A series of confrontations between LGBTQ patrons — many of them Black and Latina trans women, drag queens, and homeless youth — and the NYPD following a routine vice raid on the Stonewall Inn, a Mafia-run gay bar. The uprising is conventionally dated as the start of the modern LGBTQ civil-rights movement; the first Pride marches were held on its first anniversary. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Stormé DeLarverie are among the figures most associated with the events.

Why it’s been targeted

Florida’s Duval County Schools removed a children’s book on Stonewall after a book-review supervisor called gay characters “contrary to the design of humanity” (March 2023). Florida HB 1557 (“Don’t Say Gay,” 2022, expanded 2023) and parallel laws in Texas (SB 12, 2025), Tennessee, and Iowa have driven removals of Stonewall-themed picture books and YA titles. PEN America’s 2023–24 Index recorded multiple Stonewall titles among removed materials.