X Close

The founding myth of Stonewall Gay history is too bourgeois for today’s progressives

White men started the gay rights movement. Vivienne Gucwa/Getty Images

White men started the gay rights movement. Vivienne Gucwa/Getty Images


July 1, 2022   6 mins

Like most origin stories, the Stonewall uprising has been the subject of popular mythmaking. Various branches of the LGBTQ+ rainbow now take credit for the moment, 53 years ago this week, when a group of patrons at a Greenwich Village gay bar rose up in defiance against the police harassment then central to the gay American experience. The most fashionable of these myths, that the main participants at Stonewall were not gay men and lesbians but “trans women of colour”, is promulgated in service of a contemporary political agenda, not the historical record. But the greatest myth of all about Stonewall is that it was where the global movement for gay rights began.

The movement was born years earlier. At 8 p.m. on 1 August 1961, eight years before officers from the New York City Police Department’s Tactical Patrol Force raided the Stonewall Inn, a group of 16 men gathered in Room 120 of the Hay-Adams Hotel across the street from the White House. They were there to hear a presentation about the Mattachine Society, the first sustained organisation in the United States dedicated to improving the status of homosexuals. Founded in Los Angeles in 1950, Mattachine soon started chapters in San Francisco and New York, and its activities were mostly limited to hosting discussion forums and organising support for men victimised by police entrapment. For the first decade of its existence, Mattachine — like the community of people for whom it advocated — existed largely in the shadows.

That posture of passivity would be discarded with the formation of Mattachine’s Washington, D.C. chapter, which was the brainchild of a man named Frank Kameny. A Harvard-trained astronomer, Kameny was working for the US Army Map Service in December 1957 when he was fired for being gay. America was deep into the “Lavender Scare”, a widescale purge of “sexual deviants” from the federal government so thoroughgoing and obsessive that, two months after the Soviets launched Sputnik into space, a military agency tasked with mapping the skies would apply its precious resources towards expelling a highly-trained, competent, and loyal employee.

Distinguishing himself from the thousands of other gay men and women who had found themselves in similar circumstances, Kameny fought back. He asked the American Civil Liberties Union, founded in 1920 “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States”, to assist him with a legal challenge. The organisation, which in 1955 had concluded that it was “not within the province of the Union to evaluate the social validity of laws aimed at the suppression or elimination of homosexuals” from government jobs, turned Kameny away: a sign of just how lonely was the plight of the homosexual in post-war America.

The “offence too loathsome to be mention in the Senate or in any group of ladies and gentlemen”, as the majority leader of that august body described homosexuality upon the outing of a colleague in 1942, was illegal in every state, diagnosed as a mental disorder by the medical establishment, and condemned from the pulpit of every American religious denomination. Between 1946 and 1961, when Illinois became the first state to decriminalise homosexuality, an estimated one million people were hit with criminal sanctions for activities ranging from same-sex sexual relations to holding hands in public.

With not even the ACLU prepared to support him, Kameny resolved to fight this gross injustice all by himself. He appealed his firing before the Civil Service Commission — the agency charged with investigating and sacking homosexuals from the federal bureaucracy — and when that failed, petitioned the courts. Lacking any formal legal training, he composed a painstakingly logical and powerfully argued brief outlining why the government’s anti-gay policies traduced the letter and spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution: the first time an openly gay person lobbied the nation’s highest court to recognise the rights of gay citizens.

The government’s regulations, policies, practices and procedures, as applied in the instant case to petitioner specifically, and as applied to homosexuals generally are a stench in the nostrils of decent people, an offence against morality, an abandonment of reason, an affront to human dignity, an improper restraint upon proper freedom and liberty, a disgrace to any civilised society, and a violation of all that this nation stands for. These policies, practices, procedures, and regulations have gone too long unquestioned, and too long unexamined by the courts.

The government’s entire set of policies and practices in this field is bankrupt, and needs a searching re-assessment and re-evaluation — a re-assessment and re-evaluation which will never occur until these matters are forced into the light of day by a full court hearing, such as is requested by this petition.

It’s worth noting just how momentous was Kameny’s decision to pursue this course of action. For a gay person to take on the federal government, the medical profession, the media, organised religion — practically the whole of the American establishment — and declare that it was not he that was sick but rather society itself requires a level of moral clarity and personal courage that is extremely rare. The closest analogy I can think of, and a suitable one given Kameny’s vocation as an astronomer, is actually the stuff of myth: Galileo defending his theory of heliocentrism against a flock of ruthless Catholic inquisitors.

