American Protest Literature

Stonewall Documents

1969-1970

Allen Ginsberg stopped by Christopher Street two nights after the Stonewall riots and spoke to the activists there. "Gay power! Isn't that great!" he remarked. "It's about tim we did something to assert ourselves." He told a journalist afterward, "the guys ther: were so beautiful-they've lost that wounded look that fags all had 10 years ago."

Stonewall was a spontaneous rebellion, not organized by any group in particular. On June 27, 1969, at around midnight, eight New York City police officers raided the Stone- wall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. They served a warrant for selling liquor without a license, and ordered patrons to leave. Black, white, and Latino drag queens threw bricks and bottles, and the Tactical Patrol Force arrived to help the po- lice officers. A crowd outside swelled to more than 500. Over the next few days hundreds of gays and lesbians arrived in Sheridan Square. Several factors had come together: anti- war protestors and feminists were making themselves heard; the hippie movement advo- cated sexual liberation; and the civil rights movement provided a model of oppressed mi- norities fighting back. In 1970 the activist Leo Skir observed, "This time our time had come." It was, he said, "like the black woman who wouldn't give up her bus seat ... we're not going back to the Closet, the back-of-the-bus." And, echoing Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Don Jackson announced in 1969: "I have a recurring daydream. I imagine a place where gay people can be free .. . freedom at last."

Homophile organizations had existed before Stonewall. But the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), which formed in the wake of the riots, was the most ambitious and radical gay rights group to date. Its members considered themselves to be to gay liberation what the Black Panthers were to black liberation, and also took inspiration from antiwar protestors. On Christmas Eve 1969, members of the New York GLF handed out a flyer in Sheridan Square: "Homosexual men and women have served willingly in every one of America's wars ... we fought and bled and we died beside our straight brothers and sisters. [Yet we] are denied our birthright and are branded criminals for claiming the right to the self- determination of our own bodies." But the GLF meetings often featured heated argu- ments over the group's responsibility to other protest movements, and certain members' support of the antiwar effort and the Panthers forced a split. In December 1969, twelve New York members formed the Gay Activist Alliance, which was exclusively focused on gay liberation.

Further reading: Martin Duberman, Stonewall (1993); Jim Kepner, Rough News (199B).

1:1ile y0 uth Movement Flier J-IollloP

Stonewau Documents 439 ,

]llJIA- A.ND THE COPS OUT OF GAY BARB Th . """'J'}Illl . 2 . . e nights f .

(}P• 69

and Saturday, June 8, 1969 will go down 1. h" ° Fnday,June 7 19 ' · n 1story 2 , , sands of Homosexual men and women we . as the first time

,h t thou nt out into th u•a the intolerable situation which has existed in N e streets to rotesli,. . ew York City f P . arnely, the Mafia (or syndicate) control of thi . , or many

Y ears-n . . s city s Gay bar .

·th certain elements m the Pohce Dept. of th C s m collu-sion WI . e tty of New y, k strations were tnggered by a Police raid on the Ston 1 or · The dernon ewa I Inn late Frid

. ht June 27th. The purported reason for the raid was th S ay nig , , . . e tonewal!'s lack f l·quni:-license. Who s k1ddmg whom here? Can anybody really be!"

0

a 1 " . . 1eve that P eration as big as the Stonewall could continue for almost th . an o • . . ree years 1ust

f W blocks from the 6th Precmct house without having a 11·quo 1. a e r 1cense? No! The Police have known about the Stonewall operation all along. What's ha _

f "b 11 • 6th P · p pened1 is the presence o new rass m reanct which has vowed to "drive the fags out of the Village. 11

Many of you have noticed one of the signs which the "management" of the Stonewall has placed outside stating "Legalize Gay bars and lick the problem. Judge Kenneth Keating (a former US Senator) ruled in January, 1968 that even close dancing between Homosexuals is legal. Since that date there has been nothingfl~gal, per se, about a Gay bar. What is illegal about New York City's Gay bars today is the Mafia (or syndicate) stranglehold on them. Legitimate Gay businessmen are afraid to open decent Gay bars with a healthy social at- mosphere (as opposed to the hell-hole atmosphere of places typified by the Stonewall), because of fear of pressure from the unholy alliance of the Mafia and elements in the Police Dept. who accept payoffs and protect the Mafia mo- nopoly.

