History of Pride Parades & Celebrating Stonewall

Before we get into Stonewall, I need to give a little context of what it was like to not only be a gay person in the 1960s, but also be a gay person who wants to get a drink and do a little dance in the 1960s. 

At the time, being homosexual was considered a mental illness. Homosexuality was listed alongside pedophilia and zoophilia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The American Psychiatric Association didn’t remove or update this until 1973. 

A PBS Documentary on the Stonewall Uprising features first-hand accounts from historians and those involved in the uprising. The documentary features William Eskridge, a professor of law, who explained that gay people were often sent to psychiatric facilities for being sexual deviants. 

These people were often exposed to electric shock therapy, lobotomies, and even experimental medical testing. Eskridge named Atascadero, California, as one of the most infamous places for this type of testing. The medical testing at the facility included administering a drug to gay people that simulated the experience of drowning. Eskridge called this a “pharmacological example of waterboarding.” 

While being homosexual was seen as a mental illness, being homosexual wasn’t necessarily illegal. Rather, committing homosexual acts like kissing or canoodling someone of the same sex was against the law. These acts were lewd and immoral, and just one of the many crimes gay people were charged with in the 1960s. 

An 1845 statute made it illegal to masquerade, aka serve sickening looks diva. People had to wear three articles of clothing that matched their assigned gender at birth, or they would be in violation and face jail time, making masculine lesbians, drag queens, transgender, and gender non-conforming people an easy target for police. 

Another easy target for police was any bar or restaurant that openly served alcohol to gay customers. These establishments were dubbed “disorderly houses” by the State Liquor Authority (SLA), so the SLA refused to issue liquor licenses to many gay bars, and several bars had licenses suspended or revoked for "indecent conduct,” aka serving drinks to divas serving looks. This was frustrating for gay people who just wanted a space to hang out with their friends and find a sense of community. 

In Spring 1966, three members of the Mattachine Society in New York decided to host a sit-in to demonstrate how bars were discriminatory against gay people. The Mattachine Society was a secret LA organization founded in 1950 and was one of several prominent groups during early LGBTQ activism. The collective actions of groups such as the Mattachine Society, the Janus Society, and the Daughters of Bilitis set the stage for the gay rights movement. These groups were part of a larger organization called the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations, or E.R.C.H.O.

Dick Leitsch, the leader of the New York Chapter of the Mattachine Society, was inspired by the sit-ins of the civil rights movement and decided to stage a Sip-In with two other members named Craig Rodwell and Randy Wicker. The plan was to walk into a bar, be gay, and get denied service. Once they were denied, the organization and the American Civil Liberties Union in New York could move forward with legal action against the SLA. 

Before the demonstration, the society reached out to publications to ensure the event was properly covered. Spoiler alert, it was not. The original bar they chose for the Sip-In was the Ukrainian-American Village Hall, which closed immediately after reporters showed up and ruined the plan. They went on to Howard Johnson’s and Waikiki, where both establishments served the men drinks. It wasn’t until they got to Julius' that they got the response they needed to move forward and expose the discriminatory law.

The SLA denied the discrimination claim, responding that the decision to serve or refrain from serving individuals was up to bartenders. Soon after, the Commission on Human Rights got involved, claiming that homosexuals had the right to be served in bars, so the SLA policy no longer viewed homosexuals as “disorderly” and they had to be served. 

After this, gay patrons were allowed a freedom that they hadn’t experienced before, and for the next few years, the gay community felt empowered at least on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village in New York City. Police raids became less commonplace, and gay patrons seemed to have some safe spaces in the city. One of those places was The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village in New York City.

The Sopranos Owned Stonewall

By the mid-60s, the Genovese crime family controlled the majority of gay bars in Greenwich Village. In 1966, a member of the crime family named Tony Lauria, also known as Fat Tony, bought the Stonewall Inn, which he renovated and reopened as a gay bar where he made money off of everything. He bribed the NYPD with around $1,200 a month to turn a blind eye to everything going on at the bar.

The bar also pretended to be a private bottle club because those did not require a liquor license, and they were not as easily raided by the police. Stonewall required patrons to sign their names, often fake, and pay a small entry fee of $1 for their membership. Because it operated under the table, it also operated under many health code violations. There was no running water in the bar, so drinks were often served in dirty, used glasses. The alcohol was also rumored to be stolen and watered down, but sold at top-shelf prices. 

Fat Tony would also frequently extort clients and wealthy patrons who were not public about their sexuality. This practice would eventually become the most profitable aspect of the Mafia’s gay bar business venture. 

Although it was disgusting, overpriced, and downright dangerous for patrons, it was still a place for gay people to hang out with their friends, drink, and dance. Someone in the PBS Documentary explained, “What was so good about the Stonewall is that you could dance slow there. Because we could feel a sense of love for each other that we couldn’t show out on the street.” 

