This week marks the fiftieth anniversary of The Stonewall Riots. Fifty years, mark you. “Stonewall”, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, refers to The Stonewall Inn in Greenwhich Village, New York. This was a place (by all accounts run by The Mafia) which catered to the (illegal at the time) ‘gay crowd’. To preface things you need to understand this: being gay was illegal, serving gays was illegal and pretty much anything ‘gay’ was illegal. This pivotal moment, whilst not being the beginning or the end of the gay struggle, marked a point at which the gay community decided to stand up and tell the world that they ‘just wouldn’t take this anymore’. In 1969 – easily within living memory for some of us. We could explain all of the story in more detail but we are minded that this BBC link says most of what we want to say.
Pick of the Political Pops: Jallen Rix “Down At Stonewall”
