Summary Of Coming Of Age At The Time Of Stonewall
Chapter 1. Setting the Stage for Sex, Politics, and Aging They’ve called us perverts, homos, and queers. They’ve shunned us and jailed us, beaten us and even murdered us. They’ve dismissed our geniuses and natural gifts. Yet we’ve continued to fight for freedom, for rights, for love, and, yes, for sex. Coming of Age at the Time of Stonewall tells the stories of LGBTQ seniors, in their own words, in the context of the political movements of the 1960's and 1970's. It focuses on their struggles, their strengths, what sex and politics mean to them now, fifty years after Stonewall and fighting for the right to love.
As a sex researcher, I am primarily interested in the sexuality of those who are often overlooked, particularly older adults in the …show more content…
The mafia reportedly owned most of the gay bars in New York, including Stonewall. Though homosexuality was legal in New York State, openly serving drinks to homosexuals was considered illegal by the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA), which considered gay bars to be “disorderly houses.” The SLA either refused to grant liquor licenses to gay bars or suspended or revoked many of their liquor licenses for “indecent conduct.” Without a liquor license, a bar couldn’t do much business. The Genovese family controlled a majority of the gay bars in Greenwich Village and one of the family members, Tony Lauria, known as “Fat Tony,” purchased the Stonewall Inn in 1966, and turned it into a gay bar. Operating Stonewall as a private club allowed him to get around the need for a liquor license. He gave bribes to the NYC 6th Police Precinct of approximately $1,200 per month for the cops to ignore what was going on inside the bar. And without much oversight, Fat Tony cut corners. There was no running water behind the bar, so the glasses were often used and dirty. There was no rear exit, which proved to be a problem the night of the rebellion when the cops were “stuck” inside. The alcohol was watered-down and yet customers had to pay higher prices for their
As a sex researcher, I am primarily interested in the sexuality of those who are often overlooked, particularly older adults in the …show more content…
The mafia reportedly owned most of the gay bars in New York, including Stonewall. Though homosexuality was legal in New York State, openly serving drinks to homosexuals was considered illegal by the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA), which considered gay bars to be “disorderly houses.” The SLA either refused to grant liquor licenses to gay bars or suspended or revoked many of their liquor licenses for “indecent conduct.” Without a liquor license, a bar couldn’t do much business. The Genovese family controlled a majority of the gay bars in Greenwich Village and one of the family members, Tony Lauria, known as “Fat Tony,” purchased the Stonewall Inn in 1966, and turned it into a gay bar. Operating Stonewall as a private club allowed him to get around the need for a liquor license. He gave bribes to the NYC 6th Police Precinct of approximately $1,200 per month for the cops to ignore what was going on inside the bar. And without much oversight, Fat Tony cut corners. There was no running water behind the bar, so the glasses were often used and dirty. There was no rear exit, which proved to be a problem the night of the rebellion when the cops were “stuck” inside. The alcohol was watered-down and yet customers had to pay higher prices for their