Stonewall Riots Timeline

On Saturday, June 28, 1969, four plainclothes policemen, two patrol officers, Detective Charles Smythe, and Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine arrived at the Stonewall Inn's double doors and announced "Police! We're taking the place!" Undercover officers had entered earlier to gather visual evidence. The raid sparked spontaneous riots and demonstrations against police harassment in Greenwich Village.

Activist Mark Segal recounts that Martha Shelley and Marty Robinson stood and made speeches from the front door of the Stonewall on June 29, 1969, the second night of the riot, as crowds continued to gather and clash with police.

On July 4, 1969, the Mattachine Society performed its annual picket in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, called the Annual Reminder. Since 1965 the pickets had been very controlled: women wore skirts, men wore suits and ties, and all marched quietly in organized lines.

Image source: Annual Reminder

In late December 1969, several people who had visited Gay Liberation Front meetings and left out of frustration formed the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), focused solely on gay and lesbian rights.

Image source: Gay Activists Alliance

In March 1970, deputy inspector Seymour Pine, who had led the Stonewall raid, raided the Zodiac and 17 Barrow Street, continuing police enforcement against gay establishments.

One of the first and most important 'zaps' was staged in May 1970 by the Los Angeles Gay Liberation Front at a convention of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), protesting homosexuality's classification as a mental disorder.

Christopher Street Liberation Day, on June 28, 1970, marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with an assembly on Christopher Street; with simultaneous Gay Pride marches in Los Angeles and Chicago, these were the first Gay Pride marches in US history.

Image source: Christopher Street Day

During the 1973 Stonewall rally, moments after Barbara Gittings praised the diversity of the crowd, feminist activist Jean O'Leary protested what she perceived as the mocking of women by cross-dressers and drag queens. She later regretted her stance: "Looking back, I find this so embarrassing because my views have changed so much since then."

Image source: Jean O'Leary

In December 1973—in large part due to the efforts of gay activists—the APA voted unanimously to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, a major victory for the movement energized by Stonewall.

Image source: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

Gay men and lesbians came together to work in grassroots political organizations responding to organized resistance in 1977. Save Our Children was successful enough to influence similar repeals in several American cities in 1978.

Image source: Save Our Children

The subsequent 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights was timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the Stonewall riots, drawing tens of thousands of participants.

Stonewall (officially Stonewall Equality Limited) is an LGBTQ rights charity in the United Kingdom, founded in 1989 and named after the Stonewall Inn because of the Stonewall riots. It has held the annual Stonewall Awards since 2006.

Image source: Stonewall (charity)

The middle of the 1990s was marked by the inclusion of bisexuals as a represented group within the gay community, when they successfully sought to be included on the platform of the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.

Image source: March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation

In 1994, New York City celebrated "Stonewall 25" with a march that went past the United Nations Headquarters and into Central Park. Sylvia Rivera led an alternate march in New York City in 1994 to protest the exclusion of transgender people from the events.

In June 1999, the US Department of the Interior included 51 and 53 Christopher Street and the surrounding area in Greenwich Village in the National Register of Historic Places, the first listing significant to the LGBTQ community. Assistant Secretary John Berry stated, "Let it forever be remembered that here—on this spot—men and women stood proud."

Image source: Stonewall National Monument

The Stonewall Inn was named a National Historic Landmark in February 2000, further cementing its status as a site of national historical significance.

President Barack Obama declared June 2009 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, citing the riots as a reason to "commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans".

On June 23, 2015, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Stonewall as a city landmark, the first to be designated based on its LGBTQ cultural significance alone.

On June 24, 2016, President Barack Obama announced the establishment of the Stonewall National Monument at the site of the riots, administered by the National Park Service.

In 2018, 49 years after the uprising, Stonewall Day was announced as a commemoration day by Pride Live, a social advocacy and community engagement organization.

Image source: Stonewall riots

Throughout June 2019, Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019, produced by Heritage of Pride in partnership with the I Love New York program's LGBTQ division, took place in New York to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

Image source: Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019

Also in June 2019, to coincide with the fifty-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Paris, France, officially named a square in the Marais district as Place des Émeutes-de-Stonewall (Stonewall Riots Place).

On June 6, 2019, coinciding with WorldPride being celebrated in New York City, Police Commissioner James P. O'Neill apologized on behalf of the NYPD for the actions of its officers during the 1969 raid on the Stonewall Inn.

New York City Opera commissioned English composer Iain Bell and American librettist Mark Campbell in 2018 to write the opera Stonewall to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the riots; it premiered on June 19, 2019, directed by Leonard Foglia.

Image source: Stonewall (opera)

The second Stonewall Day was held on Friday, June 28, 2019, outside the Stonewall Inn, marking the official 50th anniversary of the uprising.

The official 50th-anniversary commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising occurred on June 28, 2019, on Christopher Street in front of Stonewall Inn, themed as a rally in reference to the original rallies in front of Stonewall Inn in 1969.

The National Park Foundation formed a new nonprofit organization to raise funds for a ranger station and interpretive exhibits for the monument, including the first official national visitor center dedicated to the LGBTQ+ experience, which was inaugurated on June 28, 2024.

On February 13, 2025, references to transgender and queer people were removed from the Stonewall National Monument's official website, prompting protests. On July 10, 2025, references to bisexual people were removed as well.