Stonewall - The riots that sparked the gay revolution

At the end of the 1960s, homosexual sex was illegal in every state but Illinois. Not one law - federal, state or local - protected gay men or women from being fired or denied housing. There were no openly gay politicians. No television show had any identifiably gay characters. When Hollywood made a film with a major homosexual character, the character was either killed or killed himself. [...]

The phrase the sixties inevitably brings to mind images of freedom and rapid social and political change. The irony is that for almost the entirety of that decade homosexual men and women, far from experiencing a great burst of freedom, found themselves in the worst legal position they had been in since the republic's birth. Because of a Puritan heritage, America's laws had traditionally oppressed those who engaged in same-sex lovemaking. With the increasing shrillness of the far right after World War II, exemplified by both a rabid anticommunism and the demand for total conformity that characterized the 1950s, laws aimed at homosexuals became so harsh that at times they were draconian. [...]

By 1961 the laws in America were harsher on homosexuals than those in Cuba, Russia, or East Germany, countries that the United States criticized for their despotic ways. An adult convicted of the crime of having sex with another consenting adult in the privacy of his or her home could get anywhere from a light fine to five, ten, or twenty years - or even life - in prison. In 1971 twenty states had "sex psychopath" laws that permitted the detaining of homosexuals for that reason alone. In Pennsylvania and California sex offenders could be locked in a mental institution for life, and in seven states they could be castrated. [...]

Craig [Rodwell] was walking one night to the el with frank, a gentle Italian dishwasher, when suddenly two police cars, their lights whirling, converged on the two. Policemen got out of the cars and separated and questioned Craig and Frank. The police refused to believe that it was the fourteen-year-old Rodwell who had picked up the older man. The district attorney put heavy pressure on Craig to lie by saying that the older man had approached him and given him money. Craig refused. Frank was sentenced to five years for having sex with a minor, even though Craig explained that he had claimed to be older. No doubt it was Craig's noncooperation with the authorities that caused them to recommend he be sent to a reformatory. [...]

The liberal attitude toward homosexuality in the late fifties and early sixties was that homosexuals were not criminals but mentally ill people who might be cured if given understanding and a lot of expensive therapy. The West Side Discussion Group [a gay group] was so conservative, however, that some of its members were not even able to digest the liberal theory. One of them said to [Randy] Wicker, "How can we expect the police to allow us to congregate? Let's face it; we're criminals. You can't allow criminals to congregate." Randy blew up at the man, saying, "It disgusts me. Why do I have to sit here and listen to idiots like you say things like that? You've let society brainwash you." [...]

[Robert] Bryan says: "These street queens were the predominant force in there [Stonewall Inn], although there were all types of people," with the result that "it did have an overall kind of a trashy reputation, and certainly, that was the predominant ambiance: trashy, low, and tawdry." Vito Russo similarly recalled: "It was a bar for the people who were too young, too poor or just too much to get in anywhere else. The Stonewall was a street queen hangout in the heart of the ghetto". Perhaps Allen Young characterized it best when he said the club was the "favorite hang-out of the freest of the gay people - those most likely to be labeled 'fag' and 'drag queen.'" The nature of the Stonewall's crowd made Young so uncomfortable that he "preferred the more up-tight and sedate (read, 'masculine') crowd at Danny's, a few blocks closer to the waterfront." One of the more disputed points about the Stonewall clientele is to what extent women went there and how many of those were lesbians. [Dawn] Hampton says that "all gay men went there. Very few, if any, gay women at all. Usually I would practically be the only woman around." [Chuck] Shasheen said, "It was 98 percent men." [...]

While they loved to say, "Gay is good," at gay meetings, [Leo E.] Laurence complained, they were afraid to say it in public, which to him only made them so many hypocrites. "About the only people with that kind of courage are the new breed of young gay kids. And that's just why organizations like SIR [Society for Individual Rights] keep them out. The old-timers are scared that these kids will come in and really create a gay revolution."

source: From the book 'Stonewall - The riots that sparked the gay revolution' by David Carter; St. Martin's Griffin, New York; Second edition: May 2010; First edition: 2004