Lilli M. Vincenz And it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay History Papers and Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations And they were gay. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. There was no going back now, there was no going back, there was no, we had discovered a power that we weren't even aware that we had. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. 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. 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. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. Martin Boyce:We were like a Hydra. Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films It was as if they were identifying a thing. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. And the people coming out weren't going along with it so easily. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? A sickness of the mind. Because if you don't have extremes, you don't get any moderation. Cause I was from the streets. Jeremiah Hawkins Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. Jerry Hoose Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. Other images in this film are 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. That was scary, very scary. The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. Marc Aubin [00:00:58] Well, this I mean, this is a part of my own history in this weird, inchoate sense. Doric Wilson 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." Raymond Castro:So finally when they started taking me out, arm in arm up to the paddy wagon, I jumped up and I put one foot on one side, one foot on the other and I sprung back, knocking the two arresting officers, knocking them to the ground. Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. hide caption. 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.". 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. So in every gay pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. Eventually something was bound to blow. Dick Leitsch:We wore suits and ties because we wanted people, in the public, who were wearing suits and ties, to identify with us. I was a homosexual. And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. It was fun to see fags. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco 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. He said, "Okay, let's go." 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. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. I mean it didn't stop after that. The events. And I knew that I was lesbian. The groundbreaking 1984 film "Before Stonewall" introduced audiences to some of the key players and places that helped spark the Greenwich Village riots. 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. Because that's what they were looking for, any excuse to try to bust the place. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. Chris Mara Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. 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. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. But after the uprising, polite requests for change turned into angry demands. I mean I'm talking like sardines. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. Queer was very big. Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. The Chicago riots, the Human Be-in, the dope smoking, the hippies. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. 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 the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. The lights came on, it's like stop dancing. Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. Scott Kardel, Project Administration 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. 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. Quentin Heilbroner I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. 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. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. 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. Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. John O'Brien:We had no idea we were gonna finish the march. I hope it was. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. 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. Doing things like that. The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. They didn't know what they were walking into. 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? Pamela Gaudiano Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. 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. The cops were barricaded inside. Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. 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:Society expected you to, you know, grow up, get married, have kids, which is what a lot of people did to satisfy their parents. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. 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. The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. A sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious. Revisiting the newly restored "Before Stonewall" 35 years after its premiere, Rosenberg said he was once again struck by its "powerful" and "acutely relevant" narrative. 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. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. Fred Sargeant:Things started off small, but there was an energy that began to flow through the crowd. Dick Leitsch:You read about Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal and all these actors and stuff, Liberace and all these people running around doing all these things and then you came to New York and you found out, well maybe they're doing them but, you know, us middle-class homosexuals, we're getting busted all the time, every time we have a place to go, it gets raided. John O'Brien Hugh Bush 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. Before Stonewall, the activists wanted to fit into society and not rock the boat. Ellen Goosenberg And the cops got that. Homo, homo was big. Some of the pre-Stonewall uprisings included: Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1967 Black Night Brawl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 5, 1961. Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. These homosexuals glorify unnatural sex acts. A word that would be used in the 1960s for gay men and lesbians. Marjorie Duffield And we had no right to such. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. Michael Dolan, Technical Advisors Transcript A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. 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. But as visibility increased, the reactions of people increased. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:What they did in the Stonewall that night. Never, never, never. Just let's see if they can. But the . 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. We could easily be hunted, that was a game. The mirrors, all the bottles of liquor, the jukebox, the cigarette machines. Dick Leitsch:New York State Liquor Authority had a rule that one known homosexual at a licensed premise made the place disorderly, so nobody would set up a place where we could meet because they were afraid that the cops would come in to close it, and that's how the Mafia got into the gay bar business. John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. Doric Wilson:There was joy because the cops weren't winning. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. Maureen Jordan Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. 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. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution That's it. Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." John van Hoesen And I had become very radicalized in that time. I could never let that happen and never did. 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. We knew that this was a moment that we didn't want to let slip past, because it was something that we could use to bring more of the groups together. Lauren Noyes. Samual Murkofsky 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. Greenwich Village's Stonewall Inn has undergone several transformations in the decades since it was the focal point of a three-day riot in 1969. 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. He pulls all his men inside. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. Jerry Hoose:I was chased down the street with billy clubs. Synopsis. All rights reserved. We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. 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. You were alone. I really thought that, you know, we did it. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. Cause we could feel a sense of love for each other that we couldn't show out on the street, because you couldn't show any affection out on the street. Alexis Charizopolis View in iTunes. 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. Leroy S. Mobley Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. It was done in our little street talk. What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." This was in front of the police. Jorge Garcia-Spitz 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. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School And the rest of your life will be a living hell. Getty Images They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? J. Michael Grey Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." In the Life Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. Jerry Hoose:The open gay people that hung out on the streets were basically the have-nothing-to-lose types, which I 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. Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. NBC News Archives I never believed in that. 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. They can be anywhere. 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. 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. 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. Obama signed the memorandum to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. But everybody knew it wasn't normal stuff and everyone was on edge and that was the worst part of it because you knew they were on edge and you knew that the first shot that was fired meant all the shots would be fired. 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. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. 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. Frank Kameny, co-founder of the Mattachine Society, and Shirley Willer, president of the Daughters of Bilitis, spoke to Marcus about being gay before the Stonewall riots happened and what motivated people who were involved in the movement. And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. That this was normal stuff. It meant nothing to us. 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. In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. First you gotta get past the door. Judy Laster 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. The police weren't letting us dance. 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. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. I made friends that first day. The events of that night have been described as the birth of the gay-rights movement. A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. 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. 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. Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. 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. The award winning film Before Stonewall pries open the closet door, setting free the dramatic story of the sometimes horrifying public and private existences experienced by gay and lesbian Americans since the 1920s. A medievalist. The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. People that were involved in it like me referred to it as "The First Run." The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. First Run Features In the trucks or around the trucks. We assembled on Christopher Street at 6th Avenue, to march. 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.". Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. Patricia Yusah, Marketing and Communications One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. 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. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. 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. John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall.