People think that Stonewall was a bar that made its money from selling drinks to patrons.
that’s wrong:
it was actually a Bottle Club because the permit fee was much lower and regulatory requirements were much much less rigorous, something about the requirement for multiple exits and whether or not you have to have running water and all the sinks, xcetera.
Some bars have problem customers, right?
Stonewall was a mafia biz and did sometimes have problem customers who were upper-income and were known to be living in the closet.
So they killed two birds with one stone by extorting them; the misbehaving gentleman would have to pay in order to have their unusual hobby kept secret.
this served as another form of income and minimized the number of regular patrons who posed chronic problems (fighting, constantly picking up on people not interested in them, lateness in paying bar tab).
But did all such men pay up immediately..?
No, it generated a lot of anger and in this case it generated an actual riot.
I would believe that the customer base of the bar did happen to yearn for more personal freedoms. I would believe that cops sometimes hassled them.
But the Stonewall Riot had nothing to do with “I want to be free..!” and everything to do with, “I don’t want to pay and I’m pissed as hell!”
Years ago the American spectator featured a very in-depth examination of the fake history and an expose.
It was fantastic, a long article maybe 10 or so pages, really good.