In our last episode, we had reached the final days before the morning of June 28th. We discussed how our community began to stand up and fight back. In part two we go in detail about the Stonewall riot. We celebrate the heroes of Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Storme DeLarverie, Craig Rodwell, Fred Sargeant, and many more. We discuss why Stonewall was so different from the many other bar raids that had happened that year and in the many previous years. We speak of the emotion and terror and anger and sheer delight. The PRIDE that emerged at Stonewall. So stop waiting. Hit that play button and learn about the night that changed everything. The night our community came bursting out of the closet and into the streets! Just a few weeks earlier, Inspector Seymour Pine of the NYPD Moral Sector received news of suspicious sales in European Bonds. He and Detective Charles Smythe began to investigate the matter which eventually lead them to Greenwich Village. The Investigators believed the bonds had been stolen by Homosexuals who were being blackmailed by the Mafia and in need of a way to covertly pay them off. The best way the detectives knew to lock down a homosexual was to catch them at a gay bar. So the raids on the Greenwich Village bars began. The Investigators were successful in shutting down several local bars such as the Snake Pit and the Sewer. And while they were met with some verbal protest, there was no other interference. On June 23rd, Pine lead a small, uneventful raid on the Stonewall Inn which procured him several employees as well as some useful documents that would prove the Stonewall wasn’t a bottle club. This evidence would aid in getting the Inn closed down for good. While Pine was actually sympathetic to the queer community, he took his orders without question like any other police commander. His objective was to close down the gay bars, reduce the Mafia’s targets for blackmail, and thus eliminate the need for theft of bonds. And maybe even nail those who had already stolen bonds. But the part of the plan that wasn’t thought through was how these constant and incessant raids would affect the queer community. As tensions mounted in the ensuing weeks and days leading up to the riots, Police forces only fanned the flames of anger. Lilly Law was in full effect. Lilly Law was a term coined in response to Police abuse on the LGBTQ community. The street queens devised code words to alert others of law enforcement. Lilly Law, Betty Badge and Patty Pig were the most common. This way one queen could call out to the other “Here comes Lillian” or “Lilly is on the way” without arousing Police suspicion. And in June of 1969 Lillian, Betty and Patty were on every street corner, every alleyway, and every side road, testing the patience of the strained queer community. But with all the constant patrols and police harassment, Lilly Law couldn’t be bothered to step in a help a queer in need. Just two weeks before the riots, a group of straight vigilantes had taken axes and saws and leveled a local park known for gay cruising (the act of scouting for another homosexual and hooking up – Tinder before tinder). Because landlords were legally allowed to evict someone for being gay, and because many queer men had few other options, public parks often turned into hookup hotspots. The homophobic citizens destroyed the park, chased the hiding queers out, and beat anyone they could catch. The police sat off to the side, watching this all unfold, and doing nothing to aid the distraught gay men. With these events fresh on everyone’s mind, the evening of June 27th carried a heavy air as the sun began to set. It had been an incredibly hot and muggy day and tensions were officially at their highest. So when Sylvia headed to Stonewall to meet Marsha for Marsha’s 25th birthday, the two women – and other patrons of the jam-...