Cleaning Up The Streets & Starting a Riot 

Speaking of the street, there was an upcoming election in November 1969. Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected and, like most New York City mayors, wanted to do so by promising to clean up the streets. So, police reinstated and escalated their crackdown on bars for his re-election campaign. 

Ed Koch, a democratic party leader in the Greenwich Village area, was tasked with being the leader of the legal forces seeking to clean up the streets. Deputy Inspector for New York City Seymour Pine was also heavily involved. Both of them were interviewed in the PBS Documentary. 

In their quest to clean up the streets, Koch, Pine, and their team began raiding bars in Greenwich Village. Most raids by City police took place on weeknights, early in the evening, so the place wouldn’t be crowded. This is because the mafia pays off the police. The Stonewall Inn was actually raided the previous Tuesday night, so Pine and his team entering the bar after 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 28, with a packed crowd was extremely unusual. 

People who were at Stonewall recounted the events for the PBS Documentary. They explained that when the cops came in, the lights turned on, and everyone was pushed to the back room of the bar, and the cops began asking for I.D.s. Anyone who didn’t have identification or whose assigned gender on their license didn’t match their clothing was arrested. Meanwhile, a crowd was forming outside of Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. 

Howard Smith, a reporter with The Village Voice, said he was in his office and saw the commotion outside of Stonewall. When he ran down the street, he saw police cars, and everything started getting bigger by the minute, and he realized the people coming out of Stonewall were not going as easily as they normally did during police raids. They were fighting back. 

Lucian Truscott, another reporter for The Village Voice, explained that a “rather tough lesbian” was fighting as the cops tried to get her into the back of the cop car. Although he doesn’t confirm it in the documentary, I believe Truscott is referring to Stormé DeLarverie, who was a biracial lesbian drag performer. She is considered by many to be that “rather tough lesbian” who threw the first punch at the riots and became the spark that ignited the uprising.

As she fought, the cops became more violent, and the crowd became angrier. Dick Leitsch, explained that the patrons were “goofing on the cops, just making their lives miserable for once,” which was not common for most queer communities at the time. 

Groups like the Mattachine Society wanted to fit into American society how it was, they wanted to be as Plain Jane as Dick and Jane. This grew challenging for many other members who grew too radicalized to simply fit in with current American society. 

Keep in mind, this is June 1969. This was during the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated only a year prior, America’s involvement in the Vietnam War was at an all-time high, and so were the protests against it. Many things were going on in the country that were disrupting the status quo and fueling the fire for equal rights and freedom for all.

Leitsch explained, “What we felt in isolation was a growing sense of outrage and fury, particularly because we looked around and saw so many avenues of rebellion.” Stonewall was the first time gay people, particularly white gay men, did not run and hide or go quietly when faced with law enforcement. 

The police began to feel threatened and moved back into the bar with the remaining patrons and Howard Smith, the reporter from The Village Voice. Smith explained in the documentary that the people inside the bar were able to look through pin holes in the plywood “windows” within the bar, and they could see the crowd growing, and people began throwing stuff at the bar. Then a fire started. 

Two months before her 24th birthday, about 7 years after she graduated high school and moved to New York City, Marsha P Johnson was standing in front of the Stonewall Inn with her best friend, 17-year-old Sylvia Rivera. The two arrived at Stonewall around 2 a.m. Johnson later said in an interview, “The place was already on fire, and there was a raid already. The riots had already started.” There are many competing stories about what she did exactly during the raid, but it is clear she was on the front lines, and people often credit Marsha with throwing the first brick at Stonewall, although that hasn’t actually been confirmed. 

Ms. Sylvia, on the other hand, wants credit where credit is due. Rivera said in a 2001 interview that while she did not throw the first Molotov cocktail at the police, she did throw the second. 

After Sylvia threw some flames on the fire, Pine explained in the documentary that he was as scared in that moment as he was in the Army. A policewoman was able to squeeze through a window and get out of the Stonewall Inn and get backup. Buses filled with tactical police force showed up at the scene and formed a line, and began to march down Christopher St., attempting to push people in one direction.

A drag queen named Miss Orleans began walking against the police with other protestors, pushing the police back, and as they moved back, the protestors realized they were in control of the area. Large groups of protestors were able to run between the blocks, running away from the police and intimidating them at the same time. 

Protestors interviewed for the documentary recounted kicklines and singing. It was a moment of joy and power. But then, the police began to hit and attack protestors, and things escalated. Windows were shattered, and the Stonewall was destroyed. Garbage cans were set on fire, tires of police cars were slashed. The resistance raged on for hours, and most of the crowds dispersed around 4:00 a.m. 

Riots Leading Parades 

But, protestors came back the second night, including those who weren’t there the first night, even non-gay people. Black panthers and anti-war protestors attended. Even more tactical force came out on the second night, bringing more violence than the first. People were lying on the sidewalk, bleeding from the head. Police used tear gas. Speakers in the PBS Documentary explained that there was more anger and more fighting on the second night. Protests continued into the next week, with more violence. 

