before stonewall documentary transcript

Glenn Fukushima Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It really should have been called Stonewall uprising. Before Stonewall. We don't know. Homo, homo was big. But as visibility increased, the reactions of people increased. So I run down there. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And by the time the police would come back towards Stonewall, that crowd had gone all the around Washington Place come all the way back around and were back pushing in on them from the other direction and the police would wonder, "These are the same people or different people?". With this outpouring of courage and unity the gay liberation movement had begun. The homosexual, bitterly aware of his rejection, responds by going underground. They pushed everybody like to the back room and slowly asking for IDs. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. 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. So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. I told the person at the door, I said "I'm 18 tonight" and he said to me, "you little SOB," he said. We knew it was a gay bar, we walked past it. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. 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. Danny Garvin:People were screaming "pig," "copper." 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. Suzanne Poli Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. Martha Shelley:They wanted to fit into American society the way it was. From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. 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. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. Louis Mandelbaum Oh, tell me about your anxiety. Everyone from the street kids who were white and black kids from the South. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We had maybe six people and by this time there were several thousand outside. 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. But as we were going up 6th Avenue, it kept growing. Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? 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. 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. We were thinking about survival. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. You had no place to try to find an identity. [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]. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. That's more an uprising than a riot. Urban Stages Judith Kuchar Danny Garvin:Something snapped. 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. Chris Mara Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. 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? That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. Cause I was from the streets. 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. I was a homosexual. The mirrors, all the bottles of liquor, the jukebox, the cigarette machines. 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. 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. 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. And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. 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. 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. That this was normal stuff. Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. Liz Davis Greg Shea, Legal 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. For the first time the next person stood up. Hugh Bush At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. They were the storm troopers. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. Dick Leitsch:Mattachino in Italy were court jesters; the only people in the whole kingdom who could speak truth to the king because they did it with a smile. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. LGBTQ+ History Before Stonewall | Stacker In the Life 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?" They can be anywhere. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? 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. 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. And we all relaxed. And the rest of your life will be a living hell. And Dick Leitsch, who was the head of the Mattachine Society said, "Who's in favor?" We could lose our memory from the beating, we could be in wheelchairs like some were. 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. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:TheNew York TimesI guess printed a story, but it wasn't a major story. Danny Garvin:We were talking about the revolution happening and we were walking up 7th Avenue and I was thinking it was either Black Panthers or the Young Lords were going to start it and we turned the corner from 7th Avenue onto Christopher Street and we saw the paddy wagon pull up there. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. 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. Before Stonewall - Wikipedia Narrator (Archival):This is one of the county's principal weekend gathering places for homosexuals, both male and female. Chris Mara, Production Assistants Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? Detective John Sorenson, Dade County Morals & Juvenile Squad (Archival):There may be some in this auditorium. Slate:The Homosexual(1967), CBS Reports. This is every year in New York City. 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. 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. Clever. Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. 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. Dick Leitsch:There were Black Panthers and there were anti-war people. Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. And we had no right to such. Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. Because he was homosexual. This Restored Documentary Examines What LGBTQ Lives Were Like Before Alexis Charizopolis And I just didn't understand that. Fifty years ago, a gay bar in New York City called The Stonewall Inn was raided by police, and what followed were days of rebellion where protesters and police clashed. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. And it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. It was done in our little street talk. Dick Leitsch:And the blocks were small enough that we could run around the block and come in behind them before they got to the next corner. Fred Sargeant He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. Because one out of three of you will turn queer. American Airlines It eats you up inside. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. It was nonsense, it was nonsense, it was all the people there, that were reacting and opposing what was occurring. 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. J. Michael Grey As kids, we played King Kong. Hear more of the conversation and historical interviews at the audio link. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? 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. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. 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. Participants of the 1969 Greenwich Village uprising describe the effect that Stonewall had on their lives. Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. Alan Lechner 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. And she was quite crazy. Ellinor Mitchell And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. They could be judges, lawyers. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. Danny Garvin:And the cops just charged them. Leroy S. Mobley Some of the pre-Stonewall uprisings included: Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1967 Black Night Brawl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 5, 1961. Daniel Pine Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. Just making their lives miserable for once. