queer history
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The Stonewall Inn was a small baron Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was rumored to be owned by the Mafia, but to most people it was a quiet place where gay people in 1960s New York City could go to socialize and be out of the closet for a few brief hours.
LAW IN 1960's NEW YORK
In 1960s New York City, it was illegal for bars to serve liquor to homosexuals or suspected homosexuals. The lawmakers in the state felt that homosexuals were a menace and by giving them liquor, trouble was just around the corner. Like the few other gay bars in the area at the time, the Stonewall Inn operated without a liquor license. Raids for serving liquor illegally were quite common, almost a nightly occurrence. The police would enter a bar, force the patrons outside, arrest most or all of them, and fine the bar owners. Many times, the arrested men and women had their names published in the papers the next day, which meant they were in constant danger of losing their jobs and their homes.
THE POLICE RAID ON STONEWALL
SOMETHING UNREMARKABLE HAPPENED over 30 years ago on 28 June 1969 in New York's Greenwich Village. An event which had occurred a thousand times before across the US over the decades...