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This article examines why the Stonewall riots became central to gay collective memory while other events did not. It does so through a comparative-historical analysis of Stonewall and four events similar to it that occurred in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York in the 1960s. The Stonewall riots were remembered because they were the first to meet two conditions: activists considered the event commemorable and had the mnemonic capacity to create a commemorative vehicle. That this conjuncture occurred in New York in 1969, and not earlier or elsewhere, was a result of complex political developments that converged in this time and place. The success of the national commemorative ritual planned by New York activists depended on its resonance, not only in New York but also in other U.S. cities. Gay community members found Stonewall commemorable and the proposed parade an appealing form for commemoration. The parade was amenable to institutionalization, leading it to survive over time and spread around the world. The Stonewall story is thus an achievement of gay liberation rather than an account of its origins.
On the evening of June 27, 1969, New York police raided the Stonewall Inn, a homosexual bar in Greenwich Village. This was not unusual: police raids of homosexual bars were common in New York and other American cities in the 1960s. This time, however, bar patrons fought back instead of passively enduring humiliating treatment. Their response initiated a riot that lasted into the night. The Stonewall riots are typically viewed as the spark of the gay liberation movement and a turning point in the history of gay life in the United States (Duberman 1993; Teal [1971] 1995; Carter 2004), and they are commemorated in gay pride parades around the globe (D'Emilio 2002). Writing about homosexual activism, historian Marc Stein (2000:290) quoted an activist who claimed, "No event in history, with perhaps the exception of the French Revolution, deserves more [than the Stonewall riots] to be considered a watershed." President Clinton made the Stonewall Inn a national historic landmark (Dunlap 1999). It is common to divide gay history into two epochs-"before Stonewall" and "after Stonewall" (D'Emilio 1992a).
Claims about the historical importance of Stonewall continue, even though historians of sexuality have challenged the novelty of the...