Johnson, the trans woman who is believed to have thrown the first brick at the policemen, but who claims that the riots had already begun once she arrived at the bar that night. It’s unclear as to who exactly started the Stonewall movement. However, just like lesbian bars are all but absent from New York’s streets (with some notable exceptions such as Henrietta Hudson), the lesbian activists who pushed Stonewall into existence and fought tirelessly for LGBTQ rights are often underrecognized. Stormé is one of the many lesbians who, along with many trans, queer, and gay male activists, spurred Stonewall into the movement that would cement it in history. I knew sooner or later people were going to get the same attitude that I had. The police got the shock of their lives when those queens came out of that bar and pulled off their wigs and went after them. Noses got broken, there were bruises and banged-up knuckles and things like that, but no one was seriously injured. I mean, they said it was a riot it was more like a civil disobedience. “Finally, the kids down there took a stand. “Stonewall was just the flip side of the black revolt when Rosa Parks took a stand,” she said. ![]() In an interview with Kaiser, Stormé speaks out about the parallels between Stonewall and the Civil Rights movement. Her presence was a staple in NYC’s lesbian spaces until she retired in the early 2000s when she was 80 years old.Ĭharles Kaiser’s 1997 book The Cost of Courage paints a portrait of a Stormé who was steadfast, kind, fearless, and socially astute. While being dragged away, she screamed into the crowd, “WHY DON’T YOU DO SOMETHING?” Her words were yet another match that lit the fire Stonewall became.Īfter her arrest that night, Stormé continued her activism, working as a volunteer street performer to protect younger lesbians, who she affectionately called her “baby girls,” from harm. Some rumors propose that she threw the first punch at Stonewall, leading to the assault. She went home to take care of her eye, got hold of a lawyer, and went back with money in case she could bail out any of her friends.You may not have heard of Stormé DeLarverie, but she played an instrumental role in sparking the Stonewall Riots of 1969, which kickstarted a wave of LGBTQ+ rights activism and ultimately cemented itself as the historic epicenter of Pride Month in NYC.Īt 1:20am on that legendary night half a century ago, Stormé, a butch lesbian bouncer, was hit on the head by a policeman. She stayed back and watched to see what was going on.Ī cop, who perceived Stormé as a man, said, "More along, faggot", and when Stormé declined, hit her from behind, injuring her eye. Stormé responded by spinning around and knocking him out with a punch before leaving. She'd walked over to check on her friends & see if anyone needed her help) after the last (midnight) show of the Jewel Box Revue at the Apollo and found the fighting already started. Or, as Charles Kaiser noted in In the Life, possibly the only punch).Īfter finding as many historical sources and reading/watching/listening to the earliest accounts from Stormé herself (ie the ones least likely to be affected by memory issues due to her vascular dementia), these are my own conclusions:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |