WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.980 So picture this. It's 1 .20 AM on a really sweltering 00:00:05.980 --> 00:00:08.619 Friday night, June 1969. Right in the middle 00:00:08.619 --> 00:00:11.900 of a heat wave. Exactly. And the music abruptly 00:00:11.900 --> 00:00:15.099 stops. The lights flash on. You're trapped inside 00:00:15.099 --> 00:00:18.620 this windowless mafia run dive bar. There are 00:00:18.620 --> 00:00:21.339 no fire exits. The air is just thick with cigarette 00:00:21.339 --> 00:00:24.219 smoke. And well, the police just barricaded the 00:00:24.219 --> 00:00:27.070 front doors. It's a terrifying scenario. It really 00:00:27.070 --> 00:00:29.070 is. And, you know, when you picture the modern 00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:32.090 LGBTQ rights movement today, you probably picture 00:00:32.090 --> 00:00:35.530 like rainbow flags, massive corporate parade 00:00:35.530 --> 00:00:38.219 floats, you know, a whole month of officially 00:00:38.219 --> 00:00:40.679 sanctions celebration. Yeah, the very polished, 00:00:41.020 --> 00:00:43.439 acceptable version of it. Right. But today, our 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:45.659 mission for this deep dive is to strip all of 00:00:45.659 --> 00:00:48.500 that neat, resolved history away. We are taking 00:00:48.500 --> 00:00:50.719 a really comprehensive look at a defining moment 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:52.840 in modern civil rights, the Stonewall Riots. 00:00:52.939 --> 00:00:55.079 A very messy, very gritty moment. Absolutely. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:57.079 And our source material for today's exploration 00:00:57.079 --> 00:00:59.340 is a highly detailed historical text covering 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:02.140 the background, the six chaotic days of rioting, 00:01:02.140 --> 00:01:05.819 and the incredibly complex and often contested 00:01:05.819 --> 00:01:07.760 legacy of the whole event. There's a lot to dig 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:09.920 into there. For sure. We're going to see what 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:11.739 actually happened on the ground in Greenwich 00:01:11.739 --> 00:01:14.159 Village and why it fundamentally changed the 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:16.879 mechanics of resistance in America. OK, let's 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:21.200 unpack this. Well, to really grasp why that specific 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:24.459 bar exploded into a riot that night, we need 00:01:24.459 --> 00:01:27.659 to bypass the basic history of the 1950s and 00:01:27.659 --> 00:01:30.849 60s and look directly at them. mechanics of state 00:01:30.849 --> 00:01:32.790 -sponsored oppression at the time. Right, because 00:01:32.790 --> 00:01:34.769 it didn't just happen out of nowhere. Exactly. 00:01:34.909 --> 00:01:37.730 The establishment had essentially built this 00:01:37.730 --> 00:01:42.290 legal and medical cage around anyone who didn't 00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:45.209 fit a very narrow societal mold. The pressure 00:01:45.209 --> 00:01:47.549 must have been unbearable. It was. I mean, you 00:01:47.549 --> 00:01:49.150 didn't just have the lavender scare where the 00:01:49.150 --> 00:01:51.489 federal government was systematically firing 00:01:51.489 --> 00:01:53.930 thousands of employees just for being suspected 00:01:53.930 --> 00:01:56.500 security risks. Just for being gay. Right. but 00:01:56.500 --> 00:01:58.959 you also had the medical establishment pathologizing 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:02.540 your very existence. In 1952, the American Psychiatric 00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:05.900 Association actually officially classified homosexuality 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:08.479 as a mental disorder in the DSM. Which is the 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:10.819 official diagnostic playbook used by doctors 00:02:10.819 --> 00:02:13.439 everywhere. Exactly. So the state is legally 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:15.479 classifying you as a criminal, and the medical 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:17.979 board is officially diagnosing you as diseased. 00:02:18.139 --> 00:02:19.879 So if you're living under that kind of targeted 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:22.719 pressure, I mean, the natural instinct is to 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:26.159 try and prove them wrong by being as non -threatening 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:28.460 as possible. Right. That was the initial reaction 00:02:28.460 --> 00:02:30.990 for many. Yeah. Which totally explains the strategy 00:02:30.990 --> 00:02:33.569 of the early homophile movement. Like, you had 00:02:33.569 --> 00:02:36.229 groups like the Mattachine Society for Men and 00:02:36.229 --> 00:02:38.590 the Daughters of Belitis for Women. And their 00:02:38.590 --> 00:02:41.409 entire operational tactic was just respectability 00:02:41.409 --> 00:02:43.069 politics. Do you want to just show how normal 00:02:43.069 --> 00:02:45.990 they were? Yeah. They staged these incredibly 00:02:45.990 --> 00:02:49.909 quiet, orderly pickets where holding hands was 00:02:49.909 --> 00:02:52.150 strictly forbidden. I mean, the men wore conservative 00:02:52.150 --> 00:02:54.650 suits. The women wore dresses. The logic was 00:02:54.650 --> 00:02:57.889 basically if we just mirror the heterosexual 00:02:57.889 --> 00:03:01.650 middle class they'll have to accept us. But looking 00:03:01.650 --> 00:03:04.250 at that polite non -confrontational approach, 00:03:04.650 --> 00:03:07.150 it feels like trying to blend in at a corporate 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:11.469 job where HR has an active written mandate to 00:03:11.469 --> 00:03:13.810 fire you just for existing. That's a really good 00:03:13.810 --> 00:03:16.250 way to put it. Right. Like, you can wear the 00:03:16.250 --> 00:03:19.509 nicest suit in the world, but if your mere presence 00:03:19.509 --> 00:03:22.009 in the building is deemed illegal, assimilation 00:03:22.009 --> 00:03:24.909 isn't a strategy. It's just a delaying tactic. 00:03:25.129 --> 00:03:27.569 And respectability politics is fundamentally 00:03:27.569 --> 00:03:30.789 flawed when the system itself is designed to 00:03:30.789 --> 00:03:33.830 exclude you, you know, regardless of your behavior. 00:03:33.930 --> 00:03:35.569 The establishment didn't care about the suits. 00:03:36.169 --> 00:03:38.930 They didn't care at all. And pushing sexual minorities 00:03:38.930 --> 00:03:41.870 to the absolute furthest fringes of society, 00:03:42.409 --> 00:03:45.210 criminalizing their existence, it didn't eliminate 00:03:45.210 --> 00:03:47.960 them. It ironically created the exact conditions 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:50.280 for a rebellion. It forced them together. Right. 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:52.599 It forced the most marginalized people, the ones 00:03:52.599 --> 00:03:55.240 who couldn't simply put on a suit and blend in 00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:58.620 into tight knit underground communities. It inadvertently 00:03:58.620 --> 00:04:01.080 forged a subculture of people who eventually 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:03.560 had absolutely nothing left to lose. And the 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:05.300 breaking point was never going to come from the 00:04:05.300 --> 00:04:07.060 people trying to play by the rules of polite 00:04:07.060 --> 00:04:10.240 society. Precisely. It came from the people who 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:13.280 were barred from polite society entirely because 00:04:14.479 --> 00:04:16.699 Since the state criminalized these communities, 00:04:17.379 --> 00:04:19.779 legitimate business owners wouldn't rent to them, 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:22.639 and the state liquor authority wouldn't grant 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:24.959 licenses to bars that serve them. So they had 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:28.600 nowhere to go. Nowhere legal. So the only entities 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:31.060 willing to provide spaces for gay people to gather 00:04:31.060 --> 00:04:33.459 were organized crime syndicates. Which brings 00:04:33.459 --> 00:04:36.500 a completely different, almost cinematic element 00:04:36.500 --> 00:04:40.720 into the story, the mafia. specifically the Genovese 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:43.560 crime family. They bought the Stonewall Inn in 00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:46.319 Greenwich Village in 1966. And we really have 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:48.439 to clarify what kind of establishment this was. 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:51.680 It was not a glamorous speakeasy. It was a squalid, 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:54.399 hazardous dump. Truly terrible conditions. Yeah, 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:56.399 like there was no running water behind the bar. 00:04:56.439 --> 00:04:59.100 So the bartenders literally just dunked used 00:04:59.100 --> 00:05:01.839 glasses into tubs of murky water and immediately 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:04.000 served the next customer. Disgusting. And the 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:06.600 liquor was notoriously watered down. They drastically 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:09.089 overcharged the patrons. the toilets constantly 00:05:09.089 --> 00:05:11.389 overflowed, and as we mentioned earlier, no fire 00:05:11.389 --> 00:05:14.250 exits. What's fascinating here is the unintentional 00:05:14.250 --> 00:05:17.709 ecosystem the mafia created. Their sheer greed 00:05:17.709 --> 00:05:20.730 and exploitation of the gay community inadvertently 00:05:20.730 --> 00:05:23.970 established a centralized headquarters for the 00:05:23.970 --> 00:05:26.610 absolute most outcast members of society. Because 00:05:26.610 --> 00:05:29.629 it operated illegally, right? Exactly. It operated 00:05:29.629 --> 00:05:32.550 as a bottle club. which was a loophole where 00:05:32.550 --> 00:05:34.709 patrons supposedly brought their own liquor. 