Stonewall riots

The Stonewall riots, also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall, were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community[note 1] in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Patrons of the Stonewall, other Village lesbian and gay bars, and neighborhood street people fought back when the police became violent. The riots are widely considered the watershed event that transformed the gay liberation movement and the twentieth-century fight for LGBT rights in the United States.[5][6][7]

Stonewall riots
Part of events leading to gay liberation
The only known photograph taken during the first night of the riots, by freelance photographer Joseph Ambrosini, shows gay youth scuffling with police.[1]
Date	June 28 – July 3, 1969 (1969-06-28 – 1969-07-03)[2]
Location	Stonewall Inn 40.7338°N 74.0021°W / 40.7338; -74.0021
Goals	Gay liberation and LGBT rights in the United States
Methods	Rioting, street protests
Parties
New York Police Department Tactical Patrol Force Fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth Precincts Stonewall Inn patrons
Number
Day 1: 10 NYPD officers (inside the Inn) Day 2: Multiple NYPD precincts Day 1: 500–600 supporters outside Day 2: ~1,000 supporters inside and outside

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As was common for American gay bars at the time, the Stonewall Inn was owned by the Italian-American Mafia.[8][9][10] While police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969. Tensions between New York City Police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more protests the next evening and again several nights later. Within weeks, Village residents organized into activist groups demanding the right to live openly regarding their sexual orientation, and without fear of being arrested. The new activist organizations concentrated on confrontational tactics, and within months three newspapers were established to promote rights for gay men and lesbians.

A year after the uprising, to mark the anniversary on June 28, 1970, the first gay pride marches took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.[11] Within a few years, gay rights organizations were founded across the US and the world. Today, LGBT Pride events are held annually worldwide in June in honor of the Stonewall riots.

The Stonewall National Monument was established at the site in 2016.[12] An estimated 5 million participants commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising,[13] and on June 6, 2019, New York City Police Commissioner James P. O'Neill rendered a formal apology for the actions of officers at Stonewall in 1969.[14][15]