Things were just changing. They were getting more ferocious. Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:At a certain point, it felt pretty dangerous to me but I noticed that the cop that seemed in charge, he said you know what, we have to go inside for safety. Alexandra Meryash Nikolchev, On-Line Editors 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. But everybody knew it wasn't normal stuff and everyone was on edge and that was the worst part of it because you knew they were on edge and you knew that the first shot that was fired meant all the shots would be fired. Suzanne Poli Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. 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. Marjorie Duffield And, I did not like parading around while all of these vacationers were standing there eating ice cream and looking at us like we were critters in a zoo. Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives 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. You know, it's just, everybody was there. The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. So in every gay pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. Dick Leitsch:New York State Liquor Authority had a rule that one known homosexual at a licensed premise made the place disorderly, so nobody would set up a place where we could meet because they were afraid that the cops would come in to close it, and that's how the Mafia got into the gay bar business. They were afraid that the FBI was following them. 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 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. Mafia house beer? As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. We had been threatened bomb threats. Watch Before Stonewall | Prime Video - amazon.com It premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on June 27, 1985. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). We don't know. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco The Chicago riots, the Human Be-in, the dope smoking, the hippies. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. Danny Garvin I was proud. 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? Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. First you gotta get past the door. But we had to follow up, we couldn't just let that be a blip that disappeared. 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. Martin Boyce:The day after the first riot, when it was all over, and I remember sitting, sun was soon to come, and I was sitting on the stoop, and I was exhausted and I looked at that street, it was dark enough to allow the street lamps to pick up the glitter of all the broken glass, and all the debris, and all the different colored cloth, that was in different places. That's what gave oxygen to the fire. Other images in this film are either recreations or drawn from events of the time. They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. Review: 'Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community' We assembled on Christopher Street at 6th Avenue, to march. And the police were showing up. Why 'Before Stonewall' Was Such a Hard Movie to Make - The Atlantic Clever. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. Oh, tell me about your anxiety. It was a horror story. 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. Patricia Yusah, Marketing and Communications John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. 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?" Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. 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. Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. 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. Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? 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. These homosexuals glorify unnatural sex acts. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. 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. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. The cops were barricaded inside. John Scagliotti Martin Boyce The events. Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations Robin Haueter 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. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly Things were being thrown against the plywood, we piled things up to try to buttress it. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. They really were objecting to how they were being treated. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. 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. Fifty years ago, a riot broke out at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, we did use the small hoses on the fire extinguishers. It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. That's it. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. Jerry Hoose Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films Is that conceivable? 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. NBC News Archives I had never seen anything like that. They were the storm troopers. "BEFORE STONEWALL" - MetroFocus archives.nypl.org -- Before Stonewall production files It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. Trevor, Post Production Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It really should have been called Stonewall uprising. Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. hide caption. Narrator (Archival):This is one of the county's principal weekend gathering places for homosexuals, both male and female. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:So at that point the police are extremely nervous. 1969: The Stonewall Uprising - Library of Congress Daily News Never, never, never. We went, "Oh my God. And if we catch you, involved with a homosexual, your parents are going to know about it first. Judith Kuchar Martha Shelley:They wanted to fit into American society the way it was. Dick Leitsch:We wore suits and ties because we wanted people, in the public, who were wearing suits and ties, to identify with us. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. John van Hoesen But we went down to the trucks and there, people would have sex. Because he was homosexual. 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. Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? Revisiting 'Before Stonewall' Film for the 50th Anniversary | Time Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Dana Kirchoff Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969. Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. Because as the police moved back, we were conscious, all of us, of the area we were controlling and now we were in control of the area because we were surrounded the bar, we were moving in, they were moving back. 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. David Alpert Barney Karpfinger "We're not going.". But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. Synopsis. Hugh Bush Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. 