GLF: The radical beginnings of the 'gay' movement
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=1949310/1/2008
Gay liberation was a product of its times: Its birth at the end of the
'60s was no accident. By the time street queens and others rioted
outside the Stonewall bar in Greenwich Village ( June 27, 1969 ) , the
groundwork had been laid for one of America's most despised minorities
to get militant.
There had been skirmishes before Stonewall, specifically in
Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In Philadelphia in 1965,
it was a sit-in and weeklong picket outside of Dewey's after the
popular 24-hour lunch counter and cafeteria decided it would no longer
serve those who weren't traditionally dressed because they allegedly
drove away other customers. Dewey's eventually changed its policy. At
Cooper's Donuts in Los Angeles in 1959 and Compton's Cafeteria in San
Francisco in 1966, the conflicts turned into riots with the police.
