Movements and Memory: The Making of the Stonewall Myth

Abstract

This article examines why the Stonewall riots became central to gay collective memory while other events did not. It does so through a comparative-historical analysis of Stonewall and four events similar to it that occurred in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York in the 1960s. The Stonewall riots were remembered because they were the first to meet two conditions: activists considered the event commemorable and had the mnemonic capacity to create a commemorative vehicle. That this conjuncture occurred in New York in 1969, and not earlier or elsewhere, was a result of complex political developments that converged in this time and place. The success of the national commemorative ritual planned by New York activists depended on its resonance, not only in New York but also in other U.S. cities. Gay community members found Stonewall commemorable and the proposed parade an appealing form for commemoration. The parade was amenable to institutionalization, leading it to survive over time and spread around the world. The Stonewall story is thus an achievement of gay liberation rather than an account of its origins.

Social Changes and the Generational Differences in the Formation of Collective Memories (Dissertation, 2012)

“…Therefore, rather than adopting the instrumentalist or radically presentist approach, many authors today consider its insights, but also examine how the past is non-strategically interpreted from the present perspective and what are factors that constrain or limit malleability of the past (Olick and Robbins 1998;Olick 2003a). In this, they examine the role of the state and non-state memory entrepreneurs (Fine 1996;Armstrong and Crage 2006). …”

“…In addition, events that are forcefully silenced (in totalitarian societies, for example) may also gather emotional salience that makes them memorable (Pennebaker and Banasik 1997) and they are likely to be institutionalized after silence is broken (Wertsch 2002). The events that are dramatic are also more forceful rhetorically, and thus more commemorable (Schudson 1989a(Schudson , 1992, as exemplified by dramatic nature of the Stonewall riots which also contributed to their institutionalization (Armstrong and Crage 2006). The commemorability of a cultural object may be affected by Griswold's (1987a) "cultural power" -by its ability to evoke diverging interpretations while sustaining an underlying consensus about its meanings.…”

“…Likewise, memories will be more successful if presented in credible or resonant forms (Schudson 1989a;Fine 1996). Persistence of memories is also enabled by their institutional retention (Schudson 1989a;Assmann 1995), and the more momentous or dramatic events or figures will more likely be institutionalized (Pennebaker and Banasik 1997;Schudson 1989aSchudson , 1992Armstrong and Crage 2006). However, presentations that are part of the living memory might also prove resistant to reinterpretations, at least for a while (Schudson 1992).…”

“…Therefore, non-elite stakeholders sponsoring that event were able to compete with political elites by mobilizing their "mnemonic capacities" at an opportune historical moment (Armstrong and Crage 2006), which allowed them to successfully institutionalize their marginalized perspective on Yugoslavia, and make it a part of the newspaper production of collective memories. Indeed, these developments illustrate well how certain images of the past persist, while others fail.…”

“…Primarily, both history education and journalistic uses of the past have a strong potential to privilege perspectives of political elites or of groups who have skills, resources and a favorable environment to use these "high mnemonic capacities" (Armstrong and Crage 2006) to gain access into the educational discourse or the mainstream media. In authoritarian contexts, the dominant role of the ruling political elites is a given -they can abuse their power to control both history education and the mainstream media and impose their narrative of the past through these channels.…”