The Road to Stonewall

As I continue along the path of research paper season, I am now writing three different research papers. I have made significant strides in each paper, and everything is now falling into place. I will say that my paper on the Stonewall Riots will demand much more attention in the coming weeks, but I am content with where I am in my research. 

In terms of my secondary sources, I have access to a sizable amount of information and articles from other historians and sociologist. The articles I am using ask the same question I plan to answer which is "What made Stonewall different, and why did it happen at the Stonewall Inn rather than another place?" My secondary sources evaluate how there was a complex set of variables that came together to produce the explosion that was the Stonewall Riots. So far, I have concluded that the riots happened because the following variables came together: the beginning of the sexual revolution, Greenwich Village's history as a place for the rebellious, the advent of the World's Fair in New York in 1964 and the city's response to "clean up" New York's populace, widespread police corruption in working with the mafia and the police's prosecution of the law via "entrapment," the homophile movement's actions in the years preceding the riots, the volatile nature of gay homeless youth, the media's willingness to give the riots attention, and the rioters determination to memorialize the event. What made the riots different and historically heavy, was primarily because the rioters were so determined to remember the riots with pride-- something the LGBT community had rarely experienced prior to this event.

As far as my primary sources go, I am using newspaper articles that were published during the riots, legal documents targeting homosexuals during the time of the riots, letters written by the rioters and police, and interviews with the survivors of the riots. These definitely lead me to conclude the aforementioned rough thesis. 

What remains to be as thoroughly researched however, are the instances of LGBT resistance happening in other parts of the country at this time, but I will find my way to that information in the coming weeks. 

So far, I have my questions, and I have a solid yet incomplete answer. I have a direction, and I will continue on the road to a greater understanding of the Stonewall Riots.

The Road to Stonewall, for me, is the road to gratitude. I am sincerely in debt to the rioters.