Stonewall was not the first time that the LGBTQIA+ community had stood up for themselves in America and it’s likely that some of those uprisings were in the minds of the rioters in New York in June of 1969.
The Coopers Donuts Riot
A decade before Stonewall, in May of 1959, patrons at a downtown Los Angeles donut cafe that was popular with gay men rioted after two police officers raided the business, arresting two drag queens, two male sex workers and another young man.
When they complained that there was not enough room for all five to fit in the police car, onlookers began throwing food and coffee cups at the police who retreated to their vehicle and fled the scene empty handed.
Word quickly spread to two nearby gay bars and a large crowd gathered outside the restaurant, taking over the street in what became known as the Cooper Donuts Riot.
In June of 2023 the City of Los Angeles erected a “Cooper Donuts Square” sign near the site of the riot and the LAPD made a formal apology for its historical persecution of LGBTQIA+ people.
Compton’s Cafeteria
Three years before Stonewall in August of 1966, San Francisco had its own uprising in its Tenderloin district when the staff at a Compton’s Cafeteria called the police on a group of trans women who were eating in the restaurant for being too loud.
When the police tried to arrest one of the women she threw a cup of coffee in their faces and the cafeteria erupted, with patrons throwing tables, plates and cups at the officers who retreated back into the street.
The rioters smashed the cafeteria’s windows, damaged a police car and burned down a newsstand.
The following day a larger crowd of trans women, sex workers and gays and lesbians returned to protest outside the cafeteria to protest its discrimination against them and the windows were smashed again.
The Black Cat Tavern
In February of 1967 undercover officers raided Los Angeles’ Black Cat Tavern, beating several customers and two of the barmen before arresting fourteen of the gay bar’s patrons for assault and public lewdness.
Following the raid two hundred people gathered outside the bar in what was the first public LGBTQIA+ rights protest in the city of Los Angeles. This time the police didn’t arrest anyone.
The protest’s organisers founded what would become The Advocate magazine as a voice for LGBTQIA+ people in America later that year.
The Patch Raid
The following year when police raided The Patch bar in the Wilmington area of Los Angeles in August of 1968, the bar’s owner Lee Glaze responded by leaping onto the stage and yelling, “It’s not against the law to be homosexual and it’s not a crime to be in a gay bar!”
At Glaze’s urging, the bar’s patrons began chanting “Fight for your rights!” and “We are Americans too!” at the police.
Glaze then led a crowd to a nearby flower shop, buying all the flowers, and held a 3am demonstration outside LA’s Harbor Division Police Station until all of the patrons had been released on bail.
One of those arrested was Tony Valdez, the partner of The Reverend Troy Perry who was inspired by the experience to found the Metropolitan Community Church three months later.
What made Stonewall different was the number of people involved and the level of media coverage it received around the world, making it a watershed for the global LGBTQIA+ rights movement.
-For all the events taking place during Sydney Pride Month go to www.sydneypride.com
For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagra
