John O'Brien:It was definitely dark, it was definitely smelly and raunchy and dirty and that's the only places that we had to meet each other, was in the very dirty, despicable places. Cause we could feel a sense of love for each other that we couldn't show out on the street, because you couldn't show any affection out on the street. Fred Sargeant Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. This is every year in New York City. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution 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. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. They can be anywhere. Getty Images And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". Getting then in the car, rocking them back and forth. They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was a bottle club which meant that I guess you went to the door and you bought a membership or something for a buck and then you went in and then you could buy drinks. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. Don't fire until I fire. Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. The mob was saying, you know, "Screw you, cops, you think you can come in a bust us up? Doing things like that. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. Abstract. The events. We love to hear from our listeners! Fred Sargeant:When it was clear that things were definitely over for the evening, we decided we needed to do something more. It was right in the center of where we all were. Never, never, never. Raymond Castro:If that light goes on, you know to stop whatever you're doing, and separate. Judy Laster The Underground Lounge This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips . [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. It was a down at a heels kind of place, it was a lot of street kids and things like that. And the police were showing up. Nobody. Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. In addition to interviews with activists and scholars, the film includes the reflections of renowned writer Allen Ginsberg. You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. Danny Garvin:It was the perfect time to be in the Village. The New York Times / Redux Pictures That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy Paul Bosche I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude That's more an uprising than a riot. It was terrifying. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. Joe DeCola 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. 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. Doric Wilson:When I was very young, one of the terms for gay people was twilight people, meaning that we never came out until twilight, 'til it got dark. In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. So gay people were being strangled, shot, thrown in the river, blackmailed, fired from jobs. Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:They were sexual deviates. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:But there were little, tiny pin holes in the plywood windows, I'll call them the windows but they were plywood, and we could look out from there and every time I went over and looked out through one of those pin holes where he did, we were shocked at how big the crowd had become. Hunted, hunted, sometimes we were hunted. Transcript Aired June 9, 2020 Stonewall Uprising The Year That Changed America Film Description When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of. Because he was homosexual. And the first gay power demonstration to my knowledge was against my story inThe Village Voiceon Wednesday. Eric Marcus, Recreation Still Photography Beginning of our night out started early. It was the only time I was in a gladiatorial sport that I stood up in. For the first time the next person stood up. But we couldn't hold out very long. They were the storm troopers. Chris Mara, Production Assistants Samual Murkofsky 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. The police weren't letting us dance. Hear more of the conversation and historical interviews at the audio link. Jimmy hadn't enjoyed himself so much in a long time. Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. Some of the pre-Stonewall uprisings included: Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1967 Black Night Brawl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 5, 1961. Before Stonewall pries open the closet door, setting free dramatic stories from the early 1900's onwards of public and private existence as experienced by LGBT Americans. Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. Danny Garvin:And the cops just charged them. You know. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community is a 1984 American documentary film about the LGBT community prior to the 1969 Stonewall riots. ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. You gotta remember, the Stonewall bar was just down the street from there. First Run Features And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? Danny Garvin:Something snapped. I grew up in a very Catholic household and the conflict of issues of redemption, of is it possible that if you are this thing called homosexual, is it possible to be redeemed? Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The police would zero in on us because sometimes they would be in plain clothes, and sometimes they would even entrap. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. It was as if they were identifying a thing. Doric Wilson:There was joy because the cops weren't winning. You needed a license even to be a beautician and that could be either denied or taken away from you. The men's room was under police surveillance. MacDonald & Associates And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. Synopsis. Homo, homo was big. 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. 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. Eric Marcus, Writer:It was incredibly hot. I mean they were making some headway. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. 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. The cops were barricaded inside. Raymond Castro:So finally when they started taking me out, arm in arm up to the paddy wagon, I jumped up and I put one foot on one side, one foot on the other and I sprung back, knocking the two arresting officers, knocking them to the ground. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." One of the world's oldest and largest gay pride parades became a victory celebration after New York's historic decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. Raymond Castro:I'd go in there and I would look and I would just cringe because, you know, people would start touching me, and "Hello, what are you doing there if you don't want to be touched?" 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. 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. The homosexual, bitterly aware of his rejection, responds by going underground. Martin Boyce:Oh, Miss New Orleans, she wouldn't be stopped. 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. [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. Jerry Hoose:The open gay people that hung out on the streets were basically the have-nothing-to-lose types, which I was. "We're not going.". Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. 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. Scott Kardel, Project Administration The Chicago riots, the Human Be-in, the dope smoking, the hippies. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. 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. With this outpouring of courage and unity the gay liberation movement had begun. I made friends that first day. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. Participants of the 1969 Greenwich Village uprising describe the effect that Stonewall had on their lives. The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. And it was fantastic. But, that's when we knew, we were ourselves for the first time. And we were singing: "We are the Village girls, we wear our hair in curls, we wear our dungarees, above our nellie knees." Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We only had about six people altogether from the police department knowing that you had a precinct right nearby that would send assistance. A lot of them had been thrown out of their families. It was first released in 1984 with its American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and its European premiere at the Berlinale, followed by a successful theatrical release in many countries and a national broadcast on PBS. 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. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. ABCNEWS VideoSource Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. Long before marriage equality, non-binary gender identity, and the flood of new documentaries commemorating this month's 50th anniversary of the Greenwich Village uprising that begat the gay rights movement, there was Greta Schiller's Before Stonewall.Originally released in 1984as AIDS was slowly killing off many of those bar patrons-turned-revolutionariesthe film, through the use of . View in iTunes. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. They could be judges, lawyers. Yvonne Ritter:"In drag," quote unquote, the downside was that you could get arrested, you could definitely get arrested if someone clocked you or someone spooked that you were not really what you appeared to be on the outside. Greenwich Village's Stonewall Inn has undergone several transformations in the decades since it was the focal point of a three-day riot in 1969. So it was a perfect storm for the police. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. Martin Boyce:And I remember moving into the open space and grabbing onto two of my friends and we started singing and doing a kick line. Vanessa Ezersky The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. American Airlines Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. There was the Hippie movement, there was the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King, and all of these affected me terribly. 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. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. 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. They are taught that no man is born homosexual and many psychiatrists now believe that homosexuality begins to form in the first three years of life. The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. John Scagliotti I mean it didn't stop after that. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! 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 From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. That's it. Raymond Castro And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. Not able to do anything. We went, "Oh my God. Fred Sargeant:Three articles of clothing had to be of your gender or you would be in violation of that law. Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of Revealing and. 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. Quentin Heilbroner Is that conceivable? And I ran into Howard Smith on the street,The Village Voicewas right there. 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. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation I'm losing everything that I have. They frequent their own clubs, and bars and coffee houses, where they can escape the disapproving eye of the society that they call straight. And it was those loudest people, the most vulnerable, the most likely to be arrested, were the ones that were doing the real fighting. We could easily be hunted, that was a game. There may be some girls here who will turn lesbian. Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. Leroy S. Mobley Not even us. Ellinor Mitchell Mafia house beer? Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. Martha Shelley:When I was growing up in the '50s, I was supposed to get married to some guy, produce, you know, the usual 2.3 children, and I could look at a guy and say, "Well, objectively he's good looking," but I didn't feel anything, just didn't make any sense to me. 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. And I had become very radicalized in that time. Richard Enman (Archival):Present laws give the adult homosexual only the choice of being, to simplify the matter, heterosexual and legal or homosexual and illegal. And they were having a meeting at town hall and there were 400 guys who showed up, and I think a couple of women, talking about these riots, 'cause everybody was really energized and upset and angry about it. Marjorie Duffield Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . Queer was very big. Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. Pamela Gaudiano And these were meat trucks that in daytime were used by the meat industry for moving dead produce, and they really reeked, but at nighttime, that's where people went to have sex, you know, and there would be hundreds and hundreds of men having sex together in these trucks. Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. 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. They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. [1] To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 2019, the film was restored and re-released by First Run Features in June 2019. "You could have got us in a lot of trouble, you could have got us closed up." Martin Boyce:In the early 60s, if you would go near Port Authority, there were tons of people coming in. Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement . But after the uprising, polite requests for change turned into angry demands. John O'Brien:All of a sudden, the police faced something they had never seen before. Alexis Charizopolis Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. All the rules were off in the '60s. It was as if an artist had arranged it, it was beautiful, it was like mica, it was like the streets we fought on were strewn with diamonds. Other images in this film are either recreations or drawn from events of the time. And Howard said, "Boy there's like a riot gonna happen here," and I said, "yeah." Marc Aubin So anything that would set us off, we would go into action. Patricia Yusah, Marketing and Communications Heather Gude, Archival Research The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. Martin Boyce:All of a sudden, Miss New Orleans and all people around us started marching step by step and the police started moving back. TV Host (Archival):That's a very lovely dress too that you're wearing Simone. And the rest of your life will be a living hell. 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. 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. WPA Film Library, Thanks to First you gotta get past the door. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. Maureen Jordan And when she grabbed that everybody knew she couldn't do it alone so all the other queens, Congo Woman, queens like that started and they were hitting that door. Narrator (Archival):This is one of the county's principal weekend gathering places for homosexuals, both male and female. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. Original Language: English. Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Our radio was cut off every time we got on the police radio. Giles Kotcher He pulls all his men inside. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. People standing on cars, standing on garbage cans, screaming, yelling. Dana Gaiser Liz Davis So I run down there. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. This time they said, "We're not going." Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The Stonewall pulled in everyone from every part of gay life. W hen police raided a Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, on June 28, 1969 50 years ago this month the harassment was routine for the time. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. Things were just changing. The lights came on, it's like stop dancing. I am not alone, there are other people that feel exactly the same way.". But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:And they were, they were kids. Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. 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. 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. It was a 100% profit, I mean they were stealing the liquor, then watering it down, and they charging twice as much as they charged one door away at the 55. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. The only faces you will see are those of the arresting officers. I was in the Navy when I was 17 and it was there that I discovered that I was gay. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. Dick Leitsch:New York State Liquor Authority had a rule that one known homosexual at a licensed premise made the place disorderly, so nobody would set up a place where we could meet because they were afraid that the cops would come in to close it, and that's how the Mafia got into the gay bar business. 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. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:Ed Koch who was a democratic party leader in the Greenwich Village area, was a specific leader of the local forces seeking to clean up the streets. It was tremendous freedom. Marcus spoke with NPR's Ari Shapiro about his conversations with leaders of the gay-rights movement, as well as people who were at Stonewall when the riots broke out. Bettye Lane It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. Former U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with gay rights activist Frank Kameny after signing a memorandum on federal benefits and non-discrimination in the Oval Office on June 17, 2009. 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. Also, through this fight, the "LGBT" was born. Like, "Joe, if you fire your gun without me saying your name and the words 'fire,' you will be walking a beat on Staten Island all alone on a lonely beach for the rest of your police career. 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. Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. They really were objecting to how they were being treated. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. David Carter Judith Kuchar Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. For those kisses. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. I never believed in that. National Archives and Records Administration Trevor, Post Production And she was quite crazy. Doric Wilson Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. 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. I really thought that, you know, we did it. 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.
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