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. There may be some girls here who will turn lesbian. A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. Alan Lechner Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. 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 A word that would be used in the 1960s for gay men and lesbians. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. 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 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. Danny Garvin 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. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. David Carter, Author ofStonewall:Most raids by the New York City Police, because they were paid off by the mob, took place on a weeknight, they took place early in the evening, the place would not be crowded. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. 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. 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. Janice Flood Joe DeCola So I run down there. Dick Leitsch:We wore suits and ties because we wanted people, in the public, who were wearing suits and ties, to identify with us. Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. 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. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. ITN Source It's not my cup of tea. Hear more of the conversation and historical interviews at the audio link. Getting then in the car, rocking them back and forth. And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. And we had no right to such. That wasn't ours, it was borrowed. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. The cops were barricaded inside. "Don't fire. 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. The windows were always cloaked. 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. Greg Shea, Legal But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. (c) 2011 Fred Sargeant Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. 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. Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. Is that conceivable? And she was quite crazy. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. Dan Bodner And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". 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. And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. 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. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. 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. Pamela Gaudiano Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. You knew you could ruin them for life. Available via license: Content may be subject to . They were to us. 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 history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. Jerry Hoose:I remember I was in a paddy wagon one time on the way to jail, we were all locked up together on a chain in the paddy wagon and the paddy wagon stopped for a red light or something and one of the queens said "Oh, this is my stop." ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. First Run Features I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. 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. It was tremendous freedom. With this outpouring of courage and unity the gay liberation movement had begun. It gives back a little of the terror they gave in my life. Abstract. Virginia Apuzzo:What we felt in isolation was a growing sense of outrage and fury particularly because we looked around and saw so many avenues of rebellion. 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. Scott Kardel, Project Administration Do you understand me?". And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. 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. The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. He pulls all his men inside. For the first time the next person stood up. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. 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. I mean does anyone know what that is? And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. David Huggins And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. 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 it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. 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. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. Martha Shelley:They wanted to fit into American society the way it was. And the cops got that. Lauren Noyes. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. We had been threatened bomb threats. Doug Cramer This was ours, here's where the Stonewall was, here's our Mecca. Dana Gaiser 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. We'll put new liquor in there, we'll put a new mirror up, we'll get a new jukebox." And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. [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]. 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. Revealing and. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. Windows started to break. Andy Frielingsdorf, Reenactment Actors Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It really should have been called Stonewall uprising. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. This was in front of the police. And there was tear gas on Saturday night, right in front of the Stonewall. It was one of the things you did in New York, it was like the Barnum and Bailey aspect of it. Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. Judith Kuchar My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". For those kisses. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. Jorge Garcia-Spitz 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous.
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