before stonewall documentary transcript

The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). And I had become very radicalized in that time. 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. Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. Homosexuality was a dishonorable discharge in those days, and you couldn't get a job afterwards. Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. You see, Ralph was a homosexual. I mean it didn't stop after that. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. American Airlines Alexis Charizopolis Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. 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. Quentin Heilbroner Windows started to break. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. People talk about being in and out now, there was no out, there was just in. 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. And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. It's not my cup of tea. It was not a place that, in my life, me and my friends paid much attention to. And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. Amber Hall They would bang on the trucks. First Run Features They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. And I knew that I was lesbian. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, we did use the small hoses on the fire extinguishers. Katrina Heilbroner A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. David Alpert I was in the Navy when I was 17 and it was there that I discovered that I was gay. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. 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. Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? [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. Martin Boyce:Oh, Miss New Orleans, she wouldn't be stopped. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. Dan Bodner Dan Martino National History Archive, LGBT Community Center That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. But as we were going up 6th Avenue, it kept growing. 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. 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. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. 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. Revealing and, by turns, humorous and horrifying, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotional and political spark of today's gay rights movement - the events that . They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. And as awful as people might think that sounds, it's the way history has always worked. 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. America thought we were these homosexual monsters and we were so innocent, and oddly enough, we were so American. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. 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. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. Fred Sargeant And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. ABCNEWS VideoSource 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." Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. All the rules were off in the '60s. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. Participants of the 1969 Greenwich Village uprising describe the effect that Stonewall had on their lives. 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. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:And they were, they were kids. It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. Ellinor Mitchell Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. Based on 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 . This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. I mean does anyone know what that is? The Underground Lounge Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. We did use humor to cover pain, frustration, anger. And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. The lights came on, it's like stop dancing. 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. 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. 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. Because he was homosexual. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. 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 first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. I was never seduced by an older person or anything like that. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. The only faces you will see are those of the arresting officers. I was proud. Marc Aubin Ellen Goosenberg Dick Leitsch:We wore suits and ties because we wanted people, in the public, who were wearing suits and ties, to identify with us. Some of the pre-Stonewall uprisings included: Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1967 Black Night Brawl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 5, 1961. Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. 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. The New York Times / Redux Pictures He said, "Okay, let's go." (c) 2011 Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. There's a little door that slides open with this power-hungry nut behind that, you see this much of your eyes, and he sees that much of your face, and then he decides whether you're going to get in. Raymond Castro:You could hear screaming outside, a lot of noise from the protesters and it was a good sound. But I'm wearing this police thing I'm thinking well if they break through I better take it off really quickly but they're gunna come this way and we're going to be backing up and -- who knows what'll happen. 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. 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. It was the only time I was in a gladiatorial sport that I stood up in. So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. Scott Kardel, Project Administration 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. Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. 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. I hope it was. Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. 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. We didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. Before Stonewall. I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects 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. Jorge Garcia-Spitz Samual Murkofsky 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. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. Original Language: English. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. Marjorie Duffield We heard one, then more and more. Eric Marcus, Recreation Still Photography Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . Getting then in the car, rocking them back and forth. Eventually something was bound to blow. 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. John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude John O'Brien 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. John O'Brien:Cops got hurt. Alan Lechner Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:There were all these articles in likeLife Magazineabout how the Village was liberal and people that were called homosexuals went there. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. Hear more of the conversation and historical interviews at the audio link. Pamela Gaudiano Also, through this fight, the "LGBT" was born. 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? Never, never, never. And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. Richard Enman (Archival):Well, let me say, first of all, what type of laws we are not after, because there has been much to-do that the Society was in favor of the legalization of marriage between homosexuals, and the adoption of children, and such as that, and that is not at all factual at all. This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. A sickness of the mind. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. Cause I was from the streets. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. We knew it was a gay bar, we walked past it. The events. Glenn Fukushima Andrea Weiss is a documentary filmmaker and author with a Ph.D. in American History. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives Jimmy hadn't enjoyed himself so much in a long time. We don't know. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." Louis Mandelbaum Jerry Hoose:The open gay people that hung out on the streets were basically the have-nothing-to-lose types, which I was. Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. 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. So anything that would set us off, we would go into action. I could never let that happen and never did. 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. Liz Davis I mean I'm talking like sardines. 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. Before Stonewall, the activists wanted to fit into society and not rock the boat. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. 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. The cops were barricaded inside. David Huggins Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of They really were objecting to how they were being treated. What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. And they were gay. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. Raymond Castro 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.". We knew that this was a moment that we didn't want to let slip past, because it was something that we could use to bring more of the groups together. We assembled on Christopher Street at 6th Avenue, to march. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. Dick Leitsch:It was an invasion, I mean you felt outraged and stuff like you know what, God, this is America, what's this country come to? Getty Images Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. 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. 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. Not even us. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. ITN Source David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. Linton Media Homo, homo was big. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. 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. Danny Garvin:Something snapped. It meant nothing to us. 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. Bettye Lane I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. Robin Haueter Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. A person marching in a gay rights parade along New York's Fifth Avenue on July 7th, 1979. Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. 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 Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." This was ours, here's where the Stonewall was, here's our Mecca. 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. 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. Danny Garvin:People were screaming "pig," "copper." 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. Maureen Jordan Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. It was an age of experimentation. Barak Goodman 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. It was like a reward. 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. 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.". Martin Boyce:And then more police came, and it didn't stop. 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." 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. It was as if they were identifying a thing. But that's only partially true. I said, "I can go in with you?" 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. 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. 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. 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. They were the storm troopers. Nobody. 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. I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. Lauren Noyes. Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. For the first time the next person stood up. They could be judges, lawyers. When you exit, have some identification and it'll be over in a short time." John O'Brien:Heterosexuals, legally, had lots of sexual outlets. 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. But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. Do you understand me?". That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. 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. Judith Kuchar They can be anywhere. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? 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. Where did you buy it? 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. In addition to interviews with activists and scholars, the film includes the reflections of renowned writer Allen Ginsberg. The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor It was terrifying. 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. June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. You know, Howard's concern was and my concern was that if all hell broke loose, they'd just start busting heads. You were alone. Naturally, you get careless, you fall for it, and the next thing you know, you have silver bracelets on both arms. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips . WPA Film Library, Thanks to Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. Before Stonewall 1984 Directed by Greta Schiller, Robert Rosenberg Synopsis New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. 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 I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". It was tremendous freedom. Because that's what they were looking for, any excuse to try to bust the place. And the police escalated their crackdown on bars because of the reelection campaign. The events of that night have been described as the birth of the gay-rights movement. First you gotta get past the door.

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