Pride

Photographs After Stonewall

Fred W. McDarrah

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781786997128
• eBook ISBN: 9781786997142
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Photography

This is the definitive visual account of the gay liberation movement in New York, following the Stonewall uprising in Greenwich Village in 1969, an event that marked the coming-out of New York's gay community. As a direct outcome of Stonewall, gay pride marches were held in 1970 in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. Fifty years later Pride will be celebrated in thousands of cities across the world. Including more than 190 photographs by Fred W. McDarrah chronicling the movement in all its glory, the book includes reflective essays by major figures such as Alan Ginsbery, Hilton Als and Sir Ian McKellan.

Photographs after Stonewall

After World War II, many gay people settled in Greenwich Village.

Traditionally an artistic community, the Village offered gays an

opportunity to form supportive social networks. They frequented

the saloons along MacDougal Street, went to the beaches at Cherry

Grove and Riis Park, and pretty much kept to themselves. Still,

they were always at risk of being found out at their jobs or by their

families. Early on, these social networks began taking political form

and, by the late ’50s, the Mattachine Society and the Daughters

of Bilitis encouraged gays and lesbians to deal with the prejudice

against homosexuals. Taking a cue from the antiwar, civil rights,

and feminist movements, gays demanded equal rights. They did

not want to be harassed any more; they wanted to be heard and

respected. The single incident that marked the birth of the modern

gay and lesbian movement was the Stonewall Inn rebellion on the

weekend of June 27, 1969.

The Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher Street was a speakeasy

during prohibition, later a restaurant catering to weddings and ban-

quets, and then a gay bar. Saloons serving homosexuals were denied

liquor licenses in those years, and it was illegal for gays to gather

anywhere. Gay bars paid off the police to stay open, but many were

harassed anyway because they operated without licenses; police

could close them down at will. The Stonewall’s kickbacks to the local

cops and their Mafia vendors was reported to be $2,000 a week, but

the bar took in nearly $12,000 every weekend.

The raid on the Stonewall was made by two cops, two undercover

agents, and two policewomen who went inside to “observe the illegal

sale of alcohol.” Once inside, the detectives called the Sixth Precinct

on a pay phone for backup, and the arrival of the additional cops

set off the incident. Patrons were herded out of the bar while cops,

headed by Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine, were pelted by gays

throwing everything they could find. Thirteen people were arrested.

26

The Stonewall riots started on Friday night, June 27, and ended Monday morning, with breaks

in between for a victory celebration. The chalked message on the wall says, “To fight for our

country, they invaded our rights.”

27

In the course of the raid, all the mirrors, jukeboxes, phones, toilets,

and cigarette machines were smashed. Even the sinks were stuffed

and overflowing.

The Village Voice was the only New York paper to cover the event,

with Howard Smith writing from the inside and Lucian Truscott IV

reporting from the outside; Truscott wrote that “Sheridan Square

this weekend looked like something from a William Burroughs novel

as the sudden specter of ‘Gay Power’ erected its brazen head and

spat out a fairy tale the likes of which the area has never seen.”

28

June 27, 1969.

29

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• A note on this book’s publication
• Foreword to the UK edition
• Foreword
• McDarrah’s Parades
• Firestorm on Christopher Street
• Photographs Before Stonewall
• Photographs After Stonewall
• About Fred W. McDarrah