We at the.Homophile Youth Movement (HYMN) believe that the only way . al~~ is monopoly can be broken is through the action of Homosexu

wo · agencies of gov- men themselves. We obviously cannot rely on the vanous

em . . b t who have refused meQt who for years have known about this situation u

to do anything about it. f ard and o Therefore we urge the following: 1) That Gay businessm~n-~te~~: healthy pen Gay bars that will be run legally with competitive pno g rt places like

social t d omen boyco h

a mosphere. 2) That Homosexual men an w . •nal elements t e St t the cnm1

onewall. The only way, it seems, that we can ge 3) That the Homo-out of g b . . fi bl for them. ay ars 1s simply to make it unpro ta e I write to Mayor sexual . . d H terosexua s, t . citizens of New York City and concerne e . tion to correc Lincts . , . . d effective ac th· . ay demandmg a thorough investigation an

is intolerable situation.

f

440 Gay Liberation I THE LITERATURE Stonewall Documents 441

Gay Liberation Front Flier

DO YOU THINK HOMOSEXUALS ARE REVOLTING? YOU BET YOtJB. S WE ARE. We're going to make a place for ourselves in the revol t· ~ET .Aas

u 1onary ment. We challenge the myths that are screWing up this society ME move. Thursday, July 24th, 6:30 PM at Alternate U, 69 , West 14th St. ETlNG: Avenue. reet at Sixth

Mattachine Society Leaflet

HOMOSEXUALS ARE COMING TOGETHER AT LAST. To examine how We are Op- pressed and how we oppress ourselves. To fight for gay control of gay busi- nesses. To publish our own newspaper. To these and other radical ends.

Student Homophile League Manifesto

A RADICAL MANIFESTO: THE HOMOPHILE MOVEMENT MUST BE RADICAL- IZEDI

1) We see the persecution of homosexuality as part of a general attempt to op- press all minorities and keep them powerless. Our fate is linked with these mi- norities; if the detention camps are filled tomorrow With blacks, hippies and other radicals, we Will not escape that fate, all our attempts to dissociate our- selves from them notwithstanding. A common struggle, however, Will bring common triumph.

2) Therefore we declare our support as homosexuals or bisexuals for the struggles of the black, the feminist, the Spanish-American, the Indian, the Hip- pie, the Young, the Student, and other victims of oppression and prejudice.

3) We call upon these groups to lend us their support and encourage their presence with NACHO and the homophile movement at large.

4) Our enemies, an implacable, repressive governmental system; much of or- ganized religion, business and medicine, Will not be moved by appeasement or appeals to reason and justice, but only by power and force.

5) We regard established heterosexual standards of morality as immoral and refuse to condone them by demanding an equality which is merely the com- mon yoke of sexual repression.

6) We declare that homosexuals, as individuals and members of the greater community, must develop homosexual ethics and esthetics independent of, and without reference to, the mores imposed upon heterosexuality.

7) We demand the removal of all restriction on sex between consenting per- sons of any sex, of any orientation, of any age, anywhere, whether for money or not, and for the removal of all censorship.

I I I I I I I I I I I I

II Upon the churches to sanction homosexual liaisons wh ) We ca en called

8 d so by the parties concerned. Ponto o . u 9) We call upon the ho~oph1le movement to ~e more honestly concerned

with youth rather than trymg to promote a mythical, non-existent "good pub-

Uc illlage." . . lO) The homoph1le movement must totally re1ect the insane war in Viet

Nam and refuse to encourage complici_ty in the war and support of the war ma- chine, which may well be turned agamst us. We oppose any attempts by the movement to obtain security clearances for homosexuals, since these contrib- ute to the war machine.

ll) The homophile movement must engage in continuous political struggle

on all fronts. 12) We must open the eyes of homosexuals on this continent to the increas-

ingly repressive nature of our society and to the realizations that Chicago may await us tomorrow.

Statement and Editorial from Come out!

Gay Liberation Front is a revolutionary group of homosexual women and men formed With the realization that complete sexual liberation for all people can- not come about unless existing social institutions are abolished. We reject sod· ety's attempt to impose sexual roles and definitions of our nature. We are step- ping outside these roles and simplistic myths. We are going to be who we are. At the same time, we are creating new social forms and relations, that is, rela- tions based upon sisterhood, cooperation, human love and uninhibited sexu- ality. Babylon has forced us to commit ourselves to one thing ... revolution.

