before stonewall documentary transcript

Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives Some of the pre-Stonewall uprisings included: Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1967 Black Night Brawl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 5, 1961. Mike Nuget Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The Stonewall pulled in everyone from every part of gay life. 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. Slate:Perversion for Profit(1965), Citizens for Decency Through Law. Doing things like that. 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. Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." Colonial House Also, through this fight, the "LGBT" was born. I told the person at the door, I said "I'm 18 tonight" and he said to me, "you little SOB," he said. Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. We'll put new liquor in there, we'll put a new mirror up, we'll get a new jukebox." Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. I was a man. Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. MacDonald & Associates You were alone. I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. 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? Martin Boyce:I heard about the trucks, which to me was fascinated me, you know, it had an imagination thing that was like Marseilles, how can it only be a few blocks away? 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. I mean it didn't stop after that. I was never seduced by an older person or anything like that. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. 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. We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. John O'Brien:Heterosexuals, legally, had lots of sexual outlets. Doric Wilson:There was joy because the cops weren't winning. American Airlines Yvonne Ritter:"In drag," quote unquote, the downside was that you could get arrested, you could definitely get arrested if someone clocked you or someone spooked that you were not really what you appeared to be on the outside. Dana Kirchoff First you gotta get past the door. Doric Wilson A sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious. It was fun to see fags. John DiGiacomo How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? Paul Bosche Obama signed the memorandum to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. For the first time the next person stood up. Things were just changing. 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. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . People that were involved in it like me referred to it as "The First Run." John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. 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. A CBS news public opinion survey indicates that sentiment is against permitting homosexual relationships between consenting adults without legal punishment. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. The men's room was under police surveillance. 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. 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. We don't know. Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We were looking for secret exits and one of the policewomen was able to squirm through the window and they did find a way out. That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. 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. Not able to do anything. Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. Geoff Kole 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. We didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. Sophie Cabott Black Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. 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." And the rest of your life will be a living hell. 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. 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. Because he was homosexual. At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. The idea was to be there first. It was a down at a heels kind of place, it was a lot of street kids and things like that. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. Martha Shelley 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. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. 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. 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. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. Scott McPartland/Getty Images Doric Wilson:In those days, the idea of walking in daylight, with a sign saying, "I'm a faggot," was horren--, nobody, nobody was ready to do that. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. The police weren't letting us dance. 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. That this was normal stuff. I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. 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. Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of Jerry Hoose:And I got to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street, crossed the street and there I had found Nirvana. The film combined personal interviews, snapshots and home movies, together with historical footage. Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. And we all relaxed. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. Where did you buy it? Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. 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.". She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. 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. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. And the police escalated their crackdown on bars because of the reelection campaign. But we went down to the trucks and there, people would have sex. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. The groundbreaking 1984 film "Before Stonewall" introduced audiences to some of the key players and places that helped spark the Greenwich Village riots. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:But there were little, tiny pin holes in the plywood windows, I'll call them the windows but they were plywood, and we could look out from there and every time I went over and looked out through one of those pin holes where he did, we were shocked at how big the crowd had become. 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?" Judy Laster They were afraid that the FBI was following them. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. Vanessa Ezersky Tom Caruso They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016. Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" John van Hoesen ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. All rights reserved. A medievalist. 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. It meant nothing to us. Marcus spoke with NPR's Ari Shapiro about his conversations with leaders of the gay-rights movement, as well as people who were at Stonewall when the riots broke out. We were thinking about survival. Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. 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. The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. 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. The lights came on, it's like stop dancing. The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. Raymond Castro:You could hear screaming outside, a lot of noise from the protesters and it was a good sound. Susan Liberti Yvonne Ritter:And then everybody started to throw pennies like, you know, this is what they were, they were nothing but copper, coppers, that's what they were worth. David Alpert I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. 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. 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. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. And we were singing: "We are the Village girls, we wear our hair in curls, we wear our dungarees, above our nellie knees." Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. A lot of them had been thrown out of their families. And as awful as people might think that sounds, it's the way history has always worked. Martin Boyce:In the early 60s, if you would go near Port Authority, there were tons of people coming in. You see, Ralph was a homosexual. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". First Run Features Noah Goldman But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. Fred Sargeant:When it was clear that things were definitely over for the evening, we decided we needed to do something more. We had no speakers planned for the rally in Central Park, where we had hoped to get to. John O'Brien 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. 