History Is Written By The Victors...

...Or by those who have the PR firm.

And Stonewall is the same way, minorities, lesbian, and trans started the revolution but now you will think it was all be white gay men. (I use rebellion or uprising instead of riot, for me the word riot denotes criminal activity while rebellion or uprising denotes throwing off the yoke of oppression.)

Miss Major On Rioting At Stonewall: ‘That Was 3 Nights Of Absolute Terror’
“If Stonewall would have made a difference, things would be better today,” the transgender activist said.
Huffington Post Queer Voices
By James Michael Nichols
June 4, 2018

“I’m not really anything special,” Miss Major Griffin-Gracy says with a slight chuckle. “I’m just one of the girls.”

But despite her modesty, Griffin-Gracy is anything but ordinary. An older trans person and a mother figure to countless LGBTQ young people, Griffin-Gracy is an elder of the queer rights movement ― and someone whose legacy almost demands your respect.

Present the night of the 1969 Stonewall riots, an event heralded as the beginning of the mainstream LGBTQ rights movement, Griffin-Gracy in many ways is an embodiment of LGBTQ history. In the decades since Stonewall, she has worn the hats of organizer, activist, prison abolitionist, sex worker and transgender elder, providing a crucial voice for those members of the LGBTQ community most disproportionately affected by violence and systems of power and oppression.

When you watch television shows about Stonewall all most only have interview with white gay men, oh they might have one or two black or trans people they interview but the vast majority of them are white. An example is the PBS American Experience show “Stonewall”

The Daily Beast had a series on Stonewall at 50.

Stonewall 50: Don’t Forget the Black & Brown LGBTQ Struggle
Black queer and transgender people have always had to remind the rest of the community of our prominence—despite the fact that the movement was co-led by us since the beginning.
By Ernest Owens
June 6, 2019

On June 28th, 1969, the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village became a major catalyst in the movement for LGBTQ rights. Transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were among the boldest and most outspoken leaders who stood up against the ongoing police brutality and harassment that plagued the now landmark gay bar for months.

The actions that occurred that night at Stonewall weren’t a protest, but a riot—violent, disruptive, and purposely resistant. The LGBTQ community had enough of the state-sanctioned discrimination and abuse. Blood was shed, fighting ensued, arrests were made—the police were not there to protect and serve, but to persecute and torture.

In another article…

Wilson Cruz on Stonewall 50: ‘I Am Inspired by All the LGBTQ People of Color Who Ignited the Revolution’
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ star Wilson Cruz is motivated ‘to continue the fight’ of Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and others. ‘We are everywhere, and we will not be ignored.’
By Tim Teeman
June 7, 2019

I learned of the Stonewall Riots in high school. As tough as high school was for me in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the one saving grace, I should say, the four saving graces for me, were the four brilliant and politically aware gay boys of color I called friends.

It was a politically charged time for the LGBTQ movement, at the height of AIDS crisis, and we were becoming aware of our own place and responsibility in this new era because of organizations like ACT UP and GLAAD.
[…]
We saw ourselves in them and felt, and still feel, a great responsibility to their legacy. We came to understand that we, now, had been passed a baton and that we needed to take on the struggle of our time and continue their fight and we did, and still do. The revolution continues.

Making Stonewall white what does it do to all the black and brown LGBTQ+ youth, it strips them of their heritage and role models.

Trans people and lesbians are also minimized in the history of Stonewall.

Stonewall 50: How the Long Lesbian Fight for Space and Identity Took an Anti-Transgender Turn
Queers are still battling with state-sponsored homophobia, but in the lesbian community we are also battling with ourselves and each other over the boundaries of gender identity.
By Mary Emily O’Hara
June 17, 2019

So the story or popular mythology goes, a butch lesbian may have thrown the first brick at Stonewall by urging patrons to resist arrest. But lesbians weren’t just present that famous night—they were absolutely instrumental in the 50-year period of LGBTQ activism that followed.

Joan Nestle, the 79-year-old co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, remembers standing outside the Stonewall Inn the night after the raid, struck by the grittiness of the West Village crowd in contrast to the more buttoned-up, polite “homophile” pickets that had been taking place throughout the 1960s.

“[Stonewall] was a sexualized site. It was in the streets that we acted out our erotic lives,” said Nestle. “Queer sex is a political motivator, and it was clearly evident in the streets of the Village that night.”
[…]
When asked if Stormé was transgender, as some now believe, Nestle said it wasn’t so simple as that. “The word we used at that time was ‘passing woman.’ She passed as a man,” said Nestle. “Stormé was biracial and always fought against being put into boxes. Race and gender were fluid things for her; she didn’t want to commit to either.”

You know it doesn’t really matter who threw the first brick, or bottle, or pennies, what matters is that they did it and that we include all those that were there that night fifty years ago today.

We can let anyone one or any group to be excluded.

They say history is written by the victor but we cannot forget all the victors.

Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activist Alliance had a policy of excluding members who could not assimilate into the white general population. If you look at the protest in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia what you see is a white middle class lesbians and gays, what you don’t see any black, brown, butch lesbians, or any trans people. They were told that they were not welcome in the revolution.

AP Photo/John F. Urwiller

Stonewall was not the first uprising some of the earlier know rebellions were…

• Cooper’s Do-Nuts, Los Angeles, 1959
• Dewey's Restaurant Sit-in, Philadelphia, 1965
• Compton's Cafeteria Riot, San Francisco, 1966
• Black Cat Tavern, Los Angeles, 1967

In many, if not all of them, the police were checking the “drag queens” for three items of male clothing and they were after hour’s hangout for those who had to make their living off of the streets.

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Do you have any material from trans conferences, rallies, marches, TDORs?

Buttons?
Flyers?
Handouts?
Newsletters?

I urge you to donate them to libraries that have LGBTQ+ collections or to Sexual Minorities Archives.