When The Commission on Human Rights ruled that gay individuals had the right to be served in bars, police raids were temporarily reduced. In 1966, three years before Stonewall, members of The Mattachine Society, an organization dedicated to gay rights, staged a “sip-in” where they openly declared their sexuality at taverns, daring staff to turn them away and suing establishments who did. America’s first lesbian rights organization, The Daughters of Bilitis, was formed in San Francisco on September 21, 1955. Police raids forced them to disband in 1925, but not before they had published several issues of their newsletter, “Friendship and Freedom,” the country’s first gay-interest newsletter. gay rights organization, The Society for Human Rights (SHR), was founded in 1924 by Henry Gerber, a German immigrant. But engaging in gay behavior in public (holding hands, kissing or dancing with someone of the same sex) was still illegal, so police harassment of gay bars continued and many bars still operated without liquor licenses-in part because they were owned by the Mafia. Thanks to activists’ efforts, these regulations were overturned in 1966, and LGBT patrons could then be served alcohol. How the Stonewall Riots Sparked a Movement
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