According to The Stonewall Inn’s website, at approximately 1:20 a.m. Saturday, June 28, 1969, the “gay rights” era began inside and in front of the small tavern located near Greenwich Village in New York City.
As the story goes, in 1969, it was commonplace for police to “raid” known gay bars and taverns to arrest those who violated the city’s sodomy laws that prohibited homosexuals from dancing together, or for people to “dress in drag.” The Stonewall Inn was among those places regularly raided by the cops.
But something different happened on June 28 of that year:
[E]ight police officers arrived at the Stonewall Inn. Approximately 200 people were in the bar that night. But the raid did not go as planned. This time the patrons refused to cooperate. The police decided to take everyone present to the police station, but the patrol wagons had not yet arrived, so patrons were required to wait in line for about 15 minutes. Those who were not arrested were released from the front door, but they did not leave quickly as usual. Instead, they stopped outside and a crowd began to grow and watch.
The homosexuals’ act of “civil disobedience” quickly turned into a riot in which more than a dozen were arrested and even more were injured. But the LGBT community considers it the birth of their “new civil rights movement,” and celebrates it with “pride parades” along the street that runs in front of The Stonewall Inn.
Now, it seems, the White House wants to commemorate the events of that morning by placing a national historic marker nearby. According to the Washington Post:
Federal officials, including Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), will hold a listening session on May 9 to solicit feedback on the proposal. Barring a last-minute complication—city officials are still investigating the history of the land title—Obama is prepared to designate the area part of the National Park Service as soon as next month, which commemorates gay pride.
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