Then i realized all these things that are taught you, not only by society, but by psychiatrists fit you in a mold. And when i rejected the mold, i was happier. Independent organizations all over the country. Unified effort on the part of 20, 30 organizations on. He east coast use confrontation tactics. Other groups will use a more educational approach. People emphasize different things. Some groups [indiscernible] effort today is to change the social institutions [indiscernible] [chanting] the a portion of documentary. This is what the Stonewall Inn looks like today. Joining us from greenwich n,llage, new york, mark stei the editor of the stonewall riots a documentary history. Thank you for being on cspan. We appreciate it. Prof. Stein thank you. Host take us back 50 years ago this week. What happened . Prof. Stein police in that rated gay bars. There was actually a raid on the stonewall in a few days later. Andpolice began a raid, things proceeded in a fairly routine manner. Some patrons were able to exit the bar. Some words attained. It was very common to detain bar managers, bartenders, people of color, people who transgress gender. In the lingo of the day transvestites or drag queens or street queens, and people who sawtek. Ack or some people words attained inside the bar. Others began exiting the bar. That night, and it was the Early Morning hours of june 28, patrons and passersby again gathering on the street outside and does the police tried to bring those they detained into crowd woulds, the erupt. There were protests, demonstrations. At one point the police were trapped inside the bar until reinforcements arrived. The Riot Control Police were called. Preceded overg the next several days of the next week. Host why this location . Junehe Stonewall Inn, why 1969 . Competition if the question. The Stonewall Inn was mafiaowned and managed, as were. Any gay bars there was a payoff where the bar owners, managers would pay off the police to limit although never completely restrict police raids on the bars. But police would raid the bars even if there were payoff systems in place. There are different accounts of why the police raided the bar that night. The payoff system may have broken down. There was a mayoral election. That is often when police would raid bars so there would be a crackdown on vice. Re were violations of allegations of violations of a breach in liquor laws. Why june 1969 . Thats a question historians have been debating a long time. In global terms, 1968 was really witnessedar where we stateions and violent repression. In some sense we can see , butwall as an outgrowth there is also local and national developments. There was the mayoral election. They were just days, weeks before the riots took place, ther john lindsay had lost republican primary to be reelected. Lindsay was known to be a friend of the Gay Community in the 1960s. He ended up winning the election in 1969. The first party ticket. A series ofso killing of lesbian and gay people around the country. I think that contributed to the rage in the anger in the fury that lgbt people felt that night and in the days and weeks around the stonewall riots. With our conversation professor mark stein, the editor of this book the stonewall riots. We do have a line set aside for the lgbtq community. Mark stein, if you could, for a moment, describe physically where you are situated. Directly behind me is the new Stonewall National monument created by the Obama Administration. Its a small park. Behind the park is the stonewall in itself. Its a twostory building with beige stucco, alongside a threestory building that was part of the stonewall in. This is in Greenwich Village, new york city, lower manhattan. Host what do the monuments represent . Prof. Stein well, when obama referenced stonewall on alongside seneca falls and selma in his inaugural address, it really signaled a recognition lgbtlgbt activism, the movement was part of broader aspirational struggles for justice in the night of states and that was a very powerful symbolic statement on the part of obama as president of the United States, the first africanamerican president of the United States. In this monument here, another way of signaling the road that has been traveled over the last not just 50 years, but even. Onger to achieve lgbt equality there is an action on the part of the lgbt. Thee is this paradox that federal government has. Ecognized this space the best example might be the ban on Transgender Service members. There is this paradox of recognition. Prof. Stein host you mentioned president obama policy of speech. From the west front of the capital, here is what he said. [video clip] we, the people, declare the most evident of troops. This is the star that guides us still, just as it guided our forebears through seneca falls and selma and stonewall, just as a guided men and women who left footprints along this great mall dohear a preacher say we not walk alone are coto hear a team to claim our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on earth. Host that was former president barack obama in 2013. The stonewall in itself i guess the best way to say it is. Ts a rather cozy bar its not very big, is it . Big, stein its not very but at the time it was one of the larger gay bars in new york city and Greenwich Village. It featured dancing. Gogo boys. The stonewall and was known to be relatively spacious. Host why were these locations so important at that time to the gay and Lesbian Community . In 1960 nine, samesex sex was illegal in 49 out of 50 states. There were also state and local laws that regulated lgbt speech, lgbt which is a patient in many aspects of public life. Difficult to get a government local, state, and federal level in 1969. The lgbt a place where community could come together, socialize together, enjoy time together, and in that