The new LGBT people move in, change the fabric of the neighborhood, in both desirable and less desirable ways. Queer people are moving into less expensive neighborhoods, which are usually home to lower income people and in some cases predominantly people of color neighborhoods. It is impossible to talk about gayborhoods without mentioning gentrification. The gayborhoods offer much more than nightlife, there is also a high concentration of non discriminatory resources such as doctors, bookstores,and other places where queer people could and still do live as their most authentic selves. Gayborhoods are often sprinkled with nightlife venues, as for many queer people their local gay bar was where they felt safe, grew up and grew into themselves. While gayborhoods are still thriving in many parts of the world, they hail from a time period when being gay was criminialized and homophobia was alive and well in western countries. These acts of rebellion sped up change and were a direct rejection of the systems that keep us oppressed.Gay neighborhoods, gay villages or the often used “gayborhoods” have been around dating back as far the the 1920’s, as a basic necessity for queer people to stay safe. We recognize that the movement for Queer liberation gained momentum because of “riots”. It was one of the first LGBTQ uprisings in the United States.
Since then, the Dyke March has never held a permit Cooper’s Do-nuts Riot (1959)Īt the Cooper’s Do-nuts Riot of 1959, Drag queens clashed with LAPD and threw donuts at officers who were harassing and arresting anyone whose gender identity didn’t match their gender presentation. The Dyke March first started in 1993 when over 20,000 lesbian activists from the Lesbian Avengers, ACT Up, and Puss N’ Boots, marched in Washington, DC without a permit and held a huge vulva like a puppet to protest anti-LGBTQ laws. The White Night Riots were the most violent rebellions since the Stonewall riots ten years prior. When Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official, was assassinated in 1979, thousands of protestors rioted in San Francisco’s Castro District due to the lenient sentencing of Dan White for Milk’s murder. The case went to court and it was declared that NY State Liquor Authority could not deny service to gay people.
Four activists told the bartender that hey were gay and the bar denied them. In 1966, when bars in New York didn’t allow for LGBTQ people to get served in bars, a group of gay men from the Mattachine Society challenged authority by organizing a “sip-in” at Julius at the West Village Tavern. It resulted in the creation of the Transsexual Counseling Unit in 1968.` The LGBTQ community came together the following morning for what is now known as the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots and picketed Gene’s. When a police officer tried to arrest a trans woman, she threw a cup of coffee in his face.
In the summer of 1966, a Gene Compton’s cafeteria worker called the San Francisco Police Department. In 2016, the Obama administration named the bar a national monument! One year after the riots, thousands of people marched from Stonewall Inn to Central Park, resulting in the first gay pride parade in NYC. The Stonewall Riots weren’t the start of the gay liberation movement, they were a major catalyst for gay civil rights in the US and across the world.
CASTRO GAY BAR NYC SERIES
In June of 1969, when police dragged employees and patrons out of the bar, a series of riots and confrontations against the cops took place outside the bar for six days and involved thousands of people. Stonewall Inn was one of NYC’s most well-known gay bars that welcomed drag queens and was a home for runaway and homeless LGBTQ youth. If you’re not Queer but reap the enjoyments of Queer culture, you too can thank a riot! Here’s a list of historical riots that were poignant for the LGBTQ movement and responsible for the freedoms we have today: Yet, the direct actions of marginalized communities are frequently dismissed or repressed with weaponized language, such as the label of a riot as a means to undermine their movements for liberation.ĭuring this Pride Month where the protests for #BlackLivesMatter and #BlackTransLivesMatter are frequently criticized for being “unlawful” and “violent”, we wanted to highlight key moments of resistance and rebellion that have sparked the movement for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Some of these direct actions are hailed as great moments representing the United States’ tenacity – like how the 1773 Boston Tea Party is celebrated in many history books. Historically, confrontations with the police or other law enforcement have been movement starters for oppressed people in the United States.