• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • 5 DOUBLE-U’S
    • MASTHEAD
    • DISTRIBUTION
    • ADVERTISE
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Boston's Only Newspaper

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG Year End 2020

THE BLEACHING OF STONEWALL

Written by IRENE MONROE Posted June 5, 2019 Filed Under: COLUMNS, Editorial

Image by Diana Davies, copyright New York Public Library

On this anniversary of the riots, let’s get closer to the truth of what happened in NYC

 

This year will mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots that took place from June 27 to 29, 1969, in the Greenwich Village section of NYC. The event is well-known because it galvanized LGBTQ+ activist organizations and movements here and abroad.

 

When I look back at the first night of the Stonewall Inn riots, I could have never imagined its future importance. I couldn’t have imagined the whitewashing of the event either. As with all iconic narratives, though, apocryphal tales abound, along with questions about the truth.

 

According to many LGBTQ blacks and Latinx, one of the reasons for the gulf between them and whites, and what prevented a united front against homo/transphobia in local and national politics from forming, is how the dominant white queer community rewrote and continues to control the narrative of Stonewall. Like with Pride events, for example.

 

The Stonewall turbulence started on the backs of working-class African American and Latino queers who patronized the bar. Those brown and black LGBTQ people are not only absent from the photos of that night, but they have been bleached from its written history.

 

The first night of the riots played out no differently from previous riots with black Americans and white law enforcement officers. And so it was underreported.

 

But I was there!

 

Friday, June 27, was the last day of school that year. My middle school cronies and I looked forward to a summer reprieve from rioting against Italian, Irish, and Jewish public school kids for being bussed into their neighborhoods.

 

However, the summer months in Brooklyn’s African American enclaves only escalated rioting between the NYPD and us. During this tumultuous decade of black rage and white police raids, knee-jerk responses to slights quickly set the stage for a conflagration, creating both instantaneous and momentary fighting alliances in these Black communities across gangs, class, age, ethnicity, and sexual orientations—against police brutality.

 

That night of June 27 started no differently than any other hot and humid summer Friday evening in my neighborhood. Past midnight, folks with no AC or working fans in their homes were hanging out. The news came from one of our neighbors that “pigs”—a term we called white police officers in the 1960s—“across the bridge in Greenwich Village are beating up on black [F-word]s—right now!”

 

African American and Latinx patrons frequented the Stonewall Inn heavily and thus comprised the largest percentage of protestors on the first night of the riots. For homeless youth and young adults who slept in nearby Christopher Park, the Stonewall Inn was a stable domicile. And its being raided was nothing new.

 

In the 1960s, gay bars in the Village were routinely raided. As one commenter on T-VOX, an LGBTQ+ support forum, noted, “Race is said to have been another factor. The decision by the police to raid the bar in the manner they did may have been influenced by the fact that most of the ‘homosexuals’ they would encounter were of color, and therefore even more objectionable.”

 

In the ’60s, riots between white police officers and black citizens took place in our neighborhoods, just as they still do today: Ferguson, 2014 (Michael Brown); Baltimore, 2015 (Freddie Gray); Louisiana, 2016 (Alton Sterling); Minnesota, 2016 (Philando Castile), to name a few. On the first night of Stonewall, many of us who went to the Village did so to retrieve our loved ones and leave. It takes white privilege to fight the police, expect to walk away alive, and create a hagiographical narrative of white heroism.

 

For example, Roland Emmerich’s long-awaited 2015 film Stonewall spurred both shock and disappointment in moviegoers, historians, and LGBT activists, including myself. The film failed to depict an accurate story, and in its place presented a revisionist history. Emmerich apparently felt a more captivating narrative should center around a blond, blue-eyed, “straight-acting” Midwestern protagonist, likely in order to appeal to mainstream audiences.

 

“I didn’t make this movie only for gay people, I made it also for straight people,” Emmerich told Buzzfeed. “As a director, you have to put yourself in your movies, and I’m white and gay.”

 

In doing so, Emmerich’s doppelganger, Danny, reinscribes the trope of the white savior and action hero. Danny throws the first brick, setting off the riots while shouting “GAY POWER!”. Even though in real life, the shakers, movers, and brick throwers were poor and working-class black and Latino LGBTQs. I was disturbed by Emmerich’s Stonewall—not only because of its whitewashing, but also because of the enduring nature of this revisionist history.

 

Still today, trans communities of color are relegated to the margins of Greenwich Village. Nonetheless, many force their way in to become a visible and influential presence in our lives, leaving indelible imprints despite being confronted with transphobia and “trans-amnesia.”

 

The white-dominant control of the Stonewall narrative, meanwhile, must relinquish its hold to give way to a broader truth.

IRENE MONROE

Rev. Irene Monroe can be heard on the podcast and standing Boston Public Radio segment ALL REV’D UP on WGBH (89.7 FM). Monroe’s syndicated religion columns appear and the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail. She is a s a Visiting Researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology.

