Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. 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. So it was a perfect storm for the police. 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. This was a highly unusual raid, going in there in the middle of the night with a full crowd, the Mafia hasn't been alerted, the Sixth Precinct hasn't been alerted. Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. The New York Times / Redux Pictures This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. And the rest of your life will be a living hell. 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 . Almost anything you could name. Jeremiah Hawkins Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:They were sexual deviates. 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. Tom Caruso Never, never, never. Other images in this film are either recreations or drawn from events of the time. And Howard said, "Boy there's like a riot gonna happen here," and I said, "yeah." Louis Mandelbaum First Run Features 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. And I knew that I was lesbian. Remember everything. [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]. 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? 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We didn't have the manpower, and the manpower for the other side was coming like it was a real war. 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. 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. And they started smashing their heads with clubs. The Underground Lounge I am not alone, there are other people that feel exactly the same way.". They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. Martin Boyce:And then more police came, and it didn't stop. People started throwing pennies. Corbis 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. The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. And it just seemed like, fantastic because the background was this industrial, becoming an industrial ruin, it was a masculine setting, it was a whole world. I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. David Carter We were thinking about survival. Danny Garvin:And the cops just charged them. There was at least one gay bar that was run just as a hustler bar for straight gay married men. 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. They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The Stonewall pulled in everyone from every part of gay life. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. 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. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. Oh, tell me about your anxiety. These homosexuals glorify unnatural sex acts. Judy Laster 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. With this outpouring of courage and unity the gay liberation movement had begun. A medievalist. Raymond Castro:If that light goes on, you know to stop whatever you're doing, and separate. All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. But we couldn't hold out very long. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives 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. A CBS news public opinion survey indicates that sentiment is against permitting homosexual relationships between consenting adults without legal punishment. 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. You had no place to try to find an identity. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? But, that's when we knew, we were ourselves for the first time. One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. This time they said, "We're not going." Daniel Pine I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. Alan Lechner and someone would say, "Well, they're still fighting the police, let's go," and they went in. "We're not going.". I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. Liz Davis Getty Images And today we're talking about Stonewall, which were both pretty anxious about so anxious. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt Sophie Cabott Black "Don't fire. 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.". So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. Abstract. If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. 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. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:At a certain point, it felt pretty dangerous to me but I noticed that the cop that seemed in charge, he said you know what, we have to go inside for safety. Dr. Socarides (Archival):Homosexuality is in fact a mental illness which has reached epidemiological proportions. A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. But we're going to pay dearly for this. Michael Dolan, Technical Advisors Frank Kameny Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:What they did in the Stonewall that night. We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. 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. WPA Film Library, Thanks to 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. There was the Hippie movement, there was the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King, and all of these affected me terribly. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. We assembled on Christopher Street at 6th Avenue, to march. We were scared. Martin Boyce:We were like a Hydra. Jerry Hoose:And we were going fast. Ellinor Mitchell But the . Obama signed the memorandum to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. Dick Leitsch:And the blocks were small enough that we could run around the block and come in behind them before they got to the next corner. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude We could easily be hunted, that was a game. TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? You see these cops, like six or eight cops in drag. MacDonald & Associates Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. And gay people were standing around outside and the mood on the street was, "They think that they could disperse us last night and keep us from doing what we want to do, being on the street saying I'm gay and I'm proud? We don't know. 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. Slate:Activity Group Therapy (1950), Columbia University Educational Films. Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. 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. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. Also, through this fight, the "LGBT" was born. John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. 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. 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.". Barak Goodman But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. Susana Fernandes Paul Bosche 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 . 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. Maureen Jordan 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 This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. I was never seduced by an older person or anything like that. National Archives and Records Administration Beginning of our night out started early. Eric Marcus, Writer:Before Stonewall, there was no such thing as coming out or being out. Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. 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. Dan Martino And we all relaxed. A few of us would get dressed up in skirts and blouses and the guys would all have to wear suits and ties. kui It's like, this is not right. I was a man. 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. We were all there. Alexis Charizopolis 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. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world. As kids, we played King Kong. Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. Transcript A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. All the rules were off in the '60s. Heather Gude, Archival Research To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, activists rode their motorcycles during the city's 1989 gay-pride parade. I guess they're deviates. 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. Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. Raymond Castro:So then I got pushed back in, into the Stonewall by these plain clothes cops and they would not let me out, they didn't let anybody out. They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:This was the Rosa Parks moment, the time that gay people stood up and said no. Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. That's it.

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