List of LGBT actions in the United States prior to the Stonewall riots
Actions

List of LGBT actions in the United States prior to the Stonewall riots

Section Title: Actions
Table Section Text: None

Date	Location	Reason	Description

May 1959	Los Angeles	To protest police harassment	Transgender women, drag queens, lesbians, and gay men clashed with police at Cooper Do-nuts, a hang-out for them and street hustlers who were frequently harassed by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

September 19, 1964	New York City	To protest the US military's treatment of gay people	Organized by activist Randy Wicker, a small group picketed the Whitehall Street Induction Center after the confidentiality of gay men's draft records was violated.

December 2, 1964	New York City	To protest the disease model of homosexuality	Four gay men and lesbians picketed a lecture by a psychoanalyst espousing the model of homosexuality as a mental illness. The demonstrators were given ten minutes to make a rebuttal.

January 1, 1965	San Francisco	To protest police action	The Council on Religion and the Homosexual held a costume party at California Hall on Polk Street in San Francisco to raise money for the new organization.

April 17, and April 18, 1965	Washington, D.C., New York City	To protest Cuba and the United States' policies on homosexuality	Homophile activists picketed the White House on April 17 and the United Nations on the 18th after learning that Cuba was placing homosexuals in forced labor camps.

April 25, 1965	Philadelphia	To protest a restaurant's gay-exclusionary service policy	An estimated 150 people participated in a sit-in when the manager of Dewey's restaurant refused service to "a large number of homosexuals and people wearing non-conformist clothing." Four people were arrested, including homophile rights leader Clark Polak of Philadelphia's Janus Society.

May 29, 1965	Washington, D.C.	In support of gay rights	Organized by ECHO, seven men and three women picketed the White House. The first of a series of pickets held throughout the summer, which also targeted the Civil Service Commission, the State Department and The Pentagon.

July 4, 1965	Philadelphia	General informational picket	Organized by ECHO, demonstrators picketed at Independence Hall. Picketers returned each year through 1969 for what came to be known as the Annual Reminder beginning a new era in Philadelphia LGBT culture as a presence in the community.

September 26, 1965	San Francisco	In support of a pro-gay clergyman	Thirty people picketed Grace Cathedral to protest punitive actions taken against Rev. Canon Robert Cromey for his involvement in the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, an alliance between LGBT people and religious leaders.

October 23, 1965	Washington, D.C.	In support of gay rights	The last White House picket. Demonstrators felt, with this event, that picketing the White House had lost its effectiveness as a tactic.

April 21, 1966	New York City	To challenge the state's prohibition against serving alcohol to known homosexuals	Activists Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell and John Timmons were seeking a test case to challenge New York's regulation barring known homosexuals from being served alcohol in bars and restaurants.

May 21, 1966	Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington, D.C.	To protest the exclusion of homosexuals from the United States armed forces	A coalition of homophile organizations across the country organized simultaneous demonstrations for Armed Forces Day. The Los Angeles group held a 15-car motorcade (which has been identified as the nation's first gay pride parade) and activists held pickets in the other cities.

July 18, 1966	San Francisco	To protest a restaurant's harassment and denial of service	Around 25 people picketed Compton's Cafeteria when new management began using Pinkerton agents and police to harass gay and transgender customers.

August 1966	San Francisco	To protest continued harassment	Gay and transgender customers rioted at Compton's in response to continued police harassment. The restaurant and the surrounding neighborhood sustained heavy damage.

September 1966	Chicago	To protest being ignored by the press	Mattachine Midwest picketed the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times for routinely ignoring press material and refusing advertising from the organization.

January 1, 1967	Los Angeles	To protest police raids on gay bars	The LAPD raided the New Year's Eve parties at two gay bars, the Black Cat Tavern and New Faces. Several patrons were injured and a bartender was hospitalized with a fractured skull.

February 11, 1967	Los Angeles	In solidarity with other minority groups in the city	Organized by the owner of gay bar Pandora's Box and built on the Black Cat protests of weeks earlier, about 200 LGBT people watched as around 40 picketers demonstrated in front of the Black Cat in coordination with hippies and other counterculture groups who had been targeted by police for harassment and violence.

March 17, 1968	Los Angeles	To protest entrapment and harassment by the LAPD	Two drag queens known as "The Princess" and "The Duchess" held a St. Patrick's Day party at Griffith Park, a popular cruising spot and a frequent target of police activity.

April 23, 1968	New York City	To protest the classification of homosexuality as a mental illness	The Student Homophile League of Columbia University picketed and disrupted a panel of psychiatrists discussing homosexuality.

May 30, 1968	Los Angeles	General gathering	Homophile groups organized a "gay-in" in Griffith Park.

August 1968	Los Angeles	To protest a police raid on The Patch, a gay bar	Following the arrest of two patrons, The Patch owner Lee Glaze organized the other patrons to move on the police station.

April 1969	San Francisco	To protest the firing of a gay activist	When gay activist and journalist Gale Whittington was fired by the States Steamship Company after coming out in print, a small group of activists operating under the name "Committee for Homosexual Freedom" (CHF) picketed the company's San Francisco offices every workday between noon and 1:00 for several weeks.

May 1969	San Francisco	To protest the firing of an employee suspected of being gay	Tower Records fired Frank Denaro, believing him to be gay. The Committee for Homosexual Freedom picketed the store for several weeks until Denaro was reinstated.

Sentence(s)

The Reminder took place each July 4 at Independence Hall, in Philadelphia beginning in 1965 in the United States.

final_sentence: The Reminder took place each July 4 at Independence Hall, in Philadelphia beginning in 1965 in the United States.