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← back to comics journalism the lily · 28 june 2019 · 11 panels

I went to the Stonewall Inn expecting history. I found something better.

Reported, written and illustrated by Elizabeth Beier · Art direction by Rachel Orr

A reported visit to the bar where Pride began, fifty years on, where the merchandise is louder than the plaque and the people are the point.

A pale hand with dark magenta nail polish holds up a round drink token against bright blue. The token is lettered June 27th 1969, The Stonewall Inn, good for one drink, happy hours.
A short haired narrator looks up at a large grayscale thought bubble of seven smiling people outside a building with a vertical Stonewall sign. Captions read that on the way to the Stonewall Inn last month she imagined the historic space would match the pictures from the late 1960s, and that the bar is an iconic part of LGBT history.
A magenta bar back hung with handwritten signs advertising fiftieth anniversary shot glasses and souvenir prices for hats, tote bags and T shirts, with a row of souvenir shirts below. The caption says she was dazzled by hundreds of queer flags rather than a black and white time capsule, and that besides the plaque out front the primary connection to history seemed to be the merchandise.
A pie chart on magenta: a thin grey sliver labelled making fun of Trump against an overwhelming blue remainder labelled debating the finale of Game of Thrones. The caption says she expected the patrons to be discussing social justice and the ongoing struggle for equality, but in reality.
The narrator sits at the bar with her chin propped on one hand, a plastic cup of water in front of her, holding up a small white drink token lettered The Stonewall Inn, with other patrons in blue beside her. The caption says at first she felt disappointed by the ordinariness of the bar, that it felt more touristy than magical.
A woman with dark hair in a bun and blue framed sunglasses pushed up on her head, name banner Chris, speaks in a large word balloon about coming here for Stonewall Girls on Thursday nights to play pool. The bespectacled narrator listens at the right. A caption says that as she started talking to people she changed her mind.
A person in a grey baseball cap and blue plaid shirt, name banner Chris, says in a large balloon that it is cool that their dive bar is a place where LGBT people and history buffs come from all over the world, and that people who come here are like family and free to be themselves.
A woman with short pale hair and dark rectangular glasses, name banner Peggy, a general manager of the bar, says in a large balloon that it has been amazing over the last eight years to watch people gather here when gay marriage was legalised, after the Pulse tragedy and after Trump was elected, and that it is a place to gather that feels like home. A footnote bar explains that in 2016 a shooter opened fire at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people and injuring 68 others.
The narrator, seen from behind in a grey tee and blue jeans, rests a hand on the magenta brick facade beside the tall dark double doors of the bar, under a black sign reading The Stonewall Inn. Captions say that as she left she looked again at the big front doors and imagined police coming to seize and arrest people, who were probably also trying to feel at home.
A split image: four faces from the 1960s in grey sketch above, three present day patrons in blue against magenta below, including a smiling woman waving and the bespectacled narrator. A white banner across the middle reads that she visited the Stonewall Inn to glimpse history but what she found was just as powerful, queer people connecting in our imperfect, important present.
On bright blue, a pale hand with magenta nails holds the round Stonewall Inn drink token again. Captions read that so many queer bars have vanished in the twenty first century but Stonewall remains, not frozen in time but evolving and enduring.

Originally published by The Lily. Republished here by the author, who holds the rights. Every panel carries a description for screen readers.

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