Sylvia Rivera Research Paper

Sylvia Rivera, a well known activist and drag queen present at the Stonewall Inn spoke of the typical raids that gay bars faced,“The routine was that the cops get their payoff, they confiscate the liquor… A padlock would go on the door. What we did, back then, was disappear to a coffee shop or any place in the neighborhood for fifteen minutes. You come back, the Mafia was there cutting the padlock off, bringing in more liquor, and back to business as usual” (Rivera). On the night of June 28th, 1969, the police raided the Stonewall Inn, and arrested 13. The raid in Stonewall was not new; the police raided Stonewall regularly, and patrons normally complied. Typically, the police would lineup the bar patrons and do a routine check to see what