Police raids of gay bars in the 1950s and 1960s used to be routine, involving the threatening and beating of customers and staff alike.īut when police raided the Stonewall Inn in the early hours of Jthings did not go to plan, and what followed effectively kick-started the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement. of another such movement-breaking the silence imposed by the historical hegemony in Anglo-American legal culture of 'the unspeakable crime against nature not to be spoken among Christians,' as Blackstone put it in his Commentaries.' What were the Stonewall Riots? He told Newsweek: 'There was a lot going on before Stonewall, but coming at the end of the civil rights movement and its remarkable legal successes, Stonewall historically marks the remarkable emergence in the U.S.
Each June, Pride Month honors the history of Stonewall with parades and events. A march to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City on June 26, 1994.
