Powers & Principalities Behind Stonewall

On the Origins of “Pride Month” and the Tactics of Political Activism

Every June, LGBTQ activists parade around America, celebrating pride in the success they have had at mainstreaming their cultural agenda. But very few of the rest of us seem to know exactly why we are expected to celebrate LGBTQ-ism every June. Knowing the historical context of “Pride Month” will go a long way toward explaining, not only the cultural phenomenon it has become, but how radical cultural and political activism works.

Flashpoint: The Stonewall Uprising

What we now know as “Pride Month” started out as a one-day “Pride March” in June 1970. The first march occurred on the one-year anniversary of a police raid on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City. That raid on a bar frequented by members of the homosexual community spurred a riot in response. And thereafter, the so-called Stonewall Uprising, which had begun as a reaction against harassment – real or perceived, became a symbol of the celebration of gays’ rights to come “out of the closet.”

Fifty years later, the tables have turned. Today, the culture is quick to label and harass anyone who would dare object to any kind of Pride celebration as a radical, homophobic bigot.

How did we get here?

Manipulating History

In his book, A Queer Thing Happened to America, Messianic Jewish apologist Michael Brown opens his analysis of the rise of LGBTQ-ism by uncovering facts about the events of that night in June 1969, as documented by gay author David Eisenbach:

Sometime in early 1969 INTERPOL, the UN-affiliated international police organization, noticed an unusual number of negotiable bonds surfacing in foreign countries and requested that the New York Police Department investigate whether they were counterfeit. Police detectives found that the Mafia had been acquiring large numbers of bonds and blackmailing gay employees of New York banks. From studying police reports on various gay clubs, investigators concluded that the extortion rings were operating in Greenwich Village.[1]

It turns out, the purpose of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn was not to oppress or punish the homosexuals who frequented the bar. It was to break up a multimillion-dollar international criminal enterprise that was exploiting homosexuals.

As the rioting gained traction, police had to lock themselves inside the Stonewall Inn and call for backup to protect themselves from the out-of-control crowd violently assaulting them.

Rules for Radicals

The fact that the motivation for the raid on the Stonewall Inn was the opposite of what it has come to be known for – targeted mistreatment of gays – is appalling but not surprising. It’s the kind of twist by which radical political activists have been making their advances for decades.

In his book, Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky is very specific about the fact that “the first step in community organization is community disorganization”:

The organizer’s first job is to create issues or problems. [Then] through action, persuasion, and communication … make it clear that [community] organization will give the power, the ability, the strength, the force to be able to do something about the particular problem.

And, as Eric Marcus points out, that is exactly what the organizers of the original 1970 Pride March did, and have been doing ever since:

Stonewall was a pivotal event in the LGBTQ civil rights movement, an opportunity seized upon by activists who recognized its potential as both a catalyst and a symbol … they had the creativity and foresight to enshrine Stonewall as a symbol by tying it to an annual event – protest, pride march, festival, picnic, fun run, etc. What I don’t think anyone in 1969 could have imagined was that Stonewall would grow to become an international symbol strong enough that it could be what each of us needs Stonewall to be – whether that’s a symbol of freedom, of an oppressed people fighting back, of hope, or all the above.

As the title of Marcus’s article notes, Stonewall was a “Key Turning Point – Not Starting Point” in the LGBTQ movement.

Results-Oriented History

Certainly, none of the Stonewall rioters could have imagined that 40 years after their temper tantrum, a former “community organizer,” then President of the United States, Barack Obama, would proudly celebrate “the story of the Stonewall protests … when a group of citizens – with few options and fewer supporters – decided they’d had enough and refused to accept a policy of wanton discrimination.”[2]

Yet, in the 50 years since the first Pride March, the fruit of gay political activism is here for all to see. Gallup polls show that attitudes toward the LGBTQ lifestyle have become exponentially more favorable:

Certainly, the exploitation of the Stonewall Uprising cannot alone account for these numbers. But it must be considered a significant factor in the trend, if only because it set a precedent for how LGBTQ activists have responded in the interim. On that standard, the ever-advancing assault on natural sexuality has been a rousing success.

A Christian Response

No intellectually honest person could deny that there have been plenty of examples of LGBTQ individuals who have suffered many forms of harm. Nor could any serious student of the Bible deny that we are called to love our neighbors, regardless of the many ways in which they – and we – may have sinned.

But the origins of Pride Month show us that this contemporary cultural battle is about much more than anyone’s sexual proclivities. At its core, it is a battle about truth and goodness being waged in hearts and minds. It is about powers and principalities of this dark world. If you doubt that, listen to the “organizer” Saul Alinsky again, from the introductory pages of his book, Rules for Radicals:

Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins – or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.

Don’t remain oblivious to the reason the culture celebrates Pride Month, or to how you are being coerced to join in. The powers and principalities behind Pride Month know exactly what they’re doing. So should you.

Notes

[1] Michael L. Brown, A Queer Thing Happened to America, pp. 15-16.

[2] Ibid, 18-19.