13 Artists on the Stonewall Riots
Chitra Ganesh reflects on the Stonewall Riots for the New York Times.
‘I am grateful for the rich role of the anecdotal in queer activism and life, for the collective memory that keeps our stories alive regardless of their inclusion in the official record. I remember hearing about Stonewall from friends and community elders as a young queer person, not just about the riots but about Stonewall’s role as a refuge, a place that turned away no one. Whether you drank or not, you could spend the whole night there for the democratic price of $3. It has always been a space where many precarious subjects — including people who are poor, of color, gender nonconforming, young and homeless — could find shelter. This aspect of Stonewall serves as a signpost for me and many other queer folks of my generation (people who came of age in the ’90s) as we made space within the mainstream gay movement for diverse sites of action and community such as the Audre Lorde Project, the Clit Club, the Lesbian Herstory Archives, as well as groups like South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association (SALGA) and Gay Asian and Pacific Islander Men of New York (GAPIMNY).
As for Stonewall legacies now? I am excited to see so many diverse and rapidly growing queer communities — the landscape is profoundly different from what I was able to access 25 years ago. It’s amazing that there are queer elders and queer children who are active and visible agents of change, and that there has been so much language, organizing and community built around trans sexualities. So there is growth, but it is equally important for me to remember that the Stonewall riots happened during a time of widespread social movements in the United States, a time that was in many ways far more open than the present. These events represent a shrinking space we need to fight for. They remind me of the importance of the convergence of multiple uprisings, of allegiances across gender, race, class and sexuality. I trace the lineage of my own encounters with the breadth and texture of femmeness, its material and visceral resonances, to this time. All of this is at the heart of our work and play as we move forward.