some individuals who are often credited with instigating the riots, leading the riots, sylvia rivera, maher shifty johnson, there are still conflicting accounts of if they were there, whether they were there. marcia johnson, in many accounts, explain that she was not there in the riots started but got there sometime later. she played an important role that night, other people of color certainly did, trans people did, but she may not have been there when the riots started. >> hi good morning. thanks for c-span. i was 20 years old. i grew up in long island, i was hitched down and going to the barr's, julius was the other bar. all mafia run. strange to me, being sort of a macho kind of college student, wearing square, weightlifter, you know young. but the stonewall wasn't amazing place. i would go in early in the evening, before we went down towards the river, towards the new bar danny's, which i hadn't heard mentioned. i went in about 10:00 of the evening into the stonewall. it seemed all right, normal, early in the evening. then i walked down to danny's. when i came back, maybe two hou

some individuals that are often credited with instigating the riots, sylvia rivera, marshall johnson, stormy, there are still conflicting accounts about on when they were there. marsha p. johnson explains she was not there when the riots started, but she got there sometime later. if we take her at her word, she played an important role that night, and certainly other people of color did, trans people did, but she may not have been there when the riots started. >> >> let's go to dave. >> >> good morning. thank you for c-span. i was 20 years old. grew up on long island. i was a college student upstate. i would hitch down and go to the bars. julius was the other bar. all mafia run. strange to me being a macho college student, weightlifter, young, but boy the stonewall was an amazing place. i would go in early in the evening before we went down christopher street way down towards the river towards danny's. i went in at about 10:00 in the evening to the stonewall. i would just walk through. it seemed all right.this seems normal early in the evening. then i would walk down to danny's. when

some individuals who are often credited with instigating the riots, leading the riots, sylvia rivera,arcia p. johnson, stormy delovery, there are still conflicting accounts about whether they were there. mar sha p. johnson explained she wasn't there when the riots started but got there sometime later. if we take her at her word, yes, she played an important role that night and certainly other people of color did, transpeople did, but she may not have been there right when the riots started. >> dave in new york city. good morning. >> caller: hi, good morning. thanks. i was 20 years old, and, you know, come down, grew up on long slooinld, i was a college student upstate. i would hitch downtown. julius was the other bar. all mafia run. strange to me sort of being a macho kind of college student wearing square, weight lifter, wearing lacrosse shirts. but boy, the stonewall was an amazing place. i would go in early in the evening before we went down christopher street, way down towards the river, towards the new bar, danny's, which i hadn't heard mentioned. so i went in at about 10:00 in t

johnson, sylvia rivera were comfortable referring to themselves as both gay and transvestites.hey didn't see those things as necessarily in opposition or as mutually exclusive. >> to our viewers or listeners tuning in, we are looking back 50 years ago at the stonewall riots, a turning point for the gay and lesbian community, and our guest from greenwich village, new york, is marc steen. he's the author of a new book that looks back at what happened 50 years ago. and we've been talking about new york city police officers, the politician commissioner james ha o'neill onndle twitter with the apology for the way officers 50 years ago handled the situation. >> i think it would be irresponsible of me as we go through world pride month not to speak of the events at the etend stonewall inn in june of 1969.ik well, i'm certainly not going ta stand up here and pretend to bei an expert on what happened at stonewall. i do know what happened should not have happened. the actionsns taken by the nypdr were wrong, plain and simple. the actions and the laws were [ discriminatory and oppressive,