Stonewall Riots
June 1969
The Stonewall riots were a series of violent conflicts between New York City police officers and groups of gay and transgender people that began during the early morning of June 28, 1969 and lasted several days.
Also called the Stonewall Rebellion or simply Stonewall, the clash was a watershed for the worldwide gay rights movement, as gay and transgender people had never before acted together in such large numbers to forcibly resist police harassment directed towards their community.
Prior acts of group resistance that contributed to recognition of GLBT civil rights include the 1966 Compton's Cafeteria Riot of transgender citizens in San Francisco.
It's interesting to note that homosexuality had already been decriminalised in England two years previously, although that by no means meant that equality had been achieved.
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