00:05:35.269 --> 00:05:37.110 So it welcomed the people who couldn't get past 00:05:37.110 --> 00:05:40.810 the bouncers at the more exclusive, rigid underground 00:05:40.810 --> 00:05:42.689 clubs. The people who were turned away everywhere 00:05:42.689 --> 00:05:45.410 else. Right. It became the sanctuary for drag 00:05:45.410 --> 00:05:48.290 queens, trans people, effeminate young men, butch 00:05:48.290 --> 00:05:51.149 lesbians, and homeless street kids. And crucially, 00:05:51.589 --> 00:05:54.290 it was also the only bar in New York City where 00:05:54.290 --> 00:05:57.279 gay men were allowed to dance. Wait, so the mafia 00:05:57.279 --> 00:05:59.319 were the ones providing the safe spaces? That's 00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:01.300 like relying on a loan shark for therapy. It 00:06:01.300 --> 00:06:03.519 really is. It's a bizarre paradox. That's like 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:05.240 having to pay a cartel just for the privilege 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:06.920 of standing in a room without getting arrested. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:09.540 You're being extorted by criminals simply to 00:06:09.540 --> 00:06:11.800 experience a basic human social interaction, 00:06:12.199 --> 00:06:14.779 like dancing. And the extortion went all the 00:06:14.779 --> 00:06:18.000 way up the chain. The mafia actually expected 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:20.180 police raids. It was built into their business 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:22.680 model. Just part of the overhead. Right. The 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:25.279 sixth precinct would collect their payoff, tip 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:27.699 off the bar owners in advance, show up early 00:06:27.699 --> 00:06:30.120 in the evening, make a few performative arrests, 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:33.139 and the bar would just restock the registers 00:06:33.139 --> 00:06:35.259 and open right back up for the peak night crowd. 00:06:35.459 --> 00:06:38.439 So the whole ecosystem functioned on this predictable 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:42.500 corruption? Until the raid on June 28, 1969. 00:06:43.060 --> 00:06:45.680 That night broke the protocol completely. What 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:48.519 was different about it? Well first, there was 00:06:48.519 --> 00:06:50.779 no tip -off from the precinct. Second, the timing 00:06:50.779 --> 00:06:53.540 was totally disruptive. The police burst through 00:06:53.540 --> 00:06:56.680 the double doors at 1 .20 a .m. on a Friday night, 00:06:57.060 --> 00:06:59.379 the absolute peak of the weekend. So they trapped, 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:02.319 what, around 200 people inside? About that, yeah. 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:04.259 And when the lights flipped on and the music 00:07:04.259 --> 00:07:06.980 stopped, the standard police procedure was to 00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:09.819 line everyone up, check IDs, and have female 00:07:09.819 --> 00:07:12.079 officers take anyone presenting as a woman into 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:14.680 the bathroom to physically verify their sex. 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:17.920 If you were wearing drag or if your gender presentation 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:20.779 didn't match your ID, you were arrested. Forcing 00:07:20.779 --> 00:07:23.620 someone into a bathroom for a physical sex verification 00:07:23.620 --> 00:07:27.040 is the ultimate exertion of state power. It's 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:29.339 just pure humiliation. It was designed to demean 00:07:29.339 --> 00:07:33.350 them. But that night, the psychological dam finally 00:07:33.350 --> 00:07:36.689 broke. The patrons simply refused to comply. 00:07:36.810 --> 00:07:39.930 They just said no. Yeah. The trans women refused 00:07:39.930 --> 00:07:42.509 to go to the bathrooms. The men refused to hand 00:07:42.509 --> 00:07:45.990 over their IDs. It was this spontaneous total 00:07:45.990 --> 00:07:48.990 breakdown of compliance. I can't imagine how 00:07:48.990 --> 00:07:51.329 shocked the cops must have been. They were caught 00:07:51.329 --> 00:07:54.629 completely off guard. Their response was to escalate. 00:07:54.860 --> 00:07:57.560 They decided to just arrest everyone and started 00:07:57.560 --> 00:07:59.819 hauling patrons out to the street to wait for 00:07:59.819 --> 00:08:01.819 the patrol wagons. But the wagons didn't show 00:08:01.819 --> 00:08:03.740 up right away, did they? No, they were delayed. 00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:06.500 And this logistical failure allowed a massive 00:08:06.500 --> 00:08:08.819 crowd to gather outside on Christopher Street. 