Sermon | June 30, 2019 | Rev. Emily Wright-Magoon
President Obama, in his second inaugural address, said: “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal — is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall.”
Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry, an African-American political scientist, pundit, and Unitarian Universalist, points out that in that speech, we heard our nation’s highest elected official “name-check the watershed moments” of the women’s rights movement, the civil rights movement, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights movement.
Stonewall refers to the protests at the Stonewall Inn in New York City in June of 1969. In the 60’s and before, there were few establishments that catered to the LGBTQ community. Even those that did often prohibited transgender or transvestite people. Stonewall Inn was an exception, welcoming even the most marginalized of the LGBTQ community.
Given the laws of the time, which included the prohibition of holding hands with someone of the same sex or cross-dressing, places like Stonewall were safe havens. Yet the restrictive laws reached even into the clubs:
To limit the rights of the gay community, alcohol was banned from gay bars, and often dancing. Raids were common occurrences. Patrons were asked for IDs at which time they were often outed – which could mean losing their jobs or worse. If they didn’t have IDs, or were cross-dressing or drinking, they were arrested.
Stonewall Inn got around these laws and raids at a cost: like several of the other gay bars in Greenwich Village, Stonewall was run by the Mafia. The Mafia bribed police to look the other way while they cut costs in the bar how they saw fit. The club lacked a fire exit, running water behind the bar, and the Mafia routinely blackmailed Stonewall’s wealthier patrons who wanted to keep their sexuality secret. Raids were still a fact of life, but corrupt cops would usually tip-off Mafia-run bars before the raids so the owners could stash the alcohol.
But in the early morning hours of June 28th –50 years ago – Stonewall wasn’t tipped off this time.
Police officers raided the club, roughed up the patrons, and arrested 13 people, either for consuming alcohol or cross-dressing.
Stormé DeLarverie was one of the lesbian women who fought back while she was violently escorted to the paddy wagon. Stormé escaped four times back into the crowd. As they finally hit her over the head one more time and heaved her into the paddy wagon, she reportedly shouted to the gathered crowd outside, “Why don’t you guys do something?” The crowd exploded in protest, and a full rebellion ensued. Eventually, the fire department and a riot squad stopped the crowd, but the protests continued in the area for five more days, sometimes involving thousands of people. Stormé said later: “it wasn’t no damn riot – it was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience.”
(After I delivered this sermon, Kerry Manzo added some additional and amazing details: After Storme said “Why don’t you guys do something?” the drag queens formed a kick line to corral the police. The police had to take refuge in the Stonewall Inn while they called for back-up!)
The Stonewall rebellion is widely considered the most important event to galvanize the gay liberation movement, leading to numerous gay rights organizations including the Gay Liberation Front, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and PFLAG. One year after Stonewall, PRIDE marches were held in New York, Chicago, L.A., and San Francisco, and within a few years they had spread to cities beyond the U.S. In the 80s Pride celebrations became weekend-long festivals in many cities.
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I lift up the history of the Stonewall rebellion because it reminds us that the galvanizing power of the LGBTQ movement came from a broadly inclusive and diverse set of the most marginalized people.
Stonewall was one of the only clubs that welcomed drag queens, transgender people, effeminate young men, butch lesbians, male prostitutes, and homeless youth. Stormé DeLarverie was a biracial butch lesbian.
Two of the activists who led the protests throughout the city were Miss Major: a black nonbinary person (non-binary meaning that they did not align with either gender), Marsha P. Johnson, another black non-binary person, and Sylvia Rivera, a Latinx trans woman. The first Pride parade was organized by Brenda Howard, a bisexual, polyamorous, Jewish woman.
Nevertheless, the gay and lesbian movement has often struggled to fully include trans people and people of color. In 1973, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were banned from participating in the gay pride parade by the gay and lesbian committee, stating they “weren’t gonna allow drag queens” at their marches, claiming they were “giving them a bad name.” Johnson and Rivera’s response was to march defiantly ahead of the parade.
In the same way, the Civil Rights Movement often ignored the contributions of women. The women’s movement often still fails miserably to include women of color.
And the current Poor People’s Campaign works to remedy the ways progressives have often ignored the specific needs of the poor.
Some say the choices by these movements to exclude the more marginalized among them is strategic: As the gay and lesbian committee said to Johnson and Rivera, “[you are] are giving [us] a bad name.”
It’s a fear-based and assimilationist response…
As we fight for rights, we worry that the powerful will never give us what we want unless we prove we won’t upset the status quo too much. But the process we take towards achieving a goal affects the goal we achieve. The Means become the End.
When we exclude from the table the most marginalized, we also exclude the most marginalized parts of our selves. Then we can easily forget that we do not, in fact, want to assimilate to the status quo… The movement isn’t only about getting the right to marry and serve in the military.
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If the LGBTQ movement excludes trans and gender non-conforming people – or people of color – or disabled people – it will lose the benefit of their voices and never be truly transformative.
The movement is about PRIDE –to express ourselves as our hearts and spirits dictate… to create a world where difference is celebrated as a manifestation of the marvelous diversity of our world.
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So don’t fear the misfit within you.
Don’t fear the misfit beside you.
Trust that the “margins hold the center.” (Leslie Takahashi)
At the margins is where the best view can be had
of the beautiful world we dream of – our vision.
And let us also work for a “marginless center” one day. ((I first heard this phrase said by Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray at the 2019 UU Minister’s Association’s Ministry Days))
So may it be.
– Rev. Emily Wright-Magoon