ABSTRACT
For many gay men and lesbians, Stonewall has taken on mythic stature. The Stonewall Inn riots of June 1969 have come to signify the birth of gay liberation, the moment when homosexuals began to fight for their rights and come out of the closet. In our common sense of “gay history,” Stonewall has become invested with meaning. For many gay historians, it represents a key shift, what John D'Emilio calls “a historic rupture” (107). After Stonewall, we are told, the “New Homosexual was bom” (Teal 24). From one contemporary vantage point, Stonewall marks the emergence of gay identity. 1
