In the weeks following the Stonewall uprising, 500 people gathered for a “Gay Power” demonstration in Washington Square Park, followed by a march to Sheridan Square. The rebellion lasted six days, marking the beginning of the modern gay rights movements. However, all that silence broke out on June 28, 1969, when police raided the Stonewall Inn, which erupted into violent protests and a riot as more LGBTQ people from surrounding neighborhoods joined the fight for freedom and equality. Among the chaos and fears, there is one establishment where LGBTQ customers found refuge, and that was the Stonewall Inn. Transgender people were openly arrested on the streets. Historically, the civil law of New York City allowed bars to refuse service to the LGBTQ community, and arrests, harassment, and instances of entrapment by the police are frequent. This iconic LGBTQ movement can be traced back 50 years ago to the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village, where gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people first, as a group, forcefully and vocally asserted their rights to equality under the law.