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:11.360 A mix of people, right? Exactly. You had the 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:13.740 patrons who had just been kicked out, the homeless 00:08:13.740 --> 00:08:15.720 youth who lived in the park across the street, 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:19.019 and just neighborhood bystanders. The crowd quickly 00:08:19.019 --> 00:08:21.550 swelled to five or six hundred people. And the 00:08:21.550 --> 00:08:24.250 spark that finally ignited that massive crowd 00:08:24.250 --> 00:08:27.389 was a single woman. She's often identified by 00:08:27.389 --> 00:08:30.509 historians as Stormé de Larvery, a butch lesbian. 00:08:30.649 --> 00:08:33.210 A really pivotal moment. Yeah, she was handcuffed, 00:08:33.389 --> 00:08:35.830 but she physically fought with the police for, 00:08:36.090 --> 00:08:39.429 like, 10 agonizing minutes. She kept escaping 00:08:39.429 --> 00:08:41.590 the cruiser and the officers kept striking her 00:08:41.590 --> 00:08:44.850 with a baton. It was brutal. Very brutal. And 00:08:44.850 --> 00:08:47.250 bleeding from the head, she turned to the passive 00:08:47.250 --> 00:08:49.190 crowd watching from the sidewalk and shouted, 00:08:49.570 --> 00:08:52.590 why don't you guys do something? That shout was 00:08:52.590 --> 00:08:54.649 the catalyst that shattered the trance. It just 00:08:54.649 --> 00:08:57.450 woke everybody up. It did. The spark of resistance 00:08:57.450 --> 00:09:00.909 from one woman instantly ignited decades of pent 00:09:00.909 --> 00:09:04.019 up trauma and rage within that crowd. The fear 00:09:04.019 --> 00:09:05.840 of authority that had kept them compliant for 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:08.600 their entire lives just evaporated. The power 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:10.980 dynamic completely flipped. Flipped in a matter 00:09:10.980 --> 00:09:13.019 of seconds. And the eruption was so physical 00:09:13.019 --> 00:09:15.379 and immediate. First, the source notes the crowd 00:09:15.379 --> 00:09:17.759 threw pennies at the police, which is a deliberate 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:20.360 mockery of the payoffs the cops usually demanded. 00:09:20.519 --> 00:09:24.100 A very symbolic gesture. Right. But then came 00:09:24.100 --> 00:09:27.860 the beer bottles. then bricks from a nearby construction 00:09:27.860 --> 00:09:30.879 site. The police force was entirely outnumbered 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:33.600 and in genuine shock. They were forced into a 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:35.480 tactical retreat. They actually had to run for 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:38.200 cover. Yeah. They grabbed a few people, including 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:40.659 this folk singer named Dave Van Ronk who had 00:09:40.659 --> 00:09:42.519 literally just wandered over from a neighboring 00:09:42.519 --> 00:09:45.639 business, and they barricaded themselves inside 00:09:45.639 --> 00:09:48.360 the Stonewall Inn. The visual irony of that moment 00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:52.669 is staggering. The police... The ultimate symbol 00:09:52.669 --> 00:09:55.929 of state authority and control fleeing into the 00:09:55.929 --> 00:09:58.490 very underground gay bar they had just raided. 00:09:58.629 --> 00:10:00.769 Desperately hiding from the marginalized citizens, 00:10:00.789 --> 00:10:03.330 they had spent decades terrorizing. And the crowd 00:10:03.330 --> 00:10:06.360 didn't back down. They uprooted a heavy parking 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:08.580 meter and used it as a battering ram against 00:10:08.580 --> 00:10:10.340 the door. The whole parking meter. The whole 00:10:10.340 --> 00:10:12.700 parking meter. They lit garbage on fire and stuffed 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:14.500 it through the broken windows to smoke the officers 00:10:14.500 --> 00:10:16.960 out. The police inside actually found a fire 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.559 hose, but in a final stroke of mafia negligence, 00:10:19.740 --> 00:10:22.100 it had no water pressure. So the officers are 00:10:22.100 --> 00:10:25.519 trapped inside a burning bar by the exact homeless 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:28.179 teens, and drag queen society told them we're 00:10:28.179 --> 00:10:30.820 weak and diseased. It's honestly absurd to think 00:10:30.820 --> 00:10:32.620 about. It really turned everything upside down. 00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:35.049 But the NYPD wasn't going to just surrender, 00:10:35.049 --> 00:10:38.289 obviously. They called in the Tactical Patrol 00:10:38.289 --> 00:10:42.230 Force, the TPF. The city's elite riot squad. 