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. Bettye Lane Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. I was in the Navy when I was 17 and it was there that I discovered that I was gay. Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. You know, it's just, everybody was there. Frank Kameny Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. 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? Daily News They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. We went, "Oh my God. It was a horror story. Danny Garvin:He's a faggot, he's a sissy, queer. And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. And today we're talking about Stonewall, which were both pretty anxious about so anxious. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. We love to hear from our listeners! The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. 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. I met this guy and I broke down crying in his arms. In the sexual area, in psychology, psychiatry. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. Danny Garvin:We became a people. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. Almost anything you could name. Dan Bodner Review: 'Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community' And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." Now, 50 years later, the film is back. Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. John O'Brien:Our goal was to hurt those police. "Don't fire. It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. I made friends that first day. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. 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. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. That's what gave oxygen to the fire. 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. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. 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." For those kisses. Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. But the . The award winning film Before Stonewall pries open the closet door, setting free the dramatic story of the sometimes horrifying public and private existences experienced by gay and lesbian Americans since the 1920s. I mean does anyone know what that is? Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? They were afraid that the FBI was following them. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. Not even us. Andrea Weiss is a documentary filmmaker and author with a Ph.D. in American History. I'm losing everything that I have. It must have been terrifying for them. Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. hide caption. Tom Caruso Geoff Kole And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. The police weren't letting us dance. John O'Brien:And deep down I believed because I was gay and couldn't speak out for my rights, was probably one of the reasons that I was so active in the Civil Rights Movement. 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? We didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. We did use humor to cover pain, frustration, anger. 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. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. 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. 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." Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. David Alpert And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. 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. And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. John O'Brien Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. We could easily be hunted, that was a game. Because to be gay represented to me either very, super effeminate men or older men who hung out in the upper movie theatres on 42nd Street or in the subway T-rooms, who'd be masturbating. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The police would zero in on us because sometimes they would be in plain clothes, and sometimes they would even entrap. Guest Post: What I Learned From Revisiting My 1984 Documentary "Before Giles Kotcher Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. We assembled on Christopher Street at 6th Avenue, to march. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy The lights came on, it's like stop dancing. Fred Sargeant:Three articles of clothing had to be of your gender or you would be in violation of that law. That never happened before. Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. 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. 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. 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." If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. Other images in this film are It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. 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. "You could have got us in a lot of trouble, you could have got us closed up." Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. There was at least one gay bar that was run just as a hustler bar for straight gay married men. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. Fred Sargeant:We knew that they were serving drinks out of vats and buckets of water and believed that there had been some disease that had been passed. America thought we were these homosexual monsters and we were so innocent, and oddly enough, we were so American. Martin Boyce:We were like a Hydra. Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. Susan Liberti Why 'Before Stonewall' Was Such a Hard Movie to Make - The Atlantic John O'Brien:All of a sudden, the police faced something they had never seen before. ITN Source This was in front of the police. Because if they weren't there fast, I was worried that there was something going on that I didn't know about and they weren't gonna come. A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. And they were gay. 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. 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.". We didn't expect we'd ever get to Central Park. The mob was saying, you know, "Screw you, cops, you think you can come in a bust us up? In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). Before Stonewall 1984 Directed by Greta Schiller, Robert Rosenberg Synopsis 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. In the trucks or around the trucks. And that's what it was, it was a war. Jerry Hoose:And I got to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street, crossed the street and there I had found Nirvana. View in iTunes. Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. BBC Worldwide Americas There may be some girls here who will turn lesbian. The men's room was under police surveillance. They were not used to a bunch of drag queens doing a Rockettes kick line and sort of like giving them all the finger in a way. 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. Doric Wilson:That's what happened Stonewall night to a lot of people. Raymond Castro Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. Like, "Joe, if you fire your gun without me saying your name and the words 'fire,' you will be walking a beat on Staten Island all alone on a lonely beach for the rest of your police career. Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. A lot of them had been thrown out of their families. But we went down to the trucks and there, people would have sex. Just let's see if they can. BEFORE STONEWALL - Alliance of Women Film Journalists Susana Fernandes Dana Gaiser Raymond Castro:So then I got pushed back in, into the Stonewall by these plain clothes cops and they would not let me out, they didn't let anybody out. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. Beginning of our night out started early. 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. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. Maureen Jordan 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.

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