Come out for freedom! Come out now! Power to the people! Gay power to the gay people! Come out of the closet before the door is nailed shut! COME OUT, a newspaper for the homosexual community, dedicates itself to

th e joy,

the humor, and the dignity of the homosexual female and male. Come-out has

Co al. to aive voice to the ME OUT to light for the freedom of the homosexu , o· . • . t provide a public forum

rapidly groWing militancy within our community, 0 d od

d ctlons necessary to en for the discussion and clarification of meth s an a d th . eed f "life liberty an e our oppression. COME-OUT has COME OUT md or ' pursuit of happiness." . . . ·bl 1·t is cternonstra-. . ·tis real 1t 1s vis1 e,

Make no mistake about our oppression. 1 : . d 1 but illeaitlmate as . gi . te as an md1vi ua o· ble. In New York a homosexual 1s le ttma 1 and lesbian in this

11 ry homosexua a participant in a homosexual act. He ' eve en that cold state of t by law or ev country survives solely by sufferance, no ti d our choice of housing •cy is ques one , grace known as tolerance. Our humam fri ndly neighborhood tav-

1 t nuous our e is circumscribed, our employment s e '

- 442 Gay Liberation / THE LITERATURE

--·~~ Stonewall Documents 44 3

em is a Mafioso-on-the-job training school for dum-dum hoods. It is i·u . st such grievances as these which have sparked the revolut10nary movem

ents of history. Through mutual respect, action, and education COME OUT hopes to un·

both the homosexual community and other oppressed groups into a Coh _1fy . es1ve body of people who do not find the enemy m each other.

We will not be gay bourgeoisie, searching for the sterile "American Dream" of the ivy-covered cottage and the good corporation job, but neither Will

. We tolerate the exclusion of homosexuals from any area of American life. Because our oppression is based on sex and the sex roles which oppress us

from infancy, we must explore these roles and their meanings. We must recog. nize and make others recognize that being homosexual says only one thing: emotionally you prefer your own sex. It says nothing about your worth, your value as a human being. Does society make a place for us ... as a man? A woman? A homosexual or lesbian? How does the family structure effect us? What is sex? What does it mean? What is love? As homosexuals, we are in a unique position to examine these questions from a fresh point of View. You'd better believe we are going to do so-that we are going to transform the society at large through the open realization of our own consciousness.

Item in San Francisco Free Press

IN THE STREETS FOR THE REVOLUTION. Nothing is more pathetic as a Black who denies his culture and tries to pass for white .. . unless it's one of our Gay brothers who denies his Gayness to get along in the straight plastic culture. Both have become less than men and sunk to the level of imitations. Luckily for the souls of Black folk they have awakened to their beauty and cultural in- tegrity in time. Luckily, also, for the Blacks, racial differences make passing dif- ficult. Unluckily for us passing is the easiest thing in the world .... We have had confrontations With all kinds of Auntie Toms who are comfortable living half lives as imitation men and sucking up to the Almighty Dollar to make up for the parts. of their lives that are missing. We have seen the effect of years of oppression-poor, tired, sickly imitation men and women who would con- tinue their own oppression and the oppression of their brothers and sisters. We've seen the society in which we live ... We will build the new society in the streets, not by giving up on our brothers and sisters who have accepted their oppression, but by continuing to hammer at the chains that bind all of us. The new world will be built by new people who are in the open, free of chains; by proud men and women of all colors ... by men and women who know love and live it. And it begins in the streets.

. 1 in Homosexual Renaissance Editoria uals can effectively demand respect from others on! 'f fi !fo!lloseX Y I we rst re-

rs eJves--as homosexuals. That requires that we admit to ou 1 h spect ou .

1 ,, rse ves t at

h omosexual .. . Say 1t. aloud: I am homosexual." Shout it h' . we are . . . . . , w 1sper 1t.

h ·t cry it. State 1t, proclaim 1t, confess 1t m sobs but say it· "I am h 1,aug 1 , . • , • omo-

sexual." say it today, say 1t tomorrow, say 1t the day after that. Say it when you wake up, when you go to bed, when you find yourself thinking of someone of our own sex. Say it as often as you need to until you realize that it is true and

;hat the fact that it is true forces you to adjust your attitudes and actions to rnake the very best of your life as a homosexual. "I am homosexual." Not "Leo- nardo da Vinci was homosexual," but "I am homosexual." Not "Gore Vidal is homosexual," but "I am homosexual." Not "one man of every six, one woman of every eight is homosexual," but "I am homosexual." Not even "some of the finest, most beautiful, and most talented people in the world are homosexual,"

but "I am homosexual."

Steve Kuromiya in Philadelphia Free Press

We came battle-scarred and angry to topple your sexist, racist, hateful society. We came to challenge the incredible hypocrisy of your serial monogamy, your oppressive sexual role-playing, your nuclear family, your Protestant ethic, ap- ple pie and Mother. We came to New York holding hands and kissing, openly and proudly, waVing 15-foot banners and chanting 'HO-HO-HOMOSEXUAL!' In one fell swoop, we came to destroy by our mere presence your labels and ste- reotypes with which you've oppressed us for centuries. And we came with love and open hearts to challenge your hate and secrecy.