And yet, there was little coverage. No TV cameras, only an article or two in The Village Voice and The New York Times. But it wasn’t covered in the way it should have been. Most articles just referred to it as a night when some drag queens fought police officers. 

But it was so much more than that, and there was so much more to do. So there was a protest march. 

The idea was proposed by Martha Shelley. Shelley was already active in the “Reminder Day Pickets” that took place at Independence Hall in Philadelphia from 1965 to 1969, which sought to remind the public that gay people were not as free as everyone else. These were organized by E.R.C.H.O.

In November 1969, at the E.R.C.H.O. Conference, 13 organizations voted to hold an annual demonstration on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street. The demonstration would be called Christopher Street Liberation Day. There were thousands of attendees at the first Christopher Street Liberation Day in June 1970.

Some of those interviewed in the PBS Documentary were part of this first march. They explained that there were threats of violence, specifically bomb threats, so people were scared. But as they continued up Sixth Avenue and made their way to Central Park, the march kept growing. 

It went from 100 people to over 2,000. No violence, no arrests. Marches were planned for the following year in New York, LA, and Chicago, and soon enough, other cities in other states began establishing their own Pride celebrations. 

Celelebrating & Fighting 

And as we celebrate Pride, we celebrate those who put their lives on the line for us and acknowledge that the fight is far from over. There are hundreds of bills being discussed by U.S. representatives that threaten freedom and quality of life for members of the LGBTQ community. 

In 2025 alone, 112 anti-trans bills have been passed so far. There are 920 bills under consideration that would negatively impact trans and gender non-conforming people. Not to mention the books being banned, the lack of teacher/student confidentiality in schools, and the rise in recent hate crimes. 

NBC published an article using data from GLAAD, which revealed that there have been 932 anti-LGBTQ incidents across the United States over the past year. This includes hate speech, bomb threats, and fatal violence, and more than half of these acts target transgender and gender-nonconforming people. 

This is the third year GLAAD has published an annual report based on its Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker. The 932 incidents tracked in this latest report occurred between May 1, 2024, and May 1, 2025. This is a 20% drop from last year, where there were 1,173 incidents, but this is an 80% increase from the 521 incidents tracked in its report in 2023.

GLAAD defines anti-LGBTQ incidents as both criminal and noncriminal “acts of harassment, threats, vandalism, and assault motivated by anti-LGBTQ hate and extremism.” Incidents are tracked through self-reports, media reports, social media posts, and data sharing from partner organizations and law enforcement agencies. That being said, there are a large number of incidents that go unreported, so the actual number is certainly much higher. 

Earlier this month, actor Jonathon Joss was shot and murdered outside the site of his former home. A home that was destroyed by a fire, which took the lives of his three dogs. His husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, shared a statement about his death on his Facebook page, claiming that the incident allegedly occurred after multiple threats and harassment from "individuals" in the area. 

He wrote that he and Joss were "checking the mail at the site of our former home" when a man approached them and allegedly started yelling violent homophobic slurs. Then raised a gun from his lap and fired. Joss pushed his husband out of the way to save his life. They just got married this past Valentine’s Day. 

Tristan wrote on Facebook: “Jonathan is my husband. He gave me more love in our time together than most people ever get. We were newlyweds. We picked Valentine's Day. We were in the process of looking for a trailer and planning our future. He was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other. I was with him when he passed. I told him how much he was loved."

Anti-LGBTQ legislation and incidents, even as seemingly meaningless as not allowing a book featuring two mommies to be read to elementary school students, fuel the fire and hatred that leads to violent events such as this. Even the way news outlets are covering the story is completely missing the point and almost downplaying the situation. The ABC News article I read for the quotes from Tristan is titled, “Chris Pratt mourns ‘Parks and Recreation’ co-star Jonathon Joss after his death.” Oh, thanks, I was so curious to know how Chris Pratt was doing in this situation. 

According to the past two years of reporting by GLAAD’s Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker, Anti-LGBTQ incidents take place more frequently in June. 

As silly as it sound, this is why pride parades and safe spaces for queer people are critical and life-saving. Except, it seems that there are fewer and fewer safe spaces for queer people every year. 

In 2023, there were 803. Which seems like a lot, but keep in mind that there are over 65,000 bars in the United States. 

There are fewer than 40 lesbian bars in the entire country. According to PBS, in the late 1980s, there were nearly 200 lesbian bars in the U.S. This number dropped to 21 in June 2021. 

The Lesbian Bar Project started as a short documentary created by Erica Rose and Elina Street. The two wanted to highlight the dwindling lesbian bars while also trying to fundraise to open more. They reported that there are now 36 lesbian bars in America, so an increase from 2021, but still a shocking and disappointing amount. 

New York City’s Pride March is scheduled for June 29 at 11:00 a.m., 55 years after the first Pride march and 56 years after the Stonewall Uprising. The theme for this year’s march is “Rise Up: Pride in Protest” to honor the legacy of the very first Pride March.