Hunted, hunted, sometimes we were hunted. Before Stonewall - Wikipedia I could never let that happen and never did. Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. I mean does anyone know what that is? Queer was very big. June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. We love to hear from our listeners! John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. But we couldn't hold out very long. His movements are not characteristic of a real boy. Homosexuality was a dishonorable discharge in those days, and you couldn't get a job afterwards. 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. 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. That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. 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. It was an age of experimentation. And the cops got that. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. Detective John Sorenson, Dade County Morals & Juvenile Squad (Archival):There may be some in this auditorium. Eventually something was bound to blow. Eric Marcus, Writer:Before Stonewall, there was no such thing as coming out or being out. If anybody should find out I was gay and would tell my mother, who was in a wheelchair, it would have broken my heart and she would have thought she did something wrong. Slate:The Homosexual(1967), CBS Reports. I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. It was fun to see fags. 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. People could take shots at us. Barney Karpfinger 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. Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. 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. It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. Bettye Lane The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." Martha Shelley:I don't know if you remember the Joan Baez song, "It isn't nice to block the doorway, it isn't nice to go to jail, there're nicer ways to do it but the nice ways always fail." Danny Garvin:It was the perfect time to be in the Village. 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. I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. 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. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a man during a confrontation in Greenwich Village after a Gay Power march in New York. 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. Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. It was narrated by author Rita Mae Brown, directed by Greta Schiller, co-directed by Robert Rosenberg, and co-produced by John Scagliotti and Rosenberg, and Schiller. The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. We didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." There was at least one gay bar that was run just as a hustler bar for straight gay married men. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. 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. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. I told the person at the door, I said "I'm 18 tonight" and he said to me, "you little SOB," he said. And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." 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. 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. 1969: The Stonewall Uprising - Library of Congress But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. I never believed in that. The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. David Huggins 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. All I knew about was that I heard that there were people down in Times Square who were gay and that's where I went to. The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. 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. And we all relaxed. 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. You know, Howard's concern was and my concern was that if all hell broke loose, they'd just start busting heads. And, it was, I knew I would go through hell, I would go through fire for that experience. Daniel Pine They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. Original Language: English. The idea was to be there first. Gay bars were always on side streets out of the way in neighborhoods that nobody would go into. You were alone. A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. 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. 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. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. In the trucks or around the trucks. And, you know,The Village Voiceat that point started using the word "gay.". John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. "You could have got us in a lot of trouble, you could have got us closed up." 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. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. Suzanne Poli Richard Enman (Archival):Present laws give the adult homosexual only the choice of being, to simplify the matter, heterosexual and legal or homosexual and illegal. Chris Mara You gotta remember, the Stonewall bar was just down the street from there. John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International The cops were barricaded inside. Alexis Charizopolis There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. Guest Post: What I Learned From Revisiting My 1984 Documentary "Before All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. Barak Goodman And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. 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. They could be judges, lawyers. The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. Dan Martino 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. 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. 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." Over a short period of time, he will be unable to get sexually aroused to the pictures, and hopefully, he will be unable to get sexually aroused inside, in other settings as well. Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. 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. Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. This is every year in New York City. [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]. But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. Revisiting 'Before Stonewall' Film for the 50th Anniversary | Time 'Before Stonewall' Tracks the Pre-Movement Era | International As kids, we played King Kong. Fred Sargeant:When it was clear that things were definitely over for the evening, we decided we needed to do something more. People standing on cars, standing on garbage cans, screaming, yelling. There may be some girls here who will turn lesbian. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. The mob was saying, you know, "Screw you, cops, you think you can come in a bust us up? 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.". 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. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. Fred Sargeant:Things started off small, but there was an energy that began to flow through the crowd. Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. Marjorie Duffield 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. 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. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. 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. Transcript of Re-Release: The Stonewall | Happy Scribe Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. 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.". Also, through this fight, the "LGBT" was born. The Activism That Came Before Stonewall And The Movement That - NPR Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. It was as if an artist had arranged it, it was beautiful, it was like mica, it was like the streets we fought on were strewn with diamonds. He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. Katrina Heilbroner 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. I mean I'm talking like sardines. Raymond Castro:You could hear screaming outside, a lot of noise from the protesters and it was a good sound. Homo, homo was big. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . And Dick Leitsch, who was the head of the Mattachine Society said, "Who's in favor?" You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. 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. There was the Hippie movement, there was the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King, and all of these affected me terribly. Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. Is that conceivable? You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. Heather Gude, Archival Research 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. Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor 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. 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. But we're going to pay dearly for this. This 1968 Film Put Drag Queens In The Spotlight Before Stonewall - HuffPost Geoff Kole It was done in our little street talk. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. It was terrifying. It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. We went, "Oh my God. In the sexual area, in psychology, psychiatry. Doric Wilson TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? 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 Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community He pulls all his men inside. So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. Danny Garvin:And the cops just charged them. 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. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. Trevor, Post Production We were scared. Because he was homosexual. Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:And they were, they were kids. You know. 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. Because if you don't have extremes, you don't get any moderation. Hear more of the conversation and historical interviews at the audio link. Daily News Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. As you read, keep in mind that LGBTQ+ is a relatively new term and, while queer people have always existed, the terminology has changed frequently over the years. 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. People cheer while standing in front of The Stonewall Inn as the annual Gay Pride parade passes, Sunday, June 26, 2011 in New York. Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? Martin Boyce And there, we weren't allowed to be alone, the police would raid us still. The police weren't letting us dance. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:At a certain point, it felt pretty dangerous to me but I noticed that the cop that seemed in charge, he said you know what, we have to go inside for safety. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. TV Host (Archival):That's a very lovely dress too that you're wearing Simone. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. 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. Because if they weren't there fast, I was worried that there was something going on that I didn't know about and they weren't gonna come. It premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on June 27, 1985. Getting then in the car, rocking them back and forth. Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. We were thinking about survival. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:What was so good about the Stonewall was that you could dance slow there. Doing things like that. I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. It was a horror story. Jerry Hoose:The open gay people that hung out on the streets were basically the have-nothing-to-lose types, which I was. 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. Not even us. Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. Just let's see if they can. This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. John van Hoesen In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. 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. Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969. 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. Martha Shelley Susana Fernandes Andy Frielingsdorf, Reenactment Actors The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. 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. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. Mafia house beer? 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. 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?". If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. 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. Dana Kirchoff I mean they were making some headway. Dick Leitsch:We wore suits and ties because we wanted people, in the public, who were wearing suits and ties, to identify with us. Stonewall Uprising | American Experience | PBS The Underground Lounge I mean it didn't stop after that. And, I did not like parading around while all of these vacationers were standing there eating ice cream and looking at us like we were critters in a zoo. 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. That never happened before. WPA Film Library, Thanks to
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