The lesbian and gay crowd also freed staff members who had been put into police vans, and the outnumbered officers retreated inside the bar. But this time, when the police began arresting patrons, the customers began pelting them with coins, and later, bottles and rocks. Like all gay bars of the era, it was subject to countless police raids, as LGBT activities and fraternization were still largely illegal.
The Stonewall Inn was made up of two former horse stables which had been renovated into one building in 1930. Police raids of the Stonewall, and other lesbian and gay bars, were a routine practice at the time, with regular payoffs to dirty cops and organized crime figures an expected part of staying in business. On Jin Greenwich Village, New York, the New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a well known gay bar, located on Christopher Street. The riots are considered by many to be the prime catalyst for the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.
The United States Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was formed in the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots.
