The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. Katrina Heilbroner The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School 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. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. You know. The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. It was like a reward. 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. What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." hide caption. This 19-year-old serviceman left his girlfriend on the beach to go to a men's room in a park nearby where he knew that he could find a homosexual contact. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. 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 . They were getting more ferocious. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. I mean it didn't stop after that. I was proud. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. And we were singing: "We are the Village girls, we wear our hair in curls, we wear our dungarees, above our nellie knees." Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. Joe DeCola Urban Stages The New York Times / Redux Pictures And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. 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. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. 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. 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. 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. People could take shots at us. But we're going to pay dearly for this. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. We heard one, then more and more. Eric Marcus, Writer:Before Stonewall, there was no such thing as coming out or being out. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. David Alpert And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. Scott Kardel, Project Administration 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. We had no speakers planned for the rally in Central Park, where we had hoped to get to. So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. I hope it was. Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? These homosexuals glorify unnatural sex acts. Jimmy hadn't enjoyed himself so much in a long time. In 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, leading to three nights of rioting by the city's LGBT community. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. Dick Leitsch:There were Black Panthers and there were anti-war people. Susan Liberti Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. Jerry Hoose:The open gay people that hung out on the streets were basically the have-nothing-to-lose types, which I was. 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. The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And I keep listening and listening and listening, hoping I'm gonna hear sirens any minute and I was very freaked. 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. 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. 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. Linton Media Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. John Scagliotti 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. 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. Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. Alexandra Meryash Nikolchev, On-Line Editors Because that's what they were looking for, any excuse to try to bust the place. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. Revealing and. And the first gay power demonstration to my knowledge was against my story inThe Village Voiceon Wednesday. Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? Original Language: English. 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. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. It eats you up inside not being comfortable with yourself. Susana Fernandes Do you understand me?". We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". Maureen Jordan 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. There were occasions where you did see people get night-sticked, or disappear into a group of police and, you know, everybody knew that was not going to have a good end. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. TV Host (Archival):Ladies and gentlemen, the reason for using first names only forthese very, very charming contestants is that right now each one of them is breaking the law. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. And this went on for hours. The men's room was under police surveillance. 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. Is that conceivable? I was a man. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. Eventually something was bound to blow. 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?" 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. Obama signed the memorandum to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." We were thinking about survival. 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. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. And, it was, I knew I would go through hell, I would go through fire for that experience. The mirrors, all the bottles of liquor, the jukebox, the cigarette machines. Corbis Mike Nuget 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. And I had become very radicalized in that time. Hunted, hunted, sometimes we were hunted. We love to hear from our listeners! Even non-gay people. That's what gave oxygen to the fire. And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. Charles Harris, Transcriptions Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. I had never seen anything like that. Paul Bosche I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. John O'Brien:I was with a group that we actually took a parking meter out of theground, three or four people, and we used it as a battering ram. 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. They would bang on the trucks. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . 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. The film combined personal interviews, snapshots and home movies, together with historical footage. And the police escalated their crackdown on bars because of the reelection campaign. 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? John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. It meant nothing to us. Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. 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. We went, "Oh my God. And that's what it was, it was a war. 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. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. 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. 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. Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016. Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. ITN Source Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. 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. Jerry Hoose:And I got to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street, crossed the street and there I had found Nirvana. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:There were all these articles in likeLife Magazineabout how the Village was liberal and people that were called homosexuals went there. Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. David Huggins Daily News It must have been terrifying for them. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. Almost anything you could name. 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. And the rest of your life will be a living hell. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It really should have been called Stonewall uprising. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. 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." And the police were showing up. That was our world, that block. Dana Kirchoff And there, we weren't allowed to be alone, the police would raid us still. Michael Dolan, Technical Advisors People that were involved in it like me referred to it as "The First Run." And in a sense the Stonewall riots said, "Get off our backs, deliver on the promise." 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. They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. And I just didn't understand that. Eric Marcus, Writer:It was incredibly hot. NBC News Archives Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. 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. Where did you buy it? She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. Cause I was from the streets. 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. David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. 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. Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. But that's only partially true. 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. A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. The lights came on, it's like stop dancing. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". We could easily be hunted, that was a game. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." 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. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. 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. 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt 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. 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.". Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. 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. 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. And Dick Leitsch, who was the head of the Mattachine Society said, "Who's in favor?" We didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. Things were being thrown against the plywood, we piled things up to try to buttress it. We were going to propose something that all groups could participate in and what we ended up producing was what's now known as the gay pride march. It was tremendous freedom. ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. As kids, we played King Kong. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:What they did in the Stonewall that night. That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. That's it. Oh, tell me about your anxiety. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. You cut one head off. 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. In the trucks or around the trucks. 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. They were afraid that the FBI was following them. Danny Garvin:We were talking about the revolution happening and we were walking up 7th Avenue and I was thinking it was either Black Panthers or the Young Lords were going to start it and we turned the corner from 7th Avenue onto Christopher Street and we saw the paddy wagon pull up there. It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. Slate:In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. Fred Sargeant:We knew that they were serving drinks out of vats and buckets of water and believed that there had been some disease that had been passed. 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. That was scary, very scary. Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. Robin Haueter This, to a homosexual, is no choice at all. 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?" 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.". 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. American Airlines Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. 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. 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. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives Dr. Socarides (Archival):Homosexuality is in fact a mental illness which has reached epidemiological proportions. John O'Brien:We had no idea we were gonna finish the march. Alexis Charizopolis 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. And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. Danny Garvin:With Waverly Street coming in there, West Fourth coming in there, Seventh Avenue coming in there, Christopher Street coming in there, there was no way to contain us. Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. Because if you don't have extremes, you don't get any moderation. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. 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?".
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