For 6 Music’s Loud and Proud, part of the BBC’s Gay Britannia season, there’s another chance to hear this documentary, in which Tom Robinson explores why the word Stonewall still has such a powerful resonance for gay people around the world.

Stonewall Inn

In June 1969 a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a private members gay bar in Greenwich Village, exploded into a night of violent protest. What followed was a week of rioting with pitched battles between the New York gay community and riot police. It was a watershed moment in gay history which inspired a new militant phase in the gay rights movement.

During the 1960s homosexuality was still classified as a mental illness in the U.S, with “sufferers” subject to frequent victimisation from the police and society at large.

Contributors include Seymour Pine, the policeman who led the raid; and Howard Smith, the journalist stuck inside when the crowd turned on the police and attempted to set fire to the Stonewall Inn. There are also eye-witness accounts from the rioters themselves and listeners learn how the rallying in subsequent months led to a sea change in gay rights activism and the establishment of the annual Gay Pride parade to mark the riots.

The programme also features previously unheard archive interviews with late activists Craig Rodwell and Barbara Gittings.

This documentary was first broadcast in 2009 and is being aired as part of Gay Britannia, a season of programming across BBC Radio and television, which marks the 50th anniversary of The Sexual Offences Act 1967.

As part of Loud and Proud 6 Music are also repeating Holloway Dreams: The Joe Meek Story, in which Tom Robinson tells the story of the extraordinary British record producer. This series will be broadcast 2 – 2.30am on 24, 25 and 26 July.

Presenter: Tom Robinson
Producer: Jobi Waldman for Somethin’ Else
Reversioning producer: Frank Wilson for the BBC

Wednesday 26 July 1.00am-2.00am BBC Radio 6 Music

Photo By InSapphoWeTrust from Los Angeles, California, USA (Stonewall Inn, West Village) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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