Boston activist shares how Stonewall Riots 55 years ago sparked Pride movement

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Boston activist and Jamaica Plain resident Dale Mitchell was at the historic Stonewall Riots in New York City on June 28th, 1969, nearly 55 years ago.

He sat down with Boston 25 News Reporter Drew Karedes to share how his advocacy still lives on here in Massachusetts.

“I’m obviously gay. I’ve never been able to hide it,” Mitchell said, admitting it has not always been easy.

He says, 5 years after coming out to his friends as a teenager, he came out to his parents while in college.

“My parents told me that I either accepted a psychiatric cure, or else that they would stop paying for my college education and I would be drafted and sent to Vietnam,” Mitchell recalled.

Estranged from his parents, Mitchell moved to Greenwich Village in New York City, just a few blocks away from the Stonewall Inn. He says he was there on that fateful night nearly 55 years ago, as the queer community fought back against oppression from frequent police raids.

“I’d never seen that many gay people all in one place, being very angry and standing up to the cops,” Mitchell said.

The rebellion lasted for several nights, helping to propel and transform the modern LGBTQ rights movement. It left a legacy in politics, policing and personal lives.

“We had no idea what the historical ramifications would be,” Mitchell said.

Four years after the Stonewall Riots, Mitchell decided it was time for a change and moved to Phillip Street in Boston’s Beacon Hill. He describes the north slope of the hill as the first gay neighborhood in Boston.

“There was a sense of community which previously did not exist in, in Boston or most other American cities for, gay people.”

Boston made an instant impression on Mitchell, he says, and he’s used his voice over the decades to give back, dedicating his career to the lives and visibility of LGBTQ older adults.

“We have probably the richest array of LGBT-friendly aging services of anywhere in the country. Boston is a great community to be LGBT,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell says Massachusetts has a lot to be proud of this Pride Month, but he believes the fight isn’t over. The ACLU is tracking more than 500 anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures across the country.

“We tend to assume that what has been achieved will never be taken away, can never be taken away. That, of course, is a great fallacy,” Mitchell concluded.

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