40th anniversary of Stonewall
Jun. 28th, 2009 01:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
supergeeHere's my review of a book about it:
Martin B. Duberman has already written an excellent book called Stonewall, but David Carter's new book with the same title offers added insights. Carter believes that Judy Garland's death had little to do with the riots and suggests the original linkage was a het joke. He also offers evidence that the reason for the raid was not so much to make gay people miserable as to crack down on one of the mobsters who ran the club, Ed "The Skull" Murphy, who appears to have been using Stonewall as part of a large and successful operation of entrapping and blackmailing successful closeted gays, one that may have reached even Clyde Tolson, then the FBI’s prince consort.
Martin B. Duberman has already written an excellent book called Stonewall, but David Carter's new book with the same title offers added insights. Carter believes that Judy Garland's death had little to do with the riots and suggests the original linkage was a het joke. He also offers evidence that the reason for the raid was not so much to make gay people miserable as to crack down on one of the mobsters who ran the club, Ed "The Skull" Murphy, who appears to have been using Stonewall as part of a large and successful operation of entrapping and blackmailing successful closeted gays, one that may have reached even Clyde Tolson, then the FBI’s prince consort.