00:10:42.549 --> 00:10:45.289 Right. Heavily armed, wearing helmets, carrying 00:10:45.289 --> 00:10:48.250 long batons, marching down Christopher Street 00:10:48.250 --> 00:10:50.889 in a disciplined phalanx formation to clear the 00:10:50.889 --> 00:10:53.409 crowd. And the crowd's response to this militarized 00:10:53.409 --> 00:10:56.830 force wasn't to run. They weaponized camp. Weaponized 00:10:56.830 --> 00:10:58.970 camp. I love that. It's an incredibly potent 00:10:58.970 --> 00:11:02.210 psychological weapon. As the riot police marched 00:11:02.210 --> 00:11:05.389 forward, the rioters formed an impromptu chorus 00:11:05.389 --> 00:11:07.789 line in the middle of the street. A literal kick 00:11:07.789 --> 00:11:10.529 line. Yes. They started doing synchronized high 00:11:10.529 --> 00:11:14.029 kicks and singing to the tune of Tarara Boondie, 00:11:14.370 --> 00:11:16.309 changing the lyrics to boast about being the 00:11:16.309 --> 00:11:18.769 Stonewall Girls. That is amazing. When police 00:11:18.769 --> 00:11:21.149 use riot gear, their primary weapon is intimidation. 00:11:21.830 --> 00:11:24.009 They rely on the sheer terror of their presence 00:11:24.009 --> 00:11:26.110 to scatter a crowd. But you can't intimidate 00:11:26.110 --> 00:11:28.769 someone who is aggressively, theatrically joyful. 00:11:29.340 --> 00:11:31.879 Exactly. So the cops, the ultimate symbol of 00:11:31.879 --> 00:11:34.080 macho authority, are getting chased down the 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:36.799 street by drag queens and homeless teens. It's 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:38.500 like a movie scene that sounds too cinematic 00:11:38.500 --> 00:11:42.940 to be real. It really neutralized the NYPD's 00:11:42.940 --> 00:11:46.340 primary weapon. It physically paralyzed the police 00:11:46.340 --> 00:11:49.580 force because, I mean, there's no tactical playbook 00:11:49.580 --> 00:11:51.940 for how a phalanx should respond to a high kick 00:11:51.940 --> 00:11:54.940 routine. They had no idea what to do. None. It 00:11:54.940 --> 00:11:57.700 was a complete rejection of the shame that the 00:11:57.700 --> 00:11:59.519 state demanded from them. And here's where it 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:02.019 gets really interesting, because that rejection 00:12:02.019 --> 00:12:05.179 wasn't just a one night skirmish. The rioting 00:12:05.179 --> 00:12:09.120 continued off and on for almost a week. The physical 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:11.440 fire at the Stonewall was eventually extinguished. 00:12:11.710 --> 00:12:14.870 But the psychological fire it ignited completely 00:12:14.870 --> 00:12:17.169 incinerated the old ways of doing things. So 00:12:17.169 --> 00:12:19.950 the era of the polite suit and tie protests was 00:12:19.950 --> 00:12:21.909 over. Officially died on Christopher Street. 00:12:22.110 --> 00:12:24.389 And the speed of that organizational shift is 00:12:24.389 --> 00:12:26.649 just breathtaking. The morning after the very 00:12:26.649 --> 00:12:29.389 first night of rioting, a man named Craig Rodwell 00:12:29.389 --> 00:12:31.909 was already out on the streets handing out leaflets. 00:12:32.129 --> 00:12:35.440 He didn't waste any time. No. And he wasn't asking 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:37.580 for better treatment. He was demanding that the 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:40.360 mafia and the corrupt cops be driven out of gay 00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:43.740 bars entirely. A total paradigm shift. Yeah. 00:12:43.980 --> 00:12:46.639 And then a few days later, on July 4th, at the 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:49.460 annual reminder picket in Philadelphia, which 00:12:49.460 --> 00:12:51.679 was that same event where everyone usually walked 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:55.039 in quiet, obedient circles, couples spontaneously 00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:57.720 started holding hands in defiance. And Frank 00:12:57.720 --> 00:12:59.779 Kameny, the old guard leader of the Mattachine 00:12:59.779 --> 00:13:02.990 Society. was visibly frantic about this. Because 00:13:02.990 --> 00:13:05.629 it broke all their rules. Right. He was physically 00:13:05.629 --> 00:13:08.350 breaking couples apart, shouting at them because 00:13:08.350 --> 00:13:11.269 holding hands violated their strict assimilation 00:13:11.269 --> 00:13:14.419 strategy. He fundamentally misunderstood that 00:13:14.419 --> 00:13:16.620 the ground had shifted right beneath his feet. 00:13:16.860 --> 00:13:19.179 The old way was gone. The radical gay liberation 00:13:19.179 --> 00:13:21.659 movement was born. Activists immediately formed 00:13:21.659 --> 00:13:24.240 the Gay Liberation Front, the GLF, and shortly 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:26.879 after, the Gay Activists Alliance, the GAA. And 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:29.360 they completely abandoned the quiet, polite approach. 00:13:29.580 --> 00:13:31.580 Completely. Instead, they pioneered the ZAP. 00:13:31.700 --> 00:13:34.389 What's a ZAP exactly? It wasn't just a protest. 00:13:34.509 --> 00:13:38.070 It was a mechanical, confrontational media hijack. 