Stonewall Inn History

Life as a member of the LGBTQ+ community is not an easy life. In the early morning of June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, located in the Greenwich Village of New York City, a series of violent, spontaneous demonstrations in the LGBT community began against a police raid. That moment in history, the brick that started it all, is considered the most important event leading to the fight for LGBTQ+ Americans.
Background
After the social mayhem that was World War II, Americans felt a severe need to restore social order and hold off on change. Senator Joseph McCarthy conducted hearings searching for communists in the U.S. government, the Army, and many other government-funded agencies and organizations. This leads to national paranoia. Communists,

In 1966, three members of the Mafia invested $3,500 to turn Stonewall into a gay bar. Once a week a police officer would collect cash as a payoff; Stonewall had no liquor license. There was no running water behind the bar, no fire exits, and the toilets barely worked. Patrons of the club had to sign their names in a book, but they rarely signed their real names. Stonewall had two dance floors; the interior was painted black with black lights. If regular lights were on it meant that everyone should stop dancing or touching and that police were there. The diversity of the club made it known as “the gay bar” leading to many raids. Raids were already frequent in gay bars – averaging once a month for each bar. Stashing alcohol where the police couldn’t find was common, so the business could resume quickly if alcohol was seized. Due to police payoffs the bar management usually knew about raids before they happened; if they happened early enough in the night business could continue

We’re taking the place!” The employees who were tipped off to raids never were informed of this one. Some say that the raid was ordered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, although this was never confirmed. Earlier in the night two undercover policewomen and two undercover policemen entered the bar to gather visual evidence, and the Public Morals Squad waited outside for the signal. The undercover police officers called for backup using the bar’s pay phone.
Roughly 205 people were in the bar that night. Man of the patrons had never experienced a raid and were confused. Others who realized what was happening ran for doors and windows in the bathrooms; the police had barred the doors. The bar was already entering chaos.
Michael Fader remembered, “Things happened so fast you kind of got caught not knowing. All of a sudden there were police there and we were told to all get in lines and to have our identification ready to be led out of the bar.” The raid was not going to the police’s plan. The procedure was to line up the patrons, check identification, and have the female officers take customers dressed as women to the bathroom to ‘verify’ their sex; many men in drag were