sense, was people argue the bar for the Lgbt Community what the church was for the africanamerican community. Gathering,pace for becoming active, developing ideas about social justice and equality. Host i want to share with you a documentary that dan rather has recently apologized for but mike wallace in 1967, the title of the program is called the homosexuals. [video clip] that e out of 10 say recognize homosexuals the majority of americans favor legal punishment for homosexual acts in private between consenting adults. Go underground. They frequent their own bars and clubs and coffeehouses were they can act out in whatever fashion they want to, where they can escape the disapproving eye of a society they call straight. You hear that in see that, your reaction . Prof. Stein the media was changing in the second half of the 1960s. That was soundly criticized, but there were other the new york storymagazine published a in 1967. The wall street journal featured a major story on the gayrights movement. This was certainly true in new york city. There was a decline in sexual entrapment practices on the part of police, a decline in arrest for sexual solicitation. Some Court Decisions that allow gay bars a little more freedom to exist. Things were changing in the second half of the 1960s. Reports were conflicting and everchanging. Theyn that first week, covered the civil rights. It was not prominent, frontpage news. They have reporters trapped inside the bar during the riots and those were much more significant. It was really the alternative that, and the lgbt press cover the riots more sympathetically and those are the stories that historians rely on for rounding out the picture of what happened that week. Host our guest is mark steyn. He is the author of mark stein. He is the author of rethinking the gay and Lesbian Movement your code theark the anniversary of stonewall riots. Tom is on the phone from flint, michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning to you gentlemen and all of the viewers per this will be brief. A little context. I am a navy veteran, a gate navy veteran and grew up in it a Catholic High School a high catholic household. This issue is per many different ways by different folks in corners of society, but what it really is, its about love. Sex. Not about you are fighting quite a force from ahere and coming background, the lgbtq issues are often, by the religious right issued in the same breath as abortion and a isture of death, but there so much in the bible that is taken way out of context. Its it here to selectively. So, its about love, period. Have a wonderful weekend. Host have you personally felt discrimination, and openly gay american . Caller well, i am glad you asked back. Since i value the other viewer as well as you gentlemen, i served in the amy i served 20 years sorry my voice is kind of croaky this morning about 50 of it was under socalled dont ask, dont tell. My first 10 years in the military was under a republican preferred do ask and, you know, we will ask and do and that was particularly repressive and to coney and and it could land you on the street out of a job extremely easily. Takes a lot clinton of grief for dont ask, dont tell but it was a huge step forward from what was in place before that. , the last half of my sentence here, repression, growing up in a religious household, you Better Believe it. Host thank you. Prof. Stein its interesting to about love. The priest on him stonewall the prestonewall movement is homophile movement. But this began the months before the riots, i would place on sex they one of the legalization of sex, things like that. They wanted their sexual identities to be recognized and validated. For a few years, it was quite after themediately stonewall riots. Host here is a look at highlights. The American Psychiatric association declaring homosexuality longer a mental ness and then in 1982 of marriagedefense act, present obama revoking dont ask, dont appear the Supreme Court legalizing samesex marriage. The pentagon one years later in sleep ban on transgender people military. Enly in the but then President Trump rescinding that van. Lets get to tonya. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im tonya walker. Im an activist in new york city. I am kind of high up in the lgbtq mandy Lgbt Community here. Johnson and i know the Gay Community did not like the drag queens because they were trying to be a Straight Community back then. Marcia johnson was a marginalized sex worker who was fighting with the cops and i know most of the am i talking . Host yes, you are on the air. Caller thanks. Host did you have another question or comment . Caller i wonder what he does not mention the black drag queens fighting that night . Host thank you for the call. Mark stein. The caller is absolutely right. As far as we can determine some of the leading roles were played by africanamericans, drag queens. Uncertain as to when the majority per dissipated the riots, but many are participated in the riots, but seen as displaying real courage. Some individuals are credited as leaving the riots marcia p. Johnson. Theres conflicting accounts about whether they were there, when they were there. Johnson herself likes when she was not there when it started, but came there later. She may not have been there right when the riots started. Prof. Stein host lets go to dave in new york city. Caller hi. I was 20 years old. I grew up on an island of states. Julius was the other bar. They were all mafia run. It was strange to me being a macho college student, lacostefter wearing we went way boy, down towards the river toward a new bar dannys which i had not mentioned. Stonewall and it seemed all rights. It seemed normal. , and i had notk but i would say the queens, they were the bravest. They were lighting garbage i saw this garbage pails on fire from