Chris Mara 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. Michael Dolan, Technical Advisors 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. We could lose our memory from the beating, we could be in wheelchairs like some were. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! And the police were showing up. It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. 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. Director . Dan Bodner [1] To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 2019, the film was restored and re-released by First Run Features in June 2019. Ellen Goosenberg John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. 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. Martha Shelley:They wanted to fit into American society the way it was. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. Remember everything. (c) 2011 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. Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . Jerry Hoose:I was chased down the street with billy clubs. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly But the . Yvonne Ritter:I did try to get out of the bar and I thought that there might be a way out through one of the bathrooms. This, to a homosexual, is no choice at all. 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. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. Judith Kuchar I was proud. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. Danny Garvin:He's a faggot, he's a sissy, queer. You knew you could ruin them for life. Brief Summary Of The Documentary 'Before Stonewall' | Bartleby And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. 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. This was in front of the police. 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. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. That wasn't ours, it was borrowed. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. BBC Worldwide Americas Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. It premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on June 27, 1985. Jorge Garcia-Spitz And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. 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. 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. 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. 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. Andrea Weiss is a documentary filmmaker and author with a Ph.D. in American History. 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. ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. Alan Lechner One never knows when the homosexual is about. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:What was so good about the Stonewall was that you could dance slow there. 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 would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. We were going to propose something that all groups could participate in and what we ended up producing was what's now known as the gay pride march. 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. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. Don't fire until I fire. Amber Hall First you gotta get past the door. Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. J. Michael Grey 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. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives 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? David Alpert TV Host (Archival):That's a very lovely dress too that you're wearing Simone. Pamela Gaudiano It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. We had been threatened bomb threats. Robin Haueter The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. 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. 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. So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. And it was fantastic. Other images in this film are Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." Vanessa Ezersky The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. Slate:In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. I was a homosexual. Alexis Charizopolis So gay people were being strangled, shot, thrown in the river, blackmailed, fired from jobs. We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". We assembled on Christopher Street at 6th Avenue, to march. But after the uprising, polite requests for change turned into angry demands. 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 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. Liz Davis It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. Jerry Hoose 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. It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. That was scary, very scary. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The Stonewall pulled in everyone from every part of gay life. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? All the rules were off in the '60s. 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. And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." Giles Kotcher Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. They were getting more ferocious. It was not a place that, in my life, me and my friends paid much attention to. Sophie Cabott Black Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. 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. 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. Patricia Yusah, Marketing and Communications We were scared. I was a man. Noah Goldman Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. Before Stonewall (1984) - Plot Summary - IMDb 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 . Martin Boyce:In the early 60s, if you would go near Port Authority, there were tons of people coming in. 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.
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