They frequent their own clubs, and bars and coffee houses, where they can escape the disapproving eye of the society that they call straight. Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? 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. 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. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. We could easily be hunted, that was a game. hide caption. Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? A sickness of the mind. It was a leaflet that attacked the relationship of the police and the Mafia and the bars that we needed to see ended. Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. And as awful as people might think that sounds, it's the way history has always worked. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. I famously used the word "fag" in the lead sentence I said "the forces of faggotry." And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. People could take shots at us. John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. As kids, we played King Kong. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:There were all these articles in likeLife Magazineabout how the Village was liberal and people that were called homosexuals went there. The only faces you will see are those of the arresting officers. Evan Eames That's it. And the police were showing up. The lights came on, it's like stop dancing. Susan Liberti 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. And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. 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. 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. [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. Not even us. Everyone from the street kids who were white and black kids from the South. Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. And, you know,The Village Voiceat that point started using the word "gay.". They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. That was scary, very scary. John Scagliotti Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. 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. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. A medievalist. Quentin Heilbroner Giles Kotcher 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. 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. But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. 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." 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:It really should have been called Stonewall uprising. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. Doug Cramer Barak Goodman 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. Lilli M. Vincenz Martha Shelley:They wanted to fit into American society the way it was. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. 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. We assembled on Christopher Street at 6th Avenue, to march. 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. And today we're talking about Stonewall, which were both pretty anxious about so anxious. 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. June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. Martha Babcock 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. The mob was saying, you know, "Screw you, cops, you think you can come in a bust us up? Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. And they were gay. He may appear normal, and it may be too late when you discover he is mentally ill. John O'Brien:I was a poor, young gay person. She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. Jerry Hoose:The open gay people that hung out on the streets were basically the have-nothing-to-lose types, which I was. Queer was very big. Urban Stages Ellen Goosenberg Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. This, to a homosexual, is no choice at all. Joe DeCola They would bang on the trucks. I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. And I ran into Howard Smith on the street,The Village Voicewas right there. Ellinor Mitchell Raymond Castro:You could hear screaming outside, a lot of noise from the protesters and it was a good sound. 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. 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? William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. It was first released in 1984 with its American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and its European premiere at the Berlinale, followed by a successful theatrical release in many countries and a national broadcast on PBS. You gotta remember, the Stonewall bar was just down the street from there. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:What they did in the Stonewall that night. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". 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. Do you understand me?". Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. Jeremiah Hawkins I learned, very early, that those horrible words were about me, that I was one of those people. Danny Garvin:We became a people. For the first time the next person stood up. Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? On June 28, 1969, New York City police raided a Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, setting off a three-day riot that launched the modern American gay rights movement. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. 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. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. It was as if they were identifying a thing. 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. Frank Kameny, co-founder of the Mattachine Society, and Shirley Willer, president of the Daughters of Bilitis, spoke to Marcus about being gay before the Stonewall riots happened and what motivated people who were involved in the movement. Colonial House John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay History Papers and Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. 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. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". 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." The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. We were scared. You cut one head off. And if we catch you, involved with a homosexual, your parents are going to know about it first. 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. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. Susana Fernandes 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. I told the person at the door, I said "I'm 18 tonight" and he said to me, "you little SOB," he said. The idea was to be there first. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International kui Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. I never believed in that. 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. And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. And this went on for hours. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. I mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin me. When you exit, have some identification and it'll be over in a short time." It meant nothing to us. And that's what it was, it was a war. That this was normal stuff. Gay bars were always on side streets out of the way in neighborhoods that nobody would go into. And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. Martha Shelley Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. It's not my cup of tea. In the Life The men's room was under police surveillance. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, we did use the small hoses on the fire extinguishers. Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. Not able to do anything. And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. Tom Caruso J. Michael Grey And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. I said, "I can go in with you?" 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. Heather Gude, Archival Research They didn't know what they were walking into. Raymond Castro:If that light goes on, you know to stop whatever you're doing, and separate. But as we were going up 6th Avenue, it kept growing. You were alone. Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. 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. People standing on cars, standing on garbage cans, screaming, yelling. Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. And I knew that I was lesbian. David Carter Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:TheNew York TimesI guess printed a story, but it wasn't a major story. But we went down to the trucks and there, people would have sex. Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. We were winning. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. 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. 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. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives 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. Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. 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. Jerry Hoose:I was chased down the street with billy clubs. This was a highly unusual raid, going in there in the middle of the night with a full crowd, the Mafia hasn't been alerted, the Sixth Precinct hasn't been alerted. They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. It was an age of experimentation. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. Frank Simon's documentary follows the drag contestants of 1967's Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant, capturing plenty of on- and offstage drama along the way. And I just didn't understand that. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. 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 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. Fred Sargeant:Three articles of clothing had to be of your gender or you would be in violation of that law. The Stonewall had reopened. Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. 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. 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. Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. It won the Best Film Award at the Houston International Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature at Filmex, First Place at the National Educational Film Festival, and Honorable Mention at the Global Village Documentary Festival. Alan Lechner (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. Just let's see if they can. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. 400 Plankinton Ave. Compton's Cafeteria Raid, San Francisco, California, 1966 Coopers Do-Nut Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1959 Pepper Hill Club Raid, Baltimore, Maryland in 1955. 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.". Scott Kardel, Project Administration Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. Narrator (Archival):This is one of the county's principal weekend gathering places for homosexuals, both male and female. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. 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." And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. 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. You know. In the trucks or around the trucks. Amber Hall They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Mike Nuget 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. And she was quite crazy. 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. Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. 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. 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?". Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And I keep listening and listening and listening, hoping I'm gonna hear sirens any minute and I was very freaked. 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. Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. I'm losing everything that I have. We did use humor to cover pain, frustration, anger. Martha Shelley:If you were in a small town somewhere, everybody knew you and everybody knew what you did and you couldn't have a relationship with a member of your own sex, period. 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. Fred Sargeant:When it was clear that things were definitely over for the evening, we decided we needed to do something more. Katrina Heilbroner Seymour Wishman Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" I was a man. 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. Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. WPA Film Library, Thanks to Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. John O'Brien:Our goal was to hurt those police. How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? Before Stonewall, the activists wanted to fit into society and not rock the boat. And it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:So at that point the police are extremely nervous. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. Leroy S. Mobley Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. 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. The homosexual, bitterly aware of his rejection, responds by going underground. Producers Library Activists had been working for change long before Stonewall. Things were just changing. 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. Dan Martino 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. Detective John Sorenson, Dade County Morals & Juvenile Squad (Archival):There may be some in this auditorium. So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. And we were singing: "We are the Village girls, we wear our hair in curls, we wear our dungarees, above our nellie knees." Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. 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?" Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . He said, "Okay, let's go." I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? He pulls all his men inside. The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School "You could have got us in a lot of trouble, you could have got us closed up." Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. 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. [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. All the rules were off in the '60s. It was done in our little street talk. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:All throughout the 60s in New York City, the period when the New York World's Fair was attracting visitors from all over America and all over the world. The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. John van Hoesen We had been threatened bomb threats. We were thinking about survival. Before Stonewall. Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism?