sylvia rivera threw the first brick in the stonewall riots.
who threw the first brick in the stonewall riots?
sylvia rivera
in 1973, rivera famously spoke at a gay rights rally after she and johnson were reportedly banned for making other gay activists "look bad". afterwards, she told anyone who would listen that she was involved in the stonewall riots, to which johnson replied, "sylvia, you know you weren't there", to which afterwards, rivera remained silent. when the stonewall riots occurred, rivera was only 17 years old and according to bob kohler, who was there on the two nights of the riots, "always hung out uptown at bryant park" and never came downtown. johnson told gay rights historian eric marcus in 1987 that in the hours prior to her arriving downtown to join the other protesters at the riots, she had a party uptown and mentioned that "rivera and them were over in the [bryant] park having a cocktail." kohler told carter that even though rivera wasn't at the uprising, he made it clear that he hoped carter would portray her as having been there anyway. another stonewall veteran, thomas lanigan-schmidt, claimed that he wanted to add her "so that young puerto rican transgender people on the street would have a role model." kohler and rivera had a discussion over what to include in the book and denied rivera's requests to be portrayed as being the one to throw the first molotov cocktail, throwing the first brick, and having thrown the first bottle, only allowing rivera to be portrayed as someone who had "thrown a bottle" as opposed to being "the first". randy wicker, who was part of the more assimilationist mattachine society and was an early critic of the violent, militant tactics used by johnson and other stonewall veterans, said johnson had told him that sylvia was not at stonewall "as she was asleep after taking heroin uptown". rivera would also claim to have been involved in puerto rican and african american youth activism, particularly with the young lords and black panthers.
sylvia rivera
the stonewall riots of 1969 marked an increase in both public awareness of gay rights campaigners, and also in the willingness of homosexuals across america to campaign for the rights they believed that they were due. however, it would be misleading to conclude that resistance to homosexual oppression began with 'stonewall'. as david allyn has argued numerous acts of small-scale resistance are required for political movements to take shape and the years preceding 'stonewall' played a role in creating the gay liberation movement. arguably, the stonewall riots have come to resemble the pivotal moment in gay rights history largely because they are characterized by a great unrecorded oral history, which has allowed for myths to be used to fill in the gaps in the story, and precisely for this reason, enabled many members of the gay community to locate their lives and struggles within this narrative. stonewall veteran jim fouratt has been identified as stating: "if you have a choice between a myth or a fact, you go with the myth." while the stonewall riots were certainly a turning point in terms of precipitating an unparalleled surge of activism and organizing for gay rights, it was not the first example of rebellion against homophobia and intolerance. moreover, gay life after 'stonewall' was just as varied and complex as it was before. in the era following 'stonewall' there was still a variety of approaches taken by homosexuals to propagate their message, which included not only the confrontational approach of 'stonewall' but equally an attempt at assimilation into the broader community.
sexual revolution in 1960s united states