Gay clubs 1960s
How the Stonewall Uprising Ignited the Modern LGBTQ Rights Movement
In 1969, police raids of gay bars in Manhattan followed a template. Officers would pour in, threatening and beating prevent staff and clientele. Patrons would pour out, lining up on the road so police could arrest them.
But when police raided the Stonewall Inn in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, 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 2015, 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 and morality. By the 1960s, homosexuality was clinically classified as a mental disorder,
The gay rights movement and the Mob
Nearly 50 years ago, on June 28, 1969, LGBT people – led by drag queens – rebelled against a raid by the New York Police Department on the Stonewall Inn lgbtq+ nightclub. For two nights, gay men and women fought back against the police until they withdrew. “Stonewall” later became seen as perhaps the most important symbolic event in the current LGBT rights movement.
Less well known is that the turbulent nights of June 28-29, 1969, were very much a rebellion against the Mafia, as skillfully. The Stonewall was secretly owned by Matthew “Matty the Horse” Ianiello, a high-level caporegime (captain) in the Genovese crime family who held hidden interests in a series of gay bars and porn stores in the Greenwich Village and Times Square neighborhoods. Mob-run gay bars were notorious for charging high-prices for lousy, watered-down drinks from bootlegged liquor (“Mafia house beer,” one patron dubbed it.) The Stonewall Inn itself was an unlicensed “bottle club,” often dirty, with no running rain behind the lock. Mobbed-up bar owners would periodically allow the police manage “show raids” to appease the neighbors, and, in the process, sacrifice some of their
Midnight for New York’s 1960s Lgbtq+ Community?
In the 1960s, gay bars in New York City were illegal. They stayed open because of bold owners, large crowds of patrons and police who, bribed, tipped off owners before a raid. It was a rough, problematic, turbulent world for the bars and their homosexual patrons.
That’s when young singer Trevor Copeland arrived in New York and stumbled into a partnership with pianist and composer Arthur. They became romantic partners and started a musical collaboration. Arthur wrote songs for Trevor and he sang them for audiences. This effort got them jobs as performers at the Never Get, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village. They soon developed a two dude show, “Midnight at the Never Get” that became popular.
Midnight at the Never Get, a smartly written, enchanting and rich musical with deeply drawn and highly likable characters, that opened last night at the York Theater at St. Peter’s Church at 54th Street and Lexington Route in New York, with manual, music and lyrics by Notice Sonnenblick is their story. It is a tale told on several levels and each blends into the other. The first story is the love affair between the two men, alabaster hot at first.
Prior to 1960
Leading up to 1960 the LGBT community faced a number of discriminatory acts from federal and local government. Congress passed a law outlawing sodomy in D.C. Under the Lavender Scare the federal government fired same-sex attracted individuals en masse.
Despite this, there were a number of LGBT spaces across D.C. to provide society and support. , one of D.C.'s longest continuously operating gay bars and one of the oldest African-American male lover bars in the country, opened in 1957.
These weren't wholly reliable places, however. were both raided by the Metropolitan Police Department's Vice Squad.
The '60s
LGBT activism moved more to the public forefront starting in the 1960s. The Mattachine Population of Washington, which assisted federal employees and residents targeted for their sexuality, was formed. The Washington Blade, America’s oldest LGBT newspaper, began in 1969. More clubs, publications, and services catered directly to the LGBT community.
Barracks Row became an important part of the LGBT community. was the 'first gay-owned prevent to offer queer dancing', essentially breaking the owner forbid on dancing. also contributed