Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We were looking for secret exits and one of the policewomen was able to squirm through the window and they did find a way out. At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. 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. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. Based on John O'Brien:We had no idea we were gonna finish the march. This was ours, here's where the Stonewall was, here's our Mecca. John O'Brien:Our goal was to hurt those police. Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:What was so good about the Stonewall was that you could dance slow there. Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. That's what gave oxygen to the fire. So gay people were being strangled, shot, thrown in the river, blackmailed, fired from jobs. Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. We don't know. Oh, tell me about your anxiety. [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. 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? Atascadero was known in gay circles as the Dachau for queers, and appropriately so. I hope it was. 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. So in every gay pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. And the Stonewall was part of that system. And the police were showing up. 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. 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. Jerry Hoose:And we were going fast. Daily News The events of that night have been described as the birth of the gay-rights movement. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement . And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". 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. But as we were going up 6th Avenue, it kept growing. Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969. Before Stonewall - Wikipedia As kids, we played King Kong. The Chicago riots, the Human Be-in, the dope smoking, the hippies. 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. Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. This is every year in New York City. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. Susan Liberti 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. 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. 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 had no speakers planned for the rally in Central Park, where we had hoped to get to. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. They were afraid that the FBI was following them. Revisiting 'Before Stonewall' Film for the 50th Anniversary | Time Because he was homosexual. Lauren Noyes. He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. And she was quite crazy. They could be judges, lawyers. 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. Hear more of the conversation and historical interviews at the audio link. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." You see, Ralph was a homosexual. Paul Bosche That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. [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]. And the cops got that. Martin Boyce:And then more police came, and it didn't stop. and someone would say, "Well, they're still fighting the police, let's go," and they went in. I famously used the word "fag" in the lead sentence I said "the forces of faggotry." PDF BEFORE STONEWALL press kit - First Run Features I was in the Navy when I was 17 and it was there that I discovered that I was gay. Is that conceivable? Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. Dana Kirchoff That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. 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. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:Gay people who were sentenced to medical institutions because they were found to be sexual psychopaths, were subjected sometimes to sterilization, occasionally to castration, sometimes to medical procedures, such as lobotomies, which were felt by some doctors to cure homosexuality and other sexual diseases. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. It was a leaflet that attacked the relationship of the police and the Mafia and the bars that we needed to see ended. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. 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." My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". People standing on cars, standing on garbage cans, screaming, yelling. I made friends that first day. It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. 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. 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. Suzanne Poli 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. 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. John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. Doug Cramer We were winning. [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. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. And the first gay power demonstration to my knowledge was against my story inThe Village Voiceon Wednesday. Clever. 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?" I am not alone, there are other people that feel exactly the same way.". But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. There are a lot of kids here. Susana Fernandes I was proud. Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy Scott McPartland/Getty Images A word that would be used in the 1960s for gay men and lesbians. Before Stonewall (1984) - full transcript 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. We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We didn't have the manpower, and the manpower for the other side was coming like it was a real war. Because to be gay represented to me either very, super effeminate men or older men who hung out in the upper movie theatres on 42nd Street or in the subway T-rooms, who'd be masturbating. 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. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. Daniel Pine I told the person at the door, I said "I'm 18 tonight" and he said to me, "you little SOB," he said. Before Stonewall streaming: where to watch online? - JustWatch Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. Jeremiah Hawkins Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. 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. Maureen Jordan It was a horror story. A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. That's it. There may be some girls here who will turn lesbian. 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. 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. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. Before Stonewall - Letterboxd Raymond Castro:You could hear screaming outside, a lot of noise from the protesters and it was a good sound. Noah Goldman 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 gay community. The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). Mafia house beer? Eventually something was bound to blow. Janice Flood 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. We heard one, then more and more. In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . People started throwing pennies. Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? Martha Shelley:The riot could have been buried, it could have been a few days in the local newspaper and that was that. Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. Eric Marcus, Writer:Before Stonewall, there was no such thing as coming out or being out. He said, "Okay, let's go." 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. Transcript A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. Eric Marcus, Writer:It was incredibly hot. 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. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:What they did in the Stonewall that night. And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. There was at least one gay bar that was run just as a hustler bar for straight gay married men. 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. Danny Garvin:People were screaming "pig," "copper." All the rules were off in the '60s. We assembled on Christopher Street at 6th Avenue, to march. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. 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. 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. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. 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. Bettye Lane 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? But we're going to pay dearly for this. 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. We were scared. Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:This was the Rosa Parks moment, the time that gay people stood up and said no. Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. Dr. Socarides (Archival):Homosexuality is in fact a mental illness which has reached epidemiological proportions. View in iTunes. We had been threatened bomb threats. 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. Jerry Hoose:I was chased down the street with billy clubs. But that's only partially true. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly Producers Library Before Stonewall : Throughline : NPR Before Stonewall - Rotten Tomatoes and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. In the Life 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. 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. It was right in the center of where we all were. That was scary, very scary. And they wore dark police uniforms and riot helmets and they had billy clubs and they had big plastic shields, like Roman army, and they actually formed a phalanx, and just marched down Christopher Street and kind of pushed us in front of them. 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. 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. The New York Times / Redux Pictures 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. Trevor, Post Production 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:And they were, they were kids. Like, "Joe, if you fire your gun without me saying your name and the words 'fire,' you will be walking a beat on Staten Island all alone on a lonely beach for the rest of your police career. John O'Brien:I was with a group that we actually took a parking meter out of theground, three or four people, and we used it as a battering ram. You see these cops, like six or eight cops in drag. Just let's see if they can. Jerry Hoose And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. Judy Laster Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. Corbis Slate:In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. 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. American Airlines John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. 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.". They would bang on the trucks. Doing things like that. John van Hoesen And I had become very radicalized in that time. I'm losing everything that I have. What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." Not able to do anything. This was in front of the police. Slate:Perversion for Profit(1965), Citizens for Decency Through Law. And, you know,The Village Voiceat that point started using the word "gay.". Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. Jorge Garcia-Spitz Revealing and. Doric Wilson:There was joy because the cops weren't winning. Abstract. I mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin me. 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 could never let that happen and never did. One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. Seymour Wishman Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. 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. Nobody. It was tremendous freedom. The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. Homosexuality was a dishonorable discharge in those days, and you couldn't get a job afterwards.