcome of White’s murder trial. Thousands of people descended on the Castro, as planned, the evening of May 21, 1979 and proceeded to march to the Civic Center, where another large crowd had gathered to protest the jury’s decision.
As day turned into night, and people’s emotions boiled over, the crowd set upon the building, smashing windows and trying to break through the front doors. A line of police cars parked nearby was then set on fire, sending plumes of smoke and flames into the sky.
In retaliation, police raided the Elephant Walk, a gay bar in the heart of the Castro where Harvey’s now sits at the corner of 18th and Castro streets. The culmination of events became known as the White Night riots and it would be decades before the rift between police and the city’s LGBT community would be healed.
“It was like being on a movie set,” recalled J.D. Petras, who was 21 at the time and took part in the demonstration. “It was incredible, like being in a World War II bombing or something. To see the police cars burning, to hear windows smashing and people screaming, the Civic Center was just torn apart.”
Petras, who admitted to throwing a trash can that night, said to this day he feels proud of how the LGBT community rose up and demonstrated its anger.
“This was the last straw. You knew things were going to change,” he said. “It was not my style to be damaging things, but sometimes you just have to make a statement that enough is enough.”
Not all those present that day took part in the mayhem. A line of people had locked arms in front of City Hall in an attempt to hold back the crowd from doing further damage to the building.
Partners Bob Heacock, 62, and John Blackburn, 57, first met that night on the building’s steps. Heacock, a friend of Milk’s and treasurer of the San Francisco Gay Democratic Club, since renamed in Milk’s honor, locked eyes with Blackburn and slipped him his phone number.
“The verdict was not what we wanted. A lot of angry people met in the Castro and were chanting 'Harvey dies, Dan White lies.’ By reflex, people met in the Castro and then marched to the Civic Center,” recalled Heacock. “We were on the steps and heard the windows crashing. A group of us in the gay political movement felt responsible for saving City Hall."Blackburn, working then as an aide to former Supervisor Louise Renne, had exited the building to witness the commotion out front. He heard Heacock call for people to lock arms and linked up with him. Looking out at the scene was "totally bizarre. It was very Fellini-esque,” said Blackburn, who himself was hit by a rock and went to a nearby emergency room for treatment.Looking back upon the events of that night three decades ago, those LGBT people who took part in it see no need to apologize for their involvement in what they considered to be San Francisco’s Stonewall. It marked the last time local gay people would be afraid to stand up and fight for their rights.“I think it was totally justified. I think everyone should have been rioting. It was mostly a queer riot but our mayor had also been killed. The verdict was a total shame,” said participant Ruth Mahaney, 64, an out lesbian who teaches gay and lesbian history at City College. “The verdict was so wrong it could not go unchallenged. If the riot had not happened, it would have gone unchallenged in a way."State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), then a public school teacher, also took part in the events of that night. He said the crowd’s response was justified."We were in no mood. This guy had killed a hero of ours and a friend of ours and he got treated like he had shoplifted,” said Ammiano. “Dan White was a former cop and he got away with murder."Ammiano said he derived hope from the community’s response."In a strange way I am grateful that when the verdict came out people were not just silent. I am glad we were so vocal,” he said. “I just thought it taught us you can not be too docile. You really do have to be strong."Standing in the Civic Center crowd that night was a young businessman named Mark Leno, now an openly gay man serving in the state Senate. He said the White Night riots were "the culmination of many changes that were impacting the city at that time. It was as if it all came to a head through the outrage of the injustice of Dan White’s sentence."He said the "raw anger” people felt because of the jury’s decision added to the intensity of the moment, something San Francisco needed to go through in order for its populace to heal, said Leno.His own entrance into politics is cemented in that night and time.“It was a jolt to the civic fabric as if we had to experience all of that to be able to move forward to become the city that we have become today,” said Leno. “The experience I had at that time continues to inform my public office today. That we have had to fight for every right that we have gained and we have had to be vigilant every step of the way so as not to ever lose anything we have attained.”
www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=3931
Gay (and Lesbian) Bars History
For more than three hundred years, public places where people could gather and socialize over drink have been central features of urban community life. For gay men and lesbians, the centrality of bars to community life has probably been truer than it has for any other group. In addition to providing opportunities for glbtq people to socialize and to meet potential partners, gay and lesbian bars have offered members of a stigmatized social minority, often isolated from one another, an opportunity to inhabit space with like-minded folk. Until recently, they were often the only venues in which glbtq people could feel free to be openly gay. Moreover, gay and lesbian bars occupy a significant place in gay literature and film. Many of the classic gay and lesbian novels–such as Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness (1928), Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar (1948), James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (1956), Ann Bannon’s I Am a Woman (1959), and Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle (1973)–feature scenes set in gay bars. In literary works, especially those before the 1980s, the gay bar is often depicted as decidedly unappetizing, sometimes frightening–even demonic– and nearly always depressing. Such depictions may reflect a certain reality, but in real life these bars also often provided much needed shelter to people who faced ostracism in the larger community. Historically, gay and lesbian bars have served as sites for the development of gay culture and for political foment. Though their centrality has been reduced in recent years, they continue to fulfill important functions; and, in many areas, they remain the most visible manifestation of glbtq presence.
