The Stonewall Riots were sparked by the harassment of Transgender as well as Gay and Lesbian patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York City.
However, on the morning of June 28, 1969, instead of the usual command, the NYPD First District raided the bar. But that particular time, the drag queens and street youth fought back. There were reports of stilettos, bottles, coins, bricks and debris thrown. The altercation spilled into the streets and more queer street youth joined in the uprising. As word spread, more LGBT people from surrounded neighborhoods joined the riot. The rebellion, which lasted six days, marked the beginning of the modern LGBT rights movement.
Very few images of the Stonewall Rebellion of the summer of 1969 were captured by the press or participants. The handful that have circulated, like these images, capture the atmosphere after the dispersion of thousands of rioters. However, few images exist that mark the beginning of the rebellion, which was initiated by transgender and street youth.
That was in 1969.
43 years later the NYPD is still mistreating Transgender persons in their custody.
A woman arrested for using her fathers discount card was held for over a day with her arm chained above her head. Instead of receiving a ticket she was strung up like a prisoner in a dungeon. Again the NYPD use this as an opportunity to verbally demean the person in custody. Where do they get their officers? Sixth grade playgrounds from the sound of their immature and vicious treatment of people that are different. So much for NYC being a melting pot where many from differing backgrounds live together in a community.
A trans woman says that when she was arrested for a minor subway violation, NYPD officers belittled her, called her names, asked about her genitals — and kept her chained to a fence for 28 hours. Now she's suing. And it turns out she's far from alone.
In her lawsuit, Temmie Breslauer says she was arrested on January 12 in a subway station for illegally using her dad's discount fare card (only seniors and people with disabilities can get these). She says the arresting officers — the suit names one, Officer Shah — laughed at her. When they took her to the station, a desk sergeant asked her "whether she had a penis or a vagina." Breslauer explained that she was in transition. Then, instead of putting her with female inmates or in her own room, the department allegedly chose this course of action:
[S]he was fingerprinted, seated on a bench, then painfully chained to a fence wherein, for no apparent reason, her arm was lifted over her head and attached to the fence to make it appear that she was raising her hand in the classroom. She sat there in that position for 28 hours.
She also says officers not only refused to call her "she," they instead referred to her as "He-She", "Faggot," and "Lady GaGa," and asked her "So you like to suck dick? Or what?" Meanwhile, people arrested for the same minor crime (misdemeanor "theft of services") she was were calmly processed and allowed to leave. Finally, she was able to go before a judge, who gave her two days of community service. She says the whole ordeal aggravated her existing PTSD and left her sleepless and suicidal.
Even Transgender Occupiers get the "special treatment".
As we walked out past the other protestors waiting to have their pockets emptied, one woman gave me a puzzled look. We had connected on the long drive around Brooklyn, as they tried to figure out where to take us. I told her that it looked like transgender people got "special treatment". And I was correct. Within the first 15 minutes of being at Precinct 90, I was segregated from the rest of the protestors arrested, and my "special treatment" began.
They took me away from the cellblock where they had all of the protestors locked up. I was taken to a room with a toilet and two cells. The larger cell of these two cells had about eight men who had been arrested on charges not related to the protest; the smaller cell was empty. Unlike me, these men had been arrested for a variety of crimes, some violent. (One of the cops mentioned to another that one of the detainees had been arrested for assault on a woman.) They had me sit down in a chair next to the filthy toilet, and handcuffed my right wrist to a metal handrail.
Why was I segregated from all of the other protestors? Perhaps the answer lay in the fact that police officers were coming by to ogle me, and were laughing and giggling at me through a window. It was obvious that prisoners were rarely handcuffed to a railing in this manner, because a number of officers asked a female officer why I was handcuffed to the railing. She told them something, I couldn't hear what, but then, on each of these occasions, they would laugh and giggle while looking at me pointedly
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The 1960's was turbulent time for our society so the harassment was not tolerated and instead it was resisted creating a sea change in how LGBT's viewed themselves and what was acceptable treatment for them.
Now we are in a much more tense and perilous time of social unrest.
And the NYPD thinks it is a good idea to single out and demean Transgender persons?
Were the NYPD's leadership culled from the same 6th grade playground that they got their line officers from?