Revealing and. Alan Lechner And the people coming out weren't going along with it so easily. Fifty years ago, a riot broke out at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:They were sexual deviates. 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. 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? And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. Greg Shea, Legal The Underground Lounge Clever. 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. It was as if they were identifying a thing. Michael Dolan, Technical Advisors 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?". We did use humor to cover pain, frustration, anger. Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. 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. We could easily be hunted, that was a game. John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. Jerry Hoose And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." You know, Howard's concern was and my concern was that if all hell broke loose, they'd just start busting heads. Frank Kameny The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. People cheer while standing in front of The Stonewall Inn as the annual Gay Pride parade passes, Sunday, June 26, 2011 in New York. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. Urban Stages Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. And we had no right to such. People talk about being in and out now, there was no out, there was just in. I met this guy and I broke down crying in his arms. We heard one, then more and more. Quentin Heilbroner John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. I just thought you had to get through this, and I thought I could get through it, but you really had to be smart about it. 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. Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. Seymour Wishman 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. They were to us. One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. 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. David Alpert Glenn Fukushima And the police escalated their crackdown on bars because of the reelection campaign. There may be some girls here who will turn lesbian. We knew it was a gay bar, we walked past it. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? People started throwing pennies. This, to a homosexual, is no choice at all. Chris Mara Never, never, never. Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. I mean I'm talking like sardines. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. Corbis 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. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. Chris Mara, Production Assistants All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. And the Stonewall was part of that system. 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. Vanessa Ezersky They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. 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. 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. 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." Dr. Socarides (Archival):Homosexuality is in fact a mental illness which has reached epidemiological proportions. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:So at that point the police are extremely nervous. Danny Garvin:He's a faggot, he's a sissy, queer. Charles Harris, Transcriptions And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. Even non-gay people. So anything that would set us off, we would go into action. National Archives and Records Administration They didn't know what they were walking into. 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:There were all these articles in likeLife Magazineabout how the Village was liberal and people that were called homosexuals went there. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. And I just didn't understand that. Jeremiah Hawkins Detective John Sorenson, Dade County Morals & Juvenile Squad (Archival):There may be some in this auditorium. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:All throughout the 60s in New York City, the period when the New York World's Fair was attracting visitors from all over America and all over the world. And we all relaxed. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. Lauren Noyes. 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 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. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. We were thinking about survival. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. The groundbreaking 1984 film "Before Stonewall" introduced audiences to some of the key players and places that helped spark the Greenwich Village riots. All rights reserved. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. BBC Worldwide Americas 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?" When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. Not able to do anything. And if we catch you, involved with a homosexual, your parents are going to know about it first. They were afraid that the FBI was following them. They really were objecting to how they were being treated. Eventually something was bound to blow. I told the person at the door, I said "I'm 18 tonight" and he said to me, "you little SOB," he said. And so there was this drag queen standing on the corner, so they go up and make a sexual offer and they'd get busted. And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. Louis Mandelbaum Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. Getty Images You had no place to try to find an identity. Ellinor Mitchell Dan Bodner Because one out of three of you will turn queer. 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 . How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? 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 as awful as people might think that sounds, it's the way history has always worked. But after the uprising, polite requests for change turned into angry demands. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:This was the Rosa Parks moment, the time that gay people stood up and said no. William Eskridge, Professor of Law: The 1960s were dark ages for lesbians and gay men all over America. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. John Scagliotti Cause I was from the streets. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. People could take shots at us. 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. 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. This was ours, here's where the Stonewall was, here's our Mecca. Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. 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. So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. Mafia house beer? You knew you could ruin them for life. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. Doing things like that. And this went on for hours. That's what gave oxygen to the fire. But we went down to the trucks and there, people would have sex. Bettye Lane I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. 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?" The only faces you will see are those of the arresting officers. Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. 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. And there, we weren't allowed to be alone, the police would raid us still. And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. So I run down there. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. You see these cops, like six or eight cops in drag. Slate:In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. Nobody. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. And we were singing: "We are the Village girls, we wear our hair in curls, we wear our dungarees, above our nellie knees." Linton Media It was the only time I was in a gladiatorial sport that I stood up in. And it just seemed like, fantastic because the background was this industrial, becoming an industrial ruin, it was a masculine setting, it was a whole world. 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. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." The lights came on, it's like stop dancing. Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. I made friends that first day. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. [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]. Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. 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. The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. Danny Garvin And they started smashing their heads with clubs. 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. On June 27, 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. It was tremendous freedom. A sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious. Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. ITN Source [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. 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. In the sexual area, in psychology, psychiatry. We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. 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. His movements are not characteristic of a real boy. The cops were barricaded inside. Judith Kuchar A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. Hugh Bush Raymond Castro:We were in the back of the room, and the lights went on, so everybody stopped what they were doing, because now the police started coming in, raiding the bar. It was like a reward. And that's what it was, it was a war. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. It meant nothing to us. 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. hide caption. Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. But the . Giles Kotcher He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. They pushed everybody like to the back room and slowly asking for IDs. Martin Boyce:Oh, Miss New Orleans, she wouldn't be stopped. 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. 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. Just let's see if they can. And then they send them out in the street and of course they did make arrests, because you know, there's all these guys who cruise around looking for drag queens. They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. I really thought that, you know, we did it. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. 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. He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. And today we're talking about Stonewall, which were both pretty anxious about so anxious. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. There's a little door that slides open with this power-hungry nut behind that, you see this much of your eyes, and he sees that much of your face, and then he decides whether you're going to get in. 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. And the rest of your life will be a living hell. All the rules were off in the '60s. Dick Leitsch:We wore suits and ties because we wanted people, in the public, who were wearing suits and ties, to identify with us. National History Archive, LGBT Community Center Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. "Don't fire. Paul Bosche The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School It was a leaflet that attacked the relationship of the police and the Mafia and the bars that we needed to see ended. 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. 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. You needed a license even to be a beautician and that could be either denied or taken away from you. It must have been terrifying for them. Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:Ed Koch who was a democratic party leader in the Greenwich Village area, was a specific leader of the local forces seeking to clean up the streets. 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. 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. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. Evan Eames So it was a perfect storm for the police. 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. Getting then in the car, rocking them back and forth. Directors Greta Schiller Robert Rosenberg (co-director) Stars Rita Mae Brown Maua Adele Ajanaku This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. 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. In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . 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. Alexis Charizopolis 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. I am not alone, there are other people that feel exactly the same way.". The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. Colonial House Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:What was so good about the Stonewall was that you could dance slow there. The New York Times / Redux Pictures We didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. Other images in this film are 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. So in every gay pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. This is every year in New York City. 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. Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. Danny Garvin:It was the perfect time to be in the Village. 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 . I'm losing everything that I have. Naturally, you get careless, you fall for it, and the next thing you know, you have silver bracelets on both arms. In the Life Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. John O'Brien:Our goal was to hurt those police. Martha Shelley:The riot could have been buried, it could have been a few days in the local newspaper and that was that. A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE John O'Brien:Heterosexuals, legally, had lots of sexual outlets. 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. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. I never believed in that. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. I hope it was. Cop (Archival):Anyone can walk into that men's room, any child can walk in there, and see what you guys were doing. Jerry Hoose:The open gay people that hung out on the streets were basically the have-nothing-to-lose types, which I was. At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. They could be judges, lawyers. 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. June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. John O'Brien:Cops got hurt. And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. 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. 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. That was scary, very scary. 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. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. And there was tear gas on Saturday night, right in front of the Stonewall. 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." Heather Gude, Archival Research Where did you buy it? John DiGiacomo Daily News Don't fire until I fire. Before Stonewall 1984 Directed by Greta Schiller, Robert Rosenberg Synopsis 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. It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." And the cops got that.