In the years and months leading up to Stonewall, there was a mounting air of frustration and excitement. The queers were quietly starting to revolt. Gone were the days of hiding or silently slipping away into the darkness. From the brawl at Coopers Do-Nuts, to the protests in Washington D.C., to the Compton Cafeteria Riots. One outburst, one rebellion, one picket line after another was sparking a resistance. All across America the queer community was standing together and heading towards an all-out war. Join us on Part One of Stonewall as we cover the events that lead us to the brink of that war. Why the Stonewall, and not the Sewer or the Snake Pit? The answer lies, we believe, in the unique nature of the Stonewall. This club was more than a dance bar, more than just a gay gathering place. It catered largely to a group of people who are not welcome in or cannot afford, other places of homosexual social gathering. The “drags” and the “queens”, two groups which would find a chilly reception or a barred door at most of the other gay bars and clubs, formed the “regulars” at the Stonewall. To a large extent, the club was for them…. Apart from the Goldbug and the One Two Three, “drags” and “queens” had no place but the Stonewall…. We want to start this episode off by listing our references and Evan will talk a little about them. Going into our second year, we are going to be much more aware of our making sure we note our reference material. We will also be publishing our scripts online, and sources for those scripts (with links) will be marked at the bottom. We hope this will help people doing research for their own queerstory. Our references this week come from several sources. Our main text is the book “Stonewall; Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights” by Ann Bausum. While this book does give an excellent timeline of the events that unfolded before, during and after the Stonewall Riots, it does not accurately represent the many heroes of the riots. Particularly People of Color and Transgender women. Our second source is Transgender History by Susan Stryker. We have used this book in much of our research on this podcast and cannot recommend it enough. Strykers book was used for these two episodes to gain a better picture of transgender activism leading up to Stonewall. Our last main text was the Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History in America; Volume 3. Any good Encyclopedia of queer history is definitely recommended for our serious queerstorians. We also pulled some info from the following sources; A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski, Modern HERstory by Blair Imani, and several online articles from the Advocate, the Atlantic, Britannica, Wikipedia, and more. Which will be linked on the scripts if you would like to check them out. But now let’s dive into the story of one of the most momentous occasions in American Queer History, and even world history. The story of a small bar in East Greenwich Village New York. But before we get to that bar, and that pivotal night. We must first establish the reasons behind the Stonewall Riots. Why was THIS raid on THIS bar on THIS night so different from the hundreds of raids of various gay bars in the past on countless other nights? Throughout the mid-1950s and into the ’60s, queer individuals had begun to come out into the open. New information about homosexuality was coming to light through the Kinsey Report and Dr. Evelyn Hooker’s research. Organizations such as the Mattachine Society, the Daughters of Bilitis, and the Janus Society, had formed and were actively working towards social acceptance and queer rights. Magazines like One, The Ladder, Transvestia, and Drum were now legally able to be sold thanks to One Magazine winn...