Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. Quentin Heilbroner That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. Based on Susan Liberti The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. And it was those loudest people, the most vulnerable, the most likely to be arrested, were the ones that were doing the real fighting. 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. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). The idea was to be there first. And the rest of your life will be a living hell. And we all relaxed. I said, "I can go in with you?" Dr. Socarides (Archival):Homosexuality is in fact a mental illness which has reached epidemiological proportions. I was a homosexual. Danny Garvin:And the cops just charged them. Amber Hall Mike Nuget John Scagliotti And we had no right to such. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives Marjorie Duffield You were alone. Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? This, to a homosexual, is no choice at all. ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. Greg Shea, Legal 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. Heather Gude, Archival Research Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. 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. Martin Boyce:We were like a Hydra. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution Maureen Jordan America thought we were these homosexual monsters and we were so innocent, and oddly enough, we were so American. The New York Times / Redux Pictures And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. Eventually something was bound to blow. Almost anything you could name. 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.". Danny Garvin:Something snapped. We were scared. 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. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. Fred Sargeant:When it was clear that things were definitely over for the evening, we decided we needed to do something more. Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. Alan Lechner But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. John O'Brien:Cops got hurt. He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. John O'Brien:Heterosexuals, legally, had lots of sexual outlets. You know, Howard's concern was and my concern was that if all hell broke loose, they'd just start busting heads. The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. Long before marriage equality, non-binary gender identity, and the flood of new documentaries commemorating this month's 50th anniversary of the Greenwich Village uprising that begat the gay rights movement, there was Greta Schiller's Before Stonewall.Originally released in 1984as AIDS was slowly killing off many of those bar patrons-turned-revolutionariesthe film, through the use of . Fred Sargeant:Things started off small, but there was an energy that began to flow through the crowd. 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. Doric Wilson:There was joy because the cops weren't winning. 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. Transcript Enlarge this image 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. People cheer while standing in front of The Stonewall Inn as the annual Gay Pride parade passes, Sunday, June 26, 2011 in New York. Cause I was from the streets. Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. 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. Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. 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. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. They would bang on the trucks. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. Giles Kotcher Fred Sargeant They were afraid that the FBI was following them. And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." It meant nothing to us. 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. We heard one, then more and more. I mean they were making some headway. Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. 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. Martin Boyce:In the early 60s, if you would go near Port Authority, there were tons of people coming in. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. 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. I never believed in that. WPA Film Library, Thanks to And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". BBC Worldwide Americas Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. 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. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:Gay people who were sentenced to medical institutions because they were found to be sexual psychopaths, were subjected sometimes to sterilization, occasionally to castration, sometimes to medical procedures, such as lobotomies, which were felt by some doctors to cure homosexuality and other sexual diseases. We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. We had been threatened bomb threats. Original Language: English. All the rules were off in the '60s. Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:And they were, they were kids. 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.". Ellen Goosenberg W hen police raided a Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, on June 28, 1969 50 years ago this month the harassment was routine for the time. 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. Trevor, Post Production The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. But we're going to pay dearly for this. And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. 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. And, it was, I knew I would go through hell, I would go through fire for that experience. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. 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. Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. ABCNEWS VideoSource But the . And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. We were winning. Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. Paul Bosche It was an age of experimentation. I made friends that first day. Pamela Gaudiano Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. Abstract. 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. Martha Shelley:They wanted to fit into American society the way it was. Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. They were the storm troopers. And the Stonewall was part of that system. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips . Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. 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. A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. And that's what it was, it was a war. It was fun to see fags. WGBH Educational Foundation 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. 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. Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. A lot of them had been thrown out of their families. That was our world, that block. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. So I run down there. 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?" Barney Karpfinger It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:So at that point the police are extremely nervous. The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. Slate:The Homosexual(1967), CBS Reports. Windows started to break. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It really should have been called Stonewall uprising. You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. We didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. Charles Harris, Transcriptions 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. Revealing and. Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of But as we were going up 6th Avenue, it kept growing. 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. Marc Aubin The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. It was done in our little street talk. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. 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. 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. People could take shots at us. Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. 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. I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? So it was a perfect storm for the police. The documentary "Before Stonewall" was very educational and interesting because it shows a retail group that fought for the right to integrate into the society and was where the homosexual revolution occurred. Louis Mandelbaum 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. Robin Haueter Liz Davis 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." Queer was very big. 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. Slate:In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. All rights reserved. A medievalist. Not able to do anything. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. Everyone from the street kids who were white and black kids from the South. I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. We'll put new liquor in there, we'll put a new mirror up, we'll get a new jukebox." Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. 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. (c) 2011 William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. I mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin me. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. Because that's what they were looking for, any excuse to try to bust the place. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. hide caption. 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. And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy Judy Laster One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. Danny Garvin This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. "You could have got us in a lot of trouble, you could have got us closed up." But that's only partially true. Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. 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. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers.
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