In 1969, a series of very famous riots occurred: The Stonewall Riots.

Due to their scale and publicity, the Stonewall Riots were very important in the progression of LGBTQ+ rights. 

Before we get into that, I need to give you some background information. 

As you could probably guess, LGBTQ+ people were not treated well in the 60s. Because of society's general distrust of them, they often groups together in self-established gay bars. These bars were constantly raided by police for seemingly arbitrary reasons. 

Meanwhile, in Greenwich Village, New York, crime syndicates were gradually gaining more and more power. They were able to find profit in helping shunned LGBTQ+ people and giving them places to be.

One of these gay bars run by the Greenwich crime syndicates was the Stonewall Inn, the riots' namesake. They would pay off local police so they would turn a blind eye to what was going on in these gay bars. 

This bar in particular got very popular because of near-constant police raids of other nearby bars, calling even the gathering of LGBTQ+ people 'disorderly,' 

Stonewall was still raided, yes, but the people running it were usually tipped off, giving them time to hide the illegal activities going on in the bar. 

One day, though, they were not tipped off. Stonewall was raided, and, like most raids, people were lined up so that police could look at their identification. Michael Fader said this about this pretty normal beginning,

"Things happened so fast you kind of got caught not knowing. All of a sudden there were police there and we were told to all get in lines and to have our identification ready to be led out of the bar,"

The raid didn't go as planned, though.

Some refused to give identification, and 'men dressed as women,' who police were supposed to arrest, resisted. 

Police decided to take everyone to the station, putting the people accused of 'cross-dressing,' in the back.

As police were coming back to get the rest of the alcohol from the bar, they found over 100 people crowded around the inn, including people they had released and others alike. 

The crowd began to get violent as police were arresting people, including a lesbian in the crowd. As she was being arrested, she called out to the crowd, "Why don't you guys do something?"

The crowd slashed the tires of the wagons used to cart off alcohol and threw things at police. Some threw cans, some threw coins, and some even threw bricks they found at a nearby construction site.