Since some people wrote me that I was wrong about who started the Stonewall riot in my posts, I decided to dig up some information on that topic. So...even people who were there still donât agree on how Stonewall started. And it actually doesn't matter who threw the First Brick at Stonewall
The series of events that occurred during the Stonewall uprising is difficult to establish with certainty because so much of LGBTQ+ history isnât well-documented. Our collective understanding of the riots comes largely from oral histories, which present conflicting and contradictory accounts as to what exactly took place.
In addition to crediting Marsha P. Johnson with throwing the brick that started it all, historical accounts often cite Sylvia Rivera as the person who started the Stonewall riots.
But actually both Johnson and Rivera denied being the first to fight back against the police during the uprising. In an interview from the 1970s where Johnson recalls the events of the historic night, she confirms âthe riots had already startedâ by the time she arrived at the bar. Similarly, Rivera delivered a speech in 2001, clarifying, âI have been given the credit for throwing the first Molotov cocktail by many historians but I always like to correct it. I threw the second one, I did not throw the first one!â.
Eyewitnesses claim that the events preceding the Stonewall riots began as a police raid on the bar, a frequent and routine occurrence at gay bars during that time. A number of patrons were handcuffed and escorted outside by police.Â
Among them was a butch lesbian who resisted arrest and repeatedly tried to escape before she was struck in the head with a baton. She then punched the cop, shouting to bystanders, âWhy donât you guys do something?â This âfirst punchâ is considered the inciting moment that motivated others to fight back against the police. The identity of this woman remains uncertain, but historical accounts suggest that it was StormĂ© DeLarverie, a Black biracial butch lesbian and drag king.
âThe name StormĂ© DeLarverie may not ring a bell, but it should. Some have referred to her as âthe Gay Communityâs Rosa Parks.â â After Ellen
StormĂ© DeLarverie served the lesbian community for decades as a volunteer street patrol worker. She patrolled the lesbian bars to keep what she lovingly referred to as her âbaby girlsâ safe. She was androgynous, tall, dark, handsome and legally armed. She did this all the way up until she was 80-something-years-old, retiring in the early 2000s. StormĂ© is fondly remembered as a âgay superheroâ â a fearless protector of the lesbian spaces that have all but gone extinct. StormĂ© DeLarverie died in her sleep in Brooklyn on May 24, 2014.
But StormĂ© DeLarverie actually denied that she was the catalyst in interview with Charles Kaiser, but her own words matched othersâ descriptions of the defining moment: âThe cop hit me, and I hit him back. The cops got what they gave.â Can we definitively give singular credit to DeLarverie, when even she has denied being the catalyst for the rebellion?
DeLarverieâs own denial of sparking the uprising should challenge us to reconsider our communityâs obsession with crediting the start of the riots to a singular person. This focus on the âfirstâ punch/brick/molotov cocktail undermines the labor of the whole  LGBTQ+ community.
We should acknowledge DeLarverie, Johnson, Rivera, and Griffin-Gracy not just for their involvement in the Stonewall uprising, but for their lifelong work of organizing and activism. These womenâs legacies did not begin or end with Stonewall.
But more importantly, we need to recognize that Stonewall and the movement it sparked was, at heart, a collective uprising â one that cannot be attributed to a single person or small group of people.
The disputable nature of history means we may never know what exactly happened at the Stonewall Inn on the night of June 27, 1969. Who started the Stonewall riots? The uprising wasnât a random event, but the culmination of an entire communityâs frustration at discriminatory policing and economic exploitation.
Thatâs why today we have to support each other, all members of LGBTQ+ community. All of us, without exception!
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