I learned, very early, that those horrible words were about me, that I was one of those people. The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. Louis Mandelbaum And there, we weren't allowed to be alone, the police would raid us still. And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. It must have been terrifying for them. You needed a license even to be a beautician and that could be either denied or taken away from you. Martha Babcock It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? Marc Aubin This was in front of the police. The mob was saying, you know, "Screw you, cops, you think you can come in a bust us up? Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? I said, "I can go in with you?" If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. Doing things like that. They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. 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. Don't fire until I fire. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt As kids, we played King Kong. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. ABCNEWS VideoSource But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. 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. Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969. If you came to a place like New York, you at least had the opportunity of connecting with people, and finding people who didn't care that you were gay. I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. The New York Times / Redux Pictures John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. But as visibility increased, the reactions of people increased. MacDonald & Associates This Restored Documentary Examines What LGBTQ Lives Were Like Before John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. 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. The homosexual, bitterly aware of his rejection, responds by going underground. The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. Things were being thrown against the plywood, we piled things up to try to buttress it. Because one out of three of you will turn queer. 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. She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. 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. People started throwing pennies. It was a down at a heels kind of place, it was a lot of street kids and things like that. Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:So you're outside, and you see like two people walking toward these trucks and you think, "Oh I think I'll go in there," you go in there, there's like a lot of people in there and it's all dark. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. Eventually something was bound to blow. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. That this was normal stuff. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The police would zero in on us because sometimes they would be in plain clothes, and sometimes they would even entrap. They could be judges, lawyers. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. 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? This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. You know. The film combined personal interviews, snapshots and home movies, together with historical footage. Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. A sickness of the mind. And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. The events. Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. But we're going to pay dearly for this. TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? 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 Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School Queer was very big. You gotta remember, the Stonewall bar was just down the street from there. I mean they were making some headway. hide caption. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. 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. Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. Other images in this film are They would bang on the trucks. Director . Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. Not able to do anything. It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. It gives back a little of the terror they gave in my life. Doric Wilson:That's what happened Stonewall night to a lot of people. 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. I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. Before Stonewall - Wikipedia 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. The New York State Liquor Authority refused to issue liquor licenses to many gay bars, and several popular establishments had licenses suspended or revoked for "indecent conduct.". Martin Boyce It was one of the things you did in New York, it was like the Barnum and Bailey aspect of it. I never believed in that. And as awful as people might think that sounds, it's the way history has always worked. 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. This was a highly unusual raid, going in there in the middle of the night with a full crowd, the Mafia hasn't been alerted, the Sixth Precinct hasn't been alerted. So gay people were being strangled, shot, thrown in the river, blackmailed, fired from jobs. Ellinor Mitchell A CBS news public opinion survey indicates that sentiment is against permitting homosexual relationships between consenting adults without legal punishment. Before Stonewall (1984) - IMDb 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. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. 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. 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." Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. Bettye Lane 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. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? And you felt bad that you were part of this, when you knew they broke the law, but what kind of law was that? We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. Giles Kotcher 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 . Chris Mara It was an age of experimentation. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. And we had no right to such. 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. We didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". Historic Films Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Our radio was cut off every time we got on the police radio. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? And the rest of your life will be a living hell. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. We'll put new liquor in there, we'll put a new mirror up, we'll get a new jukebox." This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips . "Don't fire. 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. Windows started to break. The Activism That Came Before Stonewall And The Movement That - NPR A word that would be used in the 1960s for gay men and lesbians. People cheer while standing in front of The Stonewall Inn as the annual Gay Pride parade passes, Sunday, June 26, 2011 in New York. "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. 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. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And by the time the police would come back towards Stonewall, that crowd had gone all the around Washington Place come all the way back around and were back pushing in on them from the other direction and the police would wonder, "These are the same people or different people?". I was a homosexual. Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. We did use humor to cover pain, frustration, anger. Fifty years ago, a riot broke out at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. You knew you could ruin them for life. 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. Brief Summary Of The Documentary 'Before Stonewall' | Bartleby Tom Caruso And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. Martin Boyce:Oh, Miss New Orleans, she wouldn't be stopped. Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. 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.". 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. Before Stonewall. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! That wasn't ours, it was borrowed. And we all relaxed. Revealing and. You were alone. 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. I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. We were all there. In the Life They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. Because he was homosexual. From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. 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. People could take shots at us. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. But we had to follow up, we couldn't just let that be a blip that disappeared. They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation 1969: The Stonewall Uprising - Library of Congress Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. 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. Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. It meant nothing to us. His movements are not characteristic of a real boy. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. I mean it didn't stop after that. Before Stonewall (1984) - Plot Summary - IMDb This time they said, "We're not going." But after the uprising, polite requests for change turned into angry demands. Revisiting 'Before Stonewall' Film for the 50th Anniversary | Time Danny Garvin:It was the perfect time to be in the Village. National History Archive, LGBT Community Center 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. Stonewall: A riot that changed millions of lives - BBC News Heather Gude, Archival Research Why 'Before Stonewall' Was Such a Hard Movie to Make - The Atlantic The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. 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. In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. 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. Judith Kuchar If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. Vanessa Ezersky John Scagliotti And the cops got that. Naturally, you get careless, you fall for it, and the next thing you know, you have silver bracelets on both arms. 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. 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? And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. Barney Karpfinger 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. This 1955 educational film warns of homosexuality, calling it "a sickness of the mind.". It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. John O'Brien:There was one street called Christopher Street, where actually I could sit and talk to other gay people beyond just having sex. I was a man. We had no speakers planned for the rally in Central Park, where we had hoped to get to. Transcript of Re-Release: The Stonewall | Happy Scribe And I just didn't understand that. Joe DeCola Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. It eats you up inside not being comfortable with yourself. That was our world, that block. And she was quite crazy. WPA Film Library, Thanks to Amber Hall Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. 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. 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. Before Stonewall streaming: where to watch online? - JustWatch Daniel Pine This is every year in New York City. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:What was so good about the Stonewall was that you could dance slow there. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. They were getting more ferocious. The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. Not even us. And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. Samual Murkofsky The Chicago riots, the Human Be-in, the dope smoking, the hippies. That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. And if we catch you, involved with a homosexual, your parents are going to know about it first. 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. Raymond Castro:So then I got pushed back in, into the Stonewall by these plain clothes cops and they would not let me out, they didn't let anybody out. You see, Ralph was a homosexual. And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. 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. The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. 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. Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. First Run Features In the sexual area, in psychology, psychiatry. The shop had been threatened, we would get hang-up calls, calls where people would curse at us on the phone, we'd had vandalism, windows broken, streams of profanity.
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