As early as February 1970, the Austin underground newspaper the Rag called for “Pink Power!” In April 1970, the first publicly promoted meeting of gay Austinites drew 25 brave souls. Yet Austin’s relatively small LGBTQ community was quick to organize. Many media outlets across the country did not at first report on what happened at Stonewall. The uprising changed the power dynamics in the struggle for LGBTQ rights, which, despite some prominent protests in Washington, D.C., and militant actions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, for the most part had been confined to quiet pushes for incremental changes.ĭuring those two nights 50 years ago, a modern movement was born.
Johnson and Sylvia Rivera among the vanguard, continued on and off for two nights. The street riots, with transgender women of color like Marsha P. In the early hours of a torrid June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a scruffy LGBTQ bar in Greenwich Village.Īlthough such raids were routine in New York City and across the country, this time the bar’s clients and onlookers fought back.
