STONEWALL RIOTS 1969
New York, USA: the city of the famous gay neighbourhood, Greenwich Village (Manhattan), birthplace of the homosexual liberation movement and site of the Stonewall riots of 28 June 1969 (28 June was chosen by the LGBT movement as the date of "World LGBT Pride Day" or "Gay pride"), around Christopher Street.
The slogan Gay power launched during the riots derived directly from the slogan Black Power adopted in particular by the Black Panther Party for Self-Defence.
The symbol of the Stonewall riots became the transsexual woman Sylvia Rivera, who is said to have started the protest by throwing a bottle at a policeman.
"We are everywhere!" was the slogan of the protesters during the Stonewall Riots.
In particular, the famous riots (three days) in 1969 after the phase of the homophile movement began at the Stonewall Inn. The bar is located on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, New York, and as of 2016 is one of the national monuments of the United States of America. The Stonewall Inn was actually a speakeasy. A speakeasy, (pronounced [ˈspiːkˌiːzɪ], literally: "to speak softly, quietly, without tension") also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is a commercial establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages that were in vogue in the United States during the period known as Prohibition (1920-1933, longer in some states). The speakeasies contributed to the so called Harlem Renaissance because they allowed black people to drink and have fun free from racial discrimination.
The term "blind pig" (or "blind tiger") originated in the United States in the 19th century; it defines lower-class establishments that illegally sell alcoholic beverages. In such
establishments, the customer would pay a ticket to see an attraction (e.g. an animal) and the establishment would serve him a "free" alcoholic beverage, thus circumventing prohibitions imposed by prohibition law.
Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine, who led the raid on the bar on the first night, claimed that he was ordered to close the Stonewall Inn because it was the main place to gather information about gay men working on Wall Street: an increase in the number of organised burglaries at Wall Street brokerage firms had led the police to suspect that gays who were being blackmailed were behind these burglaries.
Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine, who led the raid on the bar on the first night, claimed that he was ordered to close the Stonewall Inn because it was the main place to gather information about gay men working on Wall Street: an increase in the number of organised burglaries at Wall Street brokerage firms had led the police to suspect that gays who were being blackmailed were behind these burglaries.
