{"id":1943,"date":"2016-06-26T19:28:50","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T00:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mindfulwalker.com\/?p=1943"},"modified":"2016-06-27T09:56:06","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T14:56:06","slug":"stonewall-the-power-in-historys-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mindfulwalker.com\/wordpress\/explore-new-york\/stonewall-the-power-in-historys-places","title":{"rendered":"Stonewall: The Power in History’s Places"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you ever for a moment doubt the importance of declaring a site as a landmark, preserving at least some part of it, or placing a sign at a spot of historical significance, go to The Stonewall Inn<\/a> this month, in New York\u2019s Greenwich Village. There, hundreds have converged in vigils and left remembrances such as flowers, after a gunman opened fire early Sunday morning, June 12, at Pulse, an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, murdering 49 innocent souls and injuring 53 others. Places imbued with meaning from the past continue to maintain a powerful pull in the present.<\/p>\n

The Stonewall Inn, in the days since this horrible massacre, has been a peaceful place, drawing throngs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and supporters. Its role at times of celebration and grief personifies the power a place holds when history occurs there and as it continues to represent meaning, a haven, or presence for subsequent generations. There, one can reflect that in 1969, law enforcement targeted gay people for arrest and harassment, while in Orlando earlier this month, police risked their lives to stop the violence of a shooter armed with assault weapons to kill many, many people. <\/p>\n

Historical places show us how far we have advanced as well as the deep fissures and obstacles that still exist. We live in a different, better world, we might say. Yet in some moments, we question how different.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, too many neglect the history and either do not know or grasp its significance \u2013 how others have endured death, wounds, emotional scars, jailing, and both setbacks and victories in various places across the land to win what some take for granted today. We need to be vigilant about that history, about all of its painstaking, brutal, hard-won steps.<\/p>\n

These thoughts come to mind at various times, reflecting on whether those in subsequent generations grasp the magnitude of what another has accomplished or the significance of someone breaking a barrier to freedom and opportunity. Friends remarked that to some younger women and girls in their circle, it didn\u2019t seem like a big deal that Hillary Clinton became the first woman to earn the nomination of a major political party for President. Yet, not very long ago, women protested, were jailed and beaten, and suffered many setbacks to win a woman\u2019s right to vote in the United States and elsewhere. Barriers remain, here and across the globe.<\/p>\n

The horrible massacre of Sunday morning, June 12, in Orlando starkly reminded those who have dared to forget history. At Stonewall, many have gathered to mourn, to honor their brothers and sisters, to decry the hatred \u2013 to ultimately say, hell, no, we won\u2019t go back. We won\u2019t hide. We will stand against the hate and sickness that cut so many lives short.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s precisely what hundreds of gay men and women said on a June night in 1969, when they had enough of the regular raids that New York City police conducted at The Stonewall Inn, during which they arrested patrons as well as the managers and employees. On one night, June 28, 1969, the gay men and women did what they had not before. Instead of accepting the arrests and seeing the bar close temporarily, the customers chose resistance.<\/p>\n

Tensions built and exploded that night. When police wagons didn\u2019t arrive immediately, those at Stonewall refused to leave quickly and instead congregated in and around the tavern. Many others arrived on Christopher Street outside. A struggle ensued when a lesbian whom police handcuffed and took toward a police wagon resisted and an officer struck her with a billy club. The crowd erupted, attempting to overturn a police wagon and fighting the police. The uprising outside the Stonewall and on adjoining blocks erupted for another two nights.<\/p>\n

Today: The Stonewall National Monument<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

At the time of the uprising, it was against the law for gay people to be served alcohol at clubs or to dance with one another, as The Stonewall Inn history recounts<\/a>. The authorities regularly raided the inn and demanded those at the tavern to show identification. However, this time tensions spilled over. For three days, the uprising took place, as gay citizens signaled they would not accept police raids and would fight back. In 1969, the rough, uncharted way forward of subsequent decades lay ahead. In the years following, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people came out of the closet, protested, campaigned against barriers and for equality, and made tremendous progress, albeit through the toll of hurt and death, as during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. The advancements and show of visibility and love as couples and families have come against the continuing, strong forces of backlash, ignorance, hatred, and violence.<\/p>\n

The disturbances that June nearly five decades ago became a turning point and helped launch the gay civil rights movement. Each June, thousands mark Gay Pride Month. Today, many thousands are gathering and marching in New York City, as they have elsewhere across the United States this month, to celebrate gay pride, progress, and freedom, and to come together at a time of mourning and urgency in the wake of the Orlando tragedy and other incidents of violence and hatred. The march ends near the Stonewall, at Christopher and Bleecker streets.<\/p>\n

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