Homo
Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad
Reprinted from "The New York
Daily News," July 6, 1969
By JERRY LISKER
She sat there with her legs crossed,
the lashes of her mascara-coated eyes beating like the wings of a hummingbird.
She was angry. She was so upset she hadn't bothered to shave. A day old stubble
was beginning to push through the pancake makeup. She was a he. A queen of
Christopher Street.
Last weekend the queens had turned
commandos and stood bra strap to bra strap against an invasion of the helmeted
Tactical Patrol Force. The elite police squad had shut down one of their
private gay clubs, the Stonewall Inn at 57 Christopher St., in the heart of a
three-block homosexual community in Greenwich Village. Queen Power reared its
bleached blonde head in revolt. New York City experienced its first homosexual
riot. "We may have lost the battle,
sweets, but the war is far from over," lisped an unofficial
lady-in-waiting from the court of the Queens.
"We've had all we can take
from the Gestapo," the spokesman, or spokeswoman, continued. "We're
putting our foot down once and for all."
The foot wore a spiked heel. According
to reports, the Stonewall Inn, a two-story structure with a sand pained brick
and opaque glass facade, was a mecca for the homosexual element in the village
who wanted nothing but a private little place where they could congregate,
drink, dance and do whatever little girls do when they get together.
The thick glass shut out the
outside world of the street. Inside, the Stonewall bathed in wild, bright
psychedelic lights, while the patrons writhed to the sounds of a juke box on a
square dance floor surrounded by booths and table. The bar did a good business and the waiters,
or waitresses, were always kept busy, as they snaked their way around the
dancing customers to the booths and tables. For nearly two years, peace and
tranquility reigned supreme for the Alice in Wonderland clientele.
The
Raid Last Friday
Last Friday the privacy of the
Stonewall was invaded by police from the First Division. It was a raid. They
had a warrant. After two years, police said they had been informed that liquor
was being served on the premises. Since the Stonewall was without a license,
the place was being closed. It was the law.
All hell broke loose when the
police entered the Stonewall. The girls instinctively reached for each other.
Others stood frozen, locked in an embrace of fear.
Only a handful of police were on
hand for the initial landing in the homosexual beachhead. They ushered the
patrons out onto Christopher Street, just off Sheridan Square. A crowd had
formed in front of the Stonewall and the customers were greeted with cheers of
encouragement from the gallery.
The whole proceeding took on the
aura of a homosexual Academy Awards Night. The Queens pranced out to the street
blowing kisses and waving to the crowd. A
beauty of a specimen named Stella wailed uncontrollably while being led to the
sidewalk in front of the Stonewall by a cop. She later confessed that she didn’t
protest the manhandling by the officer, it was just that her hair was in
curlers and she was afraid her new beau might be in the crowd and spot her.
She didn't want him to see her
this way, she wept.
Queen
Power
The crowd began to get out of
hand, eye witnesses said. Then, without warning, Queen Power exploded with all
the fury of a gay atomic bomb. Queens, princesses and ladies-in-waiting began
hurling anything they could get their polished, manicured fingernails on. Bobby pins, compacts, curlers, lipstick tubes
and other femme fatale missiles were flying in the direction of the cops. The
war was on. The lilies of the valley had become carnivorous jungle plants.
Urged on by cries of "C'mon
girls, let’s go get' em," the defenders of Stonewall launched an attack.
The cops called for assistance. To the rescue came the Tactical Patrol Force.
Flushed with the excitement of
battle, a fellow called Gloria pranced around like Wonder Woman, while several
Florence Nightingales administered first aid to the fallen warriors. There were some assorted scratches and
bruises, but nothing serious was suffered by they honeys turned Madwoman of
Chaillot.
Official reports listed four
injured policemen with 13 arrests. The War of the Roses lasted about 2 hours
from about midnight to 2 a.m. There was a return bout Wednesday night.
Two veterans recently recalled the
battle and issued a warning to the cops. "if they close up all the gay joints in
this area, there is going to be all out war."
Bruce
and Nan
Both said they were refugees from
Indiana and had come to New York where they could live together happily ever
after. They were in their early 20's. They preferred to be called by their
married names, Bruce and Nan.
"I don't like your
paper," Nan lisped matter-of-factly. "It's anti-fag and pro-cop."
"I'll bet you didn't see what
they did to the Stonewall. Did the pigs tell you that they smashed everything
in sight? Did you ask them why they stole money out of the cash register and
then smashed it with a sledge hammer? Did you ask them why it took them two
years to discover that the Stonewall didn't have a liquor license."
Bruce nodded in agreement and
reached over for Nan's trembling hands.
"Calm down, doll," he
said. "Your face is getting all flushed."
Nan wiped her face with a tissue.
"This would have to happen
right before the wedding. The reception was going to be held at the Stonewall,
too," Nan said, tossing her ashen-tinted hair over her shoulder.
"What wedding?" the
bystander asked.
Nan frowned with a how-could-anybody-be-so-stupid
look. "Eric and Jack's wedding, of course. They're finally tying the knot.
I thought they'd never get together."
Meet Shirley
"We'll have to find another
place, that's all there is to it," Bruce sighed. "But every time we start a place, the
cops break it up sooner or later."
"They let us operate just as
long as the payoff is regular," Nan said bitterly. "I believe they closed up the Stonewall
because there was some trouble with the payoff to the cops. I think that's the real reason. It's a shame.
It was such a lovely place. We never bothered anybody. Why couldn't they leave
us alone?"
Shirley Evans, a neighbor with two
children, agrees that the Stonewall was not a rowdy place and the persons who
frequented the club were never troublesome. She lives at 45 Christopher St.
"Up until the night of the
police raid there was never any trouble there," she said. "The
homosexuals minded their own business and never bothered a soul. There were never any fights or hollering, or
anything like that. They just wanted to be left alone. I don't know what they did inside, but that's
their business. I was never in there
myself. It was just awful when the
police came. It was like a swarm of hornets attacking a bunch of butterflies."
A reporter visited the now closed
Stonewall and it indeed looked like a cyclone had struck the premises.
Police said there were over 200
people in the Stonewall when they entered with a warrant. The crowd outside was estimated at 500 to
1,000. According to police, the Stonewall had been under observation for some
time. Being a private club plain clothesmen were refused entrance to the inside
when they periodically tried to check
the place. "They had the tightest security in the Village," a First
Division officer said, "We could never get near the place without a
warrant."
 |
| This photograph appeared in the front page of The New York Daily News on Sunday, June 29, 1969, showing the "street kids" who were the first to fight with the police. |
Police
Talk
The men of the First Division were
unable to find any humor in the situation, despite the comical overtones of the
raid.
"They were throwing more than
lace hankies," one inspector said. "I was almost decapitated by a
slab of thick glass. It was thrown like a discus and just missed my throat by
inches. The beer can didn't miss, though, "it hit me right above the
temple."
Police also believe the club was
operated by Mafia connected owners. The police did confiscate the Stonewall's
cash register as proceeds from an illegal operation. The receipts were counted and are on file at
the division headquarters. The warrant was served and the establishment closed
on the grounds it was an illegal membership club with no license, and no
license to serve liquor.
The police are sure of one thing.
They haven't heard the last from the Girls of Christopher Street.
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