www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/gay_lesbian_bars_S.pdf
Beginnings
Where Men Met Social networks of men who sought out male sexual contacts have been documented for Italian cities (notably Florence) as early as the fifteenth century. Such networks appeared later in northern Europe, developing over the course of the seventeenth century and achieving a level of public recognition in Britain and the Netherlands at the outset of the eighteenth century. The growth of such networks in urban centers, especially in Britain, is generally attributed to sea-changes in agriculture and industry. The aggregation of smaller land parcels into larger, more efficient farms displaced many rural laborers. They in turn came to work in the mercantile economies of major cities, which burgeoned as a result of advances in technology and the growth of overseas empires. As cities grew, new institutions evolved to support an urban culture that revolved around expanded industry and trade. In Britain, public houses came into use as meeting places and places of resort for working people. Coffee houses, which became increasingly popular as a result of overseas trade, filled a similar role for middle-class men. As such, these institutions displaced the church, the marketplace, and the street as the locus of erotic contacts between men. Economic change was probably not the only force that drove men from public spaces into quasi-private consumer ones. Often frequented by single, itinerant male laborers, some saloons became places where prostitution (male and female) could be plied in relative security. The public’s increasing recognition of brothels and same-sex sexual networks (by the 1720s, the names and locations of such “bawdy houses” were being listed in London newspapers) prompted a spike in the number of sodomy prosecutions across northern Europe in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. While bars and coffeehouses did not remain unscathed by the inquiries of police and moral reformers, they provided a degree of shelter from scrutiny and intervention that more public spaces could not. In Britain, particularly, this shelter afforded an opportunity for the elaboration of a particular subculture. “Mollies,” as they were popularly known, were men who adopted effeminate mannerisms, modes of speech, and even dress, mimicking the female prostitutes who were a part of their social world. “Molly houses” were saloons in which these men congregated; they were often equipped with upstairs bedrooms, so that men could have sex on the premises in relative security. While not all of London’s men-loving men were mollies, this subculture came to epitomize men who had sex with men in the popular mind, and drew down upon it the greatest indignation of the moral reformers of the day.The Emergence of Gay and Lesbian Bars
The further development of such establishments from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century is little documented. It is clear, however, that a new efflorescence of gay and lesbian meeting places in European and North American urban centers began around 1880. This may in part be due to the intensification of industrial commerce during this period; it may also be due to a growing consciousness around homosexuality as a shared social identity. By 1900, London, Paris, Berlin, and New York could each count literally dozens of locales, many of them bars, where gay men and lesbians could meet. The social composition of “gay and lesbian” bars of this period varied widely. Some catered exclusively to either lesbians or gay men; these were often styled along the lines of a private club, to which membership could be purchased. Some, more open bars were frequented by both men and women. Many other bars were not exclusively gay but rather “straight” locales with a gay following. Among these were hotel bars, as well as establishments in which a bartender, manager, or owner known to be gay offered gay patrons a tacit welcome. In mixed settings, the disposition of the patrons would be signaled by either formal or informal seating arrangements. Sometimes, gay men and lesbians would be served only at the bar; other times they were served only at tables, often in an adjoining back room. Other allegedly “gay” bars, notably clubs with drag shows, catered to a principally heterosexual clientele, even if gay men and lesbians provided the entertainment. These bars were trumpeted to the middle-class public in special guidebooks to these cities’ working-class and sexual underworlds; “slumming” in the bars that lined the Bowery or the Friedrichstrasse became a fashionable pastime. Such prurient attentions inevitably also drew the attention of police. The decades before World War I saw the unfolding of high-profile homosexual scandals on both sides of the Atlantic. Many of these centered on bars, hotels, parks, or other meeting places where officials and public figures solicited companionship and sexual contacts with working-class men, or with one another. Bars were frequently closed by order of the police, only to reopen weeks or months later at a different address under a different name. Even in the face of the most aggressive forms of state repression, gay male bars were particularly resilient. While most of Berlin’s estimated 100 gay and lesbian establishments were closed by executive fiat and street thuggery within weeks of the Nazis’ coming to power in 1933, a few locales–perennially raided and forced to move– nonetheless doggedly remained open through the end of World War II. At the same time as tens of thousands of men and women were being imprisoned and worked to death in Nazi concentration camps for being queer, a public queer culture still existed, if only barely, on the streets of Hitler’s capital.Prohibition and the Transformation of Bars in the United States
A very different kind of state intervention transformed the culture of public drinking as well as gay and lesbian life in the United States between the world wars. Prohibition, in effect from 1918 to 1933, dismantled the homosocial domain of the saloon, which offered male laborers a free lunch with their beer in a space where, whether by custom or regulation, women were frequently not permitted. As social drinking was relegated to the private sphere of house parties or the quasi-public sphere of speakeasies, opportunities expanded for men and women to gather together exclusively around alcohol. As the new social spaces that Prohibition created altered the conventions of heterosexual interaction, they similarly offered gay men and lesbians additional, more secluded places to meet. Since no speakeasy could be regarded as a respectable enterprise in the eyes of the law, many proprietors had no interest in barring queer customers from the premises. In neighborhoods like New York’s Harlem and Greenwich Village, gay speakeasies flourished. In regional urban centers around the country, speakeasies became the primary sites for interactions among gay men and lesbians. The institution of the speakeasy had an important legacy for gay and lesbian bars in the decades following the repeal of Prohibition in 1932. As states tightened their grip on the regulation of taverns, they passed injunctions against persons gathering in bars for “immoral purposes” in an effort to eradicate both prostitution and homosexuality. (In some areas of the United States, laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol to homosexuals were on the books as late as the 1970s.) As a result, bars that catered to gay and lesbian customers continued to operate under many of the same strictures that Prohibition had enforced on speakeasies. Some post-Prohibition gay and lesbian bars were even housed in the same physical spaces that had housed speakeasies. These were often difficult for newcomers or strangers to the community to locate and access without the assistance of a sympathetic local in the know. Bar owners, meanwhile, were enjoined to pay protection money to the police or, in cities like New York, organized crime syndicates, in order to avoid all but the occasional police raid. In addition to raiding the bars, undercover police often infiltrated them, ready to arrest patrons who solicited them or who engaged in same-sex dancing or other “inappropriate” behavior, including dressing in the “wrong” attire, especially women who wore pants. During World War II, which brought increased freedom for women to defy conventions of all kinds, many lesbian bars opened, and bar hopping became a favorite weekend activity, especially for working-class lesbians.Gay and Lesbian Bars at Mid-Twentieth Century
