Citation needed: Stonewall uprising was lead by black cis and trans women who faced housing issues

Andrew Sullivan called foul on the New York Times during Pride Month last year, when the Times reported that it was trans women of color who kicked off the 1969 Stonewall riots.

"We are reminded that the Stonewall liberation was led by trans women of color." This is patently untrue. It has always been untrue. Does the NYT have fact-checkers? Or is the "narrative" more important than reality?https://t.co/EZdR1ZUCwl

— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) June 17, 2020

It’s a year later, and a group called Shelter is getting in on the action by claiming the Stonewall riots were started by “Black cis and trans women who faced public housing issues throughout their lives.”

The Stonewall uprising was lead by Black cis and trans women who faced housing issues throughout their lives. Pride is a protest and our fight is to defend the right to a safe home for everyone. #PrideMonth pic.twitter.com/SULF0K0pUF

— Shelter (@Shelter) June 4, 2021

Not true. https://t.co/cqI6FW9Txq

— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) June 5, 2021

Citation needed

— 🟣⚪️🟢🎀🎀🎀 (@fionayamamoto) June 4, 2021

Who is your historical advisor?

— Angela (@elagnab) June 4, 2021

Stop lying. Just stop.

— Where the f*k is Oscar Goldman🏁 (@spiralmoney) June 4, 2021

Do you not have a fact checker?

— lorna🍒 (@Lorna9100M) June 4, 2021

But how intersectional is that? Black trans women with housing issues. Anyone else want to get in on this narrative?

Please supply evidence of who led the Stonewall riots.

— Friend of a friend (@jo34534386) June 4, 2021

Marsha Johnson’s recollection:

"I was uptown and I didn't get downtown until about two o'clock. When I got downtown, the place was already on fire, and there was a raid already," she told historian Eric Marcus in 1987. "The riots had already started."

Woke revisionism.

— les paul junior 🍔🍺🎸🚍🐕 (@lespauljunior3) June 4, 2021

Erm yeah. It was mostly lead by gay men and lesbians. But OK.

— Ed (@Ed_UKation) June 4, 2021

Absolute fabrication.

— Ian Govier #FBPE #FBPA 💙 (@certiusuk) June 5, 2021

Funny how they highlighted that Stormé DeLarverie was a "black cis woman" and not "lesbian". I would have thought that was of interest during Pride… 🤔

— Anja 🚴🏻‍♂️ (@AntiAnja) June 5, 2021

They don’t like lesbians in case you hadn’t noticed.

— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) June 5, 2021

Note the erasure of lesbian.

— Heather-Rose Ryan ☘️🦉🌞🌎 (@HeatherRoseRya1) June 5, 2021

The person who likely did start the fight against the police was a white butch dyke. Apparently no concern about erasing her to promote the fantasy version.

— Richard Herrell (@rkherrell) June 5, 2021

If trans people led the Stonewall uprising…. why didn't Stonewall add the T until 2015?

— Priestess Of Kali (@xxwitchwomanxx) June 4, 2021

The history of America is the history of black trans women.

— A New Radical Centrism (@a_centrism) June 5, 2021

During #pride it is so important that we remember the moon landing of Apollo 11, led by black and trans women. So stunning and brave!

— binge tweeter (@binge_tweeter) June 5, 2021

The Stonewall uprising was led by Black cis and trans women who thirsted for equal rights throughout their lives. #CocaCola

— Leonard Kim (@leokim) June 5, 2021

We have discovered long ago that the trans activists do not let facts get in the way of their agenda.

— HeterodoxOutsider (@HeterodoxOutsi1) June 5, 2021

I HATE when they say shit like this. There ARE photos & arrest records. We know who was there. We also know that there were black gay bars UPTOWN and that the clientele at Stonewall in hasn't changed much since then. I've been there REGULARLY and it's mostly white. 👇

— Tyler Datta 🇺🇲 pronouns = Hail/Hydra (@N3onRobot) June 5, 2021

Women, transgendered people, black people: none of these demographics played a huge role in the Stonewall riots. I'm not saying none were present but they neither made up the majority or the leaders. Gay white men were the majority, like it or not.

— Karen Doe (@thetruthhurt107) June 5, 2021

Lumping every identity category into one big special interest group creates potential single points of failure. For that reason alone, if you care about any of these causes’ resilience, you should resist the push to aggregate.

— Andrew Stern (@android_stern) June 5, 2021

A lot of people are commenting on the flag Shelter used in its tweet. We recently had to look it up: it’s the “progressive” trans flag, with the Pride rainbow but with stripes added to represent the trans community and black and brown people. That thing’s getting crowded.

The flag needs silver and gold to represent the SuperStraight community.

— Ray Giralté (@theRayofToday) June 5, 2021

Wow this is really insane. What kind of flag is that??? It is getting out of control. This flag stands for everyone besides white straight males. Is this group also going to embrace homeless people and people who don’t wan’t to pay rent in the future? I would bet on it… scary.

— Jeremy McDonald the 2nd (@JeremyM23276412) June 5, 2021

https://twitter.com/morgthorak/status/1401265015374684164

I can't take anyone seriously when they post that hideous, nonsensical flag.

— Dave Elliott (@podcastff) June 5, 2021

https://twitter.com/HeatherRoseRya1/status/1401248400511836165

The pride flag gives me vertigo

— @squallstrike gab somee etc (@Squallstrike) June 5, 2021

Someone should ask Barack Obama who started the Stonewall riots; he’s the one who designated the 7.7-acre area the Stonewall National Monument in 2016.

Related:

The 1969 Project? Andrew Sullivan asks if the New York Times has any fact-checkers after its Stonewall piece https://t.co/Pold7MHorY

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 17, 2020