before stonewall documentary transcript before stonewall documentary transcript

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. John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. They can be anywhere. People that were involved in it like me referred to it as "The First Run." We were thinking about survival. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. 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. It eats you up inside not being comfortable with yourself. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. 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. 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. 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.". Noah Goldman Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement . The windows were always cloaked. We were all there. 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. Evan Eames 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. They could be judges, lawyers. Do you understand me?". 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. It won the Best Film Award at the Houston International Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature at Filmex, First Place at the National Educational Film Festival, and Honorable Mention at the Global Village Documentary Festival. John van Hoesen My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. It must have been terrifying for them. The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:A rather tough lesbian was busted in the bar and when she came out of the bar she was fighting the cops and trying to get away. 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. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. 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. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. Dr. Socarides (Archival):Homosexuality is in fact a mental illness which has reached epidemiological proportions. And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? 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. 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. 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. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. Ellen Goosenberg 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. All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. All I knew about was that I heard that there were people down in Times Square who were gay and that's where I went to. Creating the First Visual History of Queer Life Before Stonewall Making a landmark documentary about LGBTQ Americans before 1969 meant digging through countless archives to find traces of. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. Fred Sargeant 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?" The events of that night have been described as the birth of the gay-rights movement. Martha Shelley Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" So I run down there. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International J. Michael Grey Amber Hall 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. kui And we had no right to such. That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. 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. And as awful as people might think that sounds, it's the way history has always worked. Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. 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. 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. Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. Just let's see if they can. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. We knew it was a gay bar, we walked past it. I said, "I can go in with you?" 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. Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. I was proud. Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. But as we were going up 6th Avenue, it kept growing. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. As kids, we played King Kong. And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. I met this guy and I broke down crying in his arms. From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. Barney Karpfinger The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. Doing things like that. Before Stonewall 1984 Unrated 1 h 27 m IMDb RATING 7.5 /10 1.1K YOUR RATING Rate Play trailer 2:21 1 Video 7 Photos Documentary History The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. And there, we weren't allowed to be alone, the police would raid us still. William Eskridge, Professor of Law: The 1960s were dark ages for lesbians and gay men all over America. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The police would zero in on us because sometimes they would be in plain clothes, and sometimes they would even entrap. 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?". John Scagliotti Revealing and. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. People cheer while standing in front of The Stonewall Inn as the annual Gay Pride parade passes, Sunday, June 26, 2011 in New York. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. There are a lot of kids here. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. 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. 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. I had never seen anything like that. People talk about being in and out now, there was no out, there was just in. Atascadero was known in gay circles as the Dachau for queers, and appropriately so. If you came to a place like New York, you at least had the opportunity of connecting with people, and finding people who didn't care that you were gay. Also, through this fight, the "LGBT" was born. He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. Homosexuality was a dishonorable discharge in those days, and you couldn't get a job afterwards. [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. Newly restored for the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Before Stonewall pries open the . Judith Kuchar And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. Mike Nuget Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. 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. Eric Marcus, Writer:It was incredibly hot. So it was a perfect storm for the police. For the first time the next person stood up. Alexis Charizopolis The mob was saying, you know, "Screw you, cops, you think you can come in a bust us up? Beginning of our night out started early. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. Martin Boyce:And I remember moving into the open space and grabbing onto two of my friends and we started singing and doing a kick line. We assembled on Christopher Street at 6th Avenue, to march. The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. The medical experimentation in Atascadero included administering, to gay people, a drug that simulated the experience of drowning; in other words, a pharmacological example of waterboarding. She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? 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. Director . All rights reserved. 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) And that's what it was, it was a war. It eats you up inside. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. It was the only time I was in a gladiatorial sport that I stood up in. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." They were to us. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. Not even us. 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. Now, 50 years later, the film is back. Jerry Hoose:And I got to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street, crossed the street and there I had found Nirvana. Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. But the . Because if you don't have extremes, you don't get any moderation. If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. 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. Barak Goodman [00:00:58] Well, this I mean, this is a part of my own history in this weird, inchoate sense. 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 One of the world's oldest and largest gay pride parades became a victory celebration after New York's historic decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Chris Mara, Production Assistants A lot of them had been thrown out of their families. Frank Simon's documentary follows the drag contestants of 1967's Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant, capturing plenty of on- and offstage drama along the way. The police weren't letting us dance. This 1955 educational film warns of homosexuality, calling it "a sickness of the mind.". [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]. Martha Shelley:When I was growing up in the '50s, I was supposed to get married to some guy, produce, you know, the usual 2.3 children, and I could look at a guy and say, "Well, objectively he's good looking," but I didn't feel anything, just didn't make any sense to me. I mean I'm talking like sardines. Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. 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. Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . And, it was, I knew I would go through hell, I would go through fire for that experience. I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. Lilli M. Vincenz You needed a license even to be a beautician and that could be either denied or taken away from you. Dick Leitsch:We wore suits and ties because we wanted people, in the public, who were wearing suits and ties, to identify with us. Joe DeCola 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. 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." Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. We had no speakers planned for the rally in Central Park, where we had hoped to get to. Danny Garvin:Something snapped. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. 400 Plankinton Ave. Compton's Cafeteria Raid, San Francisco, California, 1966 Coopers Do-Nut Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1959 Pepper Hill Club Raid, Baltimore, Maryland in 1955. 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. David Carter, Author ofStonewall:Most raids by the New York City Police, because they were paid off by the mob, took place on a weeknight, they took place early in the evening, the place would not be crowded. Greg Shea, Legal Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It really should have been called Stonewall uprising. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco Martha Babcock Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. Vanessa Ezersky "Don't fire. I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. MacDonald & Associates Jorge Garcia-Spitz And these were meat trucks that in daytime were used by the meat industry for moving dead produce, and they really reeked, but at nighttime, that's where people went to have sex, you know, and there would be hundreds and hundreds of men having sex together in these trucks. Sophie Cabott Black A sickness of the mind. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, we did use the small hoses on the fire extinguishers. Raymond Castro:So finally when they started taking me out, arm in arm up to the paddy wagon, I jumped up and I put one foot on one side, one foot on the other and I sprung back, knocking the two arresting officers, knocking them to the ground. 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. Getting then in the car, rocking them back and forth. 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. 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. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. Available via license: Content may be subject to . Where did you buy it? Quentin Heilbroner And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. Not able to do anything. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. It was like a reward. 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. It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. Colonial House 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. It was nonsense, it was nonsense, it was all the people there, that were reacting and opposing what was occurring. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. Scott McPartland/Getty Images 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. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." It was a horror story. Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. It was a leaflet that attacked the relationship of the police and the Mafia and the bars that we needed to see ended. And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. Dana Gaiser Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. 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. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. TV Host (Archival):That's a very lovely dress too that you're wearing Simone. 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 it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. 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. Slate:Perversion for Profit(1965), Citizens for Decency Through Law. Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. 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. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. And she was quite crazy. A person marching in a gay rights parade along New York's Fifth Avenue on July 7th, 1979. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. The Stonewall had reopened. The cops were barricaded inside. 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?" It meant nothing to us. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:What was so good about the Stonewall was that you could dance slow there. Because as the police moved back, we were conscious, all of us, of the area we were controlling and now we were in control of the area because we were surrounded the bar, we were moving in, they were moving back. Don't fire until I fire. Chris Mara Raymond Castro:If that light goes on, you know to stop whatever you're doing, and separate. Cause I was from the streets. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. And the police were showing up. One never knows when the homosexual is about. 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. National History Archive, LGBT Community Center I hope it was. Danny Garvin Glenn Fukushima Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. Alexis Charizopolis Queer was very big. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. And it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. I never believed in that. 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. Frank Kameny 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. 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. People standing on cars, standing on garbage cans, screaming, yelling. One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. We were winning. And, you know,The Village Voiceat that point started using the word "gay.". Marjorie Duffield Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. Getty Images I am not alone, there are other people that feel exactly the same way.". Slate:The Homosexual(1967), CBS Reports. Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. Transcript A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. America thought we were these homosexual monsters and we were so innocent, and oddly enough, we were so American. Bettye Lane David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. 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.