During the McCarthy era, when homosexuals were vilified and terrorized, the threshold to enter gay and lesbian bars was high, and the situation of the patrons frequently grim. Any number of them stood to lose livelihoods and the support of family if an arrest as a result of a raid or an undercover policeman’s charge landed their names in the morning newspaper. In addition, they might be blackmailed by a casual pickup or bashed by someone intent on “rolling” queers. But the bars nonetheless remained a vital social world for many; indeed, a visit to a gay or lesbian bar was a rite-of-passage in the coming out process. Inside the walls of these bars an increasingly diversified culture of gendered and sexualized self-presentation was shaped. Some gay men adopted the trappings of the nascent motorcycle culture, while a smaller number combined it with a passion for sadomasochistic sex. They founded their own bike clubs, which established their home turf in what became the first leather bars. Female and male impersonators began to find gay and lesbian audiences in mid-twentieth-century bars. The circuit of gay bars that featured drag performers in the 1940s and 1950s is surprisingly far-flung, and includes venues in medium-sized towns as well as large cities. Indeed, the long list of gay clubs that sprouted up after World War II, and their impressive geographic diversity, indicates that after the war gay culture flowered not merely in such cities as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, but also in medium-sized cities throughout the United States, from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Idaho Falls, Idaho. Lesbian bars seem to have been crucial in the development of butch-femme culture, especially among working-class lesbians. Key to butch-femme culture was a particular style and a dress code as well as a code of conduct, which included the imperative for butches to defend the femmes they consorted with and the bars they all shared. In addition, however, a smaller and more affluent lesbian bar culture also developed in the 1940s and 1950s in which butch-femme roles were not mandatory. Historians have suggested that the formation of in-group solidarity, centered on bar life, in the face of social hostility encouraged the formation of a political consciousness around sexual difference during the 1950s and 1960s. Some bar owners of the time, such as Dixie Fasnacht, owner of Dixie’s Bar of Music in New Orleans, were known for their support of their patrons, frequently dispatching attorneys and bail money when they were harassed by police during periodic “clean up” campaigns. It is, thus, not coincidental that one of the first stirrings of gay and lesbian political activity in San Francisco was sparked by police harassment of gay bars. In response to such harassment, the San Francisco Tavern Guild was formed in 1959. In 1961, José Sarria, a drag performer at the Black Cat Cafe in North Beach, ran, with the Guild’s endorsement, for a seat on the city’s Board of Supervisors, thus becoming the first openly gay political candidate. The emerging glbtq political consciousness that was fostered by gay and lesbian bars saw its most pointed manifestation in patrons’ response to the police raid on New York’s Stonewall Inn on June 27, 1969. After having been herded out onto the street, customers began to hurl bricks and bottles at police officers, who barricaded themselves inside the vacant bar in order to avoid being assaulted. This riot was followed by three successive days of conflict between police and neighborhood residents. Within weeks the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) had been formed, and “Stonewall” went up as a rallying cry across the United States and around the world.Gay and Lesbian Bars in the Period of Gay Liberation
Ironically, the Stonewall rebellion and its political consequences signaled the gradual decline of bars as the central institutional prop of gay and lesbian life, even as it also provided the impetus for a large explosion of gay and lesbian visibility and a large increase in the actual number of bars. At the time of the gay liberation movement, many bars, including the Stonewall, were straight-owned and mob-controlled. The leaders of the homophile movement of the 1950s and 1960s had often criticized gay and (especially) lesbian bar culture for creating an unwholesome image of the homosexual as bar fly or alcoholic. In the wake of Stonewall, a new generation of gay activists also urged their fellows not to patronize bars, but for different reasons. The early gay liberation movement placed a tremendous premium on creating safer, friendlier, noncommercial spaces for queer people. In New York, GLF held dances in community-controlled space above a storefront. Efforts were made in cities across North America and Europe to create lesbian and gay community centers, which became both inspiration and locus for a new generation of volunteer-based organizations centered on common interests. Awareness of the ravages of alcoholism within the gay and lesbian community also prompted an attempt to create alcohol-free venues in which glbtq people could socialize. During the 1970s, the scope of institutional gay and lesbian life in urban areas diversified to a hitherto unimaginable extent. Even in the commercial sector, enterprises were no longer restricted to bars but now included restaurants, bookstores, special events, and a vastly expanded press. These developments led to a displacement of gay and lesbian bars as the central locale of glbtq cultural life, but it did not lead to a decrease in the number of people who patronized the bars. Indeed, far more people patronized gay and lesbian bars in the 1970s than ever participated in lesbian and gay community centers, gay pride marches, and other non-commercial activities. Moreover, many gay bars themselves became politicized, or at least more sensitive to the increased political sensitivities of their patrons, participating, for example, in boycotts against Coors beer and Florida orange juice. In the 1970s gay male bars, in particular, reached their zenith of popularity and visibility. Large dance clubs emerged to cater to the so-called “clones,” gay men who adopted masculine affectations and dress–including workboots, tight Levis, plaid shirts, short hair cuts, and moustaches–and who embraced disco as their music of choice. At this period, the stereotype of gay men as obsessed with dance and with recreational drugs appeared. On weekends, in huge clubs in the major cities of North America and Europe, gay men danced the early mornings away to music that itself seemed to be inextricably connected with the gay experience. In the 1970s, specialized bars catering to the leather community, particular ethnic groups, and specific styles also proliferated. Some bars became known as pickup bars, while others were noted for an elegance or sophistication lacking in earlier gay and lesbian bars. In large cities, some bars gained reputations as “hustler bars,” where the services of sex workers could be negotiated, while others became known for their “back rooms,” where sex acts could be consummated on the premises. Because of their increased visibility in the 1970s, gay and lesbian bars also became more mainstream. Owners and patrons of gay and lesbian bars were less content to remain in the shadows; the establishments frequently advertised themselves openly as gay bars and, after 1979, often displayed the rainbow flag to signal their commitment to gay pride. In some cities, politicians even campaigned in gay bars, thus tacitly recognizing them as community institutions and acknowledging gay men and lesbians as a voting bloc.Gradual Decline