00:13:38.210 --> 00:13:42.149 They would publicly ambush politicians, including 00:13:42.149 --> 00:13:44.909 New York City Mayor John Lindsay. Just jump out 00:13:44.909 --> 00:13:47.409 at them. Pretty much. Surrounding them at public 00:13:47.409 --> 00:13:50.350 events and forcing them to address gay rights 00:13:50.350 --> 00:13:53.049 on camera, where they couldn't ignore the question 00:13:53.049 --> 00:13:57.350 or rely on PR teams. Wow. The shift from asking 00:13:57.350 --> 00:14:00.169 for tolerance to aggressively demanding space 00:14:00.169 --> 00:14:05.049 was absolute. But wasn't the gay community united 00:14:05.049 --> 00:14:07.889 after this? You would think so, but no. Because 00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:09.370 you'd think a riot against the police would bring 00:14:09.370 --> 00:14:11.629 everyone together, but the source says they actually 00:14:11.629 --> 00:14:14.070 started in fighting almost immediately. Why would 00:14:14.070 --> 00:14:15.730 they turn on each other right after winning? 00:14:16.049 --> 00:14:18.509 If we connect this to the bigger picture, every 00:14:18.509 --> 00:14:21.090 single social movement in history eventually 00:14:21.090 --> 00:14:23.610 hits a critical juncture where it must decide 00:14:23.610 --> 00:14:26.509 what parts of its past to keep and what to aggressively 00:14:26.509 --> 00:14:28.809 reject. So they were fighting over their own 00:14:28.809 --> 00:14:32.330 identity. Exactly. The post -Stonewall activists 00:14:32.330 --> 00:14:36.250 had some incredibly sharp ideological and socioeconomic 00:14:36.250 --> 00:14:40.330 divides. The new radical activists, many of whom 00:14:40.330 --> 00:14:42.350 were younger and heavily influenced by the anti 00:14:42.350 --> 00:14:45.509 -war movement, actively rejected the pre -Stonewall 00:14:45.509 --> 00:14:47.710 bar culture entirely. They didn't want any part 00:14:47.710 --> 00:14:50.809 of it. No, they viewed the butch and femme relationship 00:14:50.809 --> 00:14:55.529 roles as toxic, patriarchal artifacts of oppression 00:14:55.529 --> 00:14:58.580 that needed to be dismantled. The source actually 00:14:58.580 --> 00:15:02.179 details a massive clash at the 1973 Stonewall 00:15:02.179 --> 00:15:04.779 rally that perfectly illustrates this fracture. 00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:08.100 You had lesbian feminist activists like Jean 00:15:08.100 --> 00:15:09.960 O 'Leary who felt that drag queens were making 00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:12.460 a misogynistic mockery of women. She was very 00:15:12.460 --> 00:15:14.639 vocal about it. Yeah, she essentially orchestrated 00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:17.159 a protest against their presence at the rally. 00:15:17.419 --> 00:15:19.480 And on the other side, you had trans activists 00:15:19.480 --> 00:15:22.399 and drag queens like Sylvia Rivera and Lee Brewster 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:25.440 who were furious at being pushed out of the very 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:27.289 movement they helped start. And Brewster actually 00:15:27.289 --> 00:15:29.389 fought back at that rally. Right. Brewster seized 00:15:29.389 --> 00:15:31.230 the microphone and told the crowd, you go to 00:15:31.230 --> 00:15:32.809 bars because of what drag queens did for you, 00:15:32.830 --> 00:15:34.870 and these bitches tell us to quit being ourselves. 00:15:35.169 --> 00:15:38.509 It was incredibly fractured. Race, class, and 00:15:38.509 --> 00:15:41.450 gender identity became massive, almost insurmountable 00:15:41.450 --> 00:15:44.509 obstacles to building a cohesive liberation movement. 00:15:44.730 --> 00:15:48.149 It sounds so messy. Very messy. Activists like 00:15:48.149 --> 00:15:50.889 O 'Leary initially worked to exclude transgender 00:15:50.889 --> 00:15:53.960 people from the movement entirely. The prevailing, 00:15:54.179 --> 00:15:57.080 albeit flawed, logic among assimilationists was 00:15:57.080 --> 00:15:59.720 that including transgender individuals made the 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.080 movement too unpalatable to the mainstream public. 00:16:02.299 --> 00:16:04.559 They thought it would make it harder to get basic 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:07.779 legal rights for cisgender gays and lesbians. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:10.700 Right. Now O 'Leary later expressed deep public 00:16:10.700 --> 00:16:13.980 regret over that exclusionary stance, but it 00:16:13.980 --> 00:16:16.720 demonstrates how divided and politically cutthroat 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:19.139 the fight for liberation really was behind the 00:16:19.139 --> 00:16:21.500 scenes. And that messiness extends directly into 00:16:21.500 --> 00:16:23.519 how the event itself is recorded and remembered 00:16:23.519 --> 00:16:25.940 today, doesn't it? Absolutely. Because the Stonewall 00:16:25.940 --> 00:16:28.340 riots were a spontaneous uprising by marginalized 00:16:28.340 --> 00:16:29.799 people in the middle of the night, there were 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:32.100 no news cameras there to document it. I think 00:16:32.100 --> 00:16:34.659 there is literally only one known photograph 00:16:34.659 --> 00:16:37.139 of the first night of the riots. Just one. So 00:16:37.139 --> 00:16:40.539 