5 Pre-Stonewall Events That Shaped The LGBT Community: Trailblazers

From: NewNowNext

 Cooper’s Do-nuts Riot

1959

A full decade before Stonewall, LGBT people in Los Angeles were also being persecuted by the police.

A group of drag queens and hustlers hanging out at the shop—a 24-hour hangout popular with queers, Latinos and other marginalized groups—clashed with the LAPD, who made stopping “sex perversion” their Number One priority under the leadership of police chief William H. Parker. (After Parker became chief in 1950, arrests for homosexuality increased 86.5%.)

Cops would routinely raid Cooper’s and demand to see patrons’ I.D. If the gender on their identification didn't match how they were presenting, they would be thrown in jail as a matter of course.

But one night in May 1959, something different happened:

Two cops entered the donut shop that night, ostensibly checking ID, and arbitrarily picked up two hustlers, two queens, and a young man just cruising and led them out. As the cops packed the back of the squad car, one of the men objected, shouting that the car was illegally crowded. While the two cops switched around to force him in, the others scattered out of the car.

From the donut shop, everyone poured out. The crowd was fed up with the police harassment and on this night they fought back, hurling donuts, coffee cups and trash at the police. The police, facing this barrage of [pastries] and porcelain, fled into their car calling for backup.

Soon, the street was bustling with disobedience. People spilled out in to the streets, dancing on cars, lighting fires, and generally reeking havoc. The police return with backup and a number of rioters are beaten and arrested. They also closed the street off for a day.

The riot ended as quickly as it began, but America learned that the LGBT community would not always cower in fear.