The riot culminated in a Rockettes-style kickline of drag queens facing down tactical police in riot gear. It’s a beautiful story, but it’s not exactly true. So, I gathered some people who were at Stonewall in 1969, some historians who had spent years studying L.G.B.T. history and some contemporary queer writers to ask them, what’s wrong with this account of Stonewall? They helped me break it down, bit by bit. “It didn’t begin at Stonewall.” “Before Stonewall, we had the Daughters of Bilitis. We had the Mattachine Society.” “There was the sip-in at Julius’s.” “And the movement in the world dates back to 1897 in Berlin, with the founding of Magnus Hirschfeld’s organization, which was the first gay rights group.” So if gay rights didn’t begin at Stonewall, why was Stonewall important? “Because it led to the creation of the gay liberation movement.” “Gay Liberation Front was born out of the ashes of Stonewall. Gay Liberation Front is literally why we have everything we have today.” “They planned a march on the first anniversary of Stonewall.” “And people forget that there were three pride parades. It was a really in-your-face float.” Oh, wow. Now here’s a fundamental question about Stonewall. Was it a riot? “What we did is we were cheering and dancing in the street. That’s not a riot.” “It was just a loud and bawdy fun group of guys until it turned into a riot.” “It is called a riot, an uprising, a rebellion.” “I like the word rebellion.
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Not overthrow-the-government rebellion, rebellion from within.” Next, was the Stonewall bar as idyllic as some media portrays it to have been? “The Stonewall Inn was a safe haven for the queer community -” “But it was a dump.” “It was a hellhole.” “Dirty. Mafia-run.” “A Mafia sleazy bar, and they watered down drinks.” “Watered-down drinks.” “There was a much better bar called the Cherry Lane.” “The Tenth of Always.” “Cookie’s.” So the Stonewall Inn was neither New York’s only gay bar nor an especially beloved institution. Now, let’s talk about that drag queen who started it all. “They said that she threw the first shot glass at Stonewall, and it was the shot glass heard around the world.” “One of the persistent myths about Stonewall is that Marsha threw the first cocktail glass.