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and police officers in New York City. The first night of rioting began on Friday, June 27, 1969 not long after 1:20 a.m., when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. "Stonewall," as the raids are often referred to, is considered a turning point for the modern gay rights movement worldwide. It was the first time any significant body of gays resisted arrest.
Police raids on gay bars and nightclubs were a regular part of gay life in cities across the United States. Throughout the 1960s, however, raids on bars in many major cities became markedly less frequent. A series of court challenges and increased resistance from the Homophile Movement can be attributed to the decline in raids.
It was not uncommon, prior to 1965, for the police to record the identities of all those present, which could be published in the newspaper, and load up their police van with as many patrons as it would hold. The police would use any number of reasons to justify an arrest on indecency charges including: kissing, holding hands, wearing clothing of the opposite gender, or even being in the bar during the raid.
It is important to look back to before 1969 and examine the changing attitudes in New York towards gay bars and gay rights. In 1965, two important figures came into prominence. John Lindsay, a liberal Republican, was elected mayor in New York City on a campaign of reform. Dick Leitsch became president of the Mattachine Society in New York at around the same time. Leitsch was considered relatively militant compared to his predecessors and believed in direct action techniques commonly used by other civil rights groups in the 1960s.
In early 1966, administration policies had changed because of complaints made by Mattachine that the police were on the streets entrapping gay men and charging them with indecency. The police commissioner, Howard Leary, instructed the police force not to lure gays into breaking the law and also required that any plainclothesmen must have a civilian witness when a gay arrest is made. This nearly ended the “scourge” of entrapment for gay men in New York (D’Emilio 207)
In the same year, in order to challenge the state liquor authority regarding its policies over gay bars, Dick Leitsch conducted a “sip in.” Leitsch had called members of the press and planned on meeting at a bar with two other gay men—a bar could have its liquor license taken away for knowingly serving a group of three or more homosexuals—to test the SLA policy of closing bars. When the bartender at Julius turned them away, they made a complaint to the city’s human rights commission. Following the “sip in,” the chairman of the SLA stated that his department did not prohibit the sale of liquor to homosexuals. In addition, the following year two separate court cases ruled that “substantial evidence” was needed in order to revoke a liquor license. No longer was kissing between two men considered indecent behavior. The number of gay bars in New York steadily rose after 1966 (D’Emilio 208).
So if in 1969 gay bars were legal, why was the Stonewall Inn raided that night? John D’Emilio, a prominent historian, points out that the city was in the middle of a mayoral campaign and John Lindsay, who had lost his party’s primary, had reason to call for a cleanup of the city’s bars. The Stonewall Inn had a number of reasons that the police would target it. It operated without a liquor license, had ties with organized crime, and “offering scantily clad go-go boys as entertainment, it brought an ‘unruly’ element to Sheridan Square” (D’Emilio 231).
The patrons of the Stonewall were used to such raids and the management was generally able to reopen for business either that night, or the following day. The week of the raid, however, an important cultural icon, Judy GarlandJudy Garland ( June 10, 1922 June 22, 1969) was a American film actress who is considered one of the greatest singing stars of Hollywood's Golden Era of musical film. Child star Born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, she was born into a famil, died. The gay community identified with Garland on many levels and for many her loss was tragic. Her funeral was on the day of the raid. Many of the patrons were emotionally distraught from the funeral prior to going out to the bar that night.