A Friday night on June 27th, 1969, marks the begining. It was on that Summer evening in Greenwich Village in New York City when the police finally threw the last straw by unjustly raiding the Stonewall Inn in yet another form of harassing gay people, that all hell broke loose and a riot ensued. It did not end that night, either. The war was on!
The following day work began spreading about what had happened and the gay population began to make it's way to Ground Zero to see the stricken bar for themselves. By 9pm that night small groups were forming out on the sidewalks of Christopher Street, where Stonewall stood. The police were busy at work keeping the crowds moving in order to prevent a repeat of the night before - so they thought, anyway. It was not long before the crowd swelled to over a thousand and growing. No longer could the sidewalks contain them and they spilled into the street. It was then that the crowd mounted the offense and took the street as a platoon would capture a fort. They took it for themselves and blocked traffic only letting vehicles carrying gay people get through and harassing any occupants occupants who were not their own people. In doing this, they were giving it right back to the straight world what it had been dishing to them all along and showing them just how discrimination over sexual orientation feels. This was the first time in history that the gay population asserted it's anger.
As the riot and occupation of Christopher Street continued into the night, another event was touched off by this firestorm; At a nearby prison whose population included many lesbians, the women who shared the same sexual orientation as those out below began tossing out burning rolls of toilet paper from their cell windows in a token of their support.
It had taken somewhere between two to three hundred cops - most armed heavily - to take Christopher Street back and subdue it. For the better part of the night Christopher Street had belonged to the Gays. New York may have won that battle but they would not win the war.
That was the only beginning. And from then on, the war being waged by the gay communities demanding to be viewed as a people who deserve to be treated as fairly, with respect and dignity, continued, and it continues today on a global scale. It has won many victories such as voting rights, the repeal of unjust Sodomy laws, the inclusion of crimes committed against homosexual people over their sexual orientation into the roster of hate crimes, and overall, equality.
The fight rages on because the gay population is not satisfied still the hate and discrimination continue, especially in small towns and so the war continues. Today the fight has been taken to yet another front: Marriage.
On this day in 2004 the Gays celebrate their victories over hate and oppression against them. It has been 35 years since Stonewall and much has changed....but yet, much has remained the same.