the outside and throwing them through the big window. Standing onmember the bumpers of two cabs there were parked right there in front of it. This was the first night. I think i was there for the second night. So, that is what i will never police were the trapped inside and they were lighting the garbage cans on fire. It got a little better after that. But it took years to get to where we are now. Thats a decade. I am 70 now. Thank you for waiting in ensuring the regulations your recollections from 50 years ago this week. Mark stein . Book reprints 30 media accounts from the stonewall riots in 1969. Its very interesting to see the referred to the rioters as homosexuals or young homosexuals, but in a week, the tot press were referring drag queens or street queens and extensivemost erage is in the interestingly, the transperiodicals of the day, the ericsson educational a, didtter and transvesti not cover the riots, but the gay press imprecise the prominent role of street queens and drag queens in the riots. To police the boundaries between gay and trans, but in 1969, many individuals were comfortable referring to themselves as both gay and transvestite. They did not see those things as mutually exclusive. To our viewers, we are looking back 50 years to the stonewall riots. Our guest is mark stein. Hes the author of a new book that is a look back at what happened 50 years ago. Weve been talking about new york police officers. Police commissioner james oneill on twitter with this apology for the way officers handled the situation. [video clip] i think it would be irresponsible for me as we go through world pride was not to speak of the events at Stonewall Inn. I will not pretend to be next word on what happened at stonewall. I do know what happened should not of happened. The actions taken by the nypd were wrong, plain and simple. The actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that, i apologize. [applause] to the lgbtq community, this in 2019. Er happen host your reaction to that apology from the new York City Police commissioner . Prof. Stein in general terms, apology is a good first step. It would be good to see apologies from cities were lgbt people were killed places like berkeley, california, oakland, california. But in addition, are we seeing leadership from city mayors, state governors . We still have only a few States Education is mandatory in schools. Funding for lgbt history and education. Way ins an effort under new york city. We could see more of those projects funded by city, state, and local government. More research into the history , includingrassment by government authorities those of the steps that would build on what is a symbolic apology at this point. Caller good morning. I wanted to discuss the beginning of my coming out and going in to new york. I used to go to the gay pride parades but only at night because i didnt want to go near tv cameras. And my very best friend a School Teacher said he couldnt go until the evening time because he with was afraid that he would definitely lose his job as a School Teacher. He was a spanish and italian teacher in new jersey and absolutely loved his job as a Foreign Language teacher. I do remember enjoying halloween on christopher street and then i think a big change was during the gay mens Health Crisis. I was with a friend, tony, in a storefront when they first started the Health Crisis and etting up the telephone lines. And these men much older than me, tony said because everybody was putting their name down on a piece of paper. And tony leaned over and said hes extremely young, hes pet fid that his name will be on anything. So in that storefront with the gay mens Health Crisis i didnt put my name on that piece of paper because the first thing i thought it was nazi brain and the gay concentration camps and that i would be put in a camp and possibly killed for being gay. Host thanks for call. We should point out christopher street is directly behind you. And thats become an iconic place for gays and lesbians, also where the stone wal inn is situated. As you hear his story whats your reaction . Guest there had actually been earlier annual commemorations of hiladelphia in front Independence Hall. But the decision was made by Movement Activists in the fall of 1969 to switch the annual recognition of the lgbt struggle from philadelphia and Independence Hall to stone wal and new york city. And that became the what we now know today as the gay pride pa rates. That spread around the United States and around the world. But those early pride ma raids parades it was quite brave to participate and uncertain with whether there would be violence from harassers who ight come and confront the participants. It was unclear if police would grant permits. It was only shortly before christopher street west that the parade organizers received official police permits to conduct the march and they only did so under a judges order. So those first recognitions and commemorations of the stone wall rebelion required a lot of courage on the part of the organizers and participants but many believe thats when the riots acquired the significance that they have today. There had been other lgbt protests and demonstrations before stonewall but stonewall became central to the way that we narrate lgbt history because of the annual commemorations every sum thear have now gone on for 49 years. I want to put one point in perspective. Walter jenkins who at the time with was one of the closest aides to president johnson, worked with him for 25 years, he was married the father of six children and this is a photograph of Walter Jenkins who was forced out of the white house after he had a sexual liaison with another man here in washington, d. C. He was charged with a crime on more or less charges. I mentioned that in 1964 to where we are today with the mayor of