Lillian Faderman: The Gay Revolution NY 2016
Lillian Faderman The Gay Revolution - The Story of the Struggle New York 2016
CBD: Several "drag queens" said they were "ladies" and were taken by policewomen to the toilet,
A small knot of lesbian patrons (ie more than one) were also singled out for special attention when a couple of them got feisty, back-talking to the officers, yelling "We have a right to be here!"
But she wouldn't stay put. Three times (still hand-cuffed?) she slid out of the driver's-side back door and tried to run back into the Stonewall (Inn)..... The last time, as beefy a policeman wrestled her back to wards the squad car, she yelled to the crowd,
Part 4: Earthquake: The Stonewall Years
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| p171-182 |
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| p172 Arrival of police Ref 3: The Stonewalls 'riots' (sic) have been described extensively by eye-witnesses Time 01:20 - ref? |
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| Ref 4: The term transgender didn't yet have currency in 1969 Ref 5: David Carter, Stonewall New York 2004 p141. |
(CBD: there were two female undercover police officers, in the Stonewall before the raid)
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| Ref 5: David Carter, Stonewall New York 2004 p141. |
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| Ref 7: a range of sources cited |
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| Ref 8: Inspector Pine (senior police officer at the raid) 2004 talk for NY Historical Society "We're going down to grab the fags" the Stonewall Raid" Villager. 16-22 June 2004 |
If they were so lucky as to be shooed outside instead of carted off to the police station and booked, they (would normally) quickly skedaddled.
page 173 paras 1, 2 & 3
But on this night they didn't. As patrons (of the Stonewall Inn) were released by the police, they stood on the sidewalk (pavement) in front of the bar to see if friends inside would be set free; and as each new person came through the Stonewall's door, those who waited applauded and cheered. The unexpected limelight proved irresistible to many of those liberated who made devil-may-care asbowing, blowing kisses to the throng.
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| Ref 9: Jerry Lisker Homo nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad Daily News (NY) 6 July 1969 |
The whole proceedings took on the aura of a homosexual Academy Awards Night.
Jerry Lisker - eye-witness LF1
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| Ref 10: Howard Smith Full Moon over the Stonewall Village Voice 3 July 1969 |
Howard Smith - eye-witness LF2
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| Ref 10: Lucian Truscott (he wrote for the Village Voice until 1975) |
Lucian Truscott - LF3
p173 para 3
A few onlookers booed the police - ie witnessing, watching, booing but not 'rioting'
But the real turning point,
But the real turning point, Smith & Truscott agreed, came after several policemen
dragged a (ie one) butch lesbian out of the bar. They had hand-cuffed her because she had struggled with them. CBD: inside the bar - both struggle and hand-cuffing
The paddy wagon was FULL, so the officers (male & plural) pushed the hefty, dark-haired woman who was wearing a man's dress suit into one of the squad cars...
"Why don't you guys DO something?"
[CBD: emphasis mine ie they weren't doing anything to help.]
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| Ref 16: Howard Smith Full Moon over the Stonewall 3 July 1969 |
The first punch or brick or bottle is... irrelevant, the point is what turned a passive but booing crowd into anything that could be described as a 'riot'? This butch lesbian's resistance had started INSIDE the Stonewall Inn, otherwise she would not have been hand-cuffed. She was man-handled out of the Stonewall Inn by not one but several male police officers.
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| Ref 14: Leo E Lawrence - Berkeley Barb's comment on women's participation |
"Ironically it was a chick who gave the rallying cry to fight"
Thus according to Lillian Faderman's analysis...
Stonewall was started by a hefty female LESBIAN.
Then it is merely interesting to ask who was this lesbian woman?
Another day, another blog.
Clare B Dimyon MBE
for services to 'lesbian, gay, bisexual & trans' people
of
central & eastern Europe
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