In the 1980s and since, however, gay and lesbian bars have suffered a relative decline, in absolute numbers, as well as in their centrality to glbtq culture. Part of this decline may be due to the increased politicization of gay and lesbian life in general, and in particular to the AIDS pandemic, which not only itself politicized gay culture to an unprecedented degree but also increased the health consciousness of a whole generation of gay people. The institutional infrastructure of gay and lesbian communities was greatly expanded in response to the AIDS crisis. In many places, bars became simply one opportunity, one location among many, to live a gay life. As early as 1978, Joseph Harry and William B. DeVall were able to assert that the presence and number of bars in a community was not a strong predictor of the institutional completeness of the community. The number and variety of women’s bars especially declined, with many large cities no longer boasting any exclusively lesbian bars. In most places, lesbians now socialize mostly in mixed lesbian, gay male, and heterosexual bars or participate in “Women’s nights” at bars that are ordinarily mixed or primarily gay male. The reasons for the decline in the number of exclusively lesbian bars are not entirely clear. It may be that women have been more successful than men in recent decades in creating queer community in alternative spaces. Some bars that excluded men have been charged with sex discrimination and lost their licenses as a result. Perhaps most important, economic factors, including the effects of gentrification on urban space, have also affected both gay and lesbian bars in recent years. Soaring rents and stiff competition have exacted a heavy toll on gay and lesbian bars even in neighborhoods with a high density of gay and lesbian inhabitants such as San Francisco’s Castro district and New York’s Greenwich Village. In addition, competition from other recreational opportunities, such as circuit parties and gay and lesbian cruises, may also have contributed to this decline. The burgeoning of Internet communities and chat rooms, which serve some of the same functions that bars have traditionally served, including connecting people of shared interests and desires, may also have had an impact on gay and lesbian bars.Continuing Vitality
Although it is disturbing that women are increasingly excluded from participation in an important if diminished dimension of gay commercial and social life, women’s bars have by no means disappeared from urban queer life. The institution of the lesbian bar is far from obsolete. Indeed, gay and lesbian bars continue to display an impressive vitality. Since the 1980s, bars have continued to undergo a process of specialization, with different establishments catering to different ethnic subpopulations and communities of interest, such as leathermen or Bears or country music aficionados or transgendered individuals. Some bars especially cater to a younger crowd, while others cater to a predominantly older group; some attract a mixed clientele of men and women, while others cater to a single sex. While nearly all the “back room bars” have been closed, bars that feature dancers or strippers abound, especially in resort areas, and many other bars are oriented around cruising and the pursuit of sex. Other bars, however, are neighborhood institutions that serve a core clientele who come principally to socialize with friends. Many bars perform more than one of these functions simultaneously or alternately. Despite the decline in the centrality of bars to gay culture, in many places across the country, gay and lesbian bars remain the most (and sometimes only) visible manifestation of glbtq life. In such circumstances, the role bars continue to play in building community should not be underestimated. Bars of all varieties fill an important role in glbtq communities by providing sponsorship and hosting space for dozens of community organizations, such as sports teams and choirs, and special events, such as Pride celebrations and contests. They also provide much needed advertising revenue and distribution points for the gay press. They are also a locus of efforts to combat the spread of HIV and STDs. While bars no longer retain a monopoly on gay socialization, their financial wherewithal and symbolic power allow them to retain important functions in contemporary community life.Queer Bars as Targets
Because gay and lesbian bars are among the most visible manifestations of gay life, they are, sadly, also frequent targets of homophobic rage against the gay and lesbian community. Examples of such rage include numerous cases of (often unsolved) vandalism, arson, and bombings of gay and lesbian bars all over the world. In 1973, for instance, 32 people burned to death in the Upstairs Lounge, a New Orleans gay bar, in a fire set by an arsonist who has never been identified. In 1979, during Anita Bryant’s anti-gay “Save Our Children” campaign, a lesbian bar in St. Louis, Mor or Les, was firebombed. Other examples include such incidents as occurred in 1980 when a deranged man, Ronald Crumpley, claiming that he was acting under God’s orders, walked into a gay bar in New York with a submachine gun and proceeded to kill two men and injure six others. In a similar incident in 2001, Ronald Edward Gay, a Vietnam-era veteran who described himself as a “Christian soldier,” went on a shooting rampage in a Roanoke, Virginia gay bar, killing one person and injuring six others. Another religiously-motivated attack on a gay bar is that committed by right-wing extremist Eric Rudolph, who, in addition to bombing Olympic Park in Atlanta in 1996 and an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama in 1997, also bombed an Atlanta gay bar, injuring five people, in 1997. Gay bashers, including serial killers and sexual predators, often target gay bars, selecting their victims from patrons who leave establishments catering to gay men and lesbians. The frequency of attacks on gay and lesbian bars and their patrons is a measure of the vulnerability of glbtq people in a homophobic society. As symbols of gay and lesbian openness, and often of gay and lesbian pride, bars that cater to the glbtq community are regarded as particularly galling by those who hate and fear homosexuals. Precisely because gay and lesbian bars remain the most visible manifestations of a gay and lesbian presence, attacks on these institutions are intended to intimidate and frighten the entire glbtq community. Conversely, the homophobia that the attacks represent makes the need for gay and lesbian bars all the more obvious. In such venues, gay men and lesbians find respite from the larger society’s incessant assaults on our self-esteem.www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/gay_lesbian_bars_S.pdf
Gay History
Gateways Club
The Gateways club was the longest running lesbian nightclub in the world. Founded during 1930 it operated for 55 years before finally closing on Saturday 21, September 1985. The club was often called the Gates and became a safe place for lesbians to meet. The Gateways Club had an interesting history with it being said that Ted Ware who took over the club in 1943 won it in a poker game. Ted later married Gina Cerrato who turned it into a women only club in 1967. During the 1960s the club became popular with celebrities. During the 1970s, members of the Gay Liberation Front protested outside the Gateways club encouraging women entering the club to Come Out. As more clubs opened in London the club started to lose customers. After complaints of loud music the club lost its late licence in 1985.
