before stonewall documentary transcript before stonewall documentary transcript

Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. Dan Bodner Yvonne Ritter:It's like people who are, you know, black people who are used to being mistreated, and going to the back of the bus and I guess this was sort of our going to the back of the bus. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:There were all these articles in likeLife Magazineabout how the Village was liberal and people that were called homosexuals went there. Heather Gude, Archival Research I mean it didn't stop after that. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. America thought we were these homosexual monsters and we were so innocent, and oddly enough, we were so American. I made friends that first day. Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. Ellinor Mitchell 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." Liz Davis 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. So I run down there. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. The homosexual, bitterly aware of his rejection, responds by going underground. I was a man. People started throwing pennies. He pulls all his men inside. Andrea Weiss is a documentary filmmaker and author with a Ph.D. in American History. Now, 50 years later, the film is back. You needed a license even to be a beautician and that could be either denied or taken away from you. Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. Ellen Goosenberg I never believed in that. And the police were showing up. 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. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. 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. 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. Danny Garvin:It was the perfect time to be in the Village. 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?" 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. Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. 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. Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. Linton Media 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." Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It really should have been called Stonewall uprising. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. One never knows when the homosexual is about. Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations So anything that would set us off, we would go into action. You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. 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. 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. They would bang on the trucks. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Narrator (Archival):Richard Enman, president of the Mattachine Society of Florida, whose goal is to legalize homosexuality between consenting adults, was a reluctant participant in tonight's program. John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. Not even us. National Archives and Records Administration Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. And the people coming out weren't going along with it so easily. Paul Bosche They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of straight America, in terms of the middle class, was recoiling in horror from what was happening all around them at that time, in that summer and the summer before. Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969. I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. It was nonsense, it was nonsense, it was all the people there, that were reacting and opposing what was occurring. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. 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. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. Lauren Noyes. I could never let that happen and never did. We were scared. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. It eats you up inside. And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. Where did you buy it? Joe DeCola And it was fantastic. You had no place to try to find an identity. They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. There are a lot of kids here. I learned, very early, that those horrible words were about me, that I was one of those people. One of the world's oldest and largest gay pride parades became a victory celebration after New York's historic decision to legalize same-sex marriage. (c) 2011 Other images in this film are Newly restored for the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Before Stonewall pries open the . The film combined personal interviews, snapshots and home movies, together with historical footage. They didn't know what they were walking into. And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. The lights came on, it's like stop dancing. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. 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. They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. John O'Brien:Heterosexuals, legally, had lots of sexual outlets. John DiGiacomo Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films 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. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. John van Hoesen We were thinking about survival. 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. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. Stonewall Forever is a documentary from NYC's LGBT Community Center directed by Ro Haber. People could take shots at us. Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. You cut one head off. We love to hear from our listeners! David Alpert Fred Sargeant:Things started off small, but there was an energy that began to flow through the crowd. What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." We were all there. I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. I met this guy and I broke down crying in his arms. Just making their lives miserable for once. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation I grew up in a very Catholic household and the conflict of issues of redemption, of is it possible that if you are this thing called homosexual, is it possible to be redeemed? 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. Creating the First Visual History of Queer Life Before Stonewall Making a landmark documentary about LGBTQ Americans before 1969 meant digging through countless archives to find traces of. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. 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. ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. People standing on cars, standing on garbage cans, screaming, yelling. It was as if they were identifying a thing. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. Getty Images Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. 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? I was a homosexual. 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. Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. 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. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. Cop (Archival):Anyone can walk into that men's room, any child can walk in there, and see what you guys were doing. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy Fred Sargeant:When it was clear that things were definitely over for the evening, we decided we needed to do something more. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. 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. 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. And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. [1] To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 2019, the film was restored and re-released by First Run Features in June 2019. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. For the first time the next person stood up. 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. 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. June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. 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. Evan Eames This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. Doric Wilson How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? It was one of the things you did in New York, it was like the Barnum and Bailey aspect of it. Danny Garvin:Something snapped. 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. Lilli M. Vincenz 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. 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. Leroy S. Mobley 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. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. All rights reserved. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:At the peak, as many as 500 people per year were arrested for the crime against nature, and between 3- and 5,000 people per year arrested for various solicitation or loitering crimes. 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. And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. [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]. Martin Boyce:We were like a Hydra. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016. That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. And they were gay. She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. The only faces you will see are those of the arresting officers. Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. It must have been terrifying for them. 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. John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. I famously used the word "fag" in the lead sentence I said "the forces of faggotry." Participants of the 1969 Greenwich Village uprising describe the effect that Stonewall had on their lives. John Scagliotti That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School 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?" People that were involved in it like me referred to it as "The First Run." Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? The Underground Lounge 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. Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. They really were objecting to how they were being treated. The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. Clever. This was in front of the police. John O'Brien:Cops got hurt. 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. David Huggins And the first gay power demonstration to my knowledge was against my story inThe Village Voiceon Wednesday. 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. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. I mean does anyone know what that is? 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. The events of that night have been described as the birth of the gay-rights movement. TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . I really thought that, you know, we did it. Because one out of three of you will turn queer. Danny Garvin:We became a people. 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. 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. Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. Raymond Castro Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. Susana Fernandes Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Our radio was cut off every time we got on the police radio. He said, "Okay, let's go." A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. Homosexuality was a dishonorable discharge in those days, and you couldn't get a job afterwards. 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. We went, "Oh my God. J. Michael Grey Not able to do anything. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. 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. View in iTunes. In the Life And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. 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." David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. It was tremendous freedom. Susan Liberti This is every year in New York City. We didn't expect we'd ever get to Central Park. 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. And, you know,The Village Voiceat that point started using the word "gay.". 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. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. Barak Goodman If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. Seymour Wishman Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? 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. Oh, tell me about your anxiety. 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. There was the Hippie movement, there was the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King, and all of these affected me terribly. A few of us would get dressed up in skirts and blouses and the guys would all have to wear suits and ties. Slate:In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. Before Stonewall - Trailer BuskFilms 12.6K subscribers Subscribe 14K views 10 years ago Watch the full film here (UK & IRE only): http://buskfilms.com/films/before-sto. The groundbreaking 1984 film "Before Stonewall" introduced audiences to some of the key players and places that helped spark the Greenwich Village riots. Is that conceivable? ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. It was terrifying. Jay Fialkov And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:The Stonewall, they didn't have a liquor license and they were raided by the cops regularly and there were pay-offs to the cops, it was awful. The idea was to be there first.