when you have a massive vacuum of official state 00:16:40.539 --> 00:16:43.919 sanctioned records, that empty space is very 00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:46.879 quickly filled by oral history and, inevitably, 00:16:47.480 --> 00:16:50.500 by myths. This raises an important question regarding 00:16:50.500 --> 00:16:53.639 historiography. When marginalized communities 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:56.440 are systematically ignored or erased by the official 00:16:56.440 --> 00:16:59.019 historical record, how do they preserve their 00:16:59.019 --> 00:17:02.480 own history? By telling stories. Right. Often, 00:17:02.899 --> 00:17:05.079 legends and myths serve a vital purpose in ensuring 00:17:05.079 --> 00:17:08.680 survival and community cohesion. But as historians 00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:11.579 dig deeper, we have to recognize that the historical 00:17:11.579 --> 00:17:14.900 reality is often far more profound than the sanitized 00:17:14.900 --> 00:17:17.299 myths we create. The perfect example of that 00:17:17.299 --> 00:17:20.250 is the Judy Garland myth. For decades, there 00:17:20.250 --> 00:17:22.529 was this persistent narrative claiming the riot 00:17:22.529 --> 00:17:24.650 started because the gay community was just grief 00:17:24.650 --> 00:17:26.829 -stricken over the death of Judy Garland, whose 00:17:26.829 --> 00:17:29.250 funeral was held earlier that week. The implication 00:17:29.250 --> 00:17:31.009 being they were too emotional to handle a raid. 00:17:31.369 --> 00:17:33.089 Exactly. The idea was that they were just too 00:17:33.089 --> 00:17:35.410 emotionally fragile that night. But the source 00:17:35.410 --> 00:17:38.150 explicitly debunts this by looking at the actual 00:17:38.150 --> 00:17:40.609 demographics of the rioters. The street kids. 00:17:40.869 --> 00:17:43.519 Right. The participants themselves said that 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:45.440 homeless street kids who were fighting for their 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:48.160 daily survival against police brutality couldn't 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:50.259 have cared less about the death of a wealthy 00:17:50.259 --> 00:17:52.779 Hollywood star. It was a boiling point of systemic 00:17:52.779 --> 00:17:57.140 abuse, not celebrity grief. Exactly. Or... Consider 00:17:57.140 --> 00:18:01.299 the intensely debated myth of Sylvia Rivera throwing 00:18:01.299 --> 00:18:04.799 the first Molotov cocktail. Ah, right. David 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:06.819 Carter, who is considered one of the foremost 00:18:06.819 --> 00:18:09.500 historians of the Stonewall uprising, found through 00:18:09.500 --> 00:18:12.359 exhaustive research and cross -referencing interviews 00:18:12.359 --> 00:18:15.200 that Sylvia Rivera wasn't even present at the 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:16.839 uprising on the first night. She wasn't there 00:18:16.839 --> 00:18:19.480 when it started. But Stonewall veterans actively 00:18:19.480 --> 00:18:21.700 pushed to have her written into the core narrative 00:18:21.700 --> 00:18:24.480 of that night. They deliberately merged timelines 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:28.210 because they wanted young, Puerto Rican transgender 00:18:28.210 --> 00:18:31.190 street kids to have a visible hero. A role model 00:18:31.190 --> 00:18:33.349 they could look up to in a history that constantly 00:18:33.349 --> 00:18:35.769 erased them. If people know that Judy Garland 00:18:35.769 --> 00:18:38.150 or the Molotov myths aren't true, why do they 00:18:38.150 --> 00:18:41.089 survive? Do we just prefer a neat cinematic story 00:18:41.089 --> 00:18:44.269 over messy reality? Well, it's an incredibly 00:18:44.269 --> 00:18:47.339 poignant mechanism of community building. It 00:18:47.339 --> 00:18:50.240 shows a desperate, necessary hunger for visible 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:53.259 heroes. Human beings are fundamentally hardwired 00:18:53.259 --> 00:18:56.220 for narrative simplicity. We want a clear beginning, 00:18:56.619 --> 00:18:59.940 middle, We want a main character. We want a singular 00:18:59.940 --> 00:19:02.579 hero throwing a singular object that magically 00:19:02.579 --> 00:19:05.519 changes the world in an instant. A six -day, 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:08.819 chaotic, violent street brawl involving competing 00:19:08.819 --> 00:19:13.000 activist factions, mafia bosses, and deep socioeconomic 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:15.660 divides that doesn't fit neatly onto a commemorative 00:19:15.660 --> 00:19:18.140 bronze plaque. No, it really doesn't. But, you 00:19:18.140 --> 00:19:20.700 know, the historical reality that the first bricks 00:19:20.700 --> 00:19:23.140 and bottles were thrown by unnamed homeless youth, 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.779 drag queens, and butch lesbians whose names we 00:19:25.779 --> 00:19:28.329 will never know who simply decided they had endured 00:19:28.329 --> 00:19:31.430 enough abuse is arguably a much more powerful 00:19:31.430 --> 00:19:33.529 testament to human resilience. I agree completely. 