Harvey Milk Day
Harvey Bernard Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Harvey Milk Day is recognized as a legal state holiday in California in memory of Harvey Milk. On November 27, 1978, Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist was assassinated. The Harvey Milk Day takes place each year held on May 22. During his life Milk became an activist for gay rights. In 1984 there was an Oscar-winning documentary of his life and the aftermath of his assassination, titled The Times of Harvey Milk. In 2008, a biographical film about the life of Harvey Milk was released titled, Milk. The film received eight Academy Award nominations. In 2009, the Harvey Milk Day legal state holiday was established by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2009, Harvey Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.Janus Society Of America
Back during 1961, a group of gay and lesbian activists in Philadelphia started having meetings on a regular basis. The group was planning on forming a local chapter of the national homophile organization, the Mattachine Society. However, when the group failed in gaining official recognition as a Mattachine Society chapter, they founded the Janus Society of Delaware Valley in 1962. The Janus Society soon developed political positions that were regarded by many as the most liberated in the LGBT movement for the era. The group went on to publish the Drum magazine that became the most widely circulated homophile magazine of the 1960s. The first issue of the Drum was published in December, 1965. Two versions of the magazine were published. The subscriber only issue contained four additional photographic pages. The other issue was for newsstand distribution and did not contain the insert. By 1996 the Drum had a circulation of more then 10,000. For the first two years, Mae Polakoff served as the president of the Janus Society. After that, Clark P. Polak served as the President. Polak was also responsible for starting the Drum magazine. The Janus Society closed in 1969 after Polak was arrested on federal obscenity charges and subsequently relocated to California.Gay Blue Jeans Day
The first Gay Blue Jeans Day was way back in 1974 at at Rutgers University in the United States. It was organized as a way for people to show their support for equal rights for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender people. Over time it eventually spread to other Universities and Colleges both in the United States and other countries. These days Gay Blue Jeans Day has become a world wide event that millions of people support. Gay Blue Jeans Day is usually celebrated on October 11 each year, but some places may celebrate it on a different day. The day has taken on several different names such as, wear Blue Jeans if You’re Gay Day, National Gay Blue Jeans Day, Gay Jeans Day or just Jeans Day. The original Gay Blue Jeans Day included a day of activities. Many people chose to wear a ribbon made from blue jeans.National Coming Out Day
Founded by Robert Eichberg and Jean O'Leary in 1988. The day is observed every year on October 11. In the United Kingdom it is observed on October 12. After much consideration it was decided to have the event each year on the date of October 11. The date was decided upon as it was the anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The first year attracted a total of 18 states participated within the United States. In 1990 all 50 states participated along with 7 other countries. The National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is a day of coming out for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people (LGBT). It is also a day of awareness, learning and discussion. People are encouraged on the day to fly the pride flags or wear a pride symbol.Friday Of The Purple Hand
In 1969 members from the (GLF) Gay Liberation Front and (SIR) Society for Individual Rights held a protest out the front of the San Francisco’s Examiner in response to a series of articles that had appeared in the newspaper that many people felt were negative of the LGBT community. The protest took place during the evening of October 31. The protesters then responded by stamping their purple hand prints on buildings in the surrounding area. The police arrived after that and starting arresting some of the protesters. No action was taken by the police against those that had dumped the purple ink on the peaceful protesters. In response to the police violence against the protesters along with other past violence against the Gay community, some gay activists attempted to institute “purple hand” as a way of warning to stop the anti-gay attacks.
Knights Of The Clock
The Knights of the Clock was the common use name for The Cloistered Order of Conclaved Knights of Sophisticracy that was founded sometime between 1949 to 1951. Founded by Merton Bird and his wife W. Dorr Legg, the group was an interracial homophile social club based in Los Angeles, California. Other homophile groups of the era tended to be more activist in nature, but the Knights were more a social group. The Knights were also active in helping find integrated housing for same-sex couples. Their social functions soon became very popular attracting as many as 200 guests. The Knights Of The Clock disbanded during the mid-1950s and several members went on to join ONE, Inc.Europride
First took place in 1992 in London. The Europride was an immediate success with more then 100,000 people attending the first event. In 1993 Europride was hosted in Berlin in Germany and in 1994 in Amsterdam. The Europride event which is dedicated to LGBT pride is hosted in a different European city every year. Europride includes a series of events and activities from sport to live music to a Pride Parade. In 1997 Europride was hosted in Paris and attracted over 300,000 people to the Parade. The Europride event was cancelled in 1999 after the organizers in London went bankrupt. In 2002, Europride took place in Köln, Germany where it is estimated more then one million people attended the event. In 2003 Europride took place in Manchester, in 2004 in , in 2005 in Oslo and London in 2006. The London Europride included entertainment in Leicester and Soho Squares and a rally in Trafalgar Square. In 2010 Europride too place in Warsaw, Poland which was the first time Europride had taken place in a former communist country.Down The Street Gay Disco
The Down the Street was a gay disco that opened under the name of “Visions” during the 1970`s. The disco opened at 230 Cookman Avenue, Asbury Park, New Jersey and was one of the countries early gay night clubs. The name of the disco was changed from Visions to Down The Street simply because the club was located down the street from the other Gay clubs. The club still used the original DJ equipment of reel-to-reels till when it closed in the 1990`s. There was a small dance floor in one room, a main bar and two smaller bars. The club connected to a second building at the back which become a lesbian bar. During the 1980`s when a lot of gay clubs closed, Down The Street was able to stay open due to a loyal regular crowd. The club finally closed it`s doors in 1999.Comptons Cafeteria Protests
During August 1966 a riot took place in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco which become known as the Comptons Cafeteria Protests. It is believed to be the first recorded transgender riots in the United States. The Tenderloin Compton Cafeteria was one of a chain owned by Gene Compton. The cafeteria operated from 1954 to 1972 and at that time in history was one of the few places available for transgender people to meet in public. The protests started after a scuffle between a transgender and a police officer. The trouble soon spread and other police were called as back-up. Vanguard, a gay youth organization that had been founded earlier in the year took part in the protests. The next night there was a picket of the cafeteria after they had banned transgender people. The Comptons Cafeteria Protests are significant in that it lead to the founded of a number of social support groups.
The Furies Collective
The Furies Collective was a Lesbian communal group that was founded in 1971 in Washington, D.C. Their main communal living was located at 219 11th St SE, was, along with the Gay Liberation House and the Skyline Collective. The Furies Collective was started by 12 women and eventually numbers involved were in the area of 20 to 30 before the group closed. One of the projects of the group was to publish a newspaper called, The Furies: Lesbian/Feminist Monthly. The newspaper was distributed nationally and run from January 1972 to mid-1973. Although the newspaper only lasted a short time, it had a major influence on lesbian feminism at the time. A total of ten issues of the newspaper was published. The group did not last long as members were slowly evicted or left. The members of the Furies Collective all came from very diverse social and economic backgrounds and the lesbian separatism they promoted eventually led others to form similar groups.
