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Text: Up to Date, Queer and Feminist Calendar © Borgschulze​/​TU Dortmund
June 28

Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots

On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Riots took place on Christopher Street in New York. Since then, protests and parades have taken place around the world, such as the Christopher Street Day Parade, to draw attention to the rights of LSBTIQ+ people, “a struggle that the LGBTIQ+ movement continues to this day.” (bpb 2019). The Stonewall riots are considered an origin for the LGBTIQ+ movement.

In the 20th century, legislation for LGBTIQ+ people was highly restrictive in the USA. All homosexual acts and the wearing of 'non-gender-conforming' clothing were prohibited. Gay men, for example, feared sanctions and stays in penitentiaries. Lesbian women were victims of state-protected violence and often lost custody of their children. Violence, rape and discrimination were dangers that LGBTIQ+ people were exposed to on a daily basis (Aichberger, 2019).


The trigger for the unrest, which is now an anniversary, was a raid on the Stonewall Inn bar. Raids took place frequently at the time. Venues for LGBTIQ+ people or bars and clubs that catered to homosexuals were often refused or revoked a license. Many nightclubs were therefore run as private clubs. During raids, there was an increase in violations by the police. In some cases, the identities of those arrested were published without permission or disclosed to their employers. Those forced to come out were mainly male-identified people in women's clothing (bpb, 2019).  

 

Riots in the context of a larger civil rights movement

By the late 1960s, the gay rights movement in the United States had gained strength and popularity. Prior to the Stonewall Riots, there were increased clashes between police and LGBTIQ+ patrons of bars and nightclubs as well as protests, for example against the exclusion of homosexuals from the military. In 1924, the Society for Human Rights was also founded to fight discrimination against gays and lesbians (Grinberg 2019). The Stonewall riots are thus part of a larger civil rights movement in the US.


Among the protesters in 1969 were the lesbian Stormé DeLaverie, as well as the drag queens Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson (Lorenzo 2019). They are considered the leaders of the protest. It is often forgotten that the majority of protesters were trans people, especially trans people of color, drag kings and queens, sex workers and homeless youth. These were the marginalized people who “had little to lose” (Aichberger, 2007). People who still experience a lot of violence and multiple discrimination within and outside the LGBTIQ+ community today.
On June 28, 1969, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn resisted the raid, as a result of which the police barricaded themselves in the bar until a special unit arrived. The unrest continued in the days that followed. The original 500 participants in the protest on the first night grew to 2,000 the next day (bpb, 2019). A few weeks after the riots began, the gay rights organization Mattachine New York organized a “gay power” march from Washington Square Park to the Stonewall Inn. One year after the riots, on June 28, 1970, the LGBTIQ+ movement celebrated the first Christopher Street Liberation Day.
In Germany, this tradition arrived in Berlin in 1979 on the tenth anniversary of the Stonewall riots (bpb, 2019). The social scientist Muriel Aichberger (2019) writes about the historical impact of the Stonewall Riots: “With Stonewall, global queer history gained a radical side that could no longer simply be taken on the face by the authorities.”

Christopher Street Day parades around the world and rainbow flags on campus

Since then, CSDs (Christopher Street Days) have been held in many cities around the world. These events continue to serve as a platform for advocating for the visibility and rights of queer people and for celebrating the achievements and progress of the LGBTIQ+ movement. In commemoration of the Stonewall Riots, the Pride flag will be raised at TU Dortmund University on June 28.

 

Last updated: June 2025

Sources (in German)

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