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 . 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. The groundbreaking 1984 film "Before Stonewall" introduced audiences to some of the key players and places that helped spark the Greenwich Village riots. People could take shots at us. And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. Before Stonewall (1984) - IMDb Vanessa Ezersky Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt 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? Andrea Weiss is a documentary filmmaker and author with a Ph.D. in American History. 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. Transcript A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. Martin Boyce:Oh, Miss New Orleans, she wouldn't be stopped. Jerry Hoose:And we were going fast. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. I really thought that, you know, we did it. 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. People started throwing pennies. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . The Stonewall had reopened. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. Andy Frielingsdorf, Reenactment Actors Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Hear more of the conversation and historical interviews at the audio link. And I ran into Howard Smith on the street,The Village Voicewas right there. 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. 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. It was like a reward. I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. Martin Boyce:Well, in the front part of the bar would be like "A" gays, like regular gays, that didn't go in any kind of drag, didn't use the word "she," that type, but they were gay, a hundred percent gay. They would bang on the trucks. Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. Bettye Lane That was scary, very scary. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. David Carter As kids, we played King Kong. Marc Aubin Creating the First Visual History of Queer Life Before Stonewall Making a landmark documentary about LGBTQ Americans before 1969 meant digging through countless archives to find traces of. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. Just making their lives miserable for once. 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. It was one of the things you did in New York, it was like the Barnum and Bailey aspect of it. At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. Charles Harris, Transcriptions Martin Boyce:We were like a Hydra. The idea was to be there first. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. Noah Goldman Detective John Sorenson, Dade County Morals & Juvenile Squad (Archival):There may be some in this auditorium. [1] To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 2019, the film was restored and re-released by First Run Features in June 2019. 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. On June 27, 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. We'll put new liquor in there, we'll put a new mirror up, we'll get a new jukebox." We knew it was a gay bar, we walked past it. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. And this went on for hours. From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. It meant nothing to us. But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. But that's only partially true. Katrina Heilbroner And the cops got that. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. The men's room was under police surveillance. This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. Paul Bosche His movements are not characteristic of a real boy. A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. Dan Martino Doric Wilson:And we were about 100, 120 people and there were people lining the sidewalks ahead of us to watch us go by, gay people, mainly. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. Where did you buy it? It was not a place that, in my life, me and my friends paid much attention to. I could never let that happen and never did. The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. It won the Best Film Award at the Houston International Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature at Filmex, First Place at the National Educational Film Festival, and Honorable Mention at the Global Village Documentary Festival. Homosexuality was a dishonorable discharge in those days, and you couldn't get a job afterwards. They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. We were all there. 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. A sickness of the mind. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. But I'm wearing this police thing I'm thinking well if they break through I better take it off really quickly but they're gunna come this way and we're going to be backing up and -- who knows what'll happen. Other images in this film are Slate:Perversion for Profit(1965), Citizens for Decency Through Law. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. We love to hear from our listeners! John O'Brien:All of a sudden, the police faced something they had never seen before. The windows were always cloaked. 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. View in iTunes. I mean they were making some headway. Tom Caruso 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. Urban Stages "You could have got us in a lot of trouble, you could have got us closed up." Now, 50 years later, the film is back. Quentin Heilbroner John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. Joe DeCola Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? This 1968 Film Put Drag Queens In The Spotlight Before Stonewall - HuffPost 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? Narrator (Archival):Richard Enman, president of the Mattachine Society of Florida, whose goal is to legalize homosexuality between consenting adults, was a reluctant participant in tonight's program. That this was normal stuff. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. 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 So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. Participants of the 1969 Greenwich Village uprising describe the effect that Stonewall had on their lives. One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. 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. Everyone from the street kids who were white and black kids from the South. 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. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? [00:00:55] Oh, my God. Eventually something was bound to blow. Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. Dick Leitsch:There were Black Panthers and there were anti-war people. Evan Eames 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. In addition to interviews with activists and scholars, the film includes the reflections of renowned writer Allen Ginsberg. 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.