July 04, 2009
Next week marks the 30th anniversary of Disco Demolition night, (wp), while last week marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn Riots. The first has dynamite, marijuana, Rusty Staub, huns storming the gates with ladders and whiskey bottles, and in the end disco group Chic invoking Godwin's Law. The latter has drag queens, the Mafia, cops on the take, Allen Ginsberg, a Howdy Doody show parody, and is regarded as the "defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world." Both are gonzo wonderful in a way no fiction writer could choose to invent.
(The Stonewall Inn is clearly far more important than Disco Demolition, and I'm not trying to diminish it -- just that this straight boy had never read about and and suspect others might not have either. Also, Stonewall veteran Jim Fouratt's appearance on the Colbert Report is one of the best I've seen.)
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