We had been threatened bomb threats. Susan Liberti Fred Sargeant 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. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". And I just didn't understand that. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:The mob raised its hand and said "Oh, we'll volunteer," you know, "We'll set up some gay bars and serve over-priced, watered-down drinks to you guys." Colonial House Chris Mara, Production Assistants Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. But we went down to the trucks and there, people would have sex. 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. Getty Images Judy Laster Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. Jay Fialkov He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. 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. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. David Huggins National Archives and Records Administration John van Hoesen Dan Martino Fred Sargeant:Things started off small, but there was an energy that began to flow through the crowd. Martha Shelley:Before Stonewall, the homophile movement was essentially the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis and all of these other little gay organizations, some of which were just two people and a mimeograph machine. We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. Andrea Weiss is a documentary filmmaker and author with a Ph.D. in American History. Martin Boyce 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. And there, we weren't allowed to be alone, the police would raid us still. The award-winning documentary film, Before Stonewall, which was released theatrically and broadcast on PBS television in 1984, explored the history of the lesbian and gay rights movement in the United States prior to 1969. From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. The groundbreaking 1984 film "Before Stonewall" introduced audiences to some of the key players and places that helped spark the Greenwich Village riots. 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. Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. Samual Murkofsky They really were objecting to how they were being treated. 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. Because he was homosexual. Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. And then they send them out in the street and of course they did make arrests, because you know, there's all these guys who cruise around looking for drag queens. Corbis Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. It gives back a little of the terror they gave in my life. John Scagliotti 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. Why 'Before Stonewall' Was Such a Hard Movie to Make - The Atlantic View in iTunes. Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. Danny Garvin:And the cops just charged them. Giles Kotcher 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. But we couldn't hold out very long. Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. We didn't expect we'd ever get to Central Park. 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. Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. I met this guy and I broke down crying in his arms. It was an age of experimentation. Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. 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. Dana Gaiser 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The Stonewall pulled in everyone from every part of gay life. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. The men's room was under police surveillance. Andy Frielingsdorf, Reenactment Actors 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 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. Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. But we had to follow up, we couldn't just let that be a blip that disappeared. Transcript of Re-Release: The Stonewall | Happy Scribe Danny Garvin:We became a people. 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. John O'Brien And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. We did use humor to cover pain, frustration, anger. Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We had maybe six people and by this time there were several thousand outside. Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. This 1968 Film Put Drag Queens In The Spotlight Before Stonewall - HuffPost [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]. Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. Now, 50 years later, the film is back. 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. 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. Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. Just making their lives miserable for once. They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:All throughout the 60s in New York City, the period when the New York World's Fair was attracting visitors from all over America and all over the world. People talk about being in and out now, there was no out, there was just in. Jimmy hadn't enjoyed himself so much in a long time. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution First you gotta get past the door. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. Lilli M. Vincenz And it was those loudest people, the most vulnerable, the most likely to be arrested, were the ones that were doing the real fighting. John O'Brien:We had no idea we were gonna finish the march. 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. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt I learned, very early, that those horrible words were about me, that I was one of those people. Before Stonewall | Apple TV And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". William Eskridge, Professor of Law: The 1960s were dark ages for lesbians and gay men all over America. WGBH Educational Foundation 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. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. Is that conceivable? Atascadero was known in gay circles as the Dachau for queers, and appropriately so. Director . Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." In a spontaneous show of support and frustration, the citys gay community rioted for three nights in the streets, an event that is considered the birth of the modern Gay Rights Movement. Watch Before Stonewall | Prime Video - amazon.com 1984 documentary film by Greta Schiller and Robert Rosenberg, "Berlinale 2016: Panorama Celebrates Teddy Award's 30th Anniversary and Announces First Titles in Programme", "Guest Post: What I Learned From Revisiting My 1984 Documentary 'Before Stonewall', "See the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry, From Purple Rain to Clerks", "Complete National Film Registry Listing", "Before Stonewall - Independent Historical Film", Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly Restored), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Before_Stonewall&oldid=1134540821, Documentary films about United States history, Historiography of LGBT in the United States, United States National Film Registry films, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 19 January 2023, at 05:30. Stonewall Forever is a documentary from NYC's LGBT Community Center directed by Ro Haber. They were getting more ferocious. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. You know. David Carter Doug Cramer John DiGiacomo Never, never, never. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community Alexis Charizopolis I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. 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. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. I mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin me. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . 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. 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. 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. It was the only time I was in a gladiatorial sport that I stood up in. Before Stonewall (1984) Movie Script | Subs like Script You cut one head off. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. 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. This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. They pushed everybody like to the back room and slowly asking for IDs. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. And they wore dark police uniforms and riot helmets and they had billy clubs and they had big plastic shields, like Roman army, and they actually formed a phalanx, and just marched down Christopher Street and kind of pushed us in front of them. But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:There were all these articles in likeLife Magazineabout how the Village was liberal and people that were called homosexuals went there. 400 Plankinton Ave. Compton's Cafeteria Raid, San Francisco, California, 1966 Coopers Do-Nut Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1959 Pepper Hill Club Raid, Baltimore, Maryland in 1955. Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969. Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. 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? 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. As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. Martha Shelley:The riot could have been buried, it could have been a few days in the local newspaper and that was that. This, to a homosexual, is no choice at all. Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. 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. Former U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with gay rights activist Frank Kameny after signing a memorandum on federal benefits and non-discrimination in the Oval Office on June 17, 2009. First Run Features Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community There are a lot of kids here. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. For those kisses. That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. Before Stonewall streaming: where to watch online? - JustWatch 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. Oh, tell me about your anxiety. That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed.

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