Q - L IV I N G
TNotes
by Robbi Cohn . Contributing Writer
Deja YU all over again
The “hairpin drop heard round the world”
— that is how New York’s Mattachine Society,
and others, 40 years ago described the June
28,1969, events at Stonewall, a gay and queen
bar in the heart of Greenwich Village.
The name “Stonewall” has come to sym
bolize the beginning of gay activism ani in
fact, spawned the Gay Liberation Front (GLF).
In actuality, however. Stonewall was not the
first encounter between persons we now
describe as gender diverse and the authori
ties/status quo. Dewey’s Lunch Counter in
Philadelphia and Compton’s Cafeteria in San
Francisco both saw incidents wherein drag
queens — or transvestites, as they were often
termed in the vernacular of the ’60s ^ were
at odds with management and the local
police. Dewey’s occurred in 1965 and was
. more or less subdued; Compton’s in 1966, on
the other hand, has been described as more
violent. Both predated Stonewall by better
than three years. And, both were organized by
individuals who violated normative gender
presentation, as was the case with Stonewall.
There have been divergent accounts of what
actually happened at Stonewall: who did what
and who should be credited with the riots and
their historic place as a “watershed” event?
Postulated as protagonists were queens,
gays, lesbians, or, all the above. Because there
has been “friction” between the trans commu
nity and those who espouse
a Human Rights Campaign
paradigm, the record bears
re-examination. This fric
tion is not new. Seeds had
been planted early on after
assimilationist-oriented
Mattachine made efforts to marginalize Sylvia
Rivera, Marsha Johnson and others during the
first annual Christopher Street Reminders
commemorating Stonewall.
The rest of the history has been marked by
alternating carrots and sticks delivered from
well-organized and well-funded gay activists to
trans folk whose efforts to organize were never
even modestly funded. The latest carrot was Joe
Solmonese’s address at the Southern Comfort
Ccmvention in September 2007. The latest stick
was the subsequent ditching of trans inclusivity
in ENDA voting in October 2007.
At the heart of the 1960s conflicts —
Dewey’s, Compton’s and Stonewall — was the
matter of gender transgression. At the heart of
the friction between Mattachine and New York
City queens, as well as between HRC and
modern trans-activists, was and is the same .
issue. And, this was generally the modus
operandus the authorities used to raid gay
bars and attack non-normative gender expres
sion back in the 1960s. Remember, this was a
time of a burgeoning counter-culture, a loos
ening of sexual mores and the presentation of
a new paradigm. Peace and Love. Drugs, Sex
and Rock and RoU. And, Gender Diversity.
The predominantly conservative genera
tion — the parents and grandparents of the
Sexual Revolution’s proponents — saw their
world crumbling around them. Laws were
either enacted or resurrected to keep this
groundswell from spreading and gender
transgressors were summarily arrested and
bullied by the police. One of these laws, extant
in New York City, as-wpU as similar ordinances
in many other metropohtan centers, required
persons to be wearing at least three garments
common to their birA genders. Violation of
this proviso meant arrest for disturbing the
peace and a few other statutes, and a night in
jail in the “transvestite” tank.
The summer of 1969 was one of social
upheaval: Vietnam protests, racial tension;
hippies, black panthers, weathermen and fem
inists all calling attention to societal
inequities. Upon pressure from party heavies,
and contrary to what the gay community
expected, liberal Republican Mayor John
Lindsay allowed police inspector Seymour
Pine unfettered power to subdue the gay and
queen community, specifically the mafia-run
bars, using as pretext the so-called “three item
clothing” ordinance, as well as the absence of
liquor licenses by gangland owners.
Stonewall was raided more than once, as
were other bars. Stonewall was a favorite, how
ever, and a “perfect storm” was brewing: An
era of dramatically changing values meets a
stubborn status quo in a politically and cul
turally charged New York City during the
extraordinary heat wave that had taken con
trol that summer.
A Mattachine mindset which emphasized
assimilation mirrored the cultural myopia
espoused by the status quo. Both refused to rec-
see T-Notes on 20
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JUNE 27.2009‘ftNotes 19