The Stonewall Uprising: The Start of a Movement
In June 1969, riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village are generally cited as the starting point of the LGBTQIA+ rights movement, but the facts are considerably more nuanced and even disputed. Then referred to as the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement, the LGBTQIA+ rights movement had been steadily, if slowly, growing during the 1960s. Arguably, the first widely noted times gay bar patrons fought back against police harassment took place in California years before the Stonewall riots.
Media coverage immediately after the Stonewall uprising was minimal. Yet within a year, the first gay pride marches had taken place and gay activist organizations had sprung up. The era of LGBTQIA+ liberation was about to dawn.
This exhibition looks at the who, what, and where of those June nights in an attempt to understand why the Stonewall Riots became the catalytic movement in the effort to secure equal rights for LGBTQIA+ Americans.