White Knot Symbol
The White Knot was the idea of Frank Voci who made the symbol in 2008. The White Knot has become a well known symbol of support for Same-sex marriage in the United States. The use of the symbol has also spread to other countries around the world. The White Knot features the two symbols of marriage. First the knot is made of white which is regarded as the traditional marriage color. The “tying of the knot” represents support for same-sex marriage. The White Knot Symbol has been worn by a number of celebrity at high profile events such as the Grammy awards, Academy awards and the Spirit awards.Stonewall Riots
The original Stonewall Inn was located at 51 and 53 Christopher Street, New York City and was the founding point of the Stonewall Riots in 1969. The Inn closed in 1969 and then was later reopened in 1990 and called, Stonewall, and was located in the western half (53 Christopher Street). In 2007 it returned to its original name of, The Stonewall Inn. In 2000, The Stonewall Inn was designated a National Historic Landmark. The building was constructed between 1843 and 1846 and served as stables until 1930 when it was turned into a restaurant. During the 1960`s the restaurant was gutted by a fire. Then on March 18, 1967, the Stonewall opened for business. During the 1950`s and 1960`s there was a fervent push the the Government against the gay community. In 1950 the U.S. State Department placed homosexuals on a list of people that were considered security risks to the Nation. From 1947 to 1950, the Government removed 4,380 people suspected of being Gay were discharged from the military and 420 were removed from their government jobs. Universities expelled Lecturers they suspected of being homosexual. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and police departments kept lists of known homosexuals and their friends. The Government and police engaged in tense persecution and harassment of the Gay community and many Gay people were physically harassed and abused, fired from their jobs, imprisoned in jailed, and even institutionalized in mental hospitals. The 1960`s was a time of change in the United States with the Civil Rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War. Many in the Gay community were also starting to challenge the system. New York City had passed laws against homosexuality in public and private businesses. A campaign to rid New York City of gay bars was in full force and the city revoked the liquor licenses of the bars and undercover police officers worked to entrap homosexual men. Nearly all the Gay Bars were owned and operated by organized crime, who paid off corrupt police to prevent raids. Three members of the Mafia invested $3,500 to turn the Stonewall Inn into a gay bar in 1966. The Stonewall had no liquor license and once a week corrupt police would stop by the Inn to collect a envelope filled with money as a payoff. The Inn had no fire exits and no running water behind the bar. It was the only bar in New York at that time that allowed gay men to dance together. Security at the door checked visitors before letting them inside to stop the police from entering. There was an entrance fee on the weekends of $3 and patrons signed fake names in a book to show the Inn was a private bottle club. Once inside the club it was very dark as everything was painted black with little lighting. If police approached the club white lights were turned on to alert the patrons.The Stonewall Inn was raided by the police on average about once a month. An effective system was in place were the police would let the club know in advance of the raid so alcohol could be stored in a safe place. The raids took place very early in the evening when not too many people were in the club. Customers were lined up against a wall and had their identification checked. The police often engaged in verbal bullying and harassment of the customers during these raids. Staff were often arrested and customers with no identification were sometimes arrested. In the period just before before June 28, 1969 there was a marked increase in raids on the Stonewall Inn and other Gay bars in the area. The police became more aggressive and arrests increased. The situation was becoming very tense and there was a growing sense of frustration and anger within the Gay community at the police and Government persecution. On Saturday, June 27, 1969, two undercover policemen and two undercover policewomen entered the bar in the evening to gather evidence. The Public Morals Squad were stationed not far from the club and waited for the undercover police to give the signal. On Saturday, June 28, 1969 at 1:20 a.m. in the morning a number of plainclothes and uniform police arrived at the Stonewall Inn’s double doors and announced “Police! We’re taking the place!”. At the time the club was full with around 200 customers and the raid caught many by surprise as they were not often conducted late at night when the club was full. The security turned on the white lights to alert everyone the police were at the door. Customers tried to escape the raid but the police blocked the exits. The police began to line people up and demand their identification. The build up of the growing frustration in the Gay community at their treatment, the late night time of the raid and the fact that their were around 200 customers in the bar at the time meant that everything did not go as the police had planned. The hostility grew s some police started to sexually assault some of the customers. Customers began refusing the show their identification and others refused to leave. While the police waited for patrol wagons and support, the crowd outside began to grow and people refused to leave. Some of the people outside the Inn started to taunt the police. When the first police wagon arrived bar staff were placed in the wagon but there was a long delay in the arrival of the second wagon. Someone shouted, “Gay power!” and another started singing “We Shall Overcome”. A transvestite was brutally pushed by a police officer and the transvestite hit back with her purse. The tension was starting to build and the crowd were starting to turn more hostile. The police were outnumbered and not prepared for what was about to happen. Some people started throwing coins at the police and a few beer bottles were also thrown….
Things really started to heat up when a transvestite (some people say it was a woman) was dragged from the Stonewall in handcuffs and fought with the police for around 10 minutes. During the struggle she escaped several times only to be caught again. The confrontation became more physical and the woman shouted to the crowd, “Why don’t you guys do something?”. It was at this point everything changed fast. Some of the crowd tried to help and police threw some of them to the ground. While this was happening the people in the police wagon escaped. Two police cars on the scene had their tires slashed and the crowd turned their attention to the wagon and tried to overturn it. During all this the crowd starting to grow larger. The situation grew worse with both the police and some members of the crowd getting more violent. Ten police eventually barricaded themselves inside the Stonewall In along with several handcuffed detainees. Outside the Stonewall the crowd started smashing the windows with anything they could find. A parking meter was pulled from the ground and used as a battering ram on the doors. The police inside responded by taking their pistols out of their holsters and preparing for the onslaught. When the crowd eventually forced their way inside the police pointed their weapons and threatened to shoot. It was around 45 minutes in total before the Tactical Police Force (TPF) of the New York City Police Department arrived at the Stonewall. The police had been humiliated and started to respond by throwing anyone they could find in the police wagon and sending them to jail. The Tactical Police Force formed a phalanx and marched forward trying to push the crowd back. Then without warning the police rushed forward and started smashing the crowd with batons. What followed next was a situation where police were chasing protestors and the protestors at times were chasing the police. At one stage a car was overturned and used to block Christopher Street. At around 4 a.m. in the morning things started to quiet down. Most of the streets by now were clear and the remaining people started to gather around Christopher Park. The Stonewall Inn was almost completely destroyed, 13 people had been arrested, 4 police injured and some people in the crowd were hospitalized. There was a strange silence on Christopher Street, but everyone knew things had now changed. During the day people from all over came to view what was left of the Stonewall Inn. The New York Post, The New York Daily News and The New York Times all run stories covering the riots. Graffiti started to appear in and around the Stonewall Inn declaring, “Support gay power”, “Drag power”, “They invaded our rights”, and “Legalize gay bars”. The next night there were more riots around Christopher Street. This time the riots seemed more organized then the previous night. But what was most important was that gay people were now out in public holding hands and showing affection to each other. Suddenly everything was very different. People who were not Gay were now coming out openly in support of Gay rights. The Stonewall had already opened again and thousands of people gathered in front and into adjoining blocks. More then 100 police were present but seemed powerless against the ever growing Gay rights movement. At around 2 a.m. the Tactical Police Force arrived and battled the crowd till around 4 a.m. when things started to quieten down.
