Another historic NYC gay bar, the site of a 1960s queer
Under the guise of New York State’s liquor laws that barred “disorderly” premises, the State Liquor Authority and the New York Police Department regularly raided bars that catered to gay. These businesses were targeted both by the police and by organized crime. Some bar owners paid bribes to both entities; the famed Stonewall Inn was reputedly owned by members of the New York mafia. Julius Sip In
After many LGBT personnel were discharged from military service during World War II, the Quaker Emergency Committee of New York City opens the first social welfare agency for gay people, serving young people arrested on same-sex charges. The Stonewall Inn was controlled by the Genovese crime family. It was an unlikely partnership. 
LGBTQ rights in New York
The Mattachine Society’s “Sip-In” at the gay bar Julius’ sought to bring media attention to this kind of discrimination. This curated collection features gay and lesbian bars and clubs in New York City that were raided by the police or shut down (or were attempted to be) by the likes of the SLA, moral reformers, and others. Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
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Julius' Bar. West 10th Street façade Photograph by Christopher D. Brazee, courtesy of New York State Historic Preservation Office Before the Stonewall Riots, there was the Julius’ Bar “Sip-In” During the s, bars in New York City often refused service to LGB patrons, under the threat of raids by the New York Police Department. New York’s State Licensing Agency, the entity that. Gift of The Estate of Fred W. Before Julius', the Mattachine Society members tried three other locations.
Liquor Control Law and Policy
California’s state legislature then drafted new laws that allowed for the revocation of liquor licenses in places that were the resort of “prostitutes, pimps, panderers, or sexual perverts.” Despite Stoumen, the laws would be used to harass and close gay bars until these laws were declared unconstitutional, in That year, Vallegra v. In the 19th and 20th centuries, gay and lesbian bars and clubs were subject to various oppressive forms of social control. At first, there were the police and religiously-affiliated individuals and groups, such as the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice that dictated morality and raided bars and clubs. 
Julius’
33 0 Julius’ Bar in NYC, the country’s oldest gay bar and location of an iconic queer rights protest in , is now legally cemented landmark of LGBTQ+ history. For years, New York’s bars were not only encouraged but legally required to turn away explicitly gay patrons as “disorderly” under a New York State Liquor Authority rule. .
Gay Bars and Gay Rights
In the s, some gay bars challenged this in court, but were unsuccessful, and unfortunately anti-gay policing around the country intensified in the 40's and especially the 50's, when Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed that homosexuals in the State Department threatened national security. . Timeline of LGBTQ history in New York City
LIQUOR CONTROL LAW AND POLICYGay bars and saloons became popular gathering places, more for gay men than for lesbians, as early as the s. In large cities like New York these gathering places flourished even during Prohibition. The repeal of Prohibition in , however, brought with it closer scrutiny of public bars to guarantee that patrons were orderly and that establishments did not. .