By Denny Patterson

For more than a decade, Stacy Lentz has been an influential advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, notably playing a pivotal role in the restoration and revitalization of New York City’s historic Stonewall Inn. This June marks 55 years since the site’s 1969 riots, which many view as the start of the gay rights movement.  

Now a co-owner of the bar, Lentz continues to enhance the well-being of the queer community and strive for equality. She actively engages in organizing events and fundraisers for prominent LGBTQ+ organizations like GLAAD, Marriage Equality USA, Lambda Legal, and the Human Rights Campaign, and she regularly collaborates with Heritage of Pride to coordinate some of the largest events during NYC’s annual Pride Week. 

Additionally, along with Stonewall’s fellow co-owners, they are expanding the bar’s legacy through its official and only nonprofit, The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative (SIGBI). Its mission is to provide educational and financial assistance to grassroots organizations across the country working to eliminate the social intolerance that is impacting the lives of LGBTQ+ citizens. 

OutClique recently caught up with Lentz to talk more about Stonewall, her activism, and more. 

Denny Patterson: This June will mark 55 years since Stonewall’s historic uprising. How significant would you say that is?

Stacy Lentz: I think it’s very, very historic, and I think it’s time for us to remember how far we’ve come but also how far we have yet to go. Especially with this year being an election year. With all these crazy bills at the state level and the attacks against our community, especially towards our trans and nonbinary members, it’s important to remember what our ancestors did to get us to this moment and how much further we still have to go to ensure global equality. 

Denny Patterson: What has it personally meant to you to be one of the bar’s co-owners?

Stacy Lentz: I grew up in the middle of America in the very conservative state of Kansas in the middle of a cornfield. So, to have the opportunity to be responsible and kind of be an innkeeper of history for this iconic space has been a dream come true, but there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with it. It’s the first ever LGBTQ national monument, so there’s a huge undertaking in making sure everyone that walks into that bar feels welcome and safe. 

Denny Patterson: You are continuing to help expand Stonewall’s legacy through its official and only nonprofit organization, The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative (SIGBI). Can you talk more about that and its overall mission?

Stacy Lentz: My business partners, Kurt Kelly, Bill Morgan, Tony DeCicco, and Bob Kelly, and I founded SIGBI back in 2017 because we saw an opportunity as a lot of brands and corporations were approaching us going into Stonewall’s 50th in 2019. We had this opportunity to truly make an impact for our community by forming our own nonprofit and taking money from these corporations and brands and spreading it to grassroots organizations all over the globe. It’s been terrific for us, and for myself, understanding my white privilege, my cis privilege, my geographic privilege, and having Stonewall platform privilege, it was super important that we funded grassroots activists in some of the most marginalized areas. We have funded folks in Iraq with IraQueer, we funded people on the ground in Uganda through an organization called SMUG, and here in the U.S., we’re doing a ton in the South and Midwest where it’s still tough to be LGBTQ+ in 2024. We’ve raised close to almost two million dollars, and we’re super proud of that. Additionally, we have a safe space certification program, where businesses, bars, restaurants, and brands that say they’re on the side of equality can actually demonstrate they are being by becoming a Stonewall Inn certified safe space. We worked with six different organizations in areas where it was tough to be LGBTQ+, and we asked two simple questions: What makes a safe space to you, and what do you want to see businesses and brands doing that are trying to market to our community? We worked with a Black and trans-led organization in Alabama because if the most marginalized feel safe among us, then we’re all safe, and we also worked with an immigrant-led organization on the Mexico/Texas border in El Paso. 

Denny Patterson: Do you ever feel like the history of Stonewall is kind of lost on today’s generation?

Stacy Lentz: At times, yes. I sometimes feel like the younger generation does not understand what a lot of folks did to get their rights. At the same time, I also see the younger generation really stepping up and doing some incredible things as well. I think it’s going to depend on that particular person, but I think the younger generation does need to remember, especially for LGBTQ+ rights, that it wasn’t long ago when you couldn’t walk down the street holding hands. In 1969, you could be refused a drink in a public bar or arrested for wearing articles of clothing that didn’t match your gender. People need to remember how far we’ve come, and I want to remind them, again, that our future can be taken away at any turning point, especially in today’s age. The younger generation needs to pick up the torch and help us carry on Stonewall’s legacy.

Denny Patterson: How can allies help support the LGBTQ+ community, not just in June, but all year round? 

Stacy Lentz: Yeah, I think there are ways to do that, and it doesn’t even need to be financially. Support a LGBTQ+ nonprofit, whether that’s through donations, signing petitions, or amplifying the work they’re doing on the ground. I think that’s super important, especially in places where it’s tough to be LGBTQ+ in 2024. Also, and this is the biggest thing you can do, just vote. Not just at a presidential level, but all the way down to a school board level. Local elections sometimes have the biggest impact. It’s harder to get bills passed at a federal level, but it’s pretty easy for a school board to ban certain books written by LGBTQ+ folks. Don’t vote against your friends, family, or people that you say you care about. 

Denny Patterson: When did you begin to dedicate yourself to issues of equality and improving the lives of the LGBTQ+ community? Has this always been a passion of yours?

Stacy Lentz: It’s always been a huge passion of mine, and obviously, buying into part of Stonewall has legitimized that passion. Like I said, I grew up in the middle of a cornfield in Kansas, and when I was living in D.C. in 1994, I came home one time, and somebody was murdered 45 minutes away from where I lived. It was all over the news, and that person was Brandon Teena. You know, the story based on Boy’s Don’t Cry. I was 24 years old and thinking about coming out, but I learned quickly that they literally kill you if you come out. More horrifically, I was hearing people in town saying he deserved to be killed and he lied about who he was. It was awful, and I never wanted anyone to ever go through that again. That’s really when my activism kind of started, and I’ve been very blessed to do it for decades.

For the latest news and updates about Stonewall, follow @stonewallinn or visit TheStonewallInnNYC.com. Learn more about SIGBI by visiting StonewallInitiative.org.