On the Monday and Tuesday there was heavy rain that reduced the protests but there were still a few incidents between residents and police. Craig Rodwell and his partner Fred Sargeant printed and distributed 5,000 leaflets around the Greenwich Village area with one set of the leaflets reading, “Get the Mafia and the Cops out of Gay Bars”. Other leaflets called for a boycott of the Stonewall and other Mafia-owned bars and for Gays to own their own bars. On Wednesday The Village Voice ran reports that included unflattering descriptions of Gay people that led to another protest as more then 1,000 people gathered on Christopher Street. There were five people arrested and more injuries to demonstrators and police. Within six months of the Stonewall riots three Gay newspapers hit the streets of the city, “Gay, "Come Out!” and “Gay Power” with a readership of between 20,000 to 25,000. GLF members organized several same-sex dances and the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) was founded. The Stonewall Inn stayed open for only a few more weeks after the riot. By October 1969 the place was placed for rent. Rodwell’s boycott of mafia owned gay bars had resulted in many people staying away from the Stonewall. Over the next twenty years a series of different business occupied the old Stonewall Inn building including, a bagel sandwich shop, a Chinese restaurant, and a shoe store before eventually opening the Stonewall Inn again.
Bourne Free Pride Festival
Started back in 2004 in Bournemouth, England and in those days was called, Bourne Free. The first event was put together in a bit of a hurry and was a one day event. It included a Gay Pride march, entertainers and a balloon release with a 2 minute silence. After the initial event it was decided to make it into a yearly event. In 2006 it was decided to change the title of the event to the Bourne Free Pride Festival. By 2008 the Festival had extended to 3 full days of events. Over the years the number of people attending the Bourne Free Pride Festival has increased and so too has the activities which include a street party, Pride march, entertainment and more.The Castro District
Castro Street was named after José Castro (1808-1860), a Californio leader of Mexican opposition to U.S. rule in California in the 19th century. The area now known as the Castro District was created in 1887 when the Market Street Railway Company built a line linking Eureka Valley to downtown. After the end of World War II, a large number of Gay servicemen settled in the Castro District. In 1967, The Castro came of age as a gay center following the Summer of Love in the neighboring Haight-Ashbury district. By 1973, Harvey Milk, who would become the most famous resident of the neighborhood, opened a camera store, Castro Camera, and began political involvement as a gay activist. During the 1970s the nightlife included the Corner Grocery Bar, Toad Hall, the Pendulum, the Midnight Sun, Twin Peaks, and the Elephant Walk. A major cultural destination in the neighborhood is The GLBT History Museum. Special events, parade and Steet fairs are held in the Castro include the Castro Street Fair, the Dyke March, the famed Halloween in the Castro which was discontinued in 2007, Pink Saturday, and the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.
Black Tie Dinner Texas
The first Black Tie Dinner In Texas took place way back in 1982 in Dallas, Texas as a way to help raise money for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community. The event has been held every year since then and has raised more then $15 million. The money raised from the event is given to up to 20 GLBT focused organizations in the North Texas area. Part of the proceeds also are donated to Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The first Black Tie Dinner In Texas was attended by 140 people. These days the event has around 3,000 people attend. The first Black Tie Dinner In Texas raised a $6,000 donation to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. These days the event maintains an annual distribution of over $1 million. The event each year features high-profile keynote speakers. The Black Tie Dinner also gives awards to individuals and/or organizations that have made a “significant contribution to the continued fight for GLBT equality”.Best In Drag Show
The first Best In Drag Show was a small event that started in 1989 in a private apartment. Over the years as the event grew it moved to larger theatres. During the the 1990s, the Wilshire Ebell Theatre was used, then later the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles was used as numbers continued to grow. The Best In Drag Show is a fundraising event that raises funds for the California-based non-profit, Aid For AIDS. The event features amateur performers in a drag show “beauty” pageant that is held every year. In 2010, The Best In Drag Show volunteers received the CSW Special Community Award from Christopher Street West (CSW). The original name for the event was called, Battle for the Tiara. This fundraiser was founded by Alexis Pittman along with a group of friends. In 1998, a documentary film was made about the fundraiser. In 2003 the name was changed to the, Best In Drag Show.
White Night Riots
The White Night riots took place on the night of May 21, 1979 in San Francisco. The riots were a response to the lenient sentence imposed on Dan White for the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. Dan White had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter earlier in the day. The sentence was the lightest possible conviction for his actions. White was a former police officer and the San Francisco Gay community had long had many problems with the San Francisco Police Department who had engaged in a campaign of harassment against them. The day had actually started with a peaceful march through the Castro district of San Francisco. Later, after the protest had arrived at the San Francisco City Hall, a riot slowly started to break out and property was damaged, including the San Francisco City Hall. It was estimated that more then 5,000 people took part in the protest. Later that night the police made a retaliatory raid on a gay bar in the Castro District and a number of gay patrons were beaten by the police. Eventually this led to the appointed of a pro-gay Chief of Police in San Francisco.