The Supreme Court, alas, denied Kameny a hearing, leaving him in dire straits. Since his termination from the Army Map Service, he had been living hand-to-mouth, surviving on meagre unemployment benefits that were due to expire, and handouts from friends. The government’s policy barring those found guilty of “sexual perversion”, enshrined via an executive order signed by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953, extended to federal contractors, which made this Harvard-educated scientist virtually unemployable at the height of the Space Race. Desperate, Kameny fired off letters to anyone and everyone who might be in a position to help rectify his predicament. “In World War Two, I willingly fought the Germans, with bullets, in order to preserve and secure my rights, freedoms, and liberties, and those of my fellow citizens,” he wrote to the chairman of the Civil Service Commission. “In 1961, it has, ironically, become necessary for me to fight my own government, with words, in order to achieve some of the very same rights, freedoms, and liberties for which I placed my life in jeopardy in 1945. This letter is part of that fight.”

The fight continued with the formation of a Mattachine Society chapter in the nation’s capital. Also attending the meeting that night was an undercover officer from the Metropolitan Police Department’s vice squad, whose chief had received an anonymous tip about the gathering and who had informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI enlisted the hotel’s manager to eavesdrop on the proceedings from the hallway. As the volunteer spook related to the bureau the following day, however, the only words he could hear the group of “well dressed” and “very well behaved” men utter over the course of their two-hour-long meeting were “bylaws” and “resolutions”. All the attendees ordered was coffee.

The Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. was formally chartered later that year, and Kameny became the most prominent “avowed homosexual” in the United States. Under his disciplined and determined leadership, Mattachine lobbied the federal government, organised demonstrations outside the White House, and worked towards building a homosexual group consciousness. Though derided as a dangerous radical, Kameny was the furthest thing from a revolutionary. In the words of Michael G. Long, editor of a collection of Kameny’s letters, Kameny was a “political transformist… dedicated… to transforming social roles, institutions, and practices from being anti-gay into accepting homosexuals as equal in value to heterosexuals”.

The role of Kameny and other gay rights pioneers has been neglected by many historians, journalists, and cultural influencers, who prefer to locate the origins of the movement for gay equality in “a race riot against the police started by hustling transwomen of colour”. They speak of the “privilege” supposedly enjoyed by Kameny and the other gay white men who dominated the pre-Stonewall gay rights movement, as if being a homosexual in mid-century America — hunted by the police, purged by the government, confined to mental institutions, and subjected to barbaric forms of medicalised torture — was a blessed way of life. That the movement’s intellectual roots are reformist and bourgeois does not suit these people’s ideological commitments or theory of history. A group of “well dressed” and “very well behaved” men meeting at a swanky hotel to talk about “bylaws” and “resolutions” smacks of dreaded “respectability politics”.

Kameny himself had little patience for such revolutionary posturing. He had actual work to do. “In my experience, the gay Left peaked and departed a few years after Stonewall, and now plays only a small role,” he wrote in 1990. “However, it continues to exercise a divisive, corrosive and counter-productive effect in New York and, in my opinion, has contributed to making that city’s gay movement one of the weakest in the country.”

In 2011, less than a month after his death, Kameny’s house was entered into the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. This was an appropriate gesture, but falls far short of an honour commensurate with the role he played in American history. A more fitting tribute would be to rename the building that houses the Office of Personnel Management, successor agency to the Civil Service Commission, where in 2009 Kameny was presented with a formal apology from the federal government, after him. But the most meaningful way to recognise Kameny and the positive change he effected would be for Room 120 of the Hay-Adams to earn a place in American history as illustrious as that of the Stonewall Inn.


James Kirchick is a columnist for Tablet magazine and author of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington.

jkirchick


Join the discussion


Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber


To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.

Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.

Subscribe
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

24 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Samir Iker
Samir Iker
2 years ago

“two months after the Soviets launched Sputnik into space, a military agency tasked with mapping the skies would apply its precious resources towards expelling a highly-trained, competent, and loyal employee.”
And today, those same important agencies in the face of various crises and an increasingly aggressive China, apply resources to pride month, politically correct speech, diversity chiefs and expelling highly-trained, competent employees who go against the unstated religion of wokeism and “equity.”

