[00:00:55] Oh, my God. And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. John DiGiacomo "Don't fire. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. It meant nothing to us. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. NBC News Archives by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor Do you understand me?". 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. Narrator (Archival):This is one of the county's principal weekend gathering places for homosexuals, both male and female. We didn't necessarily know where we were going yet, you know, what organizations we were going to be or how things would go, but we became something I, as a person, could all of a sudden grab onto, that I couldn't grab onto when I'd go to a subway T-room as a kid, or a 42nd street movie theater, you know, or being picked up by some dirty old man. 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. One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. The windows were always cloaked. He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. I entered the convent at 26, to pursue that question and I was convinced that I would either stay until I got an answer, or if I didn't get an answer just stay. And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. Michael Dolan, Technical Advisors When you exit, have some identification and it'll be over in a short time." Doug Cramer As kids, we played King Kong. A sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious. Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. Maureen Jordan This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. I said, "I can go in with you?" Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. kui 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. Dana Kirchoff The cops were barricaded inside. Greg Shea, Legal That wasn't ours, it was borrowed. Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. Barak Goodman If you would like to read more on the topic, here's a list: Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and NPR One. Glenn Fukushima Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. Leroy S. Mobley It won the Best Film Award at the Houston International Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature at Filmex, First Place at the National Educational Film Festival, and Honorable Mention at the Global Village Documentary Festival. And that crowd between Howard Johnson's and Mama's Chik-n-Rib was like the basic crowd of the gay community at that time in the Village. And I hadn't had enough sleep, so I was in a somewhat feverish state, and I thought, "We have to do something, we have to do something," and I thought, "We have to have a protest march of our own." Samual Murkofsky Mike Nuget Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. I hope it was. Frank Simon's documentary follows the drag contestants of 1967's Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant, capturing plenty of on- and offstage drama along the way. In a spontaneous show of support and frustration, the citys gay community rioted for three nights in the streets, an event that is considered the birth of the modern Gay Rights Movement. Yvonne Ritter:And then everybody started to throw pennies like, you know, this is what they were, they were nothing but copper, coppers, that's what they were worth. Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. Fred Sargeant:When it was clear that things were definitely over for the evening, we decided we needed to do something more. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, we did use the small hoses on the fire extinguishers. Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. I was in the Navy when I was 17 and it was there that I discovered that I was gay. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:And they were, they were kids. Quentin Heilbroner Stonewall: A riot that changed millions of lives - BBC News View in iTunes. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. Based on Not even us. 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. And, I did not like parading around while all of these vacationers were standing there eating ice cream and looking at us like we were critters in a zoo. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. They frequent their own clubs, and bars and coffee houses, where they can escape the disapproving eye of the society that they call straight. The Stonewall had reopened. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. Dana Gaiser Chris Mara Martin Boyce:Oh, Miss New Orleans, she wouldn't be stopped. It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. And this went on for hours. The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. I told the person at the door, I said "I'm 18 tonight" and he said to me, "you little SOB," he said. 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. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution Danny Garvin:We were talking about the revolution happening and we were walking up 7th Avenue and I was thinking it was either Black Panthers or the Young Lords were going to start it and we turned the corner from 7th Avenue onto Christopher Street and we saw the paddy wagon pull up there. That's it. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." Raymond Castro:You could hear screaming outside, a lot of noise from the protesters and it was a good sound. Before Stonewall (1984) - full transcript 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. They didn't know what they were walking into. Brief Summary Of The Documentary 'Before Stonewall' | Bartleby Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. John O'Brien:If a gay man is caught by the police and is identified as being involved in what they called lewd, immoral behavior, they would have their person's name, their age and many times their home address listed in the major newspapers. And it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. Remember everything. Because if they weren't there fast, I was worried that there was something going on that I didn't know about and they weren't gonna come. Revisiting the newly restored "Before Stonewall" 35 years after its premiere, Rosenberg said he was once again struck by its "powerful" and "acutely relevant" narrative. Bettye Lane There were occasions where you did see people get night-sticked, or disappear into a group of police and, you know, everybody knew that was not going to have a good end. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. Then the cops come up and make use of what used to be called the bubble-gum machine, back then a cop car only had one light on the top that spun around. That's more an uprising than a riot. Don't fire until I fire. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. Before Stonewall | Apple TV A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. Raymond Castro Well, it was a nightmare for the lesbian or gay man who was arrested and caught up in this juggernaut, but it was also a nightmare for the lesbians or gay men who lived in the closet. Never, never, never. This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. LGBTQ+ History Before Stonewall | Stacker And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. We were winning. Paul Bosche Hugh Bush The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School 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. I'm losing everything that I have. