Abstract
This paper focuses on the Stonewall Riots, a key episode in the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and other sexual minorities (LGBT+) rights. In the 1960s, LGBT+ people in the US were seen as sick and endured extreme state repression. The cost to isolated individuals, frequently rejected by their families, was devastating. Excluded from public sector jobs, criminalised and imprisoned, they were subjected to agonising ‘cures’ and persecuted by police. The article explores the terrifying context and radicalising impact of the Stonewall Riots, which erupted in New York in June 1969. That historic uprising transformed existing defence campaigns into a militant political movement for LGBT+ liberation and ignited an unstoppable 50-year fight against state repression and for equality. Inspired by the Black Panthers, the first ‘Gay Power’ militants envisaged a society not just tolerant of sexual and gender minorities, but transformed in its social attitudes towards homosexuality, bisexuality and trans and genderfluid lives.
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