Plus ça change, indeed.

But sadly, some things do change.

There was a time when gay activists were: a group of “well dressed” and “very well behaved” men with genuine courage and guts.

Now, we have the sort of “activists” highlighted in the picture at the top, preening, vulgar, clutching on to victimhood and prone to be “offended”

Last edited 2 years ago by Samir Iker
Jeremy Bray
Jeremy Bray
2 years ago

Interesting history. As usual it seems history is distorted to meet the political needs of the dominant clique of the present.

Russell Hamilton
Russell Hamilton
2 years ago
Reply to  Jeremy Bray

And a lesson missed … that there are courageous and principled people who may be different to you, hold different opinions to you, but still admirable, like Mr Kameny, who I had never heard of.

Arkadian X
Arkadian X
2 years ago

Never heard of the guy. Thanks for the history lesson.
NB. I would show this article to those who equate the fight for trans rights to the one for gay rights of old, but then, as the author states, Kameny was too full of privilege – white, Jewish, gay… you name it.

Last edited 2 years ago by Arkadian X
Judy Englander
Judy Englander
2 years ago
Reply to  Arkadian X

Indeed, in those years Jews were barred from many country clubs and their numbers restricted at Harvard (and Yale?). Not much privilege there …

Last edited 2 years ago by Judy Englander
Linda Hutchinson
Linda Hutchinson
2 years ago

Fighting for a group’s rights through the courts and using the political system is boring, much better to have blood on the streets; at least that seems to be attitude of many radicals of all political colours. It is men like Mr Kameny who are worthy of our respect, they have tenacity, courage, and patience, and they get things done without alienating large swathes of society. This desire for conflict is the reason that the Suffragists are over-looked in favour of the Suffragettes,.even though they were probably more instrumental in attaining the vote for women.

Jonathan Smith
Jonathan Smith
2 years ago

I remember leaving the premier of the film Pride (Gays & Lesbians support the miners in the time of AIDS) with a young friend. He didn’t understand why most miners union branches had refused money raised by gays/lesbians. He had never had to experience hostility and rejection so it wasn’t on his radar as an explanation.

In the days of ‘gay pride’ – not just tolerated but funded and promoted by the state – it’s good to be reminded that no so long ago men like Kameny (of whom I had never heard) risked everything for equality before the law.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
2 years ago
Reply to  Jonathan Smith

There is a difference between remembering that there was a worse time, versus pretending that today is still as bad as 1900 or that overpampered “victim” groups still face discrimination.

Alison Wren
Alison Wren
2 years ago
Reply to  Jonathan Smith

And now, unfortunately, having achieved equal rights in Law in the UK, Stonewall has hitched its flag to transideology, that deeply homophobic and anti-women cause. So very sad for women like me who walked the walk with gay men and lesbians from the mid-1960s.

Julian Pellatt
Julian Pellatt
2 years ago

I have ‘gay’ friends and colleagues who are disgusted by the aggressive, exibitionist sexual depravity publicly flaunted in gay pride processions and propaganda like that portrayed in the picture in this article. Indeed, they are ashamed by such tasteless antics and have no wish to be associated with displays of this kind. They are decent, ordinary citizens who feel no need emulate this so-called ‘activism’; they are ‘invisible’, like most people in the street, who feel no need to force themselves ‘in-your-face’ thus on society. I agree with them.

Jeremy Bray
Jeremy Bray
2 years ago
Reply to  Julian Pellatt

Indeed, if a heterosexual couple were to be smooching publicly bare to the waist they would probably get arrested so the pendulum has probably swung a long way past equality.

Mary Thomas
Mary Thomas
2 years ago
Reply to  Julian Pellatt

My gay friends feel exactly the same. In fact they put me off going to the Hoe to participate. They said if you dance around celebrating your heterosexuality we’ll do the same. They say all of it now is to sell stuff with rainbows on it, and one threw away a pair of socks he’d bought because unknowingly they had rainbows on them. The pride battle was won many years ago in Britain.
Even a trans woman I’m friendly with refused to attend. She says she’s absolutely fine as she is – she runs a pub.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago
Reply to  Julian Pellatt

Same here.

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
2 years ago

The most fashionable of these myths, that the main participants at Stonewall were not gay men and lesbians but “trans women of colour”, is promulgated in service of a contemporary political agenda, not the historical record.

