Records, Riots, and Rights

The Stonewall Uprising is generally known as a series of riots that demanded a stop to persecution of members of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as the beginning of a larger-scale movement in support of LGBTQ+ rights, and a predecessor of the June “Pride” celebrations we see today. 

Until the first uprising began in late June of 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in New York City, it was common for law enforcement to conduct raids on gay bars and nightclubs and arrest patrons. In the hot, steamy early morning hours of June 28, 1969, in protest of rough treatment and violence toward clientele during a raid, Stonewall patrons and members of the surrounding neighborhood resisted law enforcement and began a series of protests and resistance actions that would last six days.

As it turns out, the Stonewall Uprising was not the only historical event that occurred on June 28, 1969. On the first day of the uprising, recollected by many as being dominated by oppressive heat and humidity, record-high temperatures were set across many locations in New York City, including some that still stand to this day.

Oppressive Heat in New York City

The day the Stonewall riots began, temperatures rose rapidly across the Eastern U.S. Despite a generally cooler-than-normal June, a strong high pressure system moved over the Southeast, setting record temperatures there during the last week of June 1969. The strong high persisted and amplified over the East Coast, eventually resulting in record-breaking heat in much of the Northeast, including many sites in New York City, in the final few days of June. The heat peaked in the area on June 28, the same day of the initial raid of the Stonewall Inn and the start of the Stonewall Uprising.

Central Park

The daily record high temperature of 96°F was set in Central Park on June 28, 1969, one of the closest observation sites to the Stonewall Inn, which is on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. That record was later tied in 1991, but 1969 remains tied for hottest June 28 on record in Central Park to this day. NCEI maintains the physical paper daily weather log for June 28, 1969 in its archive, and the Central Park data record extends back to 1869.

N.Y. Ave V Brooklyn

Another location in NYC to the south of the Stonewall Inn site in Brooklyn, N.Y. Ave V, also hit a record daily high temperature on June 28, 1969, as documented in the monthly weather log that also remains in NCEI’s archive. That record was tied in 1991, but not exceeded.

LaGuardia

LaGuardia Airport (LGA) was the closest airport site to the Stonewall Inn, and hit its second-highest daily maximum temperature (at the time) for June 28 in 1969. The daily weather log for LGA, also found in NCEI’s archive, shows that the maximum daily temperature of 94 on June 28, 1969 is now tied for the fifth-hottest daily maximum temperature for June 28, remaining squarely in the top-10 hottest rankings for the date at LGA.

Rights and Records

June 28, 1969 is known as the day temperatures and tensions reached a breaking point, both environmentally and in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. 

The Stonewall Uprising lives on as a beacon that memorializes the broadening of what we today know as the “Pride” movement that would eventually lead to the decriminalization of “same-sex actions” and a quick proliferation of groups supporting LGBTQ+ rights across the U.S. 

Recently, in acknowledgment of the significance of the Uprising, the Department of the Interior designated the site of the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street as a National Monument on June 24, 2016.
 

In the words of Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transgender woman, leader of the uprising at Stonewall and fierce advocate for gay, lesbian, and transgender rights, “History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable. It happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.”