The left is obsessed with falsifying American history. For these radicals, the Founding Fathers did not write the Constitution to form a more perfect union; it was merely a ploy by racist white males to protect slavery. Similarly, those who settled America were not seeking a better life for their families; their aim was genocide against peaceful indigenous people who were careful stewards of the environment.
The latest example of this historical falsification recently occurred in New York City, where President Biden, accompanied by Governor Kathy Hochul and rock star Elton John, assembled for the grand opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, run by the National Park Service. President Biden lavishly praised the riot, saying, it “marked a turning point for civil rights in America and inspired the hearts of millions of people around the world.” He added that it “remains a symbol of a legacy and leadership in the LGBTQ+ community.”
According to the Memorial’s website, “the Center will offer an immersive experience featuring a rich tapestry of LGBTQIA+ history and culture through a variety of engaging programs, including in-person and virtual tours, informative lecture series, captivating exhibitions, a dedicated theater space, and inspiring visual arts displays. Upon entering the visitor center, visitors will be guided through a multifaceted learning experience that speaks to today’s generations, encouraging them to carry forward the Stonewall legacy and the ongoing fight for full LGBTQIA+ equality.” This dedication marks the 55th anniversary of the riots at Greenwich Village’s Stonewall bar, (June 28, 1969), a popular drinking spot favored by flamboyant homosexuals.
This celebration of the Stonewall riot is an outrageous lie. It had zero to do with the rights of gays and is hardly comparable to the black civil rights struggle when, for example Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1955 organized a 13-month-long boycott of public buses in Montgomery, Alabama to protest segregation in public transportation.
First, this characterization that prior to Stonewall, gays were grimly oppressed is wrong. Yes, homosexual behavior during the pre-Stonewall era was often illegal (though legal prohibition was rarely enforced), and being gay was an occasional occupation liability, but gays were never brutalized second-class citizens. John Strausbaugh’s The Village carefully describes gay life in the pre-Stonewall era in New York City, and it was hardly oppressive save for those insisting that all constraints on personal behavior are “oppression.”
Prior to the Stonewall riot, gay bars were commonplace in New York City and elsewhere, and, as a resident of Greenwich Village during that “pre-liberation” era, I can attest that each was well known. Washington Square Park’s northwest corner was a notorious visible “meat market,” where gays freely solicited partners without being arrested.
No organized KKK-like “anti-gay” movement existed in the city, nor did homophobic gangs terrorize homosexuals to “keep them in line.” At worst, individual gay men soliciting sexual activity with young toughs (“rough trade”) were an easy robbery target, since the perpetrators knew that their gay victims seldom called the police. The most serious threat to gays was blackmail — surely no small matter for the victim, but this is still a far cry from the discrimination suffered by African-Americans prior to the early 1960s.
Most importantly, however, the Stonewall riot was not a revolutionary uprising. Rather, it is best understood in terms of police corruption, not the suppression of an oppressed minority demanding legal equality. As Strausbaugh makes clear, New York City’s stringent code regulating bars did not criminalize homosexual acts. It just banned “disorderly behavior,” and this, in effect, permitted police to arrest gays as “disorderly” and, ultimately, close the establishment. Vagueness allowed cops free rein to extort bars where gays congregated. The fact that Stonewall even lacked a liquor license encouraged sporadic police shakedowns and so, technically, the raid instigating the riot was perfectly legal, not officially sanctioned homophobia.
Payoffs further provided opportunities for the city’s well established Mafia, who had long protected businesses facilitating illegal activities such as gambling and prostitution. Bars paid the Mafia a regular fee, and since the Mafia often had the police on the payroll, business ran smoothly. But, as in all such illicit relationships, failure to make the required payments invited trouble — for example, harassing customers.
The Mafia’s involvement also drew the attention of the honest police, since the protection racket served as the cash cow financing other more serious Mafia crimes like narcotics-trafficking. In other words, stopping a bar’s monthly protection money would undermine the mob’s more harmful criminal activities.
So when nine cops arrived at Stonewall that hot June summer night and began frisking intoxicated customers and arresting underage drinkers, this was not homophobia on steroids. The police, as they had done many times before, were enforcing a corrupt system, but in this instance, they made the mistake of raiding a bar filled with drunk, violence-prone customers unwilling to tolerate “the game,” where roughed up patrons served as collateral damage in a long-established shakedown system. To be accurate, this “liberation” movement began as a shakedown gone wrong, and the outcome would have been different if the raid had occurred during a freezing winter day, where it was too cold for inebriated drag queens to congregate outside and pelt the police with bottles. This is light-years away from the carefully organized Montgomery bus boycott, where black protesters such as Rosa Parks spent hours practicing responses to police directives to move to the back of the bus.
The upshot of the Stonewall riot was an explosion of open, often deadly sodomy. Almost overnight, sexual behavior once off-limits became tolerated, and gays soon became a political force to pressure city officials away from enforcing restrictive laws. Euphemistically labeled “bathhouses” proliferated, where numerous patrons engaged in anonymous anal sodomy with hundreds of similarly inclined men. Bars soon showcased graphic sodomy among men, and gay newspapers advertised this thriving industry. Visitors flocked to New York City to sample the erotic marketplace. This “revolution” was entirely about unbridled sexual behavior.
With flagrant promiscuous sodomy becoming the new norm, the massive AIDS butcher’s bills for this epidemic of debauchery eventually came due. What began as a spontaneous non-political revolt against a police raid had morphed into a politically driven movement promoting immense carnage.
President Biden’s lavish praise aside, the Stonewall episode should serve as a warning of how political mobilization can bring terrible unintended, in this case deadly consequences. A more appropriate Visitor’s Center would be a somber tribute to all those who needlessly died from the AIDS epidemic that followed the riot.
Clearly, the left has an Orwellian knack for convincing people that its destructive schemes deserve celebration for advancing human progress. It is beside the point that defunding the police has only upped the murder rate, while racial equity in school discipline undermines learning. For the left, glittering rhetoric suffices, and it is all too easy to ignore the ruined lives. As Stalin said, you must break some eggs to make an omelet.
Visitors to the Stonewall National Monument’s Visitor Center will never see the very long list of the young men who died prematurely due to being “liberated.” That self-inflicted carnage is politically unspeakable.
Max Pixel.
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