In the early hours of June 28, 1969 patrons of a gay men's bar in Greenwich Village, and their allies in the street, vigorously resisted a routine police raid. The event, which has been described as "the hairpin drop heard around the world," and as one of those "specific sparks that ignites protest," was both timely and inevitable. It came about during an era of cultural and social ferment, and after years of efforts on the part of homosexuals to gain a public voice and legitimate place in U.S. society. The Stonewall Rebellion became a "metaphor for emergence, visibility and pride," one that publicly affirmed the identity of a people burdened with a tradition of invisibility and abuse.

A variety of factors including modernity, changes in cultural and sexual mores, and a politicized environment have been identified as supporting the development of urban homosexual subcultures and subsequently...