June 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, when a raid on a New York City gay bar led to riotous protest by people fed up with being harassed, discriminated against and jailed simply for who they were or who they loved.
Shortly before 1:30am on June 28, 1969, plainclothes and uniformed officers marched into the Stonewall Inn and announced"Police! We're taking the place!" The encounter lasted only a few hours, but protestors returned for the next three nights. Within months, the Gay Activist Alliance and Gay Liberation Front were formed and papers likeA group of gay men hold up a Gay Liberation banner, and march on the streets of Greenwich Village, in 1970.One year later, on June 28, 1970, the first Pride marches were held simultaneously in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.
As had happened before, officers entering Cooper's demanded identification: If a customer's gender presentation didn't match the gender on their ID, they'd be taken to jail. They attempted to arrest several customers—including author John Rechy, who recounted the incident inbut onlookers threw coffee, donuts and trash and the cops fled empty-handed. As the riot spread into the streets, police backup blocked off Main Street and arrested more protestors.
On May 21, Armed Forces Day, 35 people walked a second picket line at the White House, protesting the exclusion of homosexuals from the military, the dishonorable discharges given to those who were discovered and the"continuing refusal by the Departments of Defense, Army, Navy, and Air Force to meet with spokesmen for the homosexual community to engage constructive discussion of the policies and procedures at issue.