Skeddie Sauce and other Delights: STONEWALL

What is Stonewall? Why gay pride?

These questions and many more are easily answered with a simple google search.

Generally and very shortly put: Stonewall Inn was a bar in Greenwich Village of Manhattan, NY. In 1969 the solicitation of homosexual relations was an illegal act in NYC as well most everywhere else in the world. Gay bars were places of refuge where gay men and lesbians and other individuals who were considered sexually suspect could socialize in relative safety from public harassment. Many of those bars were, however, subject to regular police harassment. In the early morning hours of Saturday, June 28, 1969, nine policemen entered the Stonewall Inn, arrested the employees for selling alcohol without a license, roughed up many of its patrons, cleared the bar and in accordance with a NY criminal statue that authorized the arrest of anyone not wearying at least 3 articles of gender-appropriate clothing - took several people into custody. It was the 3rd such raid on Greenwich Village gay bars in a short period. This time, the people did not retreat or scatter away as they always had in the past. They were angry and fought back. The police were not prepared for a fight and had to call in for reinforcement and actually barricaded themselves inside the bar while some 400 people rioted. The barricade was repeatedly breached and the bar was set on fire.

The riots went on and off the next 5 days. Many historians characterized the uprising as a spontaneous protest against the perpetual police harassment and social discrimination suffered by a variety of sexual minorities in the 60's. Although there had been other protests by gay groups, the Stonewall incident was perhaps the firs time lesbians, gays, and transgender people saw the value in uniting behind a common cause. The Stonewall riots became a galvanizing force.

There is a lot more history and details to this event - both before and after 1969. You can easily google it yourself. Most of the above story is a shorten version of this article - click here to read it in its entirety.

So why gay pride? Some say pride is sinful. This is not the kind of pride where you show yourself off as someone special or privileged or better than someone else - which is the sin that some refer to. Society, religion, government, family, and a list of others, shamed and shunned the gay community throughout the 60's as well as long before then and still today. By shaming someone for whatever reason, that person may tend to hide in the closet. The Stonewall movement is to say that there is no need to be ashamed of who you are. Better yet, come out of hiding and be proud of who you are. So when you hear the phrase gay pride, think of what the other option is: to be ashamed of oneself.

Now you know why there is no Straight Pride parade. But if you still need help in understanding that, click here for this very helpful guide of 10 reasons why a Straight Pride parade makes no sense.

OK - now that we got all of that out of the way. Here are a few of my pix from the NY 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots aka Gay Pride parade.

With all the anti-gay history I have been reading on-line over the years, both in NY, other states, England and other countries, I was shocked to see rainbows everywhere in the airport after departing the plane.

I was in NY for only 1½ days. I didn't have my glasses and I didn't have the time so I just snapped these light boxes instead and for the first time, read these as I posted them. When I snapped them, I didn't realize that the photos referred to the text. Kind of dumb to not make that connection but zoom in and take a look for yourself.

I arrived at the Newark airport at about 1:30 in the afternoon. By the time I got to my bag, went through customs and passport control, train to Manhattan, hotel check-in and went into town, people were already lining up to get into Stonewall Inn. The line went around the block. It's a tiny place and it was packed. Eventually only one could go in as one came out. The problem was, no one wanted to come out and the line ended up growing longer and longer. I guess everyone wanted to make the 1969 experience and historical moment tangible for them by going inside the bar. That's what I wanted to do -- along with 5 million other tourist. But luckily I found out before even getting in line that they wouldn't let me in with my backpack which I just happened to be carrying. The square in front of the bar was totally full of people too. Here is my little clip of Christopher Park which is smack across the street from the bar and part of the national and historic monument.

And here is a google photo of Stonewall Inn. This little tiny place caused all this history.

I have about 150 photos of the parade; some boring, some risqué. I wont show them here, you'll have to click onto my shutterfly site if you want to see them - and I know you want to see them.

Actually, just after I checked into my hotel, I walked in the opposite directions of Stonewall and the happenings. I walked to Port Authority Bus station and timed how long it took me to get there. I wanted to be sure I knew exactly where to go because I would have to head out of NY early the following morning. I had an 8:55 bus departure to Southbury, CT. It was so easy. The bus station was on the same street as my hotel and just a few blocks away. 15 minutes walking time total.

The Port Authority bus station building is gigantic and I think just one of the several bus terminals is bigger than our train station here in Copenhagen. I was so amazed by it all. I had to take photos of it.

Look! There are at least 31 bus gates just from this one bus terminal. My bus was departing from a different part of the same building. I didn't snap that but it was also huge as well. There were endless places to eat and shop - all in one building and I have no idea on how many floors - both above and underground.

I don't know if the terminal of 25 gates were all Peter Pan buses but I had to go to gate 70. And the ticket office was on a different floor in a different part of the building. I bought my ticket on-line just a few days before arriving in NYC. Only 31 buck to get from NYC to just 5 minutes from sister's house in CT.

Now that, that was settled, it was time to party! As I said, Stonewall was a no. So I walked on, to a place called Ty's. It opened in 1972 so it's nearly 50 years old itself. The energy was amazing. The tunes were from the 70's and everybody was grooving to the beat.

So this is the late afternoon of my arrival day and the following day is the parade. Again... click here and check out the 195 photos on my Shutterfly. Viewer discretion advised.

Monday morning I'm up early and get early to the bus station that I actually had time to snap a few pix from Times Square. I don't have a lot of selfie experience - obviously. But now I have learned not to photograph up my nose holes.