The riots helped bring LGBT civil rights into the spotlight. ULABY: Fifty years ago, drag queens like Chuleta Devine revolted when police harassed them at the Stonewall, one of the few places they felt safe. Who had money for mixed drinks? You got a beer for a quarter. This dive bar, she says, is a spiritual home for her LGBT community, and it's gotten fancier since her youth.ĭEVINE: Everything was beer. ULABY: Empress Chuleta Devine is a drag queen. I'm 60 years old, dressing like a drag queen. ULABY: This former teenager now cuts a resplendent figure in a shiny scarlet gown and a towering red wig.ĭEVINE: Who would have figured? I thought I'd be a football star or something. In the 1960s, gay bars like the Stonewall Inn used to be raided by police.ĬHULETA DEVINE: The first time I came into Stonewall, I was 15 years old. It's not an inn it's a bar - dark, grimy, old, dating back to the days when gay people were not allowed to dance together in public or even be served alcohol. NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: You've got to start at the Stonewall Inn. It's a historic celebration of LGBT visibility. World Pride is happening there this weekend. In some neighborhoods, it seems like they're everywhere - on socks, dog leashes, T-shirts.
