"The Hairpin Drop Heard Round the World," The Stonewall Riots

"Dropping hairpins" is old gay slang for publicly announcing one's homosexuality, what we would call "coming out."

Gay politics came out and dropped hairpins all over the place on a series of hot humid nights in the summer of 1969.

Forty years later, just about everyone wants to claim the Stonewall riots. Their importance to history becomes apparent only as they recede in time and their legacy grows. Like some dimly understood episode in ancient history, legend fills in where gaps appear in the factual account.

And the factual account has holes in it. The local press reports, especially at the start of the riots are few. The NY Times hardly bothered to mention it. The Daily News ran a headline that said “Queen Bees Stinging Mad,” followed by a story speculating that the riots were in reaction to the one big story that all the local papers and networks were focused on at the time, the death and funeral of Judy Garland.

There are few images of the riots, and none that I’m aware of from the opening night. The only news film that I’ve seen of the riots is some very dark and grainy footage of police cars that don’t show very much.

The one paper that did cover the riots extensively was The Village Voice. They had to. Their offices at the time were two doors down from the Stonewall bar (where the Duplex cabaret now stands). Reporters and editors had to step through debris and police barricades to get to work. Voice photographer Fred MacDarrah took most of the photos that we have of the riots. He stepped out the front door of his office and began taking pictures on the second or third night of rioting. His picture of rioters posing on the front of the Stonewall Bar remains the most famous image from the riots.

The rusting Stonewall Inn sign in the background is a relic from the days when the Stonewall was a respectable family restaurant in the 1940s and 50s.

The riots began around midnight June 27th, 1969 with a routine police raid on an unusually hot and humid night. Cops from the 6th precinct showed up with a paddy wagon expecting little to no resistance, as was usually the case in gay bar raids. Most of the arrested went quietly, but some struck poses and attitudes for the large crowd gathered in Christopher Park across the street. Again, this was not unusual.
For reasons that remain unclear, the large crowd gathered outside suddenly turned on the cops. They began pelting them with coins, rocks, and bottles, and then charged them. The crowd forced the cops into the bar. They shut the door of the now almost empty bar and frantically radioed for backup. The crowd pounded on the doors and broke the windows (which were already boarded up from the inside). They tore up a parking meter and used it as a battering ram to open the door. When they broke the door down, one of the trapped cops pulled his gun and threatened to shoot the first person to come in. The crowd then tried unsuccessfully to set the bar on fire.
Police backup and the Fire Department had to make their way through angry crowds pounding on their vehicles and throwing rocks and bottles. They finally rescued the trapped cops and dispersed the rioters by morning.



The second night of rioting was even worse with huge crowds filling the streets around Christopher Park and Sheridan Square. According to one account, Marsha P. Johnson, a local tranny, climbed a light pole and began throwing rocks down on the cops. According to other accounts, gay boys formed a Rockettes style chorus line kick stepping up Christopher Street toward advancing riot police, retreating when the police charged and then forming up again.
Rioting lasted into a third night with professional anarchists from the East Village joining in the fight. They broke windows and set cars on fire. Amazingly, there were no deaths, but there were lots of injuries, some of them serious.

Rioting continued in the Village sporadically through the month of July.

It is frequently explained that the riots happened in period of expectations raised by the Civil Rights movement, by the Sexual Revolution, etc. But expectations in the wake of the events of 1968 (the assassinations, the riots, the election) were beginning to wane. The kids who started the riot were probably unaware of any current events (though the people who joined in the second and third nights would certainly have been aware).
The riots’ significance was recognized immediately. Gay activists, especially younger ones, were anxious to keep the momentum going.

Younger members of the New York Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis organized the first political rally after the Stonewall riots. It took place in Washington Square Park July 27, 1969 attended by barely 200 people. There were few takers of the lavender arm bands and ribbons passed out. Martha Shelly of the Daughters, and Marty Robinson of Mattachine spoke to the crowd. They next marched from Washington Square to Christopher Park across from the vacant Stonewall Bar.
Below are photos of the event by Fred MacDarrah. These are pictures from the conclusion of the event in Christopher Park.

Marchers on their way to Christopher Park

A cop urges Marty Robinson not to incite the crowd. There were still sporadic riots in the Village at that time.

Marty Robinson addressed the marchers at the conclusion in Christopher Park. The young man wearing a bandanna around his neck just behind the man wearing a shirt that says "69" is Jim Owles, a founder with Robinson of the Gay Activists Alliance and its first president. Legend says that Owles fell in love with Robinson at this rally. They were an item. but not for long.

We see in the new leaders that emerged in the weeks and months following the riots a real change, especially in their public image. Gone are the suits and dresses and the anxious politeness.

Marty Robinson with boyfriend Tom Doerr in 1970. Tom Doerr, a graphic artist, designed the lambda symbol that they are both wearing. Robinson, Doerr, Jim Owles, and other founders of the Gay Activists Alliance chose the symbol because it was a sign in chemistry for a catalyst, what they hoped their organization would be in politics. The lambda soon became a general symbol of gay activism.


Longtime gay activist Jack Nichols (right) with his companion, Liege Clarke, a military intelligence veteran, photographed in 1971.


Activist and a founder of Gay Liberation Jim Fouratt photographed by Fred MacDarrah on Saint Mark's Place in 1967

The new younger leaders were social dropouts and castaways. Marty Robinson was the son of a Brooklyn doctor who gave up a prosperous home and future to live openly as a gay man. He worked all his life as a union carpenter. Jim Fouratt, a founder of Gay Liberation, was one of the street kids who started the Stonewall riots. All of these men cultivated a public image that was very counter-cultural and aggressively sexual, wearing tight jeans and making PDA with lovers at their events.

The suits and the dresses were gone forever, along with the fear and the isolation.

UPDATE;

Jonathan Ned Katz, a veteran of the Gay Activists Alliance, posted newly released NYPD records of the bar raid in the comments section of this blog entry. They appear to confirm one of the many legends about how the riot started. One story said that a very butch lesbian was arrested and dragged out of the bar by the cops. She put up a terrific fight which provoked the crowd. Only one woman's name appears on that arrest record, Marylin Fowler. She is described as "kicking and shoving" officers along with 2 other men, Vincent DePaul and Raymond Castro.

Not all the people arrested that night were gay. David Van Ronk, a noted folk singer who is quite heterosexual, was arrested for striking a police officer.

The whole document is very illuminating reading bringing to life a chaotic and historic event.

Thanks Jonathan for posting this historical scoop on my blog!