Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. Jay Fialkov Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. Some of the pre-Stonewall uprisings included: Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1967 Black Night Brawl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 5, 1961. 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." NBC News Archives Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects 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. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. A word that would be used in the 1960s for gay men and lesbians. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. Lauren Noyes. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. There are a lot of kids here. And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. They would bang on the trucks. 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. And it was those loudest people, the most vulnerable, the most likely to be arrested, were the ones that were doing the real fighting. Raymond Castro and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. Martha Shelley The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. Synopsis. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:TheNew York TimesI guess printed a story, but it wasn't a major story. People cheer while standing in front of The Stonewall Inn as the annual Gay Pride parade passes, Sunday, June 26, 2011 in New York. Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. I mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin me. 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. A few of us would get dressed up in skirts and blouses and the guys would all have to wear suits and ties. Barak Goodman Dick Leitsch:There were Black Panthers and there were anti-war people. Where did you buy it? And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. Liz Davis Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly 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. I famously used the word "fag" in the lead sentence I said "the forces of faggotry." Lilli M. Vincenz Noah Goldman 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. 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. Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. We assembled on Christopher Street at 6th Avenue, to march. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. Before Stonewall - Rotten Tomatoes 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. People could take shots at us. They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. Sophie Cabott Black The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." 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. 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? Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. 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?" 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. I was proud. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. Documentary | Stonewall Forever Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement . 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. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. 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. Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. We could easily be hunted, that was a game. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Audience Member (Archival):I was wondering if you think that there are any quote "happy homosexuals" for whom homosexuality would be, in a way, their best adjustment in life? It gives back a little of the terror they gave in my life. And the Stonewall was part of that system. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. 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. Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. In the Life When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. We didn't expect we'd ever get to Central Park. Eventually something was bound to blow. We did use humor to cover pain, frustration, anger. First Run Features He said, "Okay, let's go." Jerry Hoose:And I got to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street, crossed the street and there I had found Nirvana. Producers Library Danny Garvin:He's a faggot, he's a sissy, queer. "We're not going.". You cut one head off. Stonewall Forever is a documentary from NYC's LGBT Community Center directed by Ro Haber. And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. 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. We had no speakers planned for the rally in Central Park, where we had hoped to get to. I made friends that first day. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. archives.nypl.org -- Before Stonewall production files Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. Stonewall Uprising | American Experience | PBS Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. Linton Media Trevor, Post Production And today we're talking about Stonewall, which were both pretty anxious about so anxious. 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. All the rules were off in the '60s. 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. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. Transcript Enlarge this image 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. Glenn Fukushima 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. Also, through this fight, the "LGBT" was born. 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. As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. Ellinor Mitchell TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. Activists had been working for change long before Stonewall. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. And in a sense the Stonewall riots said, "Get off our backs, deliver on the promise." 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. Martin Boyce:And then more police came, and it didn't stop. This 1968 Film Put Drag Queens In The Spotlight Before Stonewall - HuffPost Beginning of our night out started early. 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. The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. John DiGiacomo It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there 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. But after the uprising, polite requests for change turned into angry demands. Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. Dan Martino The police weren't letting us dance. 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. 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. This 1955 educational film warns of homosexuality, calling it "a sickness of the mind.". Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. David Huggins Because that's what they were looking for, any excuse to try to bust the place. And that's what it was, it was a war. 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. Original Language: English. The cops were barricaded inside. 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 Stonewall had reopened. Watch Before Stonewall | Prime Video - amazon.com They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? Susan Liberti Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:What they did in the Stonewall that night. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." David Carter, Author ofStonewall:Most raids by the New York City Police, because they were paid off by the mob, took place on a weeknight, they took place early in the evening, the place would not be crowded. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. 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. Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. Slate:Perversion for Profit(1965), Citizens for Decency Through Law. That this was normal stuff. 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. Louis Mandelbaum Participants of the 1969 Greenwich Village uprising describe the effect that Stonewall had on their lives. But we went down to the trucks and there, people would have sex. And they started smashing their heads with clubs. That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. But we're going to pay dearly for this. 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. We were scared. The newly restored 1984 documentary "Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community," re-released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the seminal Stonewall riots, remains a . In the trucks or around the trucks. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. 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. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. 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. Seymour Wishman But the before section, I really wanted people to have a sense of what it felt like to be gay, lesbian, transgender, before Stonewall and before you have this mass civil rights movement that comes after Stonewall. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. And she was quite crazy. It was done in our little street talk. A CBS news public opinion survey indicates that sentiment is against permitting homosexual relationships between consenting adults without legal punishment. Because one out of three of you will turn queer. It was nonsense, it was nonsense, it was all the people there, that were reacting and opposing what was occurring. Naturally, you get careless, you fall for it, and the next thing you know, you have silver bracelets on both arms. PDF BEFORE STONEWALL press kit - First Run Features And gay people were standing around outside and the mood on the street was, "They think that they could disperse us last night and keep us from doing what we want to do, being on the street saying I'm gay and I'm proud?

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