in other states across the country during the early 20th century, including New York and California, and were routinely weaponized by police to shut down
establishments that catered to a gay clientele. These raids and citations, which were sometimes as ridiculous as police noting the voices of men were “effeminate,” robbed gay communities of vital safe spaces to express their sexuality freely in an era when it was criminalized.New Jersey law enforcement issued a formal apology for their part in this history.
NJ.com. “We recognize that our office, charged with furthering justice, set back the cause of freedom and equality in New Jersey.” The directive throws out all suspensions to businesses made in previous decades.delivered by the New York Police Department, who finally admitted that the violent raid on the
city’s iconic gay bar Stonewall was “wrong, plain and simple.” In 1969 police stormed the bar for violating liquor laws similar to those that existed in New Jersey, forcing bar patrons to show identification and even