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Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. He said, "Okay, let's go." Doric Wilson:And we were about 100, 120 people and there were people lining the sidewalks ahead of us to watch us go by, gay people, mainly. Available via license: Content may be subject to . It was the only time I was in a gladiatorial sport that I stood up in. But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. Just let's see if they can. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." And that's what it was, it was a war. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. [00:00:58] Well, this I mean, this is a part of my own history in this weird, inchoate sense. Doug Cramer This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. View in iTunes. And I ran into Howard Smith on the street,The Village Voicewas right there. Almost anything you could name. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. We knew that this was a moment that we didn't want to let slip past, because it was something that we could use to bring more of the groups together. And it was fantastic. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:There were all these articles in likeLife Magazineabout how the Village was liberal and people that were called homosexuals went there. But I'm wearing this police thing I'm thinking well if they break through I better take it off really quickly but they're gunna come this way and we're going to be backing up and -- who knows what'll happen. And I had become very radicalized in that time. Danny Garvin:It was the perfect time to be in the Village. What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." For the first time, we weren't letting ourselves be carted off to jails, gay people were actually fighting back just the way people in the peace movement fought back. Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. Slate:Activity Group Therapy (1950), Columbia University Educational Films. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. Alexandra Meryash Nikolchev, On-Line Editors Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. John O'Brien:Our goal was to hurt those police. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. Revealing and, by turns, humorous and horrifying, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotional and political spark of today's gay rights movement - the events that . And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a man during a confrontation in Greenwich Village after a Gay Power march in New York. Don't fire until I fire. So gay people were being strangled, shot, thrown in the river, blackmailed, fired from jobs. People that were involved in it like me referred to it as "The First Run." The Chicago riots, the Human Be-in, the dope smoking, the hippies. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. Eric Marcus, Recreation Still Photography Dana Gaiser Jimmy hadn't enjoyed himself so much in a long time. As kids, we played King Kong. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. Danny Garvin:We had thought of women's rights, we had thought of black rights, all kinds of human rights, but we never thought of gay rights, and whenever we got kicked out of a bar before, we never came together. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:All throughout the 60s in New York City, the period when the New York World's Fair was attracting visitors from all over America and all over the world. Fred Sargeant:Three articles of clothing had to be of your gender or you would be in violation of that law. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. I was proud. It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. These homosexuals glorify unnatural sex acts. This Restored Documentary Examines What LGBTQ Lives Were Like Before I said, "I can go in with you?" The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. For the first time the next person stood up. Mike Nuget Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. Virginia Apuzzo:What we felt in isolation was a growing sense of outrage and fury particularly because we looked around and saw so many avenues of rebellion. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:The Stonewall, they didn't have a liquor license and they were raided by the cops regularly and there were pay-offs to the cops, it was awful. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives It eats you up inside. We were thinking about survival. Revisiting 'Before Stonewall' Film for the 50th Anniversary | Time So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. Raymond Castro:You could hear screaming outside, a lot of noise from the protesters and it was a good sound. Doric Wilson Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. Ellen Goosenberg This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. John DiGiacomo The windows were always cloaked. And it was those loudest people, the most vulnerable, the most likely to be arrested, were the ones that were doing the real fighting. If anybody should find out I was gay and would tell my mother, who was in a wheelchair, it would have broken my heart and she would have thought she did something wrong. Cause I was from the streets. It was right in the center of where we all were. And the rest of your life will be a living hell. And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. A sickness of the mind. Ellinor Mitchell Yvonne Ritter:I did try to get out of the bar and I thought that there might be a way out through one of the bathrooms. So in every gay pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. But the before section, I really wanted people to have a sense of what it felt like to be gay, lesbian, transgender, before Stonewall and before you have this mass civil rights movement that comes after Stonewall. Not even us. ABCNEWS VideoSource Louis Mandelbaum Before Stonewall | Apple TV Martha Shelley:If you were in a small town somewhere, everybody knew you and everybody knew what you did and you couldn't have a relationship with a member of your own sex, period. Because one out of three of you will turn queer. We were going to propose something that all groups could participate in and what we ended up producing was what's now known as the gay pride march. John Scagliotti Today, that event is seen as the start of the gay civil rights movement, but gay activists and organizations were standing up to harassment and discrimination years before. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips . And this went on for hours. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, activists rode their motorcycles during the city's 1989 gay-pride parade. I guess they're deviates. Richard Enman (Archival):Well, let me say, first of all, what type of laws we are not after, because there has been much to-do that the Society was in favor of the legalization of marriage between homosexuals, and the adoption of children, and such as that, and that is not at all factual at all. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. And she was quite crazy. Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:The mob raised its hand and said "Oh, we'll volunteer," you know, "We'll set up some gay bars and serve over-priced, watered-down drinks to you guys." Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of straight America, in terms of the middle class, was recoiling in horror from what was happening all around them at that time, in that summer and the summer before. Doric Wilson:Somebody that I knew that was older than me, his family had him sent off where they go up and damage the frontal part of the brain. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! That's more an uprising than a riot. 1984 documentary film by Greta Schiller and Robert Rosenberg, "Berlinale 2016: Panorama Celebrates Teddy Award's 30th Anniversary and Announces First Titles in Programme", "Guest Post: What I Learned From Revisiting My 1984 Documentary 'Before Stonewall', "See the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry, From Purple Rain to Clerks", "Complete National Film Registry Listing", "Before Stonewall - Independent Historical Film", Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly Restored), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Before_Stonewall&oldid=1134540821, Documentary films about United States history, Historiography of LGBT in the United States, United States National Film Registry films, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 19 January 2023, at 05:30. If there's one place in the world where you can dance and feel yourself fully as a person and that's threatened with being taken away, those words are fighting words. Dick Leitsch:It was an invasion, I mean you felt outraged and stuff like you know what, God, this is America, what's this country come to? It was a horror story. The documentary "Before Stonewall" was very educational and interesting because it shows a retail group that fought for the right to integrate into the society and was where the homosexual revolution occurred. New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. That's it. "We're not going.". Martha Babcock Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. Beginning of our night out started early. David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. Robin Haueter Before Stonewall - Trailer BuskFilms 12.6K subscribers Subscribe 14K views 10 years ago Watch the full film here (UK & IRE only): http://buskfilms.com/films/before-sto. And the first gay power demonstration to my knowledge was against my story inThe Village Voiceon Wednesday. In 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, leading to three nights of rioting by the city's gay community. It eats you up inside not being comfortable with yourself. It was narrated by author Rita Mae Brown, directed by Greta Schiller, co-directed by Robert Rosenberg, and co-produced by John Scagliotti and Rosenberg, and Schiller. That this was normal stuff. Trevor, Post Production And, it was, I knew I would go through hell, I would go through fire for that experience. I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. On June 28, 1969, New York City police raided a Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, setting off a three-day riot that launched the modern American gay rights movement. They can be anywhere. They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. Jeremiah Hawkins Tom Caruso Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The Stonewall pulled in everyone from every part of gay life. Dan Bodner Suzanne Poli Just making their lives miserable for once. Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. And they wore dark police uniforms and riot helmets and they had billy clubs and they had big plastic shields, like Roman army, and they actually formed a phalanx, and just marched down Christopher Street and kind of pushed us in front of them. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. It must have been terrifying for them. In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. Before Stonewall, the activists wanted to fit into society and not rock the boat. The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. Jerry Hoose:I remember I was in a paddy wagon one time on the way to jail, we were all locked up together on a chain in the paddy wagon and the paddy wagon stopped for a red light or something and one of the queens said "Oh, this is my stop." But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. John O'Brien:And deep down I believed because I was gay and couldn't speak out for my rights, was probably one of the reasons that I was so active in the Civil Rights Movement. They were getting more ferocious. Atascadero was known in gay circles as the Dachau for queers, and appropriately so. National Archives and Records Administration Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:That night I'm in my office, I looked down the street, and I could see the Stonewall sign and I started to see some activity in front. Danny Garvin:He's a faggot, he's a sissy, queer. New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. You know, it's just, everybody was there. Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. First Run Features And then there were all these priests ranting in church about certain places not to go, so you kind of knew where you could go by what you were told not to do. Martin Boyce Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:This was the Rosa Parks moment, the time that gay people stood up and said no. That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:If someone was dressed as a woman, you had to have a female police officer go in with her. Transcript A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world. They were to us. And in a sense the Stonewall riots said, "Get off our backs, deliver on the promise." Narrator (Archival):Richard Enman, president of the Mattachine Society of Florida, whose goal is to legalize homosexuality between consenting adults, was a reluctant participant in tonight's program. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. David Alpert It was as if they were identifying a thing. Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. Judy Laster Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. William Eskridge, Professor of Law: The 1960s were dark ages for lesbians and gay men all over America. Martha Shelley:The riot could have been buried, it could have been a few days in the local newspaper and that was that. It was nonsense, it was nonsense, it was all the people there, that were reacting and opposing what was occurring. Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects A few of us would get dressed up in skirts and blouses and the guys would all have to wear suits and ties. People cheer while standing in front of The Stonewall Inn as the annual Gay Pride parade passes, Sunday, June 26, 2011 in New York. BEFORE STONEWALL - Alliance of Women Film Journalists Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. And gay people were standing around outside and the mood on the street was, "They think that they could disperse us last night and keep us from doing what we want to do, being on the street saying I'm gay and I'm proud? I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. We love to hear from our listeners! Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:What they did in the Stonewall that night. And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. People started throwing pennies. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. Oh, tell me about your anxiety. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. 400 Plankinton Ave. Compton's Cafeteria Raid, San Francisco, California, 1966 Coopers Do-Nut Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1959 Pepper Hill Club Raid, Baltimore, Maryland in 1955. Raymond Castro In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . Eric Marcus, Writer:It was incredibly hot. Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. Because as the police moved back, we were conscious, all of us, of the area we were controlling and now we were in control of the area because we were surrounded the bar, we were moving in, they were moving back. It was not a place that, in my life, me and my friends paid much attention to. We were winning. [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Fred Sargeant:We knew that they were serving drinks out of vats and buckets of water and believed that there had been some disease that had been passed. Before Stonewall - Rotten Tomatoes Raymond Castro:We were in the back of the room, and the lights went on, so everybody stopped what they were doing, because now the police started coming in, raiding the bar. Directors Greta Schiller Robert Rosenberg (co-director) Stars Rita Mae Brown Maua Adele Ajanaku William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. But everybody knew it wasn't normal stuff and everyone was on edge and that was the worst part of it because you knew they were on edge and you knew that the first shot that was fired meant all the shots would be fired. This 19-year-old serviceman left his girlfriend on the beach to go to a men's room in a park nearby where he knew that he could find a homosexual contact. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. You know, Howard's concern was and my concern was that if all hell broke loose, they'd just start busting heads. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:At the peak, as many as 500 people per year were arrested for the crime against nature, and between 3- and 5,000 people per year arrested for various solicitation or loitering crimes. One never knows when the homosexual is about. Jerry Hoose:And we were going fast. Fred Sargeant On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. They were not used to a bunch of drag queens doing a Rockettes kick line and sort of like giving them all the finger in a way. How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. Marc Aubin Giles Kotcher Raymond Castro:If that light goes on, you know to stop whatever you're doing, and separate. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. I famously used the word "fag" in the lead sentence I said "the forces of faggotry." (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. And I just didn't understand that. Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. There are a lot of kids here. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. Patricia Yusah, Marketing and Communications Martin Boyce:Well, in the front part of the bar would be like "A" gays, like regular gays, that didn't go in any kind of drag, didn't use the word "she," that type, but they were gay, a hundred percent gay. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. Dick Leitsch:Mattachino in Italy were court jesters; the only people in the whole kingdom who could speak truth to the king because they did it with a smile. Before Stonewall (1984) - IMDb And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. The cops were barricaded inside. It was tremendous freedom. And they were gay. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We had maybe six people and by this time there were several thousand outside. Barak Goodman We heard one, then more and more. And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. I never believed in that. You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. It was a leaflet that attacked the relationship of the police and the Mafia and the bars that we needed to see ended. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. And it just seemed like, fantastic because the background was this industrial, becoming an industrial ruin, it was a masculine setting, it was a whole world. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We were looking for secret exits and one of the policewomen was able to squirm through the window and they did find a way out. Obama signed the memorandum to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. But, that's when we knew, we were ourselves for the first time. Director . Martin Boyce:I heard about the trucks, which to me was fascinated me, you know, it had an imagination thing that was like Marseilles, how can it only be a few blocks away? You see, Ralph was a homosexual. Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. The police weren't letting us dance. BBC Worldwide Americas William Eskridge, Professor of Law:Gay people who were sentenced to medical institutions because they were found to be sexual psychopaths, were subjected sometimes to sterilization, occasionally to castration, sometimes to medical procedures, such as lobotomies, which were felt by some doctors to cure homosexuality and other sexual diseases. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly But you live with it, you know, you're used to this, after the third time it happened, or, the third time you heard about it, that's the way the world is. And as awful as people might think that sounds, it's the way history has always worked. Dr. Socarides (Archival):I think the whole idea of saying "the happy homosexual" is to, uh, to create a mythology about the nature of homosexuality. Scott Kardel, Project Administration Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. I could never let that happen and never did. Dick Leitsch:You read about Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal and all these actors and stuff, Liberace and all these people running around doing all these things and then you came to New York and you found out, well maybe they're doing them but, you know, us middle-class homosexuals, we're getting busted all the time, every time we have a place to go, it gets raided. 1969: The Stonewall Uprising - Library of Congress MacDonald & Associates Martha Shelley:Before Stonewall, the homophile movement was essentially the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis and all of these other little gay organizations, some of which were just two people and a mimeograph machine. Fifty years ago, a gay bar in New York City called The Stonewall Inn was raided by police, and what followed were days of rebellion where protesters and police clashed. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. It was terrifying. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay History Papers and Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations The events. There's a little door that slides open with this power-hungry nut behind that, you see this much of your eyes, and he sees that much of your face, and then he decides whether you're going to get in.