Stonewall
by Kirby Congdon……..
The movie, Stonewall, about the uprising of a minority against the local police, is an event this columnist remembers hearing about when it happened. The gays who frequented the Stonewall bar were not my crowd. I had not even heard of it before then. It was not patronized by the Sunday afternoon coffee and poetry aficionados. Having casual drinks out was always an expense that did not fit into most people’s budget. However the stigma of homosexuality was a given and this accusative stance was backed up by the pecking order of the local police in New York City. Their position is still exercised too often even now against the unemployed, the uneducated, and anyone who comes off as unstable, as strange or who lacks the right skin coloring. But everyone knew, even then, that rebelling against injustice, such as harassment by the police for being gay, was very pertinent.
All this happened decades ago in 1969. Such a revolution only now is gaining the recognition it deserves. The event was taken in its own time as just one more persecution of one class of citizens in the history of a large town. But even the sun, however familiar, on a dark cloudy day can still get in one’s eyes.
Kirby, I once had someone say to me that gays were trying to convince others to be gay. I looked at that person and said, man, when it comes to the pecking order of how human beings treat each other, who has had the lowest rung for the longest time? Nothing compares to the degradation homosexuals have had to endure, not even our more photogenic forms of racial prejudice. With this in mind, does anyone really believe that someone would want to be convinced to be gay? Man, the things people can be led to believe. Thanks for the article, Jerome
Kirby,
Very Good Stuff….I remember the Stonewall Riots…I was in combat overseas when I got wind of the incident….The strongest, and most fearless combatant that I ever served with was gay. The only thing that he liked more than men, was fighting.
Members of the NYPD are very lucky that my Brother was 12,000 miles away from the uprising…
The following may offer a critique of the tragic circumstances.
Originally appeared in Socialism Today No. 40, July 1999
Something unremarkable happened on June 28, 1969 in New York’s Greenwich Village, an event which had occurred a thousand times before across the U.S. over the decades. The police raided a gay bar.
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