🌊 Why Companies Turned on Pride

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By Max Towey

The Stonewall Inn enjoyed special privileges among New York City gay bars in the 1960s. Owned by the Genovese crime family, it operated without a liquor license, running water, and fire exits and was the only gay bar in the city to allow dancing. 

And it would soon launch one of the biggest social movements in American history. 

Despite its special standing – which it afforded through weekly cash payments to its local Greenwich Village police precinct – the Inn’s workers and patrons remained guarded. A sign on the door read, “This is a private club. Members only.” Using a peephole, the bouncer would admit guests who “looked gay” while seeking to limit the number of trans guests, due to their potential liability (cross-dressing was illegal). The worst outcome for the bouncer, however, was not admitting a trans person but admitting an undercover cop. 

And on a summer Friday night in 1969, the bouncer’s gaydar failed. 

Four undercover cops snuck into the Stonewall Inn and – upon seeing the establishment was serving alcohol and hosting cross-dressers – called in reinforcements using the bar’s payphones. While the local precinct would usually tip off the Genovese ahead of police raids – which were common for gay bars at the time – that didn’t happen that night.

Instead, police busted through the doors. One shouted, “The place is under arrest. When you exit, have some identification and it’ll be over in a short time.” 

The Inn’s patrons usually cooperated, but not that night. Fueled by years of harassment and emboldened by the era’s civil rights wins, they fought back. As one activist recalled, “[The cop] says he thought it was going to be a routine bust. That’s why they went in with only a few men. But to his surprise, we fought back.” Bricks flew, bottles shattered, and chants of defiance echoed through Manhattan’s Christopher Street. According to the New York Times, one guest threw a parking meter at the cops.

What began as a routine raid thus spiraled into a multi-day uprising and became a flashpoint that would ignite the modern gay rights movement. In 1970, on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the first “Pride” marches took place in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The Pride movement was thus born.

Fast forward 50 years, and Pride has been elevated from a fringe movement challenging the centers of power to one of the few things that unites centers of power. Today virtually every major university and corporation observes Pride Month in some capacity, whether that means changing their logo to rainbow colors or sponsoring Pride marches with floats and donations. 

Those parades, by the way, have ballooned, too: While the first Pride march in NYC drew a few thousand, Stonewall’s 50th anniversary Pride March in 2019 drew an estimated 5M people. Cities across the world shut down for their city’s Pride festivities and raise LBGTQ+ flags on government buildings.

The movement that started on that fateful, foggy morning in late June 1969 has conquered academia, government, and corporate America. Yet new data show it may be losing its grip.

Editor’s Note

What do you think is driving this shift? Politics, public opinion, or something else? Let us know by replying here to today’s email. 

Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoy your Saturdays. If you want something else to read, don’t miss our five most recent stories:

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See you tomorrow,

Max and Max