A House Gay Bar
The construction of what is now known as the A-House first started way back in 1798. The building opened it`s doors as a tavern but there are no surviving records as to the name of the business. Benjamin Allstrum purchased the Tavern in 1934 and it was called the Allstrum House. In 1871 Frank Perry Smith took ownership of the Tavern and expanded the building by adding a larger adjacent structure along with guest rooms. The Tavern was then renamed as the Atlantic House Hotel. In the early 20th century the Atlantic House became a center the Bohemian lifestyle. In 1950, Reginald “Reggie” Cabral and Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Hurst took ownership of the A-House. Soon after Cabral took over full ownership. Cabral soon made the discreet gay A-House into an open gay friendly establishment.
Black Cat Cafe
The Black Cat Cafe was located at 710 Montgomery St, San Francisco, California and first opened its doors during 1906. In 1911, Charles Ridley took ownership of the Black Cat and turned it into a showplace for vaudeville-style acts. The police suspected the Black Cat was being used as a front for prostitution and in 1921, the Cafe lost its dance permit and closed down. Ridley opened the Black Cate Cafe again in 1933 and eventually sold it to Sol Stoumen in the 1940s. The Cafe soon became popular with the Bohemian and Beat crowd. After World War Two the Cafe started to become popular with the Gay and Lesbian crowd. The Black Cat featured a number of live entertainers. The most famous of these was José Sarria who started as a waiter, wore drag and entertained the crowd by singing songs. Sarria went on to became the first openly gay candidate to run for public office in the United States. Starting during 1948, the San Francisco Police Department and the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission started a campaign of harassment against the Cafe. A number of legal battles in the Courts followed and after 12 years of constant harassment the Black Cafe finally closed. The Black Cat Cafe closed in February 1964. A memorial plaque commemorating the Black Cat was placed at the site on December 15, 2007.
Hands Across Hawthorne
On May 29, 2011, a protest was held on the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland, Oregon that became known as, Hands Across Hawthorne. The protest was a direct response to an earlier attack that had taken place a week before on the bridge against a gay couple for holding hands while walking across the bridge. It was reported that a gang of five men had followed the couple as they walked along the bridge before they were attacked. Over 4,000 people attended the rally including a number of community leaders. Sponsored by Basic Rights Oregon (BRO), Cascade AIDS Project, Pride Northwest, the Q Center and local churches, the protest had been publicized by a single Facebook page just 72 hours earlier. The protest started at 7:30 pm and people linked hands spanning across the length of the Hawthorne bridge. The protesters gathered at the west side of the bridge and listened to a number of speakers first. A number of gay-oriented national publications reported details of the Hands Across Hawthorne Protest. A similar hand-holding rally was held on June 5 by the residents of Spokane, Washington, in solidarity with the Portland community called “Hands Across Monroe”.Operation Soap
A series of police raids on Gay Bath Houses in Toronto, Canada took place on February 5, 1981, which was known as Operation Soap. The raids were conducted by the Metropolitan Toronto Police. It resulted in more then 100 men being arrested and at the time was the biggest mass arrest of people in the history of Canada. The raids started simultaneously at 11 p.m. on February 5, 1981, with more than 150 police involved. The raids took place against the Richmond Street Health Emporium, Romans II Health and Recreation Spa, and the Barracks in Toronto. The Richmond Street Health Emporium suffered so much damage in the raids it never reopened. A total of twenty owners are charged with “keeping a common bawdyhouse”; and 286 men are charged as found-ins. There is shock and anger in the Gay community over the raids and on February 6 more then 3,000 protestors stage a mass demonstration. On February 20 another protest rally takes place with more then 4,000 protestors marching from Queen’s Park to 52 Division of the Toronto Police. On March 6 there is another protest called the, “Gay Freedom Rally”.Oscar Wilde Bookstore
The Oscar Wilde Bookshop was founded on November 24, 1967 by Craig Rodwell and was called the, Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. The store was first located at 291 Mercer Street before it moved to Christopher Street in Greenwich Village,New York in 1973. Craig L. Rodwell (October 31, 1940 – June 18, 1993) was an American gay rights activist and is considered by some to be the leading gay rights activist in the early homophile movement of the 1960s. The store was named after gay author Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) who was an Irish writer and poet that was one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Rodwell devoted the bookshop to selling material from gay and lesbian authors. By March 1968, Rodwell had started to publish a monthly newsletter from the bookshop that he called, HYMNAL. Early meetings for the first Pride Parade in New York City were held at the bookshop in 1970. Rodwell sold the bookshop in March 1993 to Bill Offenbaker, and in June 1996 Offenbaker sold the store to Larry Lingle. Lingle announced the store would close in January 2003 due to financial difficulties. The bookshop was then purchased by Deacon Maccubbin who owned the Lambda Rising’s bookstores. It was a visit by Maccubbin to the Oscar Wilde Bookshop that inspired him to open his own store in Washington, D.C., in 1974. The in 2006, longtime manager, Kim Brinster purchased the bookshop. Due to declining sales the bookstore closed on March 29, 2009.Rainbow Crossing Protest Movement
The Rainbow Crossing Protest Movement was developed in response to the removal of a temporary rainbow crossing in Oxford Street, Sydney, Australia in 2013. As part of the 35th anniversary celebrations of the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras, the City of Sydney Council decided to place a temporary Rainbow Crossing on Oxford Street by Taylor Square. Roads and Maritime Services estimated the cost of the Rainbow Crossing at $110,000, which included painting, compulsory video surveillance and eventual removal. The rainbow crossing was only created on a temporary basis, but it was so popular that many people hoped it would become a permanent feature. After the Mardi Gras the community became divided over the Rainbow Crossing. Due to pedestrian safety issues in the way the rainbow crossing had been placed, it was removed on Tuesday 9 April 2013. The removal of the rainbow crossing started an activism campaign both across the internet and in community actions. People started creating their own rainbow crossings on streets near where they lived and posted pictures on the internet. On April 14, 2013 people chalked a rainbow in the public square at Summer Hill as a form of protest. On April 15, 2013, the rainbow was removed only to be rechalked by more than 100 people on April 17.www.gay-submission.com/gay-history.htm
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