{"id":63,"date":"2009-06-22T13:02:37","date_gmt":"2009-06-22T13:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp\/?p=63"},"modified":"2014-06-05T13:52:20","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T17:52:20","slug":"did_judy_garland_cause_stonewa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/2009\/06\/did_judy_garland_cause_stonewa.html","title":{"rendered":"Did Judy (Garland) Cause Stonewall (Riots)?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thumbnail<\/a><\/span>June 22 is the 40th anniversary of Judy’s death<\/b> — like Marilyn’s, the result of an overdose that whether accidental or intentional will never be clear. Some think that Garland’s gargantuan two-day funeral — 20,000 fans and friends attended — was the last straw for the harassed and brutalized drag queens, faggots, dykes and proto-twinks who were pushed, hit, arrested and shoved into a big wagon early the next morning by the cops who raided the Stonewall Inn. What was happening on Christopher Street?<\/p>\n

That sinkless, mob-owned, wretched bar was is where our Greenwich Village forebears could meet, flirt, and actually dance. New York police, many on the take, had the upper hand.<\/p>\n

\"Stonewall<\/span>Yes, dear readers, the boys and girls exploded that night and a number of nights after. Part of their neighborhood, and part of a whole city, joined them. Soon, a Gay Liberation Front formed, tired of the brave but docile and mostly ineffective efforts that preceded it.<\/p>\n

Was Judy’s death the straw that broke this miserable camel’s back?<\/p>\n

Some say yes, some no. Writer, critic and gay maven David Ehrenstein<\/a> emailed me to say that<\/p>\n

“Judy’s passing was ‘in the air,’ ” and one of the “Stonewall kids” named Tommy who was there confirmed that to him. Others, noted in my piece for the now-deceased online magazine Obit (here’s a link to the text<\/a>), completely disagree.<\/p>\n

As you can read in my salute to Judy and Stonewall, I think the truth, by its very nature fugitive, is somewhere in between. Both riveting spirits reward another look.<\/p>\n

For an automatic alert when there is a new Out There post, email jiweinste@aol.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 22 is the 40th anniversary of Judy’s death — like Marilyn’s, the result of an overdose that whether accidental or intentional will never be clear. Some think that Garland’s gargantuan two-day funeral — 20,000 fans and friends attended — was the last straw for the harassed and brutalized drag queens, faggots, dykes and proto-twinks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16,86,48,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-63","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"tag-gay","8":"tag-judy-garland","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-stonewall","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/outthere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}