Mafia house beer? 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. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. 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. 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. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. Linton Media 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. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. John Scagliotti (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). Alexandra Meryash Nikolchev, On-Line Editors John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. People standing on cars, standing on garbage cans, screaming, yelling. Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. And I just didn't understand that. All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. 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? They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. But we had to follow up, we couldn't just let that be a blip that disappeared. In the trucks or around the trucks. Raymond Castro:We were in the back of the room, and the lights went on, so everybody stopped what they were doing, because now the police started coming in, raiding the bar. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. 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. They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. 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. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:TheNew York TimesI guess printed a story, but it wasn't a major story. I really thought that, you know, we did it. Not able to do anything. We had no speakers planned for the rally in Central Park, where we had hoped to get to. Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. 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. Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. You know. 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.". And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. John O'Brien Hugh Bush Things were just changing. It was as if they were identifying a thing. 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. 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. 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. 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 . Doric Wilson In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. But we're going to pay dearly for this. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. 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. 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. 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. Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." And they were gay. Heather Gude, Archival Research They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. 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. I guess they're deviates. 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? Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. Things were being thrown against the plywood, we piled things up to try to buttress it. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. Historic Films Before Stonewall (1984) - IMDb It must have been terrifying for them. Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. 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. And the people coming out weren't going along with it so easily. But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. 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 On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. We didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. Alan Lechner The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. Martin Boyce:Oh, Miss New Orleans, she wouldn't be stopped. Eventually something was bound to blow. I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. In the sexual area, in psychology, psychiatry. The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. Janice Flood They pushed everybody like to the back room and slowly asking for IDs. One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:So at that point the police are extremely nervous. 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. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. 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. But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. 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. 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.". In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. For the first time, we weren't letting ourselves be carted off to jails, gay people were actually fighting back just the way people in the peace movement fought back. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. So I run down there. 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. We were thinking about survival. ITN Source Slate:Activity Group Therapy (1950), Columbia University Educational Films. I was a homosexual. And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor They could be judges, lawyers. Liz Davis And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. Fifty years ago, a riot broke out at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. I mean does anyone know what that is? It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. Martin Boyce:In the early 60s, if you would go near Port Authority, there were tons of people coming in. [00:00:58] Well, this I mean, this is a part of my own history in this weird, inchoate sense. Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. We heard one, then more and more. I mean they were making some headway. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. John O'Brien:Our goal was to hurt those police. They can be anywhere. Louis Mandelbaum The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. John O'Brien:There was one street called Christopher Street, where actually I could sit and talk to other gay people beyond just having sex. The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School It eats you up inside. 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 there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. Alexis Charizopolis Danny Garvin:He's a faggot, he's a sissy, queer. 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. John O'Brien:All of a sudden, the police faced something they had never seen before. As kids, we played King Kong. A lot of them had been thrown out of their families. And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. 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. MacDonald & Associates Where did you buy it? John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. "We're not going.". Judith Kuchar Alexis Charizopolis 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 . Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The police would zero in on us because sometimes they would be in plain clothes, and sometimes they would even entrap. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. Directors Greta Schiller Robert Rosenberg (co-director) Stars Rita Mae Brown Maua Adele Ajanaku Raymond Castro:Incendiary devices were being thrown in I don't think they were Molotov cocktails, but it was just fire being thrown in when the doors got open. Before Stonewall - Rotten Tomatoes Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. 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. Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. Watch Before Stonewall | Prime Video - amazon.com His movements are not characteristic of a real boy. Corbis The New York Times / Redux Pictures In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . Martha Shelley They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." Danny Garvin:Something snapped. Transcript Aired June 9, 2020 Stonewall Uprising The Year That Changed America Film Description When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of. Brief Summary Of The Documentary 'Before Stonewall' | Bartleby 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. Ellen Goosenberg June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. 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. 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. The men's room was under police surveillance. 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 as awful as people might think that sounds, it's the way history has always worked. 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. John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. You knew you could ruin them for life. 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. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. Andy Frielingsdorf, Reenactment Actors The idea was to be there first. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution Then the cops come up and make use of what used to be called the bubble-gum machine, back then a cop car only had one light on the top that spun around. Dan Bodner Before Stonewall. Guest Post: What I Learned From Revisiting My 1984 Documentary "Before In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. And it was fantastic. 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. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. Never, never, never. Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. You know, Howard's concern was and my concern was that if all hell broke loose, they'd just start busting heads. This, to a homosexual, is no choice at all. Jerry Hoose We'll put new liquor in there, we'll put a new mirror up, we'll get a new jukebox." American Airlines And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. Jay Fialkov Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. Because one out of three of you will turn queer. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. 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. The Activism That Came Before Stonewall And The Movement That - NPR 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. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. This was ours, here's where the Stonewall was, here's our Mecca. Danny Garvin:We became a people. BBC Worldwide Americas 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. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation You were alone. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. The film combined personal interviews, snapshots and home movies, together with historical footage. There was at least one gay bar that was run just as a hustler bar for straight gay married men. Oh, tell me about your anxiety. So it was a perfect storm for the police. And the cops got that. Do you understand me?". I mean it didn't stop after that. And the first gay power demonstration to my knowledge was against my story inThe Village Voiceon Wednesday. And the police were showing up. Fred Sargeant:Things started off small, but there was an energy that began to flow through the crowd. The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." Martha Babcock It was the only time I was in a gladiatorial sport that I stood up in. And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. Martha Shelley:The riot could have been buried, it could have been a few days in the local newspaper and that was that. The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. Now, 50 years later, the film is back. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. You had no place to try to find an identity. And I knew that I was lesbian. 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?" You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. Patricia Yusah, Marketing and Communications There may be some girls here who will turn lesbian. LGBTQ+ History Before Stonewall | Stacker 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. 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. A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights.
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