Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The police would zero in on us because sometimes they would be in plain clothes, and sometimes they would even entrap. Hugh Bush I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. And, it was, I knew I would go through hell, I would go through fire for that experience. Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. 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. It was right in the center of where we all were. And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. Martin Boyce:I heard about the trucks, which to me was fascinated me, you know, it had an imagination thing that was like Marseilles, how can it only be a few blocks away? Evan Eames Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. 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. It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. So gay people were being strangled, shot, thrown in the river, blackmailed, fired from jobs. When you exit, have some identification and it'll be over in a short time." I was a man. It was fun to see fags. 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. America thought we were these homosexual monsters and we were so innocent, and oddly enough, we were so American. Getting then in the car, rocking them back and forth. The windows were always cloaked. 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. The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. This is every year in New York City. Sophie Cabott Black The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. I mean they were making some headway. What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." TV Host (Archival):Ladies and gentlemen, the reason for using first names only forthese very, very charming contestants is that right now each one of them is breaking the law. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. Eric Marcus, Writer:Before Stonewall, there was no such thing as coming out or being out. I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. We didn't necessarily know where we were going yet, you know, what organizations we were going to be or how things would go, but we became something I, as a person, could all of a sudden grab onto, that I couldn't grab onto when I'd go to a subway T-room as a kid, or a 42nd street movie theater, you know, or being picked up by some dirty old man. 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. Things were just changing. One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. Slate:Activity Group Therapy (1950), Columbia University Educational Films. Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. 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. John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. This time they said, "We're not going." I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. Judith Kuchar by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor Never, never, never. Marjorie Duffield 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. We don't know. The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. Activists had been working for change long before Stonewall. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:So at that point the police are extremely nervous. 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. 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. 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. Suzanne Poli View in iTunes. And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. Other images in this film are And she was quite crazy. On June 27, 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. And Howard said, "Boy there's like a riot gonna happen here," and I said, "yeah." Doric Wilson 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. I never believed in that. Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. Chris Mara, Production Assistants Susan Liberti For those kisses. These homosexuals glorify unnatural sex acts. Danny Garvin:We were talking about the revolution happening and we were walking up 7th Avenue and I was thinking it was either Black Panthers or the Young Lords were going to start it and we turned the corner from 7th Avenue onto Christopher Street and we saw the paddy wagon pull up there. Slate:The Homosexual(1967), CBS Reports. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. 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. They were to us. 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. Robin Haueter At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. 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. As kids, we played King Kong. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? They pushed everybody like to the back room and slowly asking for IDs. It was terrifying. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? They are taught that no man is born homosexual and many psychiatrists now believe that homosexuality begins to form in the first three years of life. Almost anything you could name. John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. It was a down at a heels kind of place, it was a lot of street kids and things like that. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. John DiGiacomo John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. Ellen Goosenberg Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films 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. Clever. They really were objecting to how they were being treated. Director . 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. And the rest of your life will be a living hell. Abstract. They would bang on the trucks. 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. First Run Features I had never seen anything like that. 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. Participants of the 1969 Greenwich Village uprising describe the effect that Stonewall had on their lives. As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969. I was never seduced by an older person or anything like that. Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." Joe DeCola Bettye Lane We could easily be hunted, that was a game. They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. There was at least one gay bar that was run just as a hustler bar for straight gay married men. Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. John O'Brien:It was definitely dark, it was definitely smelly and raunchy and dirty and that's the only places that we had to meet each other, was in the very dirty, despicable places. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. But we're going to pay dearly for this. 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. The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. NBC News Archives Martha Babcock National History Archive, LGBT Community Center Newly restored for the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Before Stonewall pries open the . This, to a homosexual, is no choice at all. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. People started throwing pennies. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. Some of the pre-Stonewall uprisings included: Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1967 Black Night Brawl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 5, 1961. 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. Mike Nuget The award winning film Before Stonewall pries open the closet door, setting free the dramatic story of the sometimes horrifying public and private existences experienced by gay and lesbian Americans since the 1920s. The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. 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. TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? Alexandra Meryash Nikolchev, On-Line Editors It was tremendous freedom. And it was fantastic. Atascadero was known in gay circles as the Dachau for queers, and appropriately so. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. One never knows when the homosexual is about. Linton Media "We're not going.". Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. 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. Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. 