before stonewall documentary transcript before stonewall documentary transcript

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. Doric Wilson:There was joy because the cops weren't winning. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives We were all there. Before Stonewall, the activists wanted to fit into society and not rock the boat. The windows were always cloaked. 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? Dan Martino Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. We knew it was a gay bar, we walked past it. In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. Ellinor Mitchell Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of 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. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. These homosexuals glorify unnatural sex acts. 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. Because he was homosexual. Is that conceivable? Barak Goodman He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. 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. I hope it was. 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 . Mike Nuget The cops were barricaded inside. 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? Alexandra Meryash Nikolchev, On-Line Editors But that's only partially true. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. John O'Brien:Cops got hurt. Andy Frielingsdorf, Reenactment Actors Where did you buy it? So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. A lot of them had been thrown out of their families. John van Hoesen There may be some girls here who will turn lesbian. Revealing and. Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". 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. I mean it didn't stop after that. I said, "I can go in with you?" Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. You cut one head off. 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." Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. View in iTunes. Jerry Hoose:The open gay people that hung out on the streets were basically the have-nothing-to-lose types, which I was. 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. Fred Sargeant Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. America thought we were these homosexual monsters and we were so innocent, and oddly enough, we were so American. Oh, tell me about your anxiety. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016. Revealing and, by turns, humorous and horrifying, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotional and political spark of today's gay rights movement - the events that . They are taught that no man is born homosexual and many psychiatrists now believe that homosexuality begins to form in the first three years of life. And I just didn't understand that. John DiGiacomo Danny Garvin:People were screaming "pig," "copper." Linton Media The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. They were getting more ferocious. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:At the peak, as many as 500 people per year were arrested for the crime against nature, and between 3- and 5,000 people per year arrested for various solicitation or loitering crimes. 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. 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? 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. They didn't know what they were walking into. Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. 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. This time they said, "We're not going." When you exit, have some identification and it'll be over in a short time." What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? Paul Bosche John O'Brien:All of a sudden, the police faced something they had never seen before. National History Archive, LGBT Community Center Directors Greta Schiller Robert Rosenberg (co-director) Stars Rita Mae Brown Maua Adele Ajanaku 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. Dana Kirchoff This was ours, here's where the Stonewall was, here's our Mecca. Revisiting the newly restored "Before Stonewall" 35 years after its premiere, Rosenberg said he was once again struck by its "powerful" and "acutely relevant" narrative. 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. 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. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And I keep listening and listening and listening, hoping I'm gonna hear sirens any minute and I was very freaked. Colonial House It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. And that's what it was, it was a war. Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. And there was tear gas on Saturday night, right in front of the Stonewall. But the . Daniel Pine John O'Brien:I was with a group that we actually took a parking meter out of theground, three or four people, and we used it as a battering ram. Jerry Hoose But we went down to the trucks and there, people would have sex. This was in front of 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. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. 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. A few of us would get dressed up in skirts and blouses and the guys would all have to wear suits and ties. Clever. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:TheNew York TimesI guess printed a story, but it wasn't a major story. 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. You had no place to try to find an identity. Richard Enman (Archival):Well, let me say, first of all, what type of laws we are not after, because there has been much to-do that the Society was in favor of the legalization of marriage between homosexuals, and the adoption of children, and such as that, and that is not at all factual at all. It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. Quentin Heilbroner 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?". The film brings together voices from over 50 years of the LGBTQ rights movement to explore queer activism before, during and after the Stonewall Riots. Charles Harris, Transcriptions But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation 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. All the rules were off in the '60s. 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. 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. Because if you don't have extremes, you don't get any moderation. I was in the Navy when I was 17 and it was there that I discovered that I was gay. You know, it's just, everybody was there. And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. And we all relaxed. Participants of the 1969 Greenwich Village uprising describe the effect that Stonewall had on their lives. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. 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. And today we're talking about Stonewall, which were both pretty anxious about so anxious. The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:They were sexual deviates. The men's room was under police surveillance. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:This was the Rosa Parks moment, the time that gay people stood up and said no. Katrina Heilbroner We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". 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? Newly restored for the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Before Stonewall pries open the . Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:What was so good about the Stonewall was that you could dance slow there. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." 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. So in every gay pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:The Stonewall, they didn't have a liquor license and they were raided by the cops regularly and there were pay-offs to the cops, it was awful. Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. Pamela Gaudiano Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips . Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. I guess they're deviates. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. "We're not going.". They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. And in a sense the Stonewall riots said, "Get off our backs, deliver on the promise." Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. 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. I am not alone, there are other people that feel exactly the same way.". Eric Marcus, Writer:Before Stonewall, there was no such thing as coming out or being out. And the first gay power demonstration to my knowledge was against my story inThe Village Voiceon Wednesday. And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. He said, "Okay, let's go." Andrea Weiss is a documentary filmmaker and author with a Ph.D. in American History. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. I was a homosexual. Leroy S. Mobley As kids, we played King Kong. Jerry Hoose:I was chased down the street with billy clubs. ABCNEWS VideoSource I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. But as visibility increased, the reactions of people increased. 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. It was a down at a heels kind of place, it was a lot of street kids and things like that. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. Long before marriage equality, non-binary gender identity, and the flood of new documentaries commemorating this month's 50th anniversary of the Greenwich Village uprising that begat the gay rights movement, there was Greta Schiller's Before Stonewall.Originally released in 1984as AIDS was slowly killing off many of those bar patrons-turned-revolutionariesthe film, through the use of . This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. We could lose our memory from the beating, we could be in wheelchairs like some were. And I ran into Howard Smith on the street,The Village Voicewas right there. Chris Mara Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. But the before section, I really wanted people to have a sense of what it felt like to be gay, lesbian, transgender, before Stonewall and before you have this mass civil rights movement that comes after Stonewall. Everyone from the street kids who were white and black kids from the South. In the Life It premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on June 27, 1985. But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. Marc Aubin 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. A medievalist. Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Before Stonewall. Windows started to break. That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. Not able to do anything. And, you know,The Village Voiceat that point started using the word "gay.". Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:So you're outside, and you see like two people walking toward these trucks and you think, "Oh I think I'll go in there," you go in there, there's like a lot of people in there and it's all dark. Nobody. Atascadero was known in gay circles as the Dachau for queers, and appropriately so. Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. 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. Urban Stages Fred Sargeant:Three articles of clothing had to be of your gender or you would be in violation of that law. Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. I met this guy and I broke down crying in his arms. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. 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. Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. It was terrifying. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. [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]. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. We did use humor to cover pain, frustration, anger. 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. It's not my cup of tea. Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. You know. This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. 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. 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? Gay bars were always on side streets out of the way in neighborhoods that nobody would go into. Martha Babcock Bettye Lane [00:00:58] Well, this I mean, this is a part of my own history in this weird, inchoate sense. But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. 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. 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. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. 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. And it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. You gotta remember, the Stonewall bar was just down the street from there. 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. [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. "You could have got us in a lot of trouble, you could have got us closed up." The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School This 1955 educational film warns of homosexuality, calling it "a sickness of the mind.". Danny Garvin:Something snapped. 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. They were to us. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. Dick Leitsch:We wore suits and ties because we wanted people, in the public, who were wearing suits and ties, to identify with us. A sickness of the mind. Dana Gaiser I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. The New York Times / Redux Pictures Scott Kardel, Project Administration The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. Jorge Garcia-Spitz My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. I was proud. And we had no right to such. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. (c) 2011 In the trucks or around the trucks. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. David Alpert They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. Just let's see if they can. WPA Film Library, Thanks to Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. Do you understand me?". Chris Mara, Production Assistants And the police escalated their crackdown on bars because of the reelection campaign. 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. At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. 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. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. It gives back a little of the terror they gave in my life. [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. 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. 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. Heather Gude, Archival Research Historic Films You were alone. Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" I had never seen anything like that. Raymond Castro:Incendiary devices were being thrown in I don't think they were Molotov cocktails, but it was just fire being thrown in when the doors got open. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! Queer was very big. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. 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. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." 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. And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. Eric Marcus, Writer:It was incredibly hot. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. 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. Abstract. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". Corbis Because one out of three of you will turn queer. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. 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. 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) Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes.