Columbus Pride Festival - Columbus, Ohio

2023 DATE: June 16-17, 2023.

This post documents my experience on June 17, 2011.

In 1969, the Stonewall Inn was a mafia-run gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village with no running water, frequently running toilets and no liquor license. Although it may not sound all that appealing, it was the only gay bar in the city where dancing was allowed.

Of course, alcohol was still supplied, even though glasses were quickly washed in a tub of water before reuse (no running water, remember?). After looking through a peephole, a doorman only opened the door for people he recognized or who looked gay to him since there were frequent police raids in those days (usually for some type of payoff).

One such raid occurred on June 28, 1969, and it involved the usual harassment of gay men, the inappropriate touching of lesbians and the arrests of transvestites. But, this time, the raid didn’t go according to the police’s plan.

As the crowd grew in size outside the Stonewall Inn, police soon found themselves before a group who decided to fight back. First, pennies were thrown (in response to talk that the police were there for the usual payoffs). But then beer cans were launched and then bricks from a nearby construction site…until a full blown riot began.

The Stonewall Riots were the beginning of the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender (GLBT) movement and, 12 years later, the commemorating march in Columbus…