The stonewall bar
Stonewall Inn
History
From June 28 to July 3, , the Stonewall uprising that began inside the Stonewall Inn, which occupied the two storefronts at Christopher Street, spread outside across the street in Christopher Park, and on several surrounding streets. The event is credited as a key turning signal in the LGBT rights movement.
Lillian Faderman, historian
The two buildings were constructed as stables in the midth century. In , they were combined with one façade to house a bakery. In , Bonnie’s Stonewall Inn opened here as a popular Greenwich Village bar and restaurant, and operated until , when the interior was destroyed by fire. In March , the estate that had owned the property for over years sold it, along with five adjacent properties, to Burt and Lucille Handelsman, who were wealthy adj estate investors.
The original Stonewall Inn was a gay bar that, like virtually all gay bars since the s, was operated by, or with some, Mafia involvement. Starting in , after the finish of Prohibition, the Brand-new York State Liquor
Stonewall Riots
The Stonewall Inn
The crime syndicate saw profit in catering to shunned gay clientele, and by the mids, the Genovese crime family controlled most Greenwich Village gay bars. In , they purchased Stonewall Inn (a “straight” bar and restaurant), cheaply renovated it, and reopened it the next year as a gay bar.
Stonewall Inn was registered as a type of private “bottle bar,” which did not require a liquor license because patrons were supposed to bring their possess liquor. Club attendees had to sign their names in a book upon entry to maintain the club’s false exclusivity. The Genovese family bribed Adj York’s Sixth Police Precinct to ignore the activities occurring within the club.
Without police interference, the crime family could cut costs how they saw fit: The club lacked a fire exit, running moisture behind the bar to wash glasses, clean toilets that didn’t routinely overflow and palatable drinks that weren’t watered down beyond recognition. What’s more, the Mafia reportedly blackmailed the club’s wealthier patrons who wanted to keep their sexuality a secret.
Fifty-two years ago, the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan's Greenwich Village was an underground gay bar where a police raid sparked a rebellion that fueled the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
Today, it's still a bar, but a highly evident one. It's a landmark, with patrons flocking in from around the world to honor the rebellion's legacy.
But in mid-March the tavern, which has weathered physical and ownership changes over the years, was forced to close as NYC began its lengthy battle against the COVID pandemic. And after more than three months of not being able to open, the Stonewall Inn, that Greenwich Village symbol of pride, was on the verge of closing its doors for good.
The entire staff was forced out of work, and the business hoped for a loan, which never came.
Then the owners position out a plea for help — and got plenty of responses.
Co-owner Stacy Lentz made a GoFundMe page and the donations started pouring in. The campaign quickly soared past the initial goal of $50,, and many more supporters came out to show how much the bar means to them.
"We understand we're the innkeepers of h
How the Stonewall Uprising Ignited the Modern LGBTQ Rights Movement
In , police raids of gay bars in Manhattan followed a template. Officers would pour in, threatening and beating bar staff and clientele. Patrons would pour out, lining up on the street so police could arrest them.
But when police raided the Stonewall Inn in the early morning hours of June 28, , things didn’t go as expected. Patrons and onlookers fought back—and the days-long melee that ensued, characterized then as a riot and now known as the Stonewall Rebellion, helped spark the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement.
Each June, Pride Month honors the history of Stonewall with parades and events. In the years since the uprising, LGBTQ activists pushed for—and largely achieved—a broad expansion of their the legal rights, and in June , the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling guaranteeing same-sex couples the right to marry.
Before these gains, however, LGBTQ people had long been subject to social sanction and legal harassment for their sexual orientation, which had been criminalized on the pretexts of religion a