According to government officials, the feds were just keeping an eye on the situation.
The drones were reportedly unarmed.
You might even say its routine.
Most citizens dont think twice about being recorded by the government in public.
In fact, many welcome it.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
That hasnt always been the case.
In June of 1969it was illegalin every state except Illinois for a person to be queer.
This included not just gay, lesbian, and bisexual people, but cross-dressers and drag queens as well.
Basically, if the police could catch you dressing or acting queer they could arrest you.
In New York, thisproved lucrative for both the NYPD and the Mafia.
The cops solicited bribes from affluent or popular queers, often catching them through entrapment.
But the real damage came in the form of social banishment.
This made it impossible for many of those arrested to resume or begin their professional lives.
Not only was being queer illegal, it was also considered a dangerous mental illness.
Among the more popular treatments for those deemed homosexuals wasaversion therapy.
Much like personal computers and portable music players would later during the 1980s.
The world became a lot bigger for marginalized people.
These propaganda films had a two-fold benefit for the queer community.
First, it let queers know they werent alone.
The government warned that homosexuals were everywhere, they could be anyone!
For many queers, this was the first time they realized there were other people out there like them.
But being queer was still illegal.
So queers moved underground and indoors.
Gay bars of the time werent fabulous like they are today.
Today its an iconic landmark and a monument to civil rights.
In 1969 it was a shit-hole barrun by the Mafia.
The booze most of which was stolen from hijacked trucks was watered down.
The glasses were reused without being washed.
And there was no decor to speak of.
But people didnt go the Stonewall Inn for the ambiance.
It was one of the few places where queers could hang out, dance, and have some drinks.
But queers couldnt so much as hold hands on the sidewalk without risking arrest.
But queers werent even safe in gay bars.
The Mafias protection didnt extend to the police.
And even then, the raids didnt stop.
They just slowed and became less aggressive for awhile.
On the night of June 28th1969, the cops decided to conduct a raid on the Stonewall Inn.
Normally, per their payoff arrangement, theyd call ahead to warn the bartenders.
But on the night the riots began, they didnt.
It was business as usual in New York that night.
But the police failed to take into account how quickly word of the raid would spread.
Thanks to the presence of several nearby payphones, a crowd had assembled outside.
The atmosphere was peaceful, perhaps even jovial at that point.
Onlookers, many of whom were queers from the Village, just wanted to see what was going on.
Things changed when a popular drag queen, upon being forced outside,decided shed had enough.
Protesting how the police were handling her, she began resisting.
And when night descended again, so did the chaos.
The Stonewall Riots went on for six nights.
The advent of broadcast television made it possible for all of America to hear about the Stonewall Riots.
Though still relatively sparse, media coverage prompted outrage from other minority groups whod been targeted by police.
People in other states started wondering if things like that were happening in their towns.
The riots also inspired other queers to come out and stand up for civil rights.
The following year the first Gay Pride march happened in New York to directly commemorate the events at Stonewall.
And that was televised as well.
That was the first time queer people were shown on television out and on their own terms.
It just made them social constructs.
Queers, non-whites, and women are still second-class citizens in practice if not policy.
The Black Lives Matters protests of 2020 are a clear example of this.
It didnt happen overnight, but thanks to technology theres finally some sort of reckoning happening.
Police brutality didnt start with George Floyds murder in 2020 or at the Stonewall Inn in 1969.
But the problems go deeper than just corrupt cops.
This isnt a matter of bad apples or even a diseased orchard.
The whole farm is tainted.
Yesterday it was illegal to be queer.
Today our First Amendment right to peacefully protest has been taken away.
Thats why these riots and protests arent about queers or Blacks against cops.
Theyre about freedom versus oppression.
They are a final check against despotism, dictatorship, and fascism.
This is why we march.