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. Based on I told the person at the door, I said "I'm 18 tonight" and he said to me, "you little SOB," he said. 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. Seymour Wishman 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. 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. Chris Mara And the Stonewall was part of that system. 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." Audience Member (Archival):I was wondering if you think that there are any quote "happy homosexuals" for whom homosexuality would be, in a way, their best adjustment in life? And they started smashing their heads with clubs. A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? 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. Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. The lights came on, it's like stop dancing. ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. Lilli M. Vincenz Is that conceivable? William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. 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. J. Michael Grey 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. Cop (Archival):Anyone can walk into that men's room, any child can walk in there, and see what you guys were doing. It's not my cup of tea. 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. Marc Aubin It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. You knew you could ruin them for life. Homo, homo was big. Urban Stages The events of that night have been described as the birth of the gay-rights movement. Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. American Airlines 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.". A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. [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]. Vanessa Ezersky The Chicago riots, the Human Be-in, the dope smoking, the hippies. It must have been terrifying for them. Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. Because if you don't have extremes, you don't get any moderation. And, you know,The Village Voiceat that point started using the word "gay.". The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. 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. John van Hoesen 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. All the rules were off in the '60s. We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. That never happened before. 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. And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:They were sexual deviates. It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. 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. That was scary, very scary. You know. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. Martin Boyce Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:But there were little, tiny pin holes in the plywood windows, I'll call them the windows but they were plywood, and we could look out from there and every time I went over and looked out through one of those pin holes where he did, we were shocked at how big the crowd had become. Doing things like that. 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. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. Tom Caruso We'll put new liquor in there, we'll put a new mirror up, we'll get a new jukebox." 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.". Original Language: English. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. 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. And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. Don't fire until I fire. 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. 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. ABCNEWS VideoSource Just making their lives miserable for once. Martin Boyce:And then more police came, and it didn't stop. This 1955 educational film warns of homosexuality, calling it "a sickness of the mind.". hide caption. There are a lot of kids here. And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. Michael Dolan, Technical Advisors You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. It was an age of experimentation. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. I was a homosexual. Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. Alexis Charizopolis Available via license: Content may be subject to . Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. Martha Shelley Danny Garvin:We became a people. Dana Kirchoff The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. And this went on for hours. We went, "Oh my God. It was nonsense, it was nonsense, it was all the people there, that were reacting and opposing what was occurring. Jerry Hoose I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. Obama signed the memorandum to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. They frequent their own clubs, and bars and coffee houses, where they can escape the disapproving eye of the society that they call straight. Paul Bosche 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. Transcript A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. Because as the police moved back, we were conscious, all of us, of the area we were controlling and now we were in control of the area because we were surrounded the bar, we were moving in, they were moving back. And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. 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. 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 . We were all there. I made friends that first day. 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. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! Dr. Socarides (Archival):Homosexuality is in fact a mental illness which has reached epidemiological proportions. It was like a reward. I guess they're deviates. 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. They didn't know what they were walking into. She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. People could take shots at us. 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. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. Jimmy hadn't enjoyed himself so much in a long time. Doric Wilson:Somebody that I knew that was older than me, his family had him sent off where they go up and damage the frontal part of the brain. 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. All of the rules that I had grown up with, and that I had hated in my guts, other people were fighting against, and saying "No, it doesn't have to be this way.". 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. Amber Hall I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. Fred Sargeant:When it was clear that things were definitely over for the evening, we decided we needed to do something more. They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:This was the Rosa Parks moment, the time that gay people stood up and said no. And we all relaxed. And that's what it was, it was a war. 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. and someone would say, "Well, they're still fighting the police, let's go," and they went in. The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We had maybe six people and by this time there were several thousand outside. It meant nothing to us. But we went down to the trucks and there, people would have sex. Raymond Castro Before Stonewall. [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Just let's see if they can. A sickness of the mind. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The Stonewall pulled in everyone from every part of gay life. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. Barney Karpfinger 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." 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. 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. 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. Narrator (Archival):This is one of the county's principal weekend gathering places for homosexuals, both male and female. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world. Eric Marcus, Recreation Still Photography Hear more of the conversation and historical interviews at the audio link. 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. 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. WGBH Educational Foundation 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.