Pride
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History June 24 - 30.
Vito Genovese was born in Naples, Italy, in 1897 and, at age 15, immigrated to New York City with his parents, his sister, and two brothers.
Genovese immediately took to a life of crime and, by 19, was spending time in prison on an illegal gun possession charge. His rise up the ranks of the Mafia was steady, and by 1930, Genovese was a murdering machine in the middle of a power struggle that would reshape the underground criminal enterprise.
The Castellammarese War resulted in the creation of the Five Families, which included the Luciano crime family, named after Charles “Lucky” Luciano. Vito Genovese was a close associate of Luciano and a deadly instrument in the murder of mob boss Joey Masseria, which sparked the war.
By the 1950s, the Luciano crime family became the Genovese crime family, the oldest and largest organization in the Mafia. It operated out of the West Side of Manhattan, which included Greenwich Village, which by the 1960s had seen a steady increase in the gay population.
In 1966, members of the Genovese family purchased The Stonewall Inn, an establishment built in the 1840s as a horse stable that, over the years, grew to be a bakery, a speakeasy, a restaurant, and, most importantly, a friendly bar for people of the LGBTQ community to gather.
However, liquor laws in New York at the time prevented bartenders from serving LGBTQ people because they considered it to be engaging in disorderly conduct. To prevent police raids for serving alcohol without a license, The Stonewall Inn paid bribes for protection, which didn’t always happen.
In the early morning of June 28, 1969, plainclothes officers entered The Stonewall Inn, setting off six days of rioting and protesting. It is considered the beginning of the gay rights movement in the United States.
Gay youth fought with undercover police who had staked themselves inside and used the bar’s phone to call in backup for police wagons to hull people who were consuming alcohol and engaged in cross-dressing. There was a delay in the police response, which allowed the violent mob to destroy the interior of the bar and light fires in garbage cans along Christopher Street.
Neighbors in the community would join in the protests over the coming days and met by the Tactical Patrol Force. Eventually, the crowd dispersed, but a year later, a parade celebrated the anniversary of the Liberation of Christopher Street with chanting that exclaimed, “Say it loud, gay is proud.”
Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events celebrate their anniversary, ending in 5 or 0. Here's what I got:
1. Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009. The King of Pop died of an overdose of an anesthetic used for surgery. His personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for giving him this drug to help the musician sleep. The state released Murray in 2013 after serving two years of a four-year sentence. Jackson was 50, which is just two years older than I am right now, and again, I’m freaking out about getting older.
2. Joseph Smith was murdered on June 27, 1844. The founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was murdered by a mob, along with his brother, as they awaited trial. Roughly 200 men stormed the prison, and they shot Hyrum in the face. Joseph tried jumping out a window but was shot and fell out, and when he hit the ground, people at the base of the prison shot him some more. My goodness, people.
3. Labor Day became a federal holiday on June 28, 1894. Labor Day reminds us that the military does not exclusively give or protect our freedoms. President Grover Cleveland signed the law recognizing the contributions of America’s labor force to our great country.
In 2000, President Clinton established June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, and nine years later, President Obama expanded it to include Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.
In 2016, The Stonewall Inn was designated a national monument to honor the LGBTQ movement. Stonewall partnered with Brooklyn Brewery three years later to create The Stonewall Inn IPA. In 2023, Bud Light partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, causing many people to get upset and vent their anger by shooting cases of Bud Light.
So what began as a way for the mob, who shot a lot of people, to make money off a maligned group of people turned into a movement, then national recognition and support, to brands trying to make money off the movement, only to experience a mob shooting their product in protest.
God Bless America.
Okay, it’s going to be a good week. Our downstairs table is back to where we work on the latest puzzle. And by we, I mean just Anonymous. This looks tough (as you will see below), so I will sit this out.
Have a great week, everyone. I will see you on Friday.
Appreciate you.
Okay,
Chris
Good detail on the Stonewall Inn and Riot. I did not know any of that.
So, indirectly, the Mafia helped American gay people become what they are now.