Stonewall History

Stonewall History

To kick off the beginning of Pride Month, I thought I’d share my favorite articles about the Stonewall Riots.

The first is actually a collation of several accounts from 1969 that describe the events of those nights, compiled and edited by Stonewall historian David Carter. Clicking this link will download it as a word doc. This collation goes into a lot of detail, and Carter attempts to resolve some of the apparent inconsistencies between accounts (see the footnotes). While it takes a decent amount of time to read through, I think it’s worth it for the thorough coverage of the initial riot and following nights.

The texts document how the raid on Stonewall–the second within a week–came after a series of raids and closures of gay bars during the past several weeks. Bars such as the Stonewall were targeted by the police for operating without a license, which the State Liquor Authority denied to establishments that catered to gay clientele. After confiscating cases of liquor, the police began arresting the management and some employees, and checking patrons for IDs and (as I understand it) gender-suitable attire. As patrons were released one by one, a crowd began to gather outside, which became more defiant after a police van showed up and employees and drag queens were loaded inside. Multiple reports cite a butch lesbian resisting arrest as a turning point in the mood of the crowd. The police vehicles left to take away those who’d been arrested, leaving the police at the bar unguarded. More objects began to be thrown and the police that remained retreated to the bar and barricaded inside. Windows were smashed, a fire was started inside the bar, and the door was forced open–reports say that a parking meter was used as a battering ram. Police had begun pointing guns at the crowd from the open door by the time backup arrived, at which point the crowds were dispersed.

The second article is called “Movements and Memory: The Making of the Stonewall Myth” by Elizabeth A Armstrong and Suzanna M Crage. This is an academic article that analyzes how Stonewall came to achieve a central place in gay collective memory. (Try not to be put off by the first few pages that deal with theoretical concepts and research design.) It looks at other events that failed to gain similar annual commemoration–the San Francisco New Year’s Ball Raid (January 1965), the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot (San Francisco, August 1966), the Black Cat Raid (Los Angeles, January 1967), and the Snake Pit Bar Raid (New York, Mary 1970)–and discusses how Stonewall came to be successfully recognized as worthy of annual, national, public commemoration. The authors reveal that this was not a spontaneous occurrence, but “spread through the numerous, deliberate activities of individuals and groups.”

Reading these gave me a better understanding of what occurred at Stonewall and how we came to celebrated Pride, so I wanted to share them with anyone else who might be interested.

Jen Caywood (based Bellingham, WA, USA) - The End, 2021, Paintings: Digital Art

2022 July 10

In the Center of the Cat’s Eye Nebula Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Raul Villaverde

Explanation: Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), to be one of the most complex planetary nebulae known. Spanning half a light-year, the features seen in the Cat’s Eye are so complex that astronomers suspect the bright central object may actually be a binary star system. The term planetary nebula, used to describe this general class of objects, is misleading. Although these objects may appear round and planet-like in small telescopes, high resolution images with large telescopes reveal them to be stars surrounded by cocoons of gas blown off in the late stages of stellar evolution. Gazing into this Cat’s Eye, astronomers may well be seeing more than detailed structure, they may be seeing the fate of our Sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution … in about 5 billion years.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220710.html

If you guys were on here at 11 years old what would you be posting about

the highlight of my day was dr. dentist saying, "I don't see any cavities," which did feel like winning the appointment, tbh