Throughout history, but especially most recently in
history, homosexual, transgender, and drag individuals have been outcasted and
mistreated by mainstream society. Because
of this discrimination, many members of the LGBTQ Community felt threatened and
began to seek comfort amongst themselves.
These individuals also began to stand together to show that they too had
rights and were indeed citizens of the United States that were protected under
the Constitution of the United States of America. One of the earliest significant riots for
gay, lesbian, transgender, and drag rights came in May of 1959 in Los Angeles,
California, at a local donut shop called Cooper’s Donuts.
The riot
was sparked by unrest among the LGBTQ Community in relation to police tendencies
in the area. The Los Angeles Police
Department or LAPD was notorious for arresting individuals based solely on
their sexual orientation. More often
than not, these individuals did little more than walking down the street being
their true selves. The area surrounding
Cooper’s, pictured below, was well-known as a heavily gay community, often
called the “gay ghetto.” Due to these
ridiculous arrests, targeting by police officers and senseless raids of local
bars and restaurants, the gay community at Cooper’s had turned to violence when
three of their fellow community members were placed under arrest.
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| Cooper’s Donuts Shop, circa 1950s. Image courtesy of Spy Hollywood. |
John
Rechy, one of the three that was targeted on this night in May of 1959, is now
a novelist that has written about his experiences in this rough period of
history in Los Angeles. As he and two
other fellow members of the gay community were placed under arrest in front of
Cooper’s Donuts, the customers of Cooper’s had had enough. The patrons began to throw their products at
the police officers in protest of the arrests and ridiculous accusations of not
following the law. Police officers were
pelted with donuts, coffee, and paper plates by the individuals in the
shop. The attack eventually became too
much for the few police officers present and they were forced to leave the
scene. John Rechy was able to flee the
area and avoid arrest shortly after the police officers left. However, soon the LAPD returned and in far
greater numbers. The patrons of Cooper’s
Donuts and the gay community refused to back down and chose to pursue justice
for their fellow community members as they instigated an even larger protest
that would shut down the main road for a whole day.
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In
the 20th Century, many riots for gay rights have ensued to help
those individuals that identify as homosexual, transgender, and drag maintain
the rights that are guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States of
America. However, the Cooper’s Donut
Riots are extremely important to the rest of these riots. This particular riot is considered to be the
first major riot for gay rights in modern history. These riots may not have been the most
violent in nature but certainly these riots raised the questions of why are
some people guaranteed rights and not others?
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These
events can be viewed in several different lenses. One of these lenses is the Catholic view of
the riots and the bigger issue of gay rights.
Despite the common belief, Catholics are not necessarily against gay
persons. Rather, Catholics are against
the marriage aspect of the community.
However, the document Gaudium et spes sheds a far different light
than what is commonly thought of as the Catholic view. The document states in a portion of the piece
that the governing body is responsible for good of all citizens. I feel that this is a striking point as these
riots are a result of a government that did not live up to these standards.
You can learn more about these riots and other
struggles surrounding gay rights by clicking The
Pridela and C
Donuts.
In the middle of the 20th Century most of the U.S. was concerned with civil rights protests among black Americans. However, it was surprising to read that in the midst of the civil rights movement the gay rights movement was also beginning to take shape. The Cooper's Donuts Riot shed light on the discrimination based on sexual orientation not racial discrimination. The parallels of mistreatment by mainstream society against the LBGT community and the black community showcases the discrimination by people that are perceived different from them, and that all people are created equal under the U.S. Constitution. According to the Gaudium et Spes, citizens have the right to protest against abuse of authority for the common good of the citizens. The church does not oppose sexual inclination because they do not consider sexual orientation a sin. Therefore, homosexuals should be treated the same as others are treated. This ties to my blog on the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike because both of these protests were about discrimination and equal treatment of citizens. The Cooper Donuts were a protest against sexual orientation discrimination by the LAPD and the Memphis Sanitation Strike was discrimination against black workers and their unfair treatment by the city of Memphis. Both protested to stand up for their basic rights and humane treatment by government authorities.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post was interesting to read. I was never aware of the deep-rooted systematic percussion of the individuals mentioned in the post prior to reading it. The strides made toward equality for not just those of different races, but also of different sexual ideologies is something that tends to go greatly unnoticed. In this post, I would have liked to read more on the police tendencies in regard to their attitudes or actions with the members of the named “gay ghetto”, what were the trumped-up charges presented against those arrested. Overall the piece was an interesting and unique perspective in drawing attention to the cause for equal treatment of those who do not share the same sexual preferences as some would view as commonly accepted by the mainstream audience as a whole, especially for that time period.
ReplyDelete