The Stonewall incident was an UPRISING and not a riot, I emphasize that and the reason being is because police like to label protests and other form of gatherings as “riots” when they want more people to get discouraged from participating in them and justify their use of force. “While the events of Stonewall are often referred to as “riots,” Stonewall veterans have explicitly stated that they prefer the term Stonewall uprising or rebellion.” The Stonewall Uprising being on June 28th of 1969 and lasted for six days. Stonewall was a gay bar owned by the mafia and all they carried about is making profit so constant raids of police didn’t result in closure because as long as clientele kept coming and also the mafia were aware in advance of some of the raids so they prepared for them. The idea is that there were plenty of uprisings in support of the LGBTQ+ rights around NYC and the rest of the country as well, but Stonewall received a lot of media attention and continues to be remembered as paving the way for more members of the LGBTQ+ community taking pride in who they are. The video, “Gay and Proud,” mentions how there was nothing more shameful and hurting more than a gay person hiding their love affairs and having to lie about them when venting to their close ones. Exactly a year later, the first Pride march in New York City was held in commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising. “By all estimates, there were upwards of 3-5,000 marchers at the inaugural Pride in New York City, and today NYC marchers number in the millions.” We can see how much of an impact the previous uprisings and Stonewall contributed to the progression of LGBTQ+ rights as 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the Pride Traditions in the US and in 1980 same-sex marriage was legalized in NYC.

I can’t help but notice the parallels of the response of police during the Stonewall Uprising to the response of police during the crack epidemic which taking place around the same time during the late 1970s and early 1980s and into Bush and Clinton’s presidency. But the peak of it was during the Reagan Era since between 1982 and 1984, there were an increase of 50% in cocaine shipment into the US (according to the “Crack, Cocaine, Corruption, and Conspiracy” documentary). But what nobody knew at the time was that the US government had a secret hand in all of this because at the time a small country in South America called “Nicaragua” was going through a revolution and the Reagan administration was interested in supporting the rebel groups. However, federal funding for Nicaragua was prohibited so what the Reagan administration did was that it sold arms illegally to Iran and money from there was used to support rebel groups but it wasn’t enough so in addition the Reagan administration loosed up on the smuggling operations of Cocaine coming from Nicaragua. What made things even worse is that there were harsh regulation laws and punishments on small-scaled dealers or VICTIMS instead of frequent users of the drug. The police targeted low-income communities and people of color although they didn’t even account for more than 1/3 of consumers. An interesting fact is, “while 2/3 of crack-cocaine users were white, not a single white person was convicted of drug offense.” This just goes to tell you how much of “on the surface firm and attentive” the US government are to real problems faced by the American people. In the Stonewall Uprising, they were also arresting people for trying to survive with who they are and under the ongoing circumstances (laws, advocacy, advancement) that they themselves cannot control.

QUESTIONS:

1. Are performative actions like the Stonewall Uprising enough to invoke change or we can do so through art and literature as well? Or do we need both to combine forces?
2. Will systemic racism and prejudice continue to exist forever in the United States? What would it take for it to be completely dismantled?
3. They say a person is a product of their circumstances and that what separates liberals and conservatives is that liberals insist on social reforms while conservatives completely deny the existence of structural factors escalating poverty, crime, and disenfranchisement of groups. However, liberals still aren’t doing much to address issues we care about like abortion and climate change, so what would it take for them to do more. Is it more uprisings and rebellions or can it just be by voting for the right people and always trying to keep them in check?

SOURCES

• https://guides.loc.gov/lgbtq-studies/stonewall-era
• https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs01991430/?
• https://www.netflix.com/title/80988518

The Stonewall Uprising of 1969 is a prime example of the power of active and radical revolution in challenging oppressive systems. LGBTQ+ people were routinely harassed by the police leading to the rebellion, but because they took direct and radical action against this injustice, systemic change began to be addressed. Obviously this development is neither perfect, nor complete, but by challenging the violent actions of a state with impunity, demands for change grew deafening (https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/06/harvard-scholars-reflect-on-the-history-and-legacy-of-the-stonewall-riots/). 

Likewise, throughout history, marginalized communities have resorted to active and radical revolution to demand change and challenge the status quo. Where the status quo is concerned, the police often take on the role of a lethal enforcer: the destructive arm of oppressive and marginalizing tendencies in society. I would argue that the American police is one of the most harmful institutions in the history of the modern world, in comparison to other wealthy, industrialized nations*. In a very general and slightly indiscriminate summary, I think many of us can confidently categorize them as a violent, shortsighted, clumsy, hypocritical and bigoted gang of thugs. Not inventors of systemic evils, but certainly perpetrators and perpetuators. However, their blatantly tyrannical violations of rights can sometimes make way for reactive progress.

The Stonewall Uprising made oppression difficult to avoid. Sometimes, people care very little about discrimination or repression when the specific hegemonic forces at play do not harm them directly. It becomes harder for those individuals to remain passive bystanders when active unrest takes places. Radical actions are often necessary to demand change and, more importantly, to make people hear those demands.

Homophobia, and transphobia in particular, is all too rampant today; however, the fact that “people have continued to gather together in June to march with Pride and demonstrate for equal rights” goes to show how far things have come (Library of Congress).

Questions:

What kind of actions are necessary to lead to sustainable and unavoidable calls for change? 

(How) can literature lead to tangible change? How do the readings in this class attempt this? (The Jungle, Silent Spring, No-No Boy, etc etc etc!).

Are direct actions necessary? When do acts of rebellion against tyranny become “too radical”? Or counterproductive?

How does the oftentimes favorable and optimistic view of Stonewall and LGBTQ+ progress with compare and contrast to movements for racial justice? One could argue that systemic racism is so severely ingrained in the US, both culturally and institutionally, that BIPOC driven movements are given far less benefit of the doubt than their counterparts and contemporaries. Keep this crucial note from the Intro in mind: “Stonewall truly represented one at all, was a shift primarily for white cisgender people, as people of color and gender non-conforming people never truly had the benefit of concealing their marginalized identities” (Library of Congress). Is there an intersectional view of radical activism that benefits everyone?

*:

• https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/06/08/us/us-police-floyd-protests-country-comparisons-intl/index.html
• https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/06/05/policekillings/
• https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/11/22/american-police-forces-perpetuate-racial-stereotypes-on-social-media
• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21533687211047943