On a sweltering night, simmering rage became a rolling boil when police stormed into the Stonewall Inn. Violence ensued and fires burned. NYC’s stigmatized LGBTQ community wasn’t taking it anymore.
Now that night is coming back to life for Pride month at the Stonewall National Museum Archives & Library. Stonewall *Inn* Stonewall exhibit is an immersive experience that recreates the landmark Stonewall Inn as it was on that night in 1969.
This month is the 55th anniversary of what became the start of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. At the time, all they wanted was to be left in peace. But after years of living surreptitious lives, the events at Stonewall prompted them to demand more. To be seen. To be heard. To be a community presence.
Even in the midst of today’s government persecution of LGBTQ, it’s hard to imagine what the patrons, including many drag queens and transgender, felt in that era. Anger, heartbreak, and fear routinely ruled the day.
Starting at 7 p.m. on June 1, the museum will be filled with tables and chairs, a bar, a jukebox, even a mop and bucket, everything you would expect to see in a bar in 1969.
“This is based on the sources available to us, before the police come in,” Stonewall Museum Executive Director Robert Kesten said. “This is what this space would look like. All the kinds of things you’d see in a functioning bar.”
In addition to the recreation, there will be panels and display cases showing relics of the era and “the first draft of history,” as told through media clippings.
After debuting in Fort Lauderdale, the exhibit will go on a 10 year, 50 state tour.
On June 29, museum patrons will re-enact the raid. Customers will be having cocktails and dancing in period clothes. Police will enter, have customers line up against the wall and be harassed. But when they exit, the fed-up mob will be waiting.
Police will eventually emerge from the bar into 2024 as supporters of LGBTQ.
“Nothing is more important than knowing where we came from. As for global understanding of where lib began. History equals pride. Price without history is like standing on clay feet,” Kesten said.
For more information on the exhibit and the re-enactment, visit Stonewall-Museum.org.