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. Scott McPartland/Getty Images Before Stonewall. There were gay bars in Midtown, there were gay bars uptown, there were certain kinds of gay bars on the Upper East Side, you know really, really, really buttoned-up straight gay bars. 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. Queer was very big. Cop (Archival):Anyone can walk into that men's room, any child can walk in there, and see what you guys were doing. You were alone. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We didn't have the manpower, and the manpower for the other side was coming like it was a real war. I famously used the word "fag" in the lead sentence I said "the forces of faggotry." And Dick Leitsch, who was the head of the Mattachine Society said, "Who's in favor?" Dan Martino And that's what it was, it was a war. They were to us. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. 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. Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:At a certain point, it felt pretty dangerous to me but I noticed that the cop that seemed in charge, he said you know what, we have to go inside for safety. It eats you up inside not being comfortable with yourself. On June 27, 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. 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. You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. Newly restored for the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Before Stonewall pries open the . Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects Amber Hall Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. But we had to follow up, we couldn't just let that be a blip that disappeared. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy It's like, this is not right. The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. They can be anywhere. Guest Post: What I Learned From Revisiting My 1984 Documentary "Before So I got into the subway, and on the car was somebody I recognized and he said, "I've never been so scared in my life," and I said, "Well, please let there be more than ten of us, just please let there be more than ten of us. Martin Boyce:The day after the first riot, when it was all over, and I remember sitting, sun was soon to come, and I was sitting on the stoop, and I was exhausted and I looked at that street, it was dark enough to allow the street lamps to pick up the glitter of all the broken glass, and all the debris, and all the different colored cloth, that was in different places. You knew you could ruin them for life. Homo, homo was big. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. You had no place to try to find an identity. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. 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. Everyone from the street kids who were white and black kids from the South. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. 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. The medical experimentation in Atascadero included administering, to gay people, a drug that simulated the experience of drowning; in other words, a pharmacological example of waterboarding. 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. Detective John Sorenson, Dade County Morals & Juvenile Squad (Archival):There may be some in this auditorium. And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." There was no going back now, there was no going back, there was no, we had discovered a power that we weren't even aware that we had. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. "BEFORE STONEWALL" - MetroFocus Danny Garvin:With Waverly Street coming in there, West Fourth coming in there, Seventh Avenue coming in there, Christopher Street coming in there, there was no way to contain us. It was a down at a heels kind of place, it was a lot of street kids and things like that. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . All I knew about was that I heard that there were people down in Times Square who were gay and that's where I went to. As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. Before Stonewall (1984) - IMDb It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. There are a lot of kids here. That's what gave oxygen to the fire. Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community Frank Kameny, co-founder of the Mattachine Society, and Shirley Willer, president of the Daughters of Bilitis, spoke to Marcus about being gay before the Stonewall riots happened and what motivated people who were involved in the movement. We had been threatened bomb threats. People that were involved in it like me referred to it as "The First Run." Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. And today we're talking about Stonewall, which were both pretty anxious about so anxious. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:There were complaints from people who objected to the wrongful behavior of some gays who would have sex on the street. But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. American Airlines 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. That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. The events that took place in June 1969 have been described as the birth of the gay-rights movement, but that's only partially true. Daily News Danny Garvin:People were screaming "pig," "copper." But that's only partially true. WPA Film Library, Thanks to His movements are not characteristic of a real boy. I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. So in every gay pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. BBC Worldwide Americas Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. Geoff Kole This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. Doric Wilson:In those days, the idea of walking in daylight, with a sign saying, "I'm a faggot," was horren--, nobody, nobody was ready to do that. Jerry Hoose:I was chased down the street with billy clubs. I am not alone, there are other people that feel exactly the same way.". Director . Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The police would zero in on us because sometimes they would be in plain clothes, and sometimes they would even entrap. He may appear normal, and it may be too late when you discover he is mentally ill. John O'Brien:I was a poor, young gay person. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. And we all relaxed. 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. It was like a reward. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. Before Stonewall 1984 Directed by Greta Schiller, Robert Rosenberg Synopsis 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. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly Martha Babcock John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. 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 LGBT community. Jerry Hoose It was done in our little street talk. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:They were sexual deviates. Eric Marcus, Recreation Still Photography "Daybreak Express" by D.A. Raymond Castro:Incendiary devices were being thrown in I don't think they were Molotov cocktails, but it was just fire being thrown in when the doors got open. I made friends that first day. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. It's not my cup of tea. I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. I never believed in that. So it was a perfect storm for the police. Windows started to break. It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. Revealing and. It was as if they were identifying a thing. Charles Harris, Transcriptions
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