By Karen Fredericks
The night of June 27, 1969, began as a sad one for drag performers and their fans. At the Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village, many a toast was drunk to mark the death that day of the glamorous and tragic gay icon, Judy Garland.
But it is not Judy Garland's death that marks June 27 in the history of the gay and lesbian liberation movement. That night many a Stonewall patron discarded both glamour and tragedy to fight back against the police violence to which they had been subject for years.
By the early hours of that morning, three drag queens and the entire staff of the Stonewall Inn had been arrested in a "routine" police raid. On the street outside, bar patrons, mainly poor, black and latino gay men, lesbians and transsexuals, booed and jeered the arresting police. Someone threw a rock at the police wagon, and the act sparked a violent rebellion which, in the following days, transformed the surrounding area into a no-go zone as the gay and lesbian community battled police riot squads in the streets.
"The riot squad was called in", wrote gay author Edmund White in his account of the riots. "It marched like a Roman army, behind shields, down Christopher Street from the women's prison [the Women's House of Detention in which many lesbians were imprisoned] which was loud with catcalls and the clatter of metal drinking cups against the steel bars."
"Knots of young gays — effeminate according to most reports — gathered on corners, angry and restless", writes John D'Emilio in Sexual Politics, Sexual Community. "Someone heaved a sack of wet garbage through the window of a patrol car. On nearby Waverley Place a concrete block landed on the hood of another police car that was quickly surrounded by dozens of men, pounding on its doors and dancing on its hood. Helmeted officers from the
tactical police force arrived on the scene and dispersed with swinging clubs an impromptu chorus line of gay men in the middle of a full kick. At the intersection of Greenwich Avenue and Christopher Street several dozen queens screaming 'save our sister' rushed a group of officers who were clubbing a young man, and dragged him to safety. For the next few hours trash fires blazed, bottles and stones flew through the air and cries of 'gay power' rang in the streets as the police, numbering over 400, did battle with a crowd estimated at more than 2000."
The unleashing of gay, lesbian and transsexual anger at the long-term police violence against their Greenwich Village community quickly spilled over into other US cities and towns and then became an international phenomenon, the modern movement for gay liberation. Set in a context of mass antiwar and black rights movements, the gay movement quickly gained momentum, inspiring the women's movement, too, to take a strong, proud stance against the straitjacketed sex roles which oppress all who dare to assert an identity outside the father-knows-best style family.
Australia's Stonewall came on June 24, 1978, when 1000 lesbians and gays marched down Sydney's Oxford Street to mark the anniversary of Stonewall, which had come to be known as "International Gay Solidarity Day". Police hostility at the march was palpable and when the crowd reached Hyde Park, their sound truck and public address system were seized by the cops. The crowd continued to King's Cross where police violence escalated and 53 people were arrested.
Lance Gowland, a member of the 1993 Stonewall Collective in Sydney, participated in the 1978 march. He told the Sydney Star Observer in a recent interview that he believes the police hostility then was a reaction to the "flagrant display of lesbian and gay pride" that characterised the event.
"They were determined to try to intimidate us so that we wouldn't want to march in the street again", he said.
A feminist documentary team, attending the march in the course of a separate project, caught the melee on film and produced Witches, Faggots, Dykes and
Poofters, a documentary of both the June 24 events and their aftermath, a 12-month campaign which resulted in all charges against participants being dropped.
The state-sponsored violence and discrimination against Sydney's gay and lesbian community had precisely the opposite effect to that intended — it mobilised thousands in struggle and generated a depth and breadth of pride that only active defiance of an unjust system can produce. A campaign was mounted which mobilised thousands in defence of lesbian and gay rights — lesbians, gay men, trannies and straights. The 1978 march is now remembered as Sydney's first Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras, an annual event which is now among the biggest celebrations of lesbian and gay pride in the world.
Stonewall events around the country now have a more consciously political tone than the annual Mardi Gras, in recognition of the political significance of the Stonewall rebellion.
This year the Sydney Stonewall Collective has issued a list of 12 political demands for lesbian and gay liberation, including an end to exemptions from anti-discrimination legislation, an end to arrests at beats under summary offences legislation, increased resources for HIV education, care, support and research, social and legal recognition of same-sex relationships and an end to violence against lesbians, gay men, people with HIV, bisexuals, drag queens and transgender people.
Support for these demands will be demonstrated at a march on June 27 which will leave Sydney Town Hall at 12 noon and end in a rally at Green Park at about 1.30 p.m., featuring the Gay and Lesbian Concert Band and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir.
The Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby in Sydney is also running two "Stonewall debates" on issues of current political significance within the movement. "From Camp to Queer — is it time to redefine our community?" will take place on June 23 and "The politics of Queer — the way ahead or a new conservatism?" on June 30. Both will be held at 7 p.m. at the Tom Mann Theatre in Surry Hills.
In Brisbane a fortnight of "Pride" activities will kick off with a march on June 26, starting at Albert Park at 12 noon and culminating in a Pride Festival at Musgrave Park from 1 to 5 p.m. The following fortnight promises a frenzy of gay film, art, literature, sport, partying and politics. A Pride program may be obtained by ringing (07) 366 4647.
In Adelaide, Pride marchers will leave Victoria Square at 10.30 a.m. on June 26 and march to Parliament House. In the afternoon the party continues at a festival in Rymill Park and then a film night at the Resistance Centre or a dance party at the Lions Theatre, with proceeds to Lesbian and Gay Community Action.
In Hobart the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group is holding a Stonewall dinner at Rockerfellers on June 29 at 7 p.m., and in Perth the occasion will be marked by a rally at 1 p.m. on June 26 at Forest Chase, with a picnic afterwards at the Court Hotel.