00:19:33.650 --> 00:19:35.849 And that tension over who gets to claim the narrative 00:19:35.849 --> 00:19:38.190 and what goes on the plaque didn't end in the 00:19:38.190 --> 00:19:40.950 1970s. It's actually happening right now in real 00:19:40.950 --> 00:19:42.569 time. In fact, the story is still being written. 00:19:42.950 --> 00:19:46.380 Right. In 2016, President Obama established the 00:19:46.380 --> 00:19:49.180 Stonewall National Monument, making it the first 00:19:49.180 --> 00:19:52.160 national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights. 00:19:52.700 --> 00:19:55.059 But the source material details how this history 00:19:55.059 --> 00:19:57.700 is still an active battleground. It really is. 00:19:57.799 --> 00:20:00.240 Because the source notes that on February 13th, 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:03.680 2025, references to transgender and queer people 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:06.099 were removed from the monument's official federal 00:20:06.099 --> 00:20:09.519 website. And then a few months later, on July 00:20:09.519 --> 00:20:13.000 10th, 2025, references to bisexual people were 00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:15.299 removed from the site as well. It really highlights 00:20:15.299 --> 00:20:18.349 the fragility of historical memory. The struggle 00:20:18.349 --> 00:20:21.369 to define, claim, and protect this history is 00:20:21.369 --> 00:20:23.829 not just an academic exercise about the past. 00:20:24.009 --> 00:20:26.750 It is an ongoing present -day action. It's happening 00:20:26.750 --> 00:20:29.529 right in front of us. Yes. The legacy of Stonewall 00:20:29.529 --> 00:20:32.049 is not a closed book safely stored on a shelf. 00:20:32.329 --> 00:20:35.349 It is an active, highly contested space. So what 00:20:35.349 --> 00:20:37.150 does this all mean? When we take all these moving 00:20:37.150 --> 00:20:39.369 pieces, the mafia exploitation, the mechanics 00:20:39.369 --> 00:20:41.269 of the police raids, the psychological warfare 00:20:41.269 --> 00:20:43.150 of the kickline, the internal fractures, the 00:20:43.150 --> 00:20:45.609 constructed myths, what's the core takeaway for 00:20:45.609 --> 00:20:47.650 you listening right now? It's important to frame 00:20:47.650 --> 00:20:51.329 it correctly. The Stonewall riots were not the 00:20:51.329 --> 00:20:53.890 first time the LGBTQ community physically fought 00:20:53.890 --> 00:20:56.289 back against police brutality. I mean, there 00:20:56.289 --> 00:20:58.750 was the Cooper Doonuts riot in Los Angeles years 00:20:58.750 --> 00:21:01.769 prior and the Compton's Cafeteria riot in San 00:21:01.769 --> 00:21:04.309 Francisco. They were at the first. But Stonewall 00:21:04.309 --> 00:21:06.890 was the structural catalyst. It was the specific 00:21:06.890 --> 00:21:09.529 detonation that shifted the community's entire 00:21:09.529 --> 00:21:13.150 tactic from politely asking for assimilation 00:21:13.150 --> 00:21:17.029 to aggressively demanding space, fundamentally 00:21:17.029 --> 00:21:20.259 birthing the modern pride. And it serves as a 00:21:20.259 --> 00:21:23.420 powerful, enduring reminder of how systemic change 00:21:23.420 --> 00:21:26.599 actually materializes. History is rarely made 00:21:26.599 --> 00:21:28.680 by those sitting comfortably in seats of power, 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:31.240 or by those politely asking the system to change 00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:33.039 its rules. It just doesn't work that way. No. 00:21:33.240 --> 00:21:35.160 It is usually forged by those who are pushed 00:21:35.160 --> 00:21:37.539 so far into the margins, who have so much stripped 00:21:37.539 --> 00:21:39.480 away from them, that they have absolutely no 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:41.200 choice left but to push back with everything 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:43.279 they have. As you go about your day, I want to 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:44.980 leave you with a final thought to mull over. 00:21:45.220 --> 00:21:47.839 Think about that 2025 detail we just mentioned. 00:21:48.119 --> 00:21:51.059 The sudden removal of trans, queer, and bisexual 00:21:51.059 --> 00:21:53.460 references from the official Stonewall Monument 00:21:53.460 --> 00:21:56.759 website. It's a striking detail. How does the 00:21:56.759 --> 00:21:59.920 ongoing real time editing of this history on 00:21:59.920 --> 00:22:03.200 federal platforms parallel the exact same state 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:06.339 sponsored erasure that those patrons of the Stonewall 00:22:06.339 --> 00:22:09.019 Inn were rioting against on that sweltering June 00:22:09.019 --> 00:22:11.920 night in 1969? It's a haunting historical parallel. 00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:13.680 It really is something to think about. Thank 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:15.619 you so much for joining us for this deep dive. 00:22:15.900 --> 00:22:16.579 We'll see you next time.