This Event Launched the LGBTQ Movement 50 Years Ago Today

Brut India

Ever wonder why June is Pride Month?   It's to commemorate the Stonewall riots, an event that helped launch the LGBTQ movement, 50 years ago today. ️

Transcript

00:00We knew that something was happening that night that hadn't happened before, and that

00:21was momentous.

00:22This was a moment for gay people to stand up to the authorities, and that this had

00:28changed everything.

00:41I had been out to dinner that night, and again, like I normally did, I'd walk past the stone

00:46wall on my way home, and my partner and I, Craig Rodwell, we were walking back, and we

00:52could see a crowd formed in front of the stone wall.

00:55Naturally, we stopped and asked people what was going on, you know, knowing the bar, and

01:04we learned that there were people being held inside.

01:07Some people said that there had already been some violence committed by the police against

01:10some of the patrons, and just as we were learning all of that, the police had a paddy wagon

01:18arrive, which is a conveyance for prisoners, and they tried to bring their prisoners out,

01:27but the prisoners started calling for help from the crowd, and the crowd responded by

01:32yelling at the cops.

01:34They started throwing coins at the cops, and the coins started bouncing off the cops in

01:39the buildings, and even the patrons.

01:43They retreated back inside the bar.

01:46The crowd continued to grow, and now that things had been thrown, there was more violence

02:00expressed at that point.

02:05The police were trapped inside the building.

02:08They couldn't leave.

02:09They had to wait for reinforcements.

02:11When they came, that's when the riot really got underway.

02:16We stayed there until the riot quieted down, and that was at dawn, and we went back to

02:34the apartment and started working on a flyer to have a demonstration the following night

02:39in front of the stone wall.

02:42We distributed about 5,000 flyers during the day.

02:45It said, get the cops and the mafia out of gay bars.

02:49There was quite a crowd.

02:50Of course, when the nighttime came, the police responded, but this time they came with what

02:57was called then the Tactical Patrol Force, which was a specialized unit for dealing with

03:04riots.

03:07Their way of dealing with riots was basically to wait in and fight, so it created the second

03:14night of rioting.

03:30We had told the police in applying for a permit that we were going to have a march, and they

03:37said, well, you can only have a march if you have a permit.

03:39They said, no, we understand the permitting process, but you need to understand that we'll

03:43have a march whether you give us a permit or not.

03:47They didn't give us the permit until two hours before the march.

03:51They dropped it off at our apartment.

03:53Did things change for the LGBT community since Donald Trump was elected?

03:58Yeah, I think the climate for gay people has become worse.

04:03I think it's serious.

04:06We have evangelical preachers who are calling for the death of gays in the United States

04:14at this point.

04:16The religious right in the United States has gone way overboard in their reaction to progress

04:27in gay rights.

04:28The fight against gay rights has become more serious.

04:32We didn't have people fighting against us.

04:35Everybody was against us, but we didn't have people whose purpose in life was to make our

04:40lives worse, and that's what these people are doing today.

04:44You worried?

04:47I think we'll succeed, but I think there's still a fight to come.

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