Beyond Stonewall

For many people, the Stonewall uprising is the start and end of their LGBTQ+ history knowledge; this certainly is an integral part of queer history and an essential part of LGBTQ+ liberation. A big reason I began this Substack was because I wanted to share queer history beyond Stonewall. Stonewall is a great place to start, but there are so many impactful LGBTQ+ individuals, groups, movements, and moments that have brought us to where we are today. 

While Stonewall is likely the most well-known LGBTQ+ bar that was raided by police, it is certainly not the only one. In fact, during the 1960s, most New York City gay bars were raided by police about once a month. These raids usually happened early at night, and the bar remained open after the raid. During raids, patrons and employees of the bar often faced harassment by the officers and were made to line up and produce their identification cards; if they couldn't provide their identification or were wearing clothing that didn't match their birth sex, they would be arrested. The uprising at Stonewall was the build-up of frustration as LGBTQ+ people wanted a safe place to exist that wasn't constantly being raided and the patrons being arrested and humiliated. Before the June 28, 1969 raid that led to the uprising, there had been an increase in gay bar raids throughout the city, including a raid at Stonewall the Tuesday before the riots and the closing of two clubs in Greenwich Village—Checkerboard and Tele-Star. 

Things certainly reached a boiling point in 1969 with Stonewall, but for many decades before and after the uprising, raids in LGBTQ+ bars were commonplace. In this short article, it is impossible to give a thorough history of every bar raid in the United States or even in New York City. Today, I have picked a few to highlight in New York City, starting as early as 1890 and as recently as 1982. 

Black Rabbit, which began operation in the 1890s, was a dive club on Bleeker Street. There was another similar club also on Bleeker that operated during this time called The Slide. Black Rabbit is one of the earliest documented queer spaces that catered primarily to gay men who were called 'fairies' at the time. The police often raided both Black Rabbit and The Slide, and in 1899, the police shut down Black Rabbit. It was reopened, and in 1900, it was raided once again. This time, it was by Anthony Comstock of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Comstock was an individual who functioned as a vigilante moral police. 

In 1916, the first recorded legal action against a gay bar in Brooklyn occurred at a nameless saloon at 32 Sands Street. This raid was a long time coming; in 1905, the Committee of Fourteen was founded by businessmen, clergy, socialites, doctors, politicians, and others. As Hugh Ryan wrote in When Brooklyn Was Queer:

"These reform-minded upper-class men and women sought to bring their social power to bear against immoral activities in a variety of ways. Most directly, they employed informants who visited saloons throughout the five boroughs looking for unescorted women, prostitutes, pimps, degenerates, fairies, mixed-race socializing; hotels that rented rooms to unmarried couples; and saloons that served alcohol on Sundays, to men in uniform or without licenses." 

On the evening of January 14, 1916, members of the Committee of Fourteen, along with the police, raided the Sands Street saloon. The 15-minute raid resulted in six arrested patrons who were convicted of disorderly conduct and sentenced to six months in the workhouse. This raid was just the first of many completed by the Committee of Fourteen and the police throughout the 1910s. 

From 1924 to 1926, Eve Adams, a Polish-Jewish lesbian émigré ran a lesbian tearoom called Eve's Hangout. As a Village columnist in 1931 said of the tearoom, "(it was) one of the most delightful hang-outs the Village ever had." Adams was also a writer and wrote a book titled Lesbian Love; during this time, there were campaigns to 'clean up' Greenwich Village. Adams was arrested in June of 1926 at her tearoom. According to NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, "She was tried and convicted in July of obscenity for Lesbian Love, and disorderly conduct for alleged attempted sex with a policewoman." 

Adams ended up being deported and lived in various places, including Paris, where she sold magazines and "erotic" books. Adam's story was sadly cut short when the Nazis rose to power, and she was eventually transported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. 

Another notable bar was The Sea Colony, which operated in the 1960s, the same time as Stonewall. It was a lesbian bar, and like Stonewall, it was mafia-run. This was very typical of gay bars during this era because bars had their liquor licenses revoked if they served or were suspected to serve LGBTQ+ patrons. The mafia took over these bars and typically paid off the police for them to turn a blind eye or at least not completely shut them down. The Sea Colony was another bar that was subject to incessant police raids. 

There is a common misconception that after Stonewall raids on gay bars stopped. However, unfortunately, this was not the case. As Clio said, "NYPD's longstanding practice of raiding gay bars declined following the Stonewall riots, but they did not end. In fact, the raids continued into the 1970s and even the 1980s." The Snake Pit was one such bar that was raided in the spring of 1970; the officers didn't want a repeat of Stonewall, so they arrested all 167 patrons in the bar. One of the patrons arrested was Diego Viñales, who was from Argentina. He had an expired student visa and was concerned he would be deported, so he jumped out of a second-story window at the police station. He was impaled on a spiked fence, and despite grave injuries and a prolonged hospital stay, he survived. This raid, the arrests, and Diego's injuries led to protests spearheaded by the Gay Activists Alliance and the Gay Liberation Front. 

The final raid I am highlighting took place at the Blue's Bar near Times Square. The Blues Bar was a gay bar that primarily served black gay men as well as some transgender women. This raid happened on September 29, 1982. 20 NYPD officers entered the bar, shouting homophobic slurs at the patrons and destroying the bar. During this time, it wasn't shocking for police to show up at the bar; as the Gay City News said, "NYPD officers came into the bar often. An announcement would be made as they were entering the bar. The music would be turned down, patrons would act casual, the officers would look around and leave, the music would turn up again, and the party would continue." However, the raid was unprecedented, but even still, the investigation by the district attorney's office didn't go anywhere. The officers claimed that some patrons attacked two police officers which is what set off the raid, but no patrons were ever arrested. As the Gay City News reported, "The police officers' evidence against Blues Bar was never substantiated. The officers were never disciplined." 

This raid sparked more protests. As the New York Times reported at the time, "Protesters carried signs and banners with such slogans as "Fight Lesbian and Gay Oppression" and "Hands Off Blues."

As seen by these snippets of history, the LGBTQ+ community has an account dating back as far as the 1800s of brutality and injustice at the hands of police. However, despite the dangers, the injustice, the humiliation, and the harassment, the LGBTQ+ community continued to find each other and continued to gather, support each other, and protest the injustices. Given the current state of anti-LGBTQ legislation in the United States, it can be empowering to look back at these parts of queer history to see the resilience of the community despite the odds being stacked against it time and time again.