Since starting Christopher Street Tours in 2018, I’ve given hundreds of tours to thousands of people from all over the world. Although the tour locations might be the same, each tour is a little bit different. The stops are the same, but the people is what makes each tour unique. Every person brings their own unique perspective, lived experiences, thoughts, and questions. And despite each tour being a bit different, some questions tend to come up again and again. Here are the top three questions I’ve heard most on tour, along with the historical answers behind them.
1. Where does the word ‘Mattachine’ come from?
In referencing the “Mattachine Society,” who led the 1966 Julius’ Sip-In at our first location, Julius’, the first question I usually get is “What does Mattachine mean?” The founder of the Mattachine Society, Harry Hay, was inspired by the French medieval and renaissance masque tradition. These “Société Mattachine” were secret fraternities of unmarried townsmen who performed masked dances and rituals. Sometimes, these unmarried men turned their performances into protests against the aristocracy. Their masks were a practical way to hide their identity during these moments of retaliation. And while gay people didn’t wear physical masks in the same way, Hay felt that homosexuals in the 1950s were similarly masked, metaphorically, needing to “hide” parts of themselves to the larger society. The French organization was named after the Italian theater character, “Mattachino,” a court jester who spoke truth to the king, often wearing colorful costumes and masks. The name stuck, and the Mattachine Society became one of the first sustained gay rights organizations in the U.S.
2. “Who threw the first brick at Stonewall?”
This is probably our most-asked question, and the honest answer is: no one knows! It is often rumored that Marsha P. Johnson, a black transgender activist, was the one to throw the first brick. However, we know from primary sources that she didn’t arrive at Stonewall until later in the evening, when the riots were fully underway. However, while the “first brick” story has become some kind of emblematic symbol for the events that unfolded, it doesn’t really matter who threw the first whatever-it-was. The deeper plot line is knowing that whoever it was was most likely a trans person of color, based on the general demographic of the bar at this time. Sometimes, the Stonewall story is whitewashed, so what’s important to remember is who was there and who was fighting on the frontlines. This is not to undermine Marsha P. Johnson’s individual role at Stonewall and beyond. Johnson was a vital figure in the Gay Liberation Movement, fighting for queer and trans rights essentially her entire life, most notably co-founding STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with friend and fellow trans activist, Sylvia Rivera. Her real legacy, and those who were at Stonewall, are more interesting to me than who threw the first hypothetical brick.
3. “When did ‘gay’ become the popular term for the community?”
When we get to Gay Street, I always joke that unfortunately, there isn’t much gay history on Gay Street. The street itself was named in 1827 after wealthy land owners who had a lot of land in the area. Records indicate the owner was a Mr. R. Gay. However, the word “gay” as we know it has changed significantly over time. As early as the 12th century, the word “gay” originally meant joyful or carefree. By the 1600s, it began to suggest a lack of restraint or morality, with terms like “gay woman” referring to sex workers. In 1951, the Oxford dictionary included the word “gay” as slang for homosexual, although its use in this meaning was most likely used at least 30 years earlier within the LGBTQ+ community. For example, in the 1938 film, Bringing Up Baby, Cary Grant ad-libbed a line when wearing a feathery pink robe, “…I just went gay!” It could be interpreted as a lighthearted or carefree statement, but it’s seen by many as the first use of gay to mean homosexual in a mainstream movie.
Today, “gay” is widely accepted by and within the LGBTQ+ community.
To learn more about LGBTQ+ history, join us on a Village Pride walking tour!
