June 27th, 1969
The place was, by all accounts, a dump.
A dilapidated drinking hole selling liquor without a license, being run, illicitly, by the mob.
Catering to the outcasts of society: Drag Queens, dykes, faggots, queers…
Who had nowhere else to go.
June 27th, 1969
A dark mood had descended on the gay men and women of the Village.
Judy Garland was buried that day,
And they had come together in mourning,
An icon was gone, her tragic life
A mirror of their own.
June 27th, 1969
When the lights came on, they all knew the drill
Men who were dancing together stepped apart
Women who were holding hands released them
The police officers filed in
It was a routine raid of a queer bar.
June 27th, 1969
Because what they were doing was illegal.
Gathering together,
Commiserating,
Laughing,
Loving.
There was nowhere else to go.
So, the nellies, the queens, the faggots, the dykes,
All filed out of the Stonewall Inn,
All filed out, onto Christopher Street.
They say there was a full moon that night.
'4 Policemen Hurt in Village Raid' read The New York Times headline.
The Post called it a 'melee.'
Only the Village Voice called it what it was: a riot.
There was nowhere else to go.
There was nothing left to lose.
Because when you already believe
That you are the lowest of the low
And when you live in shame, and fear
Of your name showing up in the next day's papers,
branded Queer
And your momma won't talk to you anymore
And you're daddy won't return your calls…
What do you have left to lose?
June 27th, 1969
Someone had left the pot on
Simmer
A little too long
And when the police officers
With their guns and sticks
Pushed the prisoners into the patty wagon
And raised their clubs against them,
It was universally agreed
By the drag queens and dykes and faggots and queers,
That they had had enough.
400 homosexuals emptied their pockets:
men, women, brothers, sisters, daughters and sons,
Raining down on the policemen a hailstorm of coins.
'Here's your payoff, officers, now leave us alone!'
The police never saw it coming.
They never thought the sissies would have the nerve.
That night they learned what the sissies all knew,
Drag Queens have balls, too.
And so the cops barricaded themselves inside the Stonewall,
And huddled in fear,
And had nowhere to go.
The riots lasted for four nights.
And word spread like wildfire
Across the Village, across the boroughs, across the midwestern plains, clear across the country to California.
About the drag queens, and dykes, and faggots and queers,
Who stepped out of their shame
Who stood up for their dignity,
Who said 'Enough!'
June 27th, 1969,
35 years ago,
In a decrepit watering hole on Christopher Street, in Greenwich Village,
The gay civil-rights movement was born.
Today, as gay men and lesbians struggle for their legal right
To make lasting, loving bonds,
To live without shame,
To honor love in all of its forms,
And as our enemies try with all their wills,
To erase our faces and bury our names,
To push us back into dark corners,
Let us remember those brave, righteous drag queens and dykes
Of the Stonewall Rebellion,
And let their memory serve to remind us,
That we are all God's creatures,
Deserving of dignity,
Of self-respect, of love, of light.