"Homosexuals Are Revolting": Stonewall, 1969
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research City College of New York 2018 "Homosexuals Are Revolting": Stonewall, 1969 Erin Siodmak CUNY City College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_pubs/801 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] FIRST PAGES Revolting New York how 400 years of riot, rebellion, uprising, and revolution shaped a city General Editors NEIL SMITH DON MITCHELL Editors ERIN SIODMAK JENJOY ROYBAL MARNIE BRADY BRENDAN P. O’MALLEY The University of Georgia Press Athens SMITH&MITCHELL Revolting 1stpp.indd 3 6/29/17 5:13 PM FIRST PAGES chapter 14 “Homosexuals Are Revolting” Stonewall, 1969 Erin Siodmak The Stonewall Inn were labeled with “members’” names for their private con- sumption—a ruse, of course. Like an old speakeasy, the front Friday, June 27, 1969, late. Or Saturday, June 28, early: it door was kept closed, and potential patrons were frst scru- was afer midnight. In the back room of the Stonewall Inn tinized by a big doorman before being let in, presumably on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, the words “I in part to keep the cops—and agents of the Liquor Control can’t get no satisfaction” burst from the jukebox while men Board—out. Once inside, patrons had to sign in; most put danced with men, women danced with women, and an down aliases.1 undercover police ofcer was beguiled by the charms of a Te doorman was not the only way police were kept out. stealth transvestite.* Laws were broken. Two female ofcers, Stonewall’s owners, like other Mafa owners of gay bars, paid also undercover, sat at the bar counting gender-appropriate of the corrupt 6th Precinct cops.‡ Despite payofs, the po- garments.† Overpriced, watered-down drinks were poured lice had to occasionally make a show of raiding gay bars. into much-used, barely clean glasses. (Tere was no running Te culture of conservativism and conformity that had de- water behind the bar, only tubs the glasses could be washed scended upon America in the wake of World War II, replete in.) Drinking was not so much the point at this bar, danc- with fears that homosexuality made men Cold War security ing was—and picking someone up. Owned by the Genovese threats, created an era of repression—repression of the sex- crime family, Stonewall was the only gay bar in New York ual desires of some men and women and, in the other sense where dancing was legally permitted. Actually, it was not a of the term, repression by the police. In New York, by 1966, bar at all. Legally, it was a private “bottle club,” where bottles police were arresting more than a hundred men a week for “homosexual solicitation,” ofen in bars that served a gay * Transgender people at the time referred to themselves as “transvestites” or “queens”; “transsexual” was rarely used, and “transgender” was not used at clientele. Many New Yorkers approved of such actions. Te all. We have retained the historically accurate terms throughout. threat of arrest made being gay a risky business, opening † New York State had a law requiring that a person must wear at least three up a nice sideline for Mafa bar owners: blackmailing the items of clothing appropriate to his or her gender. Men and women could better-of, perhaps professional, clientele. A virtuous circle be arrested for wearing gender-inappropriate clothing if they were wearing fewer than three appropriate garments. Stonewall was overwhelmingly a male bar, but lesbians did occasionally visit. ‡ To the tune of about $2,000 a week, according to Martin Duberman. 200 SMITH&MITCHELL Revolting 1stpp.indd 200 6/29/17 5:14 PM FIRST PAGES “Homosexuals Are Revolting” 201 ensued: huge profts to criminal bar owners from doctoring bar long. Perhaps the bar was a key node in the thef and booze and selling it dear, as well as from preying on their money-laundering operation? Simultaneously, the Federal own customers; and payofs to the cops, who sometimes Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms was investigating raided anyway, increasing the vulnerability to patrons and the pouring of bootlegged or stolen liquor at the inn and in leading to tighter Mafa control over the trade and more op- the process uncovered the payofs to the 6th Precinct.3 portunities for other forms of graf. Nonetheless, raids were as ofen as not ritual: bar owners usually kept very little li- Raid and Riot quor on site (ofen storing it in cars parked down the block), so if they were raided, they would lose little and could re- When the cops raided at 1:20 in the morning, it was not the open quickly; raids were usually early in the evening, when 6th Precinct that took the lead.