Sociopolitical Antecedents to Stonewall: Analysis of the Origins of the Gay Rights Movement in the United States

Abstract

The 1969 Stonewall riot in New York City is widely celebrated as the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. However, the social changes that followed were possible only because of a decades-long indigenous organization. This article examines three traditional organizational theories on social action movements and applies Aldon Morris's analytical framework for understanding collective social action to the emergence of the modern U.S. gay civil rights movement. The author concludes that social workers need to understand how to gain access to and support indigenous social structures to assist oppressed groups to bring about social change.