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Movements and Memory:
The Making of the Stonewall Myth
Elizabeth A. Armstrong
Suzanna Crage
Stonewall is not only commemorated but mythologized. Many gay men and lesbians
routinely speak of it as if it was a sacred event that lies beyond the reach of objective
discourse. They talk as if there was no gay rights activism at all before Stonewall, or else
they mock pre-Stonewall activists as Uncle Toms. They recite the name "Stonewall"
itself with the same reverence that American politicians reserve for the names of
Washington and Lincoln. And indeed the word is perfectly suited to the myth, conjuring
as it does an image of a huge, solid barrier separating the dark ages prior to the day that
Judy Garland died from the out-loud-and-proud present. Every year, on what has long
since become an all-purpose gay holiday—a combination of Independence Day, May
Day, Mardi Gras and, since the advent of HIV, Memorial Day as well—millions
ritualistically revisit the raucous, defiant marginality of Stonewall in marches around the
world. This year in New York, on the twenty-fifth anniversary, the ritual will reach a
climax. For many, Stonewall has already become a Platonic model of gay activism—and,
indeed, a touchstone of gay identity (Bawer 1994).
The “touchstone of gay identity” to which activist Bruce Bawer referred was a raid of a
homosexual bar in New York that took place shortly on the evening of June 27, 1969 [Leitsch,
1969 #983;, 1969 #861]. While raids of homosexual
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bars were common in New York and other
cities in the 1960s, this raid – or so the story goes – was different. Instead of bar patrons passively
enduring humiliating treatment, they fought back, initiating a riot that lasted into the night and
resumed the following evening [, 1969 #862;, 1969 #864]. Bawer is far from alone in his
assessment of the significance of the Stonewall riots to lesbians and gay men in the U.S. In a
recent book on homosexual activism in Philadelphia, historian Marc Stein (2000, p. 290) quoted
an activist who claimed that: “No event in history, with perhaps the exception of the French
Revolution, deserves more [than the Stonewall riots] to be considered a watershed.” The
Stonewall riots motivate lesbian/gay fiction, non-fiction and film. Hundreds of lesbian and gay
organizations proudly include “Stonewall” in their names. It has become common to refer to
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Before 1970 activists usually self-identified as homosexual or lesbian, and referred to their movement as a
homophile movement. After 1970 activists more typically self-identified as gay or lesbian, and referred to
their movement as a gay liberation or gay rights movement.
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