Inside Stonewall

I promised my friend I'll tell her all about my Stonewall adventures when I was in New York early this year, but I will be reserving that a bit since that's next week's theme for the Philippine Online Chronicles' Pinoy LGBT channel.

[EDIT: The article at POC that accompanies this post is already up entitled Touching Stonewall, touching history. Check it out!]

Yes, this is the gig I've been hinting at for two weeks now. This is it! sabi nga ni Michael Jackson. I learned of a friend handling the editorial gig for this channel and I volunteered to become part of it. Check it out. I write two weekly articles there, one in English and one in Filipino. Feel free to comment and repost/tweet-retweet/share with your networks. Also, please read all the articles in the channel as they present different perspectives and use different voices to tell LGBT stories. Wokei?

But back to Stonewall. I decided to share my photos of the place instead of writing about it here in my blog. And here it is. Most photos are mine while those shots where I am also included are taken by my friend Cenon.

Please don't just grab the photos without permission as the copyright is mine and his. Email me for permission first (leaflens@gmail.com) and we'll discuss those things, okay? Please be professional. Some people have grabbed my photos na kasi before and used them in their own blog posts so I have to warn you guys again to please avoid plagiarizing my material.

Anyway, photo essay na nga lang ang dating nito. Here goes:

Across the street from Stonewall Inn is Christopher Park.
Inside is the Gay Liberation Monument. Ito 'yun: a gay and
lesbian couple stone monument. Excuse the American Museum of
Natural History goody bag; kaka-geek out lang namin ni Cenon
diyan kasi before coming here again.

The Gay Liberation Monument inside
Christopher Park marking the
June 1969 Stonewall Riots. Asteeg.
Dedma sa shadow ko.

So kapag tinawid mo ang Christopher Park
crossing Christopher Street, you head
towards Stonewall Inn na.

This is the second floor area. That exit passageway there
is also the entrance to this rectangular lounge.
I am seated at the end of this long and obviously
old bench seat with some ottoman-like stools
in front of us. Directly parallel to this seat
is the bar on the second floor.

There's that bar. And there's me taking a shot
of my two friends as they answered their Oscar ballot.
I was still enjoying the moment. I can't believe
I'm inside Stonewall!!!

This is the staircase from the ground floor
to the second floor. May taas pa pala ito.
Didn't take photos of the ground floor because
it was too dark. There's a pool table
and a bar and TV, ganun lang.

Oh man, this is cool. Paakyat sa metal stairway ay tatambad sa iyo
ang ilang posters sa walls of their history. Isa ito, from the
Mattachine Society warning hehe. Galeng!

Oh man, I love this. A poster of The Advocate magazine
special when Harvey Milk was murdered.

More posters. Classic old ones.

More posters. Contemporary ones.

Same location and shot angle as the one above, but this time,
the party has started. The two hosts of the evening
took to the stage whenever the Oscars went to commercial.
They threw film trivia and you can win a free cocktail drink
if you can answer one question correctly.

My Oscar ballot.

Indeed.

Galeng 'no? Grabe, the birthplace of LGBT Pride. Bakit nga pala may Oscars? Kasi Academy Awards night 'yan, first Sunday of March when I was there in New York.

So there. Iyan na lang muna ang kontribusyon ko sa pagbati sa buong sangka-LGBT/queer-han ng HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!!!!! Sabi nga namin sa UP Sappho Society noon, FEEL NO SHAME FOR WHAT YOU ARE! Word up.