As we approach the season of Gay Pride observances, I think it’s important to reflect for a moment.  The Stonewall Riots, which we often look to as a cornerstone in the gay rights movement, began in New York City’s Greenwich Village on the last weekend of June in 1969.  That’s why the GLBT community chooses the month of June to celebrate.

But on this 40th anniversary of the riots, there’s one thing that I hope the queer community never quite loses sight of — the Stonewall Inn, the sleazy dive bar at 52 Christopher St. in Manhattan, from which this very organization derives it’s name, was not a place where high-minded intellectuals went to sip herbal tea and discuss politics.  Rather, it was populated by a indecorous assortment of drag queens, hustlers, students, and men who wanted to pick up drag queens, hustlers, and students.

People drank a lot of booze at the mafia-owned Stonewall Inn, even though the bar had no liquor licence, and drug use was common, to say the least.  I’m sure that all of the various behaviors that you’d expect to find in a lot of less savory gay bars today were going on at the Stonewall.  Most of us know that the events of that night began in response to a police raid on the bar.  (Police raids on gay bars happened fairly often in those days.)  But did you know that the single moment that supposedly kicked off the rioting happened when a 17-year old drag queen, reportedly stoned out of her gourd, turned around and slugged the cop who was shoving her into the paddy wagon?

Now, I’m definitely not endorsing drug use, prostitution, or violence against police.  But if this organization is going to call itself the “Stonewall Democrats,” and if GLBT folks and our allies are going to march in parades all over the world in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots, it behooves us to remember where we’ve come from.  And let’s not forget that many of the early leaders of the gay liberation movement would never have been caught dead in a suit & tie!