I’ve been hearing this a lot lately. I’m starting to wonder when the trans lobby will start appropriating famous icons such as Napoleon as trans, or Joan of Arc, or Winston Churchill, or Margaret Thatcher, or Michelle Obama.

Lindsay S
Lindsay S
2 years ago
Reply to  Julian Farrows

I believe they already have Joan of Arc!

Jeremy Bray
Jeremy Bray
2 years ago
Reply to  Julian Farrows

Here is a list, of which only Chevalier d’Eon can really claim much in the way of fame. At least I heard about him/her before transgender gained much publicity.
https://spectrumoutfitters.co.uk/blogs/spectrum-spotlight/7-famous-trans-people

Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
2 years ago

The thing is that every political and or religious movement has its sacred origin story. And its Flag.
But I wonder about flying the rainbow flag for 30 days in June, as two liberal neighbors are doing, versus just one day on July 4 for the national flag of the USA.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 years ago

who actually gives a brass razoo about them and their whining, tedious utterances? I have never heard the word Stonewall uttered in any conversation that I have had in my entire life…. bar out Hunting in Gloucestershire, where, to put it in context jumping a stone wall is like, excuse the pun, that modern ‘ must do….” Taking a fence”….

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago

Haha, good one!

laurence scaduto
laurence scaduto
2 years ago

I was a kid, living nearby, already reading the news every day. My memories differ from this story.
Homosexuality was semi-accepted by a large-ish segment of society. As long as some effort was made to keep it below the cultural radar no one really cared. Most people had friends and co-workers “like that”. Everyone understood that if you saw a Broadway musical or liked to where nice clothes you were dealing, happily, with homosexuals.
The police in NYC weren’t like that. That night they got out-of-hand, there officers lost control. Specifically they roughed up a “confused kid”, homeless, prone to outrageous clothes and make-up, who many of the patrons of Stonewall had been looking after. Right in front of everyone. These friends of his flipped out, started throwing punches, quickly got the better of the cops and the whole thing exploded into a story much too big (and entertaining) to stay below the radar anymore.
You have to remember that no one had AC in those days. People were just over-heated and pissed off. Summer in the city was like a powder keg.
Kameny’s story is very interesting; he certainly deserves real credit for his struggle. But sometimes throwing punches did the trick more directly.

Justin O'Neill
Justin O'Neill
2 years ago

‘The role of Kameny and other gay rights pioneers has been neglected by many historians, journalists, and cultural influencers, who prefer to locate the origins of the movement for gay equality in “a race riot against the police started by hustling transwomen of colour”.’

Can you name a single historian who thinks that the gay equality movement started at Stonewall? Kameny is a familiar figure to anyone who has spent any time studying gay history. No US gay history course has ever been taught that doesn’t spend substantial time on the Mattachine Society.

Are there non-historians (your “journalists and cultural influencers”) that maybe don’t fully understand the history? I’m sure. Not everyone talking about gay pride on TikTok is incredibly well informed about history, I’m more than willing to grant you. Still, giving specific examples rather than just lumping together nebulous “historians, journalists, and cultural influencers” would vastly improve your argument. Right now it feels like you’re just making up people who don’t exist and getting mad at them.

Which is shame because your point that often times the loudest and most radical voices are the ones we remember, and that we should also remember the role that more moderate reformists played in getting us where we are, is such a good one. It doesn’t need to be couched behind this framing that simply isn’t accurate.

Molly Bennett
Molly Bennett
2 years ago

I could care less who started what in the issue of “GAY THIS THAT OR THE OTHER” just please do not involve those of us who do not care /or ask/ for current news on what this particular group of misfits are complaining about now ! they chose thier path ……..now walk it alone ! or with the like minded …….that does not include the general public!!!!!!……..unless of course you are just seeking a public platform to “flaunt it” childish in the extreme of course!!!!!!!.

laurence scaduto
laurence scaduto
2 years ago
Reply to  Molly Bennett

Wow. Did you really mean to hit “send”?
If so…Why?

Jennifer O'Brien
Jennifer O'Brien
2 years ago
Reply to  Molly Bennett

I don’t think the average gay person actually wants to “flaunt” their sexuality any more or less than the average straight person. Our whole society is much much more vocal about sex and sexuality than would have been the norm even twenty years ago (whether you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing is a separate issue). Contemporary ‘straight’ sexuality is hardly a model of decorum, moderation or restraint either, is it?