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Just what is this Stonewall I'm now posting about?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots

Stonewall Inn was the site of the famous Stonewall riots, also known as, the Stonewall Rebellion, of 1969, which have come to symbolize the beginning of the gay liberation movement in the United States. It is located at 53 Christopher Street, between West 4th St. and Waverly Place, in Greenwich Village, New York City.

The Stonewall Inn has been made a National Historic Landmark and is now listed with U.S. National Park Service.

The Stonewall Rebellion occurred due to a raid in 1969. It operated without a liquor license, had ties with organized crime (Mafia Owned), and offered scantily clad go-go boys as entertainment.

The STONEWALL Veterans' Association ("S.V.A.") is comprised of the actual, surviving, active veterans of the famous 1969 Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender ("GLBT") Stonewall Rebellion in Greenwich Village, New York, U.S.A.

Members

Liz J. Abzug, Rebuild Our Town Downtown, Co-Chair
www.Abzug.com
N.Y.C. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
www.MikeBloomberg.com
N.Y.C. Councilmember James E. (Jed) Davis, In Memorium
www.Council.nyc.ny.us
Congressmember Geraldine A. Ferraro
www.search.Britannica.com
Borough President C. Virginia Fields
www.NewYorkers4Fields.com
America's Mayor Rudy W. Giuliani
www.GiulianiPartners.com
B. Thomas Golisano, Paychex, President
www.Paychex.com
N.Y.C. Public Advocate Betsy F. Gotbaum
www.PubAdvocate.nyc.gov
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
www.Riverkeeper.org
Councilmember Margarita L. Lopez
www.MargaritaLopez.com
Martha Reeves, Motown Singer & Detroit Councilwoman
www.STONEWALLvets.org/songsofStonewall-7.htm
N.Y.S. Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer
www.Spitzer2006.com
Steven L. Wesler, R.D.P. Group, President
www.RDPgroup.com
N.Y.S. Assemblymember Keith L.Wright
www.WrightForTheFuture.com

More background on Stonewall...

Spirit of Stonewall

by Bob Chatelle

[From the PIC Newsletter June 1994, Volume II, issue iv]

an excerpt

I missed my opportunity to be arrested at the Stonewall riots in 1969 by less than a week. In less than a month, I may get a second chance to see the inside of a New York City jail.

On June 21, 1969, I was in Greenwich Village. I then worked for a small Boston computer consulting firm and I was in New York on business--we had a contract with New York University. I was accompanied on this trip by a fellow employee who was also a gay man. Indeed the president of that company was gay. But we all understood the absolute necessity of being firmly in the closet, both within the office and without.

That night, my friend and I were wandering about in our business uniforms when he suggested we go to a club he'd heard about called the Stonewall Inn. The doorman looked suspiciously at our attire, and we were told we could enter only if we were the guests of a "member." We went elsewhere. We weren't surprised at this treatment. It was an election year and soi disant "liberal" John Lindsay was running for reelection and was giving the gay bars a hard time. ("Liberals" were more open about their homophobia back then.)

Nine days later, back at our office in Boston, my friend slipped into my cubicle and surreptitiously showed me the New York Times account of the Stonewall riot. Neither of us new what to make of it. The event was little talked about afterwards in my circle of gay male friends. Most who had any opinion expressed disapproval about that sort of public acting up. We didn't want straight people to think that gays didn't know how to behave. Many of us, I suspect, harbored a secret admiration for those who had gotten fed up and let their anger loose. But had my friend and I been there on June 28, we would've fled when things got "out of hand." Our gay company president, after all, would've been mortified if we'd been arrested at a brawl at a gay bar.

I'd been looking forward to marching in the Stonewall 25 parade this June, and at one time I was even interested in trying to organize an NWU contingent. But, unfortunately, the organizing committee of Stonewall 25 is dominated by those intent on imposing political censorship. To march in the parade, groups must take the equivalent of a loyalty oath. They must pledge their support for age-of-consent laws. Any group that favors the abolition of these laws has been denied permission to march. The obvious intent of this ruling is to keep the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) out of the parade, presumably from a desire to avoid bad publicity. But it galls me that people are being excluded not for what they do but for what they think. The Stonewall 25 Committee is arrogant to banish people not for breaking the law but rather for advocating using the democratic process to change the law.

I don't have a firm personal position on age-of-consent laws, and this is certainly something on which the NWU should take no stand. I consider child (or for that matter, adult) abuse--sexual, physical or emotional--to be a moral evil. But I've seen no evidence that age-of-consent laws are an effective or appropriate means of preventing or punishing such abuse. In any case, this is certainly a matter about which reasonable people can differ.

Several of us who are appalled by the political censorship imposed by the Stonewall 25 Committee have formed a group called Spirit of Stonewall (SOS). We include Mattachine founder Harry Hay, Gayle Rubin, Allen Ginsburg, and NWU member Pat Califia. And playwright Jim D'Entremont, spokesperson for the Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression and my life partner, whom I met on July 18, 1970, less than a month after the first anniversary of Stonewall.

I am not a brave person and I know that when NAMBLA marches, spectators sometimes hurl more than invective in their direction. And if the organizers of Stonewall 25 are determined to exclude us, I might end up in jail. I was not willing to go to jail in defense of my beliefs in June of 1969. In June of 1994, I'm proud to say that I have changed. Hope to see you on the 26th.