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 mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin me. The Stonewall had reopened. Based on One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:If someone was dressed as a woman, you had to have a female police officer go in with her. Chris Mara, Production Assistants Eric Marcus, Recreation Still Photography But, that's when we knew, we were ourselves for the first time. It was as if an artist had arranged it, it was beautiful, it was like mica, it was like the streets we fought on were strewn with diamonds. Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. You see these cops, like six or eight cops in drag. You know, Howard's concern was and my concern was that if all hell broke loose, they'd just start busting heads. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. You cut one head off. 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. It was right in the center of where we all were. Pamela Gaudiano They were the storm troopers. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. And if we catch you, involved with a homosexual, your parents are going to know about it first. But we had to follow up, we couldn't just let that be a blip that disappeared. "We're not going.". Martha Babcock On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world. TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. That wasn't ours, it was borrowed. It was done in our little street talk. 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. And in a sense the Stonewall riots said, "Get off our backs, deliver on the promise." It was not a place that, in my life, me and my friends paid much attention to. That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. Jerry Hoose:And we were going fast. This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. But we're going to pay dearly for this. It must have been terrifying for them. Producers Library 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. 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. Alexandra Meryash Nikolchev, On-Line Editors Historic Films I mean I'm talking like sardines. So gay people were being strangled, shot, thrown in the river, blackmailed, fired from jobs. Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. This 1955 educational film warns of homosexuality, calling it "a sickness of the mind.". Narrator (Archival):This is one of the county's principal weekend gathering places for homosexuals, both male and female. WPA Film Library, Thanks to And we had no right to such. Patricia Yusah, Marketing and Communications Eric Marcus, Writer:It was incredibly hot. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We didn't have the manpower, and the manpower for the other side was coming like it was a real war. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. 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. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. 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. 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. Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. This was in front of the police. The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. As kids, we played King Kong. Jorge Garcia-Spitz There are a lot of kids here. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. (c) 2011 Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:What they did in the Stonewall that night. Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. This is every year in New York City. 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. He pulls all his men inside. Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. We could easily be hunted, that was a game. And this went on for hours. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. Directors Greta Schiller Robert Rosenberg (co-director) Stars Rita Mae Brown Maua Adele Ajanaku You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. And Dick Leitsch, who was the head of the Mattachine Society said, "Who's in favor?" It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. This time they said, "We're not going." We heard one, then more and more. There was the Hippie movement, there was the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King, and all of these affected me terribly. 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. The events of that night have been described as the birth of the gay-rights movement. Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? That's more an uprising than a riot. I was a homosexual. 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 so there was this drag queen standing on the corner, so they go up and make a sexual offer and they'd get busted. But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. Before Stonewall, the activists wanted to fit into society and not rock the boat. You gotta remember, the Stonewall bar was just down the street from there. So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. People could take shots at us. I'm losing everything that I have. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. It premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on June 27, 1985. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution All the rules were off in the '60s. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. I hope it was. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. 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. As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. You knew you could ruin them for life. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. I grew up in a very Catholic household and the conflict of issues of redemption, of is it possible that if you are this thing called homosexual, is it possible to be redeemed? A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. Just making their lives miserable for once. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. Evan Eames Nobody. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The police would zero in on us because sometimes they would be in plain clothes, and sometimes they would even entrap. 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. Other images in this film are And I ran into Howard Smith on the street,The Village Voicewas right there. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. I mean does anyone know what that is? 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. We were all there. Newly restored for the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Before Stonewall pries open the . Janice Flood Dan Martino Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. Danny Garvin:We had thought of women's rights, we had thought of black rights, all kinds of human rights, but we never thought of gay rights, and whenever we got kicked out of a bar before, we never came together. It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." I just thought you had to get through this, and I thought I could get through it, but you really had to be smart about it. And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. [2][3] Later in 2019, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4][5][6]. It was narrated by author Rita Mae Brown, directed by Greta Schiller, co-directed by Robert Rosenberg, and co-produced by John Scagliotti and Rosenberg, and Schiller. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." 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. One never knows when the homosexual is about. John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. Ellen Goosenberg 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. And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? In addition to interviews with activists and scholars, the film includes the reflections of renowned writer Allen Ginsberg. Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. Alan Lechner 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. 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. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. Barney Karpfinger People started throwing pennies. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. 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. Activists had been working for change long before Stonewall. Dana Gaiser 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. Glenn Fukushima