Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. 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. But we're going to pay dearly for this. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? But after the uprising, polite requests for change turned into angry demands. I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. They could be judges, lawyers. Available via license: Content may be subject to . Oh, tell me about your anxiety. 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. 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. Things were just changing. Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. I was proud. Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. 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.". All rights reserved. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." Doric Wilson:When I was very young, one of the terms for gay people was twilight people, meaning that we never came out until twilight, 'til it got dark. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? Lilli M. Vincenz That was our world, that block. 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. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips . But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. I was a homosexual. 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. They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. 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. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. The groundbreaking 1984 film "Before Stonewall" introduced audiences to some of the key players and places that helped spark the Greenwich Village riots. Barney Karpfinger Danny Garvin:He's a faggot, he's a sissy, queer. All of the rules that I had grown up with, and that I had hated in my guts, other people were fighting against, and saying "No, it doesn't have to be this way.". And, you know,The Village Voiceat that point started using the word "gay.". Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. 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. That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. So anything that would set us off, we would go into action. Heather Gude, Archival Research This is every year in New York City. And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. 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?" Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The police would zero in on us because sometimes they would be in plain clothes, and sometimes they would even entrap. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. And in a sense the Stonewall riots said, "Get off our backs, deliver on the promise." 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. That was scary, very scary. Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. Raymond Castro:You could hear screaming outside, a lot of noise from the protesters and it was a good sound. And they started smashing their heads with clubs. You know, it's just, everybody was there. Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. And they wore dark police uniforms and riot helmets and they had billy clubs and they had big plastic shields, like Roman army, and they actually formed a phalanx, and just marched down Christopher Street and kind of pushed us in front of them. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco Because one out of three of you will turn queer. 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. 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. I guess they're deviates. It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. The homosexual, bitterly aware of his rejection, responds by going underground. Evan Eames Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. Alexis Charizopolis 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. They pushed everybody like to the back room and slowly asking for IDs. It was an age of experimentation. I was in the Navy when I was 17 and it was there that I discovered that I was gay. The film combined personal interviews, snapshots and home movies, together with historical footage. Original Language: English. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. 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. J. Michael Grey 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. Samual Murkofsky It was the only time I was in a gladiatorial sport that I stood up in. Jerry Hoose:The open gay people that hung out on the streets were basically the have-nothing-to-lose types, which I was. The idea was to be there first. Chris Mara, Production Assistants Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. On June 27, 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. Jimmy hadn't enjoyed himself so much in a long time. Jeremiah Hawkins Jorge Garcia-Spitz WGBH Educational Foundation Alexandra Meryash Nikolchev, On-Line Editors Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. Remember everything. Martha Shelley:They wanted to fit into American society the way it was. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. Because he was homosexual. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. I was never seduced by an older person or anything like that. Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. 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. 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 . It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. ITN Source And there, we weren't allowed to be alone, the police would raid us still. Doing things like that. Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" Corbis David Carter In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. 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. 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. The only faces you will see are those of the arresting officers. First you gotta get past the door. Susana Fernandes 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. 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. Danny Garvin:Something snapped. Charles Harris, Transcriptions 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. 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 . Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The Stonewall pulled in everyone from every part of gay life. I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. So in every gay pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International 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. Eric Marcus, Writer:Before Stonewall, there was no such thing as coming out or being out. 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. 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. The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. And we all relaxed. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. Martin Boyce:And then more police came, and it didn't stop. And it was fantastic. A sickness of the mind. We went, "Oh my God. Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. View in iTunes. Geoff Kole The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. Obama signed the memorandum to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. There were occasions where you did see people get night-sticked, or disappear into a group of police and, you know, everybody knew that was not going to have a good end. 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. A person marching in a gay rights parade along New York's Fifth Avenue on July 7th, 1979. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. But that's only partially true. 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. Before Stonewall. In the Life Jerry Hoose:And I got to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street, crossed the street and there I had found Nirvana. Mafia house beer? 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. It was like a reward. 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. 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. Judy Laster Hugh Bush They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. This was ours, here's where the Stonewall was, here's our Mecca. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. It was right in the center of where we all were. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. Martha Shelley 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. For the first time the next person stood up. Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969.
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