Who threw the first stone at Stonewall? “Some say it was Stormé DeLarverie.” “Marsha P. Johnson.” “Sylvia Rivera.” It’s a question that draws attention to overlooked LGBT seniors, but also: “Jason Mraz threw the first stone at Stonewall? [laughter] “Judy Garland threw the first stone.” “Scarlett Johansson.” It has become an inside joke about queer icons and direct alliance. Fifty years after the police raided the Stonewall Inn and the patrons resisted in the street outside, I still didn’t know the answer to this question: Who threw the first stone at Stonewall? What I did know is that I had heard this story over and over again. The gay rights movement was born in 1969 in a much-loved gay bar called the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Riot started when a drag queen, robbed by the death of Judy Garland, threw a brick at a police officer. The riots culminated in a Rockettes-style kickline of drag queens facing the tactical police in riot gear. It’s a nice story, but it’s not quite true. So I gathered a few people who were at Stonewall in 1969, a few historians who had spent years studying LGBT history, and a few contemporary queer writers to ask them: What’s wrong with this account of Stonewall? They helped me break it down little by little. “It didn’t start at Stonewall.” “Before Stonewall we had the Daughters of Bilitis. We had the Mattachine Society.” “There was the sip-in at Julius’s.” “And the movement in the world goes back to 1897 in Berlin, with the founding of Magnus Hirschfeld’s organization, the first gay rights group.” So if gay rights didn’t start with Stonewall, why was Stonewall important? “Because it led to the creation of the gay liberation movement.” Gay Liberation Front was born from the ashes of Stonewall. Gay Liberation Front is literally why we have everything we have today.” “They planned a march on Stonewall’s first anniversary.” “And people forget that there were three pride parades. I was with the one in Los Angeles in 1970. We had a big jar of petroleum jelly on a float. It was really an in-your-face float.” oh wow. Here’s a basic question about Stonewall. Was it a riot? [protesters chanting] “What we did was we were cheering and dancing in the street. That’s not a riot.” “It was just a loud and bawdy fun group of guys until it turned into a riot.” “It’s called a riot, a rebellion, a rebellion.” “I like the word rebellion. Not a rebellion of overthrow the government, rebellion from within.” Then, was the Stonewall bar as idyllic as some media portray it? ‘The Stonewall Inn was a safe haven for the gay community…’ ‘But it was a mess.’ “It was hell.” “Dirty. Cancelled. Run by the mafia.” “A filthy mafia bar, and they watered down drinks.” “Watered down drinks.” “There was a much better bar called the Cherry Lane.” “The tenth of always.” “Cookies.” So the Stonewall Inn wasn’t New York’s only gay bar, nor was it a particularly popular institution. Let’s talk about that drag queen that started it all. “They said she threw the first shot glass at Stonewall, and it was the shot glass heard all over the world.” “One of the persistent myths about Stonewall is that Marsha threw the first cocktail glass. Marsha herself said in an interview that I did with Marsha, I only got there at 2 o’clock. “I was in the upper town and I didn’t get to the center until around 2am – because when I got to the center, the place was already on fire and there was already a raid.” Marsha P. Johnson’s friend and fellow activist, Sylvia Rivera, is also sometimes credited with starting Stonewall. “Sylvia Rivera is known for throwing the first bottle at the Stonewall Riots.” Sylvia Rivera herself said in 2001: “I got credit for throwing the first Molotov cocktail, but I’ve always liked to correct it. I threw the second. I didn’t throw the first.” [laughter] First of all, that comment was probably meant ironically. Second, it is not certain that Molotov cocktails were thrown at all. Whatever Rivera and Johnson did at Stonewall, their impact on the trans and gay movements cannot be overstated. “When I see people say that Marshall and Sylvia were the ones who threw the first stones, I want to remember them in a way that feels honest, because their legacy extends way beyond that night.” However, there was one person who did not adhere to the gender and was attributed by several witnesses to catalyzing Stonewall. “She was very tough and she was tough. And the police were rough with her and she really fought back.” “We have four independent accounts that said this woman’s fight with the police was the deciding factor and caused it all.” ‘She yelled to the crowd, ‘What are you doing?’ Why are you just standing there? Why don’t you do something?’” Some people say that woman was Stormé DeLarverie, a lesbian who worked as a bouncer at the time. DeLarverie was sometimes credited and sometimes denied her role, but so far there has been no conclusive evidence of who exactly that stupid woman at Stonewall was. And now, ladies and gentlemen – “Judy Garland.” “Yes.” Judy Garland’s funeral took place at Campbell’s Funeral Home the afternoon before the Stonewall events. “The patrons of the Stonewall used their grief over Judy’s death to revolt and fight back.” But were the two events related? “The worst question people are asking about Stonewall is whether it was caused by Judy Garland’s death.” “If you look at the reports published in 1969, there is only one report that mentions Stonewall and Judy Garland, and that was written by a right-wing columnist to mock the movement.” “You downplay our anger and oppression of 2000 years for a singer.” “So I went to Judy Garland’s funeral and a lot of Stonewall queens did too.” “Oh, it was like Noah’s ark—all Judy fans. God bless Judy Garland, but no, she was not the cause of the Stonewall Riot.” †[expletive] no.” Now let’s talk about that stone. One of the most mocked images of the foundation stone came from the 2015 movie ‘Stonewall’ “Gay-power!” “All anyone wants to talk about is who is the first stone.” “Who threw the first stone?” “They claimed I threw the first stone.” “First, ask, have any stones been thrown? “Where were those stones found?” “Apparently there was a construction site with a pile of stones.” “I heard that last week.” “Did they show you a picture of that construction site?” “It’s possible they were pulling rocks from the street. I’m not sure where that would have been unless it was in the park. If there’s a tree hole, it’s usually lined with something.” “Around this tree were these stones. I pulled up the stones. I know I threw stones. I don’t know if I threw a brick. I doubt it. I think I was a stone man.” So objects were thrown that may or may not be stones, but in the midst of all this chaos on the street did they really form a kickline as they faced the police in riot gear? “No, there was no kickline at Stonewall. There were many kicklines at Stonewall .” “And I’ll gladly give you the text.” “It was done to the tune of the ‘Howdy Doody’ theme.” “You’re right.” Okay, so we’ve put together a framework for what happened at Stonewall that a lot of people might be able to largely agree on. But why does this even matter, why are we taking this to death, because when we talk about what happened at Stonewall 50 years ago, we’re also talking about issues that the LGBT community still struggles with today – namely transphobia and racism. “There is one image that comes to my mind in particular: ‘Trans men of color who threw rocks at the police gave me the right to marry.’ I think a lot of people cling to these stories because trans women of color are often already sidelined.” “I mean, there were some individual people of color. But it was not a group of colored transgender people that started the riots. When people start telling stories not as they were, but as they would like them to be, that procedure can be used by anyone for any purpose. So I think we have to be consistent in the truth.” “If we demand that our history be respected, we must respect it ourselves. You have to apply the same criteria to our history that it is worthwhile, that it is accurate, that it is well researched. We should, as it were, recognize our warts as well as our flowers.” “I mean, I think historical erasure is real. How do we tell a history of something if our life is not in archives? Speculative fiction and historically informed fiction are ways for me to answer that question. And it doesn’t have to be true to be meaningful.” “Stonewall was a messy evening. LGBT histories are very messy. I don’t think naming that name diminishes the significance of what happened.” “I don’t think anyone threw the first stone at Stonewall.” “And at this point I don’t care who threw the first stone.” “Oh, I don’t think it matters.” “And it doesn’t matter.” ‘Like it doesn’t matter. It’s okay we don’t know.” “If it wasn’t a brick, it was a rock. If it wasn’t a rock, it was a wallet. If it wasn’t a wallet, it was a shoe. If it wasn’t a shoe, it was a glass. If it wasn’t glass, it was a dirty look. It was all those things. It wasn’t just that day, it was days before and it was many years after that.” It’s 50 years later and we’re still not in agreement about exactly what happened that night. But that’s okay. Stonewall was about people claiming their own stories from those who told them they were sick, or pathetic, or didn’t even exist. Part of telling your own story means living openly and partying at parades. But it also means competing with other people’s versions of that story, even if theirs don’t match yours perfectly. As Chrysanthemum Tran said, that can be messy and that’s okay – I like a messy party.