And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. And it was those loudest people, the most vulnerable, the most likely to be arrested, were the ones that were doing the real fighting. 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. But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. Samual Murkofsky 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. 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. Martin Boyce:Oh, Miss New Orleans, she wouldn't be stopped. I guess they're deviates. It meant nothing to us. A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE They frequent their own clubs, and bars and coffee houses, where they can escape the disapproving eye of the society that they call straight. 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. John van Hoesen Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:What was so good about the Stonewall was that you could dance slow there. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:They were sexual deviates. 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. June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. Jerry Hoose:And I got to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street, crossed the street and there I had found Nirvana. 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. Based on Jerry Hoose:I was chased down the street with billy clubs. Alexis Charizopolis 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. Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. And the police escalated their crackdown on bars because of the reelection campaign. And I ran into Howard Smith on the street,The Village Voicewas right there. This is every year in New York City. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. It was a 100% profit, I mean they were stealing the liquor, then watering it down, and they charging twice as much as they charged one door away at the 55. The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. Fred Sargeant:Three articles of clothing had to be of your gender or you would be in violation of that law. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. It was a down at a heels kind of place, it was a lot of street kids and things like that. It eats you up inside not being comfortable with yourself. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. That was our world, that block. Danny Garvin:It was the perfect time to be in the Village. And I knew that I was lesbian. 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. That this was normal stuff. And there was tear gas on Saturday night, right in front of the Stonewall. The windows were always cloaked. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution And, it was, I knew I would go through hell, I would go through fire for that experience. They were getting more ferocious. Ellinor Mitchell Bettye Lane 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. Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. 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. 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. But we couldn't hold out very long. A CBS news public opinion survey indicates that sentiment is against permitting homosexual relationships between consenting adults without legal punishment. Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. 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. 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. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. 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?" A lot of them had been thrown out of their families. BBC Worldwide Americas Because its all right in the Village, but the minute we cross 14th street, if there's only ten of us, God knows what's going to happen to us.". 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. A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. Oh, tell me about your anxiety. 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. And the police were showing up. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. 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. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." They would bang on the trucks. J. Michael Grey Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. Danny Garvin:He's a faggot, he's a sissy, queer. Giles Kotcher People started throwing pennies. It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. It was one of the things you did in New York, it was like the Barnum and Bailey aspect of it. This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. Even non-gay people. This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. 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. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. 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. 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. 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. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." 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. I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. 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. Now, 50 years later, the film is back. Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. 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. They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. And we were singing: "We are the Village girls, we wear our hair in curls, we wear our dungarees, above our nellie knees." John O'Brien:We had no idea we were gonna finish the march. I mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin me. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. 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. 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. 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. And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. Chris Mara, Production Assistants TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? Martha Shelley We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. 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. Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. Cause I was from the streets. Cause we could feel a sense of love for each other that we couldn't show out on the street, because you couldn't show any affection out on the street. 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. It was an age of experimentation. He pulls all his men inside. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. You see these cops, like six or eight cops in drag. But that's only partially true. David Carter John O'Brien The lights came on, it's like stop dancing. Ellen Goosenberg MacDonald & Associates Before Stonewall - Trailer BuskFilms 12.6K subscribers Subscribe 14K views 10 years ago Watch the full film here (UK & IRE only): http://buskfilms.com/films/before-sto. 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. Is that conceivable? Danny Garvin:We became a people. Dick Leitsch:There were Black Panthers and there were anti-war people. We were thinking about survival. ABCNEWS VideoSource Dana Gaiser You knew you could ruin them for life. WGBH Educational Foundation Barney Karpfinger That's it. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. NBC News Archives Abstract. Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. And the Stonewall was part of that system. Fred Sargeant We could lose our memory from the beating, we could be in wheelchairs like some were. Fred Sargeant:Things started off small, but there was an energy that began to flow through the crowd. Before Stonewall (1984) - full transcript 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 a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. Mafia house beer? On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. One never knows when the homosexual is about. 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. Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. People that were involved in it like me referred to it as "The First Run." Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. Louis Mandelbaum America thought we were these homosexual monsters and we were so innocent, and oddly enough, we were so American. You were alone. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We had maybe six people and by this time there were several thousand outside. 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. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. 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. There was at least one gay bar that was run just as a hustler bar for straight gay married men. Vanessa Ezersky Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. Robin Haueter Noah Goldman I really thought that, you know, we did it. And the first gay power demonstration to my knowledge was against my story inThe Village Voiceon Wednesday. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a man during a confrontation in Greenwich Village after a Gay Power march in New York. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. The Underground Lounge Scott Kardel, Project Administration John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. 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. This was ours, here's where the Stonewall was, here's our Mecca. 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. Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969. I made friends that first day. 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. I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. Chris Mara 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. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. We could easily be hunted, that was a game. Jorge Garcia-Spitz David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. Cop (Archival):Anyone can walk into that men's room, any child can walk in there, and see what you guys were doing. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. 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. "Don't fire. 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? Amber Hall We had been threatened bomb threats. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:And they were, they were kids. 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 Raymond Castro Before Stonewall. People could take shots at us. The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. 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. And I had become very radicalized in that time. It gives back a little of the terror they gave in my life. People standing on cars, standing on garbage cans, screaming, yelling. Danny Garvin:Something snapped. They really were objecting to how they were being treated. For the first time, we weren't letting ourselves be carted off to jails, gay people were actually fighting back just the way people in the peace movement fought back. 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. 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. 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. Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. 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?" 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. Alexis Charizopolis We were scared. 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. They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. 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. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. Almost anything you could name. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. 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. 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. The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. Hugh Bush 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. He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. Glenn Fukushima The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. People cheer while standing in front of The Stonewall Inn as the annual Gay Pride parade passes, Sunday, June 26, 2011 in New York. 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. Other images in this film are Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement . Marc Aubin I famously used the word "fag" in the lead sentence I said "the forces of faggotry." Getting then in the car, rocking them back and forth. Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. Martha Shelley:They wanted to fit into American society the way it was. Homo, homo was big. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. For the first time the next person stood up. 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. Hunted, hunted, sometimes we were hunted. Charles Harris, Transcriptions Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. hide caption. 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. Dr. Socarides (Archival):Homosexuality is in fact a mental illness which has reached epidemiological proportions. 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. 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 film combined personal interviews, snapshots and home movies, together with historical footage. 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. The men's room was under police surveillance. And Dick Leitsch, who was the head of the Mattachine Society said, "Who's in favor?" TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. That was scary, very scary. And this went on for hours. Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. Do you understand me?". Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. And it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. 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. 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. Gay bars were always on side streets out of the way in neighborhoods that nobody would go into. 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. They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. Obama signed the memorandum to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. 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. Director . You know. Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was a bottle club which meant that I guess you went to the door and you bought a membership or something for a buck and then you went in and then you could buy drinks. It was right in the center of where we all were. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. Scott McPartland/Getty Images Before Stonewall. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. All rights reserved. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. Marjorie Duffield A medievalist. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. Richard Enman (Archival):Present laws give the adult homosexual only the choice of being, to simplify the matter, heterosexual and legal or homosexual and illegal. That wasn't ours, it was borrowed. Narrated by Rita Mae Brownan acclaimed writer whose 1973 novel Rubyfruit Jungle is a seminal lesbian text, but who is possessed of a painfully grating voiceBefore Stonewall includes vintage news footage that makes it clear that gay men and women lived full, if often difficult, lives long before their personal ambitions (however modest) Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village.