To some, New York City is a mecca, a place where many beloved institutions trace their origins, as well as a beacon of diversity and inclusion. To others it is a chaotic, liberal bubble rife with corruption and lawlessness, symbolic of everything that is currently wrong with the nation. But regardless, no other place continues to hold more cultural weight in the collective psyche of Queer Americans than the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, where the 1969 riots took place.

In many ways, LGBTQIA+ people today continue to occupy a similar, polarized space in the minds of the US public as they did back then. Nothing demonstrates this more than the Trump administration and Republican Party’s attack on Queer civil rights in the past several months. The LGBTQIA+ community’s struggles in 2025 and the Stonewall uprising 56 years ago share numerous parallels — something that was not lost upon the bar’s patrons, performers, and employees when SGN staff visited its historic grounds back in April.    

A night of uprising

According to the NYC LGBT Historical Sites Project, founded in the 1990s to preserve the history around Stonewall, police raids on Gay establishments were all too common at the time. So too was the growing resistance against their violence, like the Compton’s Cafeteria riots in 1966 in San Francisco.

But what made Stonewall stand apart from these other events, according to the project, was the scale and sheer tenacity of how people resisted, which sparked a national and global movement.

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, inspired by the indoor commotion at the Stonewall Inn that June night, an angry crowd began congregating around outside as police began arresting some of its patrons, protesting the unjust harassment by throwing objects and blocking the police’s path.

Protesters then occupied nearby Christopher Park and adjoining streets for a total of six days. On the second day, at the height of the protests, according to the NYC LGBT Historical Sites Project, eyewitness accounts estimated there being around two thousand people.

The Stonewall riots were unique in that they brought together a wide coalition of “homeless LGBT teens, trans women of color, lesbians, drag queens, and gay men,” according to the project, inspiring Queer people in NYC and across the country to politically organize.

The Smithsonian Museum highlights the story of famous BIPOC Trans activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who were both participants in the Stonewall uprising. They would go on to join groups like the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) to fight for Queer civil rights, while also founding their own organization, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), to house LGBTQIA+ youth.

“Pride” itself was originally created to recognize the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising; however, the Smithsonian points out that groups like the GAA, which Rivera was a part of, were not keen on recognizing the role Transgender people played at Stonewall and in Gay liberation.

At the New York Pride March in 1973, organizers banned drag queens, though Johnson and Rivera marched ahead of it in defiance. This is an unfortunate chapter in the treatment of Transgender and gender-diverse people that continues to echo into the present day. 

Stonewall today

Five decades later, Stonewall continues to have immense social and political relevance. The Stonewall National Monument was established in 2016 by the Obama administration as the only US landmark to recognize Queer history. The monument became a point of controversy back in February 2025 when the “T” in the LGBT abbreviation was removed from the official National Park Service website, one in a long list of decisions by the Trump administration to wipe all acknowledgement of Transgender existence from federal agencies. In response, the community has been decorating Christopher Park with Trans flags and heart-shaped stickers in defiance.

The façade of Stonewall has not changed much since the infamous police raid. Inside, throughout the ground floor, there are placards and framed memorabilia showcasing its history. A large Transgender Pride flag sits on the back wall facing the entrance, acting as both a centerpiece and an unequivocal sign of support and acknowledgement of its roots.

Sabel Scities, a resident drag queen with 20 years of drag experience, told the SGN that they drive from Long Island every Sunday to deliver their joyful and hilarious performances to the bar’s patrons. Their show, alongside guest drag star Indigo Dai, was a complete riot, leaving the crowd gagged, cheering, and wanting more.

At the beginning of the night, Scities emphasized the importance of fostering safe spaces and “protecting our Trans siblings” in an era of uncertainty under Trump. To them, inclusive Queer spaces like the Stonewall Inn are becoming more important than ever, as LGBTQIA+ people look for a means to temporarily escape their troubles in the outside world, a sentiment that would probably ring true to the patrons of Stonewall in 1969 as well.

If any lessons can be gleaned from the history and current status of Stonewall, it is that the community is strongest when we uplift one another, standing up and fighting back for the rights of everyone in the LGBTQIA+ alphabet — not just our own — no matter the stakes.