Stonewall Inn, Center of Birth of Lesbian and Gay Rights Movement, Gains Landmark Status
The Stonewall Inn, a bar on the Lower East Side of New York City, and the scene of anti-police riots that are credited with giving birth to the modern lesbian and gay rights movement in 1969, was on this day given landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The Stonewall riots began on June 28, 1969, and continued for several days. Gay men and lesbians physically fought with police officers. Much of the anger of the bar’s patrons was the long history of police raids and harassment of homosexuals.
To commemorate the riots, the first Gay Pride marches were held the following year, on June 27, 1970 (in Chicago) and June 28, 1970 (in New York City).
The LGBT movement achieved its greatest success on June 26, 2015 when the Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Read: David Carter, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution (2004)
Read about the history of the GLBT revolution: Lillian Faderman, The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle (2015)
Learn more about the Stonewall uprising: http://www.thestonewallinnnyc.com/StonewallInnNYC/HISTORY.html
And more here
Read more: Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (1999)