Picture it. New York City, Chelsea to be exact, a known gay bar on Christopher Street- The Stonewall Inn. It is late June 1969 and the bar is being raided again; a common occurrence of the time. A paddy wagon outside ready to take patrons of the bar away to jail. They are being arrested. Why? You ask. Merely for being gay. But the actual laws being enforced are these 1. Wearing two or more articles of clothing of the opposite gender. Lesbians wearing pants and drag queens in dresses. Something we take for granted today. 2. And two males dancing together. Yes. That was against the law. The Gays and Lesbians of color as well as those gays that were more effeminate and the lesbians that were butch were treated even a little more harshly. (Perhaps this is where even today within our community we make fun a little more the nelly boys and the butch dykes. A stigma leftover from all those arrested or hoping to keep from being arrested from that generation that wanted to be left alone by being more a masculine male or of feminine female. You know what I mean. The term “straight acting” that so many gay men use.) once arrested, their names would be printed in the paper and have to suffer consequences like losing their jobs for what you ask again? Being gay.

As people were being ejected from the bar to either go home or be arrested and thrown into the paddy wagon a crowd started to form outside. With each customer being brought out the crowd that grew went from campy to restless. It is uncertain as to whether it was a butch lesbian or a drag queen that rallied the crowd by stopping in the door way and posing defiantly between the officers. (Personally I have always heard the story told from the drag queen point of view) The crowd fought back and they started chanting “Gay Power.”

The police were forced to take refuge in the bar and called for back up. The Tactical Patrol Force. (are you f'ing kidding me? This is the force they used for the riots and protestors for all the Vietnam War happenings. )They beat people that were within their nightstick reach as they swept the street. Only to have the gays and lesbians continue to fight back by coming up the rear. Then there was a group of drag queens that mocked the police by locking elbows and kicking Rockette-style started singing:

We are the Stonewall girls / we wear our hair in curls / we wear no underwear / we show our pubic hair / we wear our dungarees / above our nelly knees!

The police finally retreated. Riots kept happening for five days. This event was the birth of the Gay Pride Movement.

Read More and here and another source.

It was years after this that American Psychiatric Association deleted Homosexuality as a mental disorder or mental illness . They did this in December 1973 and had this to say "It fostered recognition that many of the problems gays and lesbians deal with are the result of societal homophobia." Read more

I am writing about gay history today for many reasons. I’ll explain a few.
(1) I read E-Brechi's (who I adore) entry and agreed with many things he wrote. Specifically “Pride comes from DOING SOMETHING, putting sweat and tears into making a difference.” Those gays and lesbians 36 years ago DID something that would make life for us today what it is.
(2) I was chatting with a young friend that a friend of mine sponsors. He is 20. In talking I asked if he knew how pride parades came about or what it meant. He did not know. So I explained a little bit. And it felt good to pass it on. Our younger generation of Gays and Lesbians will not know unless we tell them.
(3) The coming out process to my family a few weeks ago.
(4) Learning to love our extremely talented and diverse community. It takes all of us TOGETHER to make a difference. Just like that night 36 years ago.

Can you imagine living then? Not being able to hold your partner’s hand in public. MUCH LESS a peck in public! From that one incident, today we are asking for equal rights. No more any less. That is fair.

So today, when I go to gay pride parade, I am not going to cut others down to make myself feel better. I am going to look all of my gay brothers and sisters and see them for the wonderful creations of God. Made perfectly just as HE would have them be. I will enjoy the diversity of our GLBT (GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL, & TRANSGENDERED) community> from the Dykes on Bikes to the Leather Daddy’s from the TWINKS to the BEARS. And don’t forget the Gym Bunnies, who could forget the Gym Bunnies. I will stand proud and HONOR them, that generation of gays and lesbians that now have gray or silver hair for having the courage and strength and spirit to do what had to be done. I will take a moment for all of those that came before me and paved the way so that I can have the freedoms and life I enjoy se much. (while I know there is much work to be done still, gay life today is better than it was 36 years ago) I will be a part of community that stood up for itself, and through literally BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS gave me the opportunity to give back to those that come after me. Just because I have not DONE anything yet does not mean I will not have an opportunity later. And through it all have an attitude of fun like the Stonewall Girls: With Courage, With Strength, With PRIDE:
We are the Stonewall girls / We wear our hair in curls / We wear no underwear / We show our pubic hair / We wear our dungarees / Above our nelly knees!