New York celebrates 50 years of the Stonewall Inn

Nikolaus Bernau in conversation with Marietta Schwarz

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The Stonewall is now the “National Monument” of the USA. (imago images / UPI Photo / John Angelillo)

On June 28, 1969, a street battle erupted in New York between the police and visitors to the gay bar Stonewall Inn. “There this rainbow constellation, which is so famous today, was already a bit pre-formed,” says Nikolaus Bernau.

Thousands of people want to come to Greenwich Village this weekend and gather in front of the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street to commemorate the 1969 protests. The neighborhood in New York is wrapped in rainbow flags. There will be large demonstrations and parades through Manhattan on Sunday.

The anti-gay policy in the USA meant that there were hardly any opportunities for homosexuals to meet legally at the end of the 1960s, says the architectural historian Nikolaus Bernau. When the police raided the “Stonewall Inn” on June 28, 1969, something new happened: For the first time, the gays began to defend themselves against their discrimination and criminalization. There were riots for days. The annual Christopher Street Day (CSD) commemorates these unrest and the struggle of homosexuals for their rights to this day.

Forerunner of the LGBT movement

“What was special about this uprising at the Stonewall Inn was that it was on the one hand connected to the civil rights movement of blacks, women and Latinos that developed in the 1960s. In addition, in connection with the Vietnam War, that played a very big role And most of all, the most important thing was that in this bar, which was one of the few accepted gay bars that existed in New York at the time, all kinds of people met – white homosexual men, Latinos, transvestites, transsexuals, too Lesbians “, says Nikolaus Bernau,” So there this rainbow constellation, which is so famous today, was already a bit pre-formed. “

The Stonewall Inn was declared a “national monument” in 2016 by the then US President Barack Obama.

(grapes)

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