Stonewall Riots-New York 1969

American poet Audre Lorde recalls the feeling of being black and gay in 1950s New York City, depicting loneliness and solidarity in her essay ‘From Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.’ Lorde portrays how she navigated her otherness in an environment which she described as ‘the truth and the light and the key, but a lot of it was purely hell.’ 1

The complexities of racial integration and social challenges for the LGBTQ community were at a pivotal point in the 1960s, seeing rapid social changes and new cultural norms. Lorde touches the surface of what potentially ignited the Stonewall uprising through her analysis of pre-1960s New York City’s LGBTQ experience. However, this essay explores a variety of motivations behind the Stonewall uprising rather than identifying a single cause.

The 20th century saw a rise in the popularity of Freud’s theories, ‘which described homosexuality more as a psychosexual than a constitutional condition’, which refers to a person’s individual needs, desires and wants.2 Freuds theories on homosexuality could be considered forward thinking at a time where homosexuality was stigmatised. Freud believed that ‘it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function.’3 Unfortunately ‘after Freud’s death in 1939, most psychoanalysts publicly rejected his views. This rejection was especially prominent in the United States’, and many professionals insisted that treatment was required for homosexuality. A notably figure in the advocacy for the treatment for homosexuality was American Psychoanalyst Irving Beiber who conducted a study and ‘claimed to have found a “cure” rate of 27% among the participants as a result of his psychoanalytic intervention.’4

This conflation fed into the beliefs of Christians and traditionalists, specifically evangelical Christians, who most strongly ‘identified with this "orthodox” ideal-type in their approach to gender roles, homosexuality, and family structure.’ 5 The church played a significant role in

establishing relationships with LGBT activist groups, and The Church for the Holy Apostles in New York City which held meetings to mediate after the Stonewall uprising. However, arguably the church set the foundation for the wider discrimination against the LGBT community in 1950s New York. Father John McNeil, a significant gay figure, spotlights the church’s hostility towards the LGBT community. McNeil depicts the hostilities in his book ‘The Church and Gay Liberation: The Case of John McNeil’, where he discusses post-Second World War ‘Catholic theologians' and church officials' increasing interest in the issue of same-sex sexual relations; and second, an emerging narrative, promoted by the gay liberationist movement.’6

From the 1940s, Catholic church clerics who were troubled that homosexuality was on the rise ‘began to devote serious attention to homosexuality as a moral issue and psychological problem requiring an organised pastoral response.’7 The church took action when a clergy member came out as gay or lesbian. In one notable case, the cleric Rochard Ginder ‘was swiftly relieved of ministerial duties when, in a 1975 book, he wrote about his sexual orientation and asserted that "gays can be just as good Catholics as the rest and still have their sex.”’8

Examining the Catholic church is important to understanding its influence on people’s ideas about the LGBTQ community. Evidence of the damaging rhetoric against LGBTQ rights movements can be seen in Patrick Allitt’s ‘Catholic Intellectuals and Conservative Politics in America. 1950–1985’. Allitt documents the catalysts of change in the church: from the militance of anti-war devotees in the 1960s to the arrival of the sexual revolution that altered

conservative Catholic views. American Historian and former Catholic Priest who specialised in Catholic history, Jay P Dolan of ‘Catholic Intellectuals and Conservative Politics in America. 1950–1985’ found that the 1960s Catholic church was heavily divided in its teachings. Dolan’s review found that some intellectuals ‘feared the expanding role of the state,’9 would influence the teachings of the church, seeing a resistance to modernisation. Allitt and Dolan mirror their points of view and encourage the reader to see the different views of the Catholic church and consider how biblical teachings hindered LGBTQ support.

The Church also heavily influenced the press and distributed social and religious content, which could be considered a source of propaganda for the discrimination against the LGBTQ community at this time. The Catholic Times Newspaper 1957 article titled ‘Employer Must Show Business Is Christian’ is evidence of the control the Catholic church had over its congregation. The article states, ‘Cardinal Loger told the delegates that they must translate the Christian objectives of business into all their activities so their enterprises will be inspired by the needs of the human person and founded on those needs.’10 This example brings into the question whether the newspaper considered how the LGBTQ community would fit into the ideas of Christian objectives at a time where the church was hostile towards them.