History of the Stonewall Inn
The Pride Liberation movement was kicked off by a riot at a gay bar in New York City called the Stonewall Inn back in 1969 but what are the origins for the venue itself?
Apparently the Stonewall Inn came about after the merging of two horse stables into one singular building called Bonnie's Tea House (later Bonnie's Stone Wall) which also function as a speakeasy, a place to obtain alcohol during the era of Prohibition when alcohol was banned in the United States. From the beginning, the Stonewall Inn (its name hailing from either a book revolving around lesbian romance or a confederate
leader named Stonewall Jackson (who wouldn't have been fond of the non hetero activities there)) was a safe haven for LGBTQ+ people from the start. In fact, Stone wall was coded language for gay men and lesbians.
The Inn later on became a full fledge restaurant and was also a hub for straight/ hetero marriages during this time). In the 1960s, a fire struck the restaurant which saw the building being vacant for a couple of years until 1967 when the Stonewall Inn from the riots was born after being overtaken by members of the LGBTQ+ community. Interestingly, the building was abandoned again following the famous riots and other businesses overtook the premises including a multi floor nightclub in the 1990s. 2007
saw the Stonewall Inn's LGBTQ+ roots being restored when the current owners (Stacy Lentz, the sole female lesbian investor and businessmen Bill Morgan and Kurt Kelly) bought the property and transformed it into a small entertainment venue which also began hosting same sex weddings after such activity was legalised in New York State in 2011. The Stonewall Inn was named the first U.S. National Monument dedicated to the
LGBTQ-rights movement on June 23, 2015, by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the Stonewall National Monument was named the first U.S. National Monument dedicated to the LGBTQ-rights movement on June 24, 2016.