Stonewall Riots Research Paper

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Pages: 10

The Stonewall Inn was a haven for the LGBTQ+ community in the 1960s but at the end of the decade, the Inn was raided by the police. The Stonewall Riots were the real beginning of the LGBTQ+ movement, a six-day-long uprising between LGBTQ+ protesters and the police. The Stonewall Riots are wrongfully titled as “riots” when in actuality it was an uprising. The police would constantly raid gay bars and gay people were finally forced to fight back (“LGBTQIA+ Studies: A Resource Guide - 1969: The Stonewall Uprising.”). The homosexuals who went to the bars were well aware that there was a high likelihood that police could quite possibly raid them at any moment. Every single place that gay people used as a safe house would be targeted by the police; …show more content…
Over the next few days, from June 29th through July 1st, the Stonewall Inn was a place of congregation for LGBTQ+ citizens and activists. They used the riots as a way to spread information and build up the gay community and lit the match to start the fire of gay activism. Even with the return of the police, the atmosphere had become less combative, with small-scale fights taking the place of the weekend's massive disturbances. The newspaper reported on the Stonewall riots framing the gay population as the enemies using the quote “the forces of faggotry.” After the article came out LGBTQ+ people were forming crowds outside of the news office and many people demanded that the building be burnt down. The police would once again show up to fight the gay community and riots began again though they were brief; ending by midnight (Pruitt). The Stonewall Riots had an unimaginable impact not only on the LGBTQ+ community at large, but it had a huge impact on each group of people in the LGBTQ+