Culture

Stonewall at 50: Queer Elders Tell Us About the Stonewall Riots, and How Their Lives Changed After


I’ve learned to hold my head up high

Not in scorn nor disgrace

[…]

Yes I’m gay

Tain’t a fault, tis a fact

Yes, I was born this way

I didn’t have a problem saying that. Everyone was like, “Oh my god, if you sing that, what’s gonna happen after?” I’m not gonna have a problem with it, that’s who I am. I was that way before Stonewall. I got worse after in the best ways [laughs]. I wore scarves on my head, I wore heels. Some woman said to me one night, “Ooh, you look so svelte and sinewy!” I said, “That’s lovely, thank you!”

GD: I was able to find lesbian places to go pretty easily. I felt free to tell the world who I was. When I first went to this bar Bonnie and Clyde’s, you went downstairs, turned a corner, and woo! There were lesbians at the bar, standing around, music playing. It was wonderful. On a Sunday night. I saw some of my high school friends. We all hung together in high school, but we were never able to say, “Hey, I’m gay, you’re gay.” But once I walked into that bar, saw them and met them, it was a wonderful connection. I thought about transitioning when I was 15 years old. Back then you had to travel out of the country. I’m a kid growin’ up in Harlem, who had the finances to do that? I didn’t. I tried to compartmentalize my life to keep moving forward. I’m a trans person now. Those services weren’t really available before. Even now they are available, there are organizations and groups addressing it, but there are also a lot of trans people not getting services they need, not able to connect, not able to have medical insurance, not able to have finances to do what they need to do if they are transitioning. Those are some issues we still need to address. We are still struggling.

JC: After Stonewall, I went back and got my high school diploma, then I went to college. I didn’t necessarily feel safe, but I no longer felt alone. I think Stonewall did that. I felt a little more courage. I never felt fully accepted, but it didn’t matter. You don’t have to approve of the way I am, because I do. What you think of me is none of my business, and vice versa. The attitude I had before — that what others thought of me was more important than my own life — Stonewall turned it around. I didn’t feel like the only queen in Brooklyn anymore. It was a beautiful thing.

Interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.

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