Monday, June 03, 2019

Stonewall Bartender Recalls the Historic Night

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. 




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