The Legacy of Stonewall

A perspective on gay rights 2015

By Laura Godtfredsen

In four years we will mark the 50th Anniversary of the epic Stonewall Riots in New York City. Like the civil rights movement in the mid-sixties, the gay liberation movement was born in a violent resistance to police. Constant police harassment was an intolerant society’s way of restricting and disciplining the “unacceptable” behavior of gay men, lesbians, drag queens, and transvestites. From today’s perspective, the riots were an unavoidable outcome of incessant police barbarity. It proved to be the spark that inspired the rapid deployment of organizations in demanding full civil and legal rights. Like Selma, civil rights protest movements, in order to rectify long-held grievances, must give rise to sustained political and legal action. As we have seen in recent months, the African-American population has once again taken to the streets to protest years of police brutality. The gains made by the gay liberation movement for equal marital rights have demonstrated significant political maturity. But as we know, even success in statutory or constitutional law is never enough.

Although Stonewall was not the beginning, the years of police harassment and bullying of gay men, drag queens, transvestites, and stone butch lesbians of the gay rights movement galvanized the disparate parts of gay society to organize and create political and legal strategies that have become an enduring part of gay political action. By understanding the conditions that led to the Stonewall riots in June 1969 and the gay liberation tactics that followed, we may be able to assess the gay movement today and its promise for the future. What have we learned about our movement over the course of almost 50 years that may help us determine our future actions, strategies, and decisions?

Before Stonewall

Gay men before Stonewall had to make some hard choices about finding and being in relationships. Some risked hanging out in the bar scene, where they might find another man willing to have a closeted partnership; but many others followed convention, married women, had children and only later when gay relationships were more socially acceptable were divorced and actively pursued same-sex lifestyles. Lesbians, too, chose marriage with men only to realize later that they loved women. The conditions of the pre-Stonewall world encouraged denial and dishonesty.

Gay organizations, such as the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Belitis were not active political organizations, and there was no inclination or reason for them to work together. Homosexuality was illegal and there was no protection in employment and public association. The American Psychiatric Association deemed gays mentally ill. As a background to Stonewall, it is important to know that in the 1950s and 1960s, it was routine for the police in New York to back a paddy wagon up to the door of a gay bar, and simply round up those inside, regardless of who they were or how they identified. Lists appeared in the newspapers the following day with names and details of each person arrested.

This is evident by police behavior in the years before Stonewall. Police hostility and the prevailing homophobia in society drove both lesbians and gay men to live clandestine lives, in work and in relationships. The inclination was to play it safe and avoid detection in public, family, and work.

Drag queens, transvestites, butch lesbians, and gay prostitutes with their high visibility made them more likely to be harassed and arrested just by being themselves. Given the extent of gender, race, class, and generational prejudices in gay society, the potential for concerted and cohesive community without Stonewall is doubtful.

The Gay Rights Movement after Stonewall

It is important to appreciate the challenges that the gay rights movement had to overcome over the next four decades: pressuring the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from the list of mental illness; confronting anti-gay campaigns such as Anita Bryant’s in Florida; getting gays like Harvey Milk, Elaine Noble, and Barney Frank elected to public office; overcoming prejudices toward gay men because of AIDS; the struggle to defeat Proposition 8 in California. Gay Pride Day and the parades pushed gay visibility and consistently reminded gays of the battles they faced. Gay men and women became more politically sophisticated as they made use of the courts and legislatures to press for equal rights. Slow at the outset, it varied from city to city and state to state. In Massachusetts, gay marriage became legal by one vote in the Supreme Judicial Court (2003) and by one vote in the state legislature. As recently as August 2013, efforts to revive Proposition 8 in California were finally thwarted and a federal judge struck down a gay marriage ban in Miami-Dade County in January 2015. The Courts became the principle protector of gay rights with the decision to hold the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional in June 2013. Most US Courts of Appeals ruled state laws banning gay marriage unconstitutional. But these important gains under the 14 th Amendment to the Constitution still are resisted by 13 states that have legislated to ban gay marriage and eight others that are appealing the overturning of the ban on gay marriage.

What have we learned about our movement over the course of almost 50 years that may help us determine our future actions, strategies, and decisions?

The Next Phase and Beyond

The next advances in gay rights will depend on how the Supreme Court rules on gay marriage and the Constitution, and, more important, on how well attitudes toward gays will change in the smaller cities and towns throughout America. And that will depend on how effective gays and gay organizations are in pressing for their rights and winning over the “hearts and minds” of mostly small-town and rural America. Red states continue to resist change at every juncture, including women’s rights and racial justice. A number of states still oppose gay adoption and foster care, and 17 states either have not yet formally repealed their laws against sexual activity among consenting adults, or have not revised them to reflect accurately their true scope in the aftermath of Lawrence v. Texas. Transgender men and women are still stigmatized in employment and the use of public facilities. Only 18 states guarantee protection for transgender individuals in employment, relationships, and identity.

In California, the gay rights movement succeeded by using one of the most sophisticated issue campaign operations ever deployed and by painstaking grass roots door-to-door and face-to-face conversations. Now it must move beyond the courts and the legislatures into full involvement in society – a full court press. The election of gay representatives in 41 states is an important indicator of this change at work.

Pride and gay liberation still have a long road to travel. The recent political reactionary decisions in opposition to gay marriage are somber indicators of the challenge we face. The gay rights movement has succeeded thus far because it has resisted divisive forces within the movement. The older generation of gays set the tone for action that has defined the movement. Lesbians and gay men see each other as partners in this process and have supported initiatives for legalizing sex change for transsexuals, and welcomed in the gay community many who identify themselves as queer. Gay organizations of all types will have to become even more mature politically, especially in guaranteeing gay adoptions and visitation rights. Gay Pride and parades are vital reminders of the work that has to be done.

Laura Godtfredsen, 81, is Professor Emerita at Babson College, a US Veteran, and activist for transgender rights since 1961.