Excerpts from an article by Michael Robertson in the Empty Closet, June 1975
“We have fled from blackmailing cops, from families who disowned or ‘tolerated’ us; we have been drummed out of the armed services, thrown out of schools, fired from jobs, and beaten by punks and policemen. Straight cops patrol us, straight legislators govern us, straight employers keep us in line, straight money exploits us. We have pretended everything is OK because we haven't been able to see how to change it - - we've been afraid.”
Out of this intolerable reality and the struggle of all peoples to be treated as human beings was born the gay liberation movement. In this article I want to focus on the event that catapulted gay liberation into the 20th century full-blown, and specifically its effect on Rochester, New York.
It was this month 39 years ago that some thing unremarkable happened. On June 27, an event which had occurred a thousand times before across the United States over the decades took place. THE POLICE RAIDED A GAY BAR! The very first public response to overt harassment was demonstrated. The Stonewall Riots mark the conscious organized beginning of the gay liberation movement. They also mark the beginning of Gay Pride.
