Quick Stonewall History Lesson:
There were 2 Stonewall's in a way.
The first happened a week before the one that is commemorated.
The cops, as was their practice, raided the bar. But in those days there were two sets of raiding parties. One was the local precinct and the other was the division office (or whatever it was called). These raids were not coordinated and happened independently (which is important).
When the first raid occured there were gay cops in the bar. The door was shut on the cops to give the other cops time to get out. The man who shut the door was the great photographer Alvin Baltrop (his work is currently on display at Exit Art. He was one of my best friends and I miss him dearly).
The shutting of the door was not appreciated. The division office decided to do a second raid the following week. A second raid in a week did not go down well, and the rest is history.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister