John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. It eats you up inside. Seymour Wishman Dan Bodner So if any one of you, have let yourself become involved with an adult homosexual, or with another boy, and you're doing this on a regular basis, you better stop quick. Raymond Castro Hugh Bush American Airlines 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. John O'Brien:We had no idea we were gonna finish the march. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. Martin Boyce:And then more police came, and it didn't stop. Danny Garvin:Something snapped. Never, never, never. Things were just changing. 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. 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, 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. Cause I was from the streets. More than a half-century after its release, " The Queen " serves as a powerful time capsule of queer life as it existed before the 1969 Stonewall uprising. Frank Kameny 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. That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. 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. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. Ellen Goosenberg I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. Suzanne Poli They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. There are a lot of kids here. And the Stonewall was part of that system. 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. Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. Participants of the 1969 Greenwich Village uprising describe the effect that Stonewall had on their lives. And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. Narrated by Rita Mae Brownan acclaimed writer whose 1973 novel Rubyfruit Jungle is a seminal lesbian text, but who is possessed of a painfully grating voiceBefore Stonewall includes vintage news footage that makes it clear that gay men and women lived full, if often difficult, lives long before their personal ambitions (however modest) National Archives and Records Administration Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. It was done in our little street talk. Martha Shelley First you gotta get past the door. I famously used the word "fag" in the lead sentence I said "the forces of faggotry." The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. The homosexual, bitterly aware of his rejection, responds by going underground. I mean they were making some headway. Doug Cramer Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had been in some gay bars either for a story or gay friends would say, "Oh we're going to go in for a drink there, come on in, are you too uptight to go in?" But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. Eric Marcus, Recreation Still Photography Dan Martino We had been threatened bomb threats. It was one of the things you did in New York, it was like the Barnum and Bailey aspect of it. We were winning. I was never seduced by an older person or anything like that. Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. I mean it didn't stop after that. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. Corbis Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. We'll put new liquor in there, we'll put a new mirror up, we'll get a new jukebox." And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. I said, "I can go in with you?" (c) 2011 You know, it's just, everybody was there. One never knows when the homosexual is about. And the police were showing up. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. 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. I told the person at the door, I said "I'm 18 tonight" and he said to me, "you little SOB," he said. But as we were going up 6th Avenue, it kept growing. It premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on June 27, 1985. 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. Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation 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. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. I mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin 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. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." We could easily be hunted, that was a game. I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. 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. Now, 50 years later, the film is back. You cut one head off. Dana Kirchoff 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." 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. 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." The police weren't letting us dance. Even non-gay people. 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. Because its all right in the Village, but the minute we cross 14th street, if there's only ten of us, God knows what's going to happen to us.". 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:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. The film brings together voices from over 50 years of the LGBTQ rights movement to explore queer activism before, during and after the Stonewall Riots. 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:I was chased down the street with billy clubs. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. Colonial House I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. 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. The groundbreaking 1984 film "Before Stonewall" introduced audiences to some of the key players and places that helped spark the Greenwich Village riots. I never believed in that. A CBS news public opinion survey indicates that sentiment is against permitting homosexual relationships between consenting adults without legal punishment. 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. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:TheNew York TimesI guess printed a story, but it wasn't a major story. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. Obama signed the memorandum to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. 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. 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. But we went down to the trucks and there, people would have sex. TV Host (Archival):That's a very lovely dress too that you're wearing Simone. Queer was very big. View in iTunes. and someone would say, "Well, they're still fighting the police, let's go," and they went in. Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. Mafia house beer? When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. The men's room was under police surveillance. 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. "You could have got us in a lot of trouble, you could have got us closed up." 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. Windows started to break. First Run Features It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. [2][3] Later in 2019, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4][5][6]. Everyone from the street kids who were white and black kids from the South. 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. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. 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. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt It was a leaflet that attacked the relationship of the police and the Mafia and the bars that we needed to see ended. Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:What they did in the Stonewall that night. 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. It was a down at a heels kind of place, it was a lot of street kids and things like that. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:A rather tough lesbian was busted in the bar and when she came out of the bar she was fighting the cops and trying to get away. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. 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." Gay bars were always on side streets out of the way in neighborhoods that nobody would go into. 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. 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. Raymond Castro:Society expected you to, you know, grow up, get married, have kids, which is what a lot of people did to satisfy their parents. 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. It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. Abstract. Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. This is every year in New York City. We didn't expect we'd ever get to Central Park. 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. Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. The Underground Lounge [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Tom Caruso Martin Boyce:That was our only block. Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. 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. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. 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. You know. But as visibility increased, the reactions of people increased. And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. It was fun to see fags. Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. Martha Shelley:The riot could have been buried, it could have been a few days in the local newspaper and that was that. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. A word that would be used in the 1960s for gay men and lesbians. Chris Mara This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. And it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. Fred Sargeant The award-winning documentary film, Before Stonewall, which was released theatrically and broadcast on PBS television in 1984, explored the history of the lesbian and gay rights movement in the United States prior to 1969. 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. Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? 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. It was an age of experimentation. This was in front of the police. The idea was to be there first. I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. Scott Kardel, Project Administration This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips . Before Stonewall 1984 Unrated 1 h 27 m IMDb RATING 7.5 /10 1.1K YOUR RATING Rate Play trailer 2:21 1 Video 7 Photos Documentary History The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. I'm losing everything that I have. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. Atascadero was known in gay circles as the Dachau for queers, and appropriately so. 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. Glenn Fukushima 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. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. 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. We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. As you read, keep in mind that LGBTQ+ is a relatively new term and, while queer people have always existed, the terminology has changed frequently over the years. That wasn't ours, it was borrowed. Jay Fialkov Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. All of the rules that I had grown up with, and that I had hated in my guts, other people were fighting against, and saying "No, it doesn't have to be this way.". We were scared. On June 27, 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. 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? Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. And she was quite crazy. 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. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. 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. 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. In the Life Because if you don't have extremes, you don't get any moderation. Fred Sargeant:Three articles of clothing had to be of your gender or you would be in violation of that law. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. That never happened before. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Gay rights, like the rights of blacks, were constantly under attack and while blacks were protected by constitutional amendments coming out of the Civil War, gays were not protected by law and certainly not the Constitution. He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. Dick Leitsch:And the blocks were small enough that we could run around the block and come in behind them before they got to the next corner. It was like a reward. 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. Pamela Gaudiano A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. Lilli M. Vincenz 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 windows were always cloaked. 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. And we were singing: "We are the Village girls, we wear our hair in curls, we wear our dungarees, above our nellie knees." Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. Hunted, hunted, sometimes we were hunted. 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. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. Daniel Pine John O'Brien:Cops got hurt. NBC News Archives Sophie Cabott Black Homosexuality was a dishonorable discharge in those days, and you couldn't get a job afterwards. 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. 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. Is that conceivable? The events. From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. Paul Bosche You know, Howard's concern was and my concern was that if all hell broke loose, they'd just start busting heads. Things were being thrown against the plywood, we piled things up to try to buttress it. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. 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. 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. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. People started throwing pennies. 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. And they started smashing their heads with clubs. You had no place to try to find an identity. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. BBC Worldwide Americas One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. And we had no right to such. And it was fantastic. Don't fire until I fire. Danny Garvin:People were screaming "pig," "copper." The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. So anything that would set us off, we would go into action. I was a homosexual. Marjorie Duffield We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". Danny Garvin:He's a faggot, he's a sissy, queer. They were afraid that the FBI was following them. Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." Hear more of the conversation and historical interviews at the audio link. Just making their lives miserable for once. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, we did use the small hoses on the fire extinguishers. A sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious. And, you know,The Village Voiceat that point started using the word "gay.". ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. Transcript A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. Doric Wilson:That's what happened Stonewall night to a lot of people. And I had become very radicalized in that time. And they were gay. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. 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. They can be anywhere. 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. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village.

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