* It was Inspector Pine’s First the bars were less crowded; and the cops ofen just closed Division.4 And it was Pine who stood before the door and the place down without arresting anyone. Just as ofen, bar- announced, “Police! We’re taking the place!” Te lights went tenders, managers, or bouncers would be warned of an im- up and the music stopped. Te go-go boys dancing in cages pending raid so that dancing could be suspended and un- on the bar in gold lamé bikinis climbed down and covered taxed liquor stashed away. Bargoers caught up in the dragnet up. Te bar and dance foors were packed, and not many typically took the raid in their stride, merely having to show people knew exactly what was going on. Barring the door their ID before being let back out into the night.2 behind them, some of the ofcers met with the four under- Tis time, though, things would be diferent. While there cover agents who had been inside to determine who the bar had been rumors of a possible raid, no tipof had been re- employees were and then separated them out from the oth- ceived, and when nothing happened early in the evening, ers.† Tey were to be arrested for alcohol violations. Other the Stonewall management let down their guard, though cops separated out the transvestites, many of them teenage this may have been unwise. Gays in Greenwich Village “street queens,” as they called themselves. Sick of being ha- were already on edge, annoyed by stepped-up raids on bars rassed, many talked back. As was customary, patrons with around the Village, including one at Stonewall the previous a legitimate identifcation and wearing enough “appropriate Tuesday, as well as increased scrutiny—and the clearing out clothes” were let out one by one onto the sidewalk. It took a of trees and bushes—in favorite cruising places. Folks were long time, and a lot of patrons grew increasingly pissed of. already beginning to think, “Tis shit has got to stop.” Some As they came out onto the street, they found that a crowd of these raids were merely part of the business-as-usual had begun to form, attracted by the 6th Precinct foot patrol 6th Precinct graf. But others were related to an expanding ofcers who had rushed to the scene, fearing they were being probe by the New York Police Department’s recently reor- cut out of the action, and by the growing number of cop cars ganized Vice Squad Public Morals Division (headquartered outside. It was a warm night and a weekend, and the streets in Manhattan’s First Division) investigating Mafa money were busy. Te commotion also attracted a good number laundering and fnancial bonds thef (likely involving Mafa * Ofcers from the 6th Precinct were drafed in at the last minute and mostly blackmail of homosexual Wall Street workers). Te First Di- played a supporting role. Tis might be why the undercover cops were able vision’s deputy inspector, Seymour Pine, and his colleagues to get inside: coming from outside the precinct, they were not recognized had increasingly come to see the Stonewall as a key Mafa by the bouncers. † One of the undercover male cops had apparently already arrested a young locale: surveillance had revealed large cars pulling up, dis- man. Te cop had invited him to dance and insisted they keep on dancing, gorging seemingly straight men who rarely stayed at the even though the boy had lost interest. SMITH&MITCHELL Revolting 1stpp.indd 201 6/29/17 5:14 PM FIRST PAGES 202 Erin Siodmak of teenage queers who hung out or lived in nearby Sheri- alike, to the scene.‡ Craig Rodwell called the newspapers. dan Square (known colloquially as Christopher Park) and Others threw coins at the cops—symbolic of the bribes they for whom the Stonewall was sometimes a refuge. Instead of received—quickly escalating to cans and bottles. Tere were heading home or of to another bar, those who made it out still ofcers and patrons inside Stonewall, and the rumor of the bar lingered. began to spread that gays inside were being beaten. Anger Inside, men in line began refusing to show their IDs. Les- grew. bians, who were lined up along one wall, began complaining As the crowd went berserk, cops hit back. But they were loudly of cops feeling them up. Drag queens decided this vastly outnumbered and quickly retreated into the Stone- time that they just might not enter the ladies’ room, where wall, grabbing a few members of the crowd as they went, women police ofcers would decide if they were women or including the well-known (straight) folksinger and veteran not.