Back in June 1981 when I was a
volunteer writer for the former Baltimore publication The Gay Paper, I was fortunate to receive a significant lead for a
story. I was advised that a former bartender at the Stonewall Inn the night the bar was
raided, which touched off nearly a weeklong uprising against the police, had
moved to Baltimore and was available for an interview.
During this exclusive interview,
the bartender used the name of “Don” as he had taken up a different line of
work and wanted to protect his identity. However, the facts as he laid them out
during our conversation jived with the research conducted by a number of reputable journalists and authors that had been made public subsequent to this
interview. Therefore, I concluded that
the substance of his description of the events on that fateful night of June
27-28, 1969 just 12 years prior was legitimate.
As we commemorate the 50th
anniversary of this seminal chapter in the LGBTQ rights movement, I thought it
fitting to post the story with a copy of the actual published article appearing
below.
No comments:
Post a Comment