More from author
  • IRENE MONROE
    https://digboston.com/author/irene-monroe/
    THE ‘GUINEA PIG PHASE’: WHY HISTORY SPURS SOME TO QUESTION VACCINES
  • IRENE MONROE
    https://digboston.com/author/irene-monroe/
    OPINION: SOMEONE HAD TO DO IT FIRST
  • IRENE MONROE
    https://digboston.com/author/irene-monroe/
    BEING FRANK: IS THE POPE'S SUPPORT OF CIVIL UNIONS MERELY LIP SERVICE?
  • IRENE MONROE
    https://digboston.com/author/irene-monroe/
    A LOSS FOR ALL AMERICANS—EVEN THE ONES WHO DON'T REALIZE IT

Filed Under: COLUMNS, Editorial Tagged With: LGBTQ, New York, Pride, Stonewall

WHAT’S NEW

FORMER MASS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE PREDICTED VIOLENCE BEFORE ASSAULT ON CAPITOL

FORMER MASS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE PREDICTED VIOLENCE BEFORE ASSAULT ON CAPITOL

PRISON HORRORS BY THE NUMBERS

PRISON HORRORS BY THE NUMBERS

Harry Brill. Photo courtesy of Gary Zabel.

RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL

Aerial View Parkman Bandstand at Boston Common. CC BY-SA 4.0 2017 by AbhiSuryawanshi.

NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 PROTEST ON BOSTON COMMON, 4 PM

IT'S HARDER THAN EVER TO FIND A BATHROOM IN BOSTON. WHAT'S THE CITY DOING ABOUT IT?

IT’S HARDER THAN EVER TO FIND A BATHROOM IN BOSTON. WHAT’S THE CITY DOING ABOUT IT?

ON NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION, PROTESTERS CALL FOR EVICTION MORATORIUM

ON NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION, PROTESTERS CALL FOR EVICTION MORATORIUM

Primary Sidebar

HEMPIRE FREEDOM PACK 25% OFF

FEATURED EVENT

Most Popular

  • APPOINTED SOMERVILLE OFFICIAL SPURS OUTRAGE WITH TWEETS FROM DC MOB SCENE by MARC LEVY
  • Aerial View Parkman Bandstand at Boston Common. CC BY-SA 4.0 2017 by AbhiSuryawanshi. NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 PROTEST ON BOSTON COMMON, 4 PM by MATTHEW ANDREWS
  • VIDEO: COP WHO BRAGGED THAT HE HIT PROTESTERS SHOWS HOW BAD APPLES THRIVE IN BOSTON by CHRIS FARAONE
  • STATE LOOKS TO SPEND $75K TO PREVENT FUTURE STORROWINGS by DAN ATKINSON
  • IT’S HARDER THAN EVER TO FIND A BATHROOM IN BOSTON. WHAT’S THE CITY DOING ABOUT IT? by ZACK HUFFMAN

READ CURRENT MEMBER EDITION

DIG Member 1.9 – 11/26/20

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG Year End 2020

Footer

digbos

RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL http RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL https://digboston.com/radical-and-relevant-the-life-of-harry-brill/ #obituary #organizer #radical #sociologist #democracy #politics @UMassBoston @BklynCollege411 @UCBerkeley #Boston #Massachusetts #NewYorkCity #Berkeley #California
NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 #PROTEST ON BOSTON CO NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 #PROTEST ON BOSTON COMMON, 4 PM https://digboston.com/no-honeymoon-for-biden-1-20-protest-on-boston-common-4-pm/ #opinion #progressive #left #action #inauguration #Boston #Massachusetts
Light and sweet and hoppy, we’re loving this lat Light and sweet and hoppy, we’re loving this latest incarnation of a #beer that’s been in the making for months. https://digboston.com/video-jacks-abby-x-boston-celtics-pride-and-parquet-hoppy-lager-unboxing-tasting/ #fun #video #review #Boston #Massachusetts
Jostling for position and influence are the disadv Jostling for position and influence are the disadvantaged candidates, existing industry participants, and municipalities … https://digboston.com/the-road-to-home-delivery-pt-5-dogs-in-the-fight-identifying-the-players/ #cannabis #politics #analysis #Massachusetts
The candidates will be interviewed about the upcom The candidates will be interviewed about the upcoming race. https://digboston.com/wu-and-campbell-to-speak-at-mayoral-candidate-webinar/ #politics #mayor #campaign #Boston #Massachusetts
Participants took to the streets in the hope of sw Participants took to the streets in the hope of swaying the Biden administration. https://digboston.com/on-national-day-of-action-protesters-call-for-eviction-moratorium/ #housing #justice #protest #national #Boston #Massachusetts
“They refuse to respond to this humanitarian cri “They refuse to respond to this humanitarian crisis where people really need them. We’re just ignoring this problem and it’s getting worse and worse.” https://digboston.com/its-harder-than-ever-to-find-a-bathroom-in-boston-whats-the-city-doing-about-it/ #politics #unhoused #homeless #bathroom #public #health #Boston #Massachusetts
Environmental #justice and #climate change advocat Environmental #justice and #climate change advocates are pushing for its passage. https://digboston.com/baker-urged-to-sign-game-changing-climate-bill/ #environment #globalwarming #legislation #politics #Massachusetts
In short, it’s amazing. For details, check the # In short, it’s amazing. For details, check the #video … https://digboston.com/video-night-shifts-tea-party-is-subtle-love-for-people-who-hate-most-hard-teas/ #review #fun #beer @NightShiftBeer
HOW TO DEFEAT THE HARD RIGHT: Some thoughts on the HOW TO DEFEAT THE HARD RIGHT: Some thoughts on the Capitol attack and building a more democratic nation. The latest from DigBoston's @jasonpramas. https://digboston.com/how-to-defeat-the-hard-right/ #democracy #politics #Capitol #US #America #attack #Biden #Trump #grassroots #movement #analysis #strategy #MAGA
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Submissions

Advertise

Privacy Policy

Customer Service

Distribution

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an e-mail blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: [email protected] To reach Editorial: [email protected] For internship opportunities: [email protected]