I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. In the Life And the Stonewall was part of that system. Pamela Gaudiano TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? Fifty years ago, a gay bar in New York City called The Stonewall Inn was raided by police, and what followed were days of rebellion where protesters and police clashed. Because if you don't have extremes, you don't get any moderation. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. And we all relaxed. I was proud. I just thought you had to get through this, and I thought I could get through it, but you really had to be smart about it. David Huggins Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Our radio was cut off every time we got on the police radio. Frank Kameny, co-founder of the Mattachine Society, and Shirley Willer, president of the Daughters of Bilitis, spoke to Marcus about being gay before the Stonewall riots happened and what motivated people who were involved in the movement. 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. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. 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. Some of the pre-Stonewall uprisings included: Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1967 Black Night Brawl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 5, 1961. One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. Beginning of our night out started early. And, you know,The Village Voiceat that point started using the word "gay.". 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. And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". 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. Where did you buy it? The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. That's it. [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. You gotta remember, the Stonewall bar was just down the street from there. John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. 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. Vanessa Ezersky 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. Stonewall Forever is a documentary from NYC's LGBT Community Center directed by Ro Haber. 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. Alexis Charizopolis Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement . John O'Brien:We had no idea we were gonna finish the march. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. 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. Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. Hugh Bush It was not a place that, in my life, me and my friends paid much attention to. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. It was done in our little street talk. And I hadn't had enough sleep, so I was in a somewhat feverish state, and I thought, "We have to do something, we have to do something," and I thought, "We have to have a protest march of our own." 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.". Jerry Hoose:And I got to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street, crossed the street and there I had found Nirvana. BBC Worldwide Americas That's what gave oxygen to the fire. One never knows when the homosexual is about. First you gotta get past the door. Jerry Hoose:The open gay people that hung out on the streets were basically the have-nothing-to-lose types, which I was. 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. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:All throughout the 60s in New York City, the period when the New York World's Fair was attracting visitors from all over America and all over the world. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. It was as if they were identifying a thing. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:They were sexual deviates. Maureen Jordan There was at least one gay bar that was run just as a hustler bar for straight gay married men. John O'Brien:Heterosexuals, legally, had lots of sexual outlets. And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. 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. National Archives and Records Administration Danny Garvin:It was the perfect time to be in the Village. David Alpert We had been threatened bomb threats. Giles Kotcher Homo, homo was big. 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. Because that's what they were looking for, any excuse to try to bust the place. Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. That this was normal stuff. Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. They were getting more ferocious. One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. And that's what it was, it was a war. 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. The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:If someone was dressed as a woman, you had to have a female police officer go in with her. First Run Features That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. Greg Shea, Legal And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. You see these cops, like six or eight cops in drag. Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. With this outpouring of courage and unity the gay liberation movement had begun. Mafia house beer? Leroy S. Mobley So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. Susana Fernandes And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. Things were just changing. Lilli M. Vincenz We were thinking about survival. Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. 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. American Airlines They really were objecting to how they were being treated. So it was a perfect storm for the police. Doric Wilson:There was joy because the cops weren't winning. 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. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. I learned, very early, that those horrible words were about me, that I was one of those people. Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. We could lose our memory from the beating, we could be in wheelchairs like some were. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We had maybe six people and by this time there were several thousand outside. This was in front of the police. Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. WGBH Educational Foundation It's not my cup of tea. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of straight America, in terms of the middle class, was recoiling in horror from what was happening all around them at that time, in that summer and the summer before. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. I hope it was. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. hide caption. People started throwing pennies. His movements are not characteristic of a real boy. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" Danny Garvin:We became a people. You had no place to try to find an identity. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. 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.". In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. Remember everything. It was a leaflet that attacked the relationship of the police and the Mafia and the bars that we needed to see ended. Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. Bettye Lane Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. 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. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects Jerry Hoose:And we were going fast. She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. Evan Eames We had no speakers planned for the rally in Central Park, where we had hoped to get to. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. I mean I'm talking like sardines. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. The groundbreaking 1984 film "Before Stonewall" introduced audiences to some of the key players and places that helped spark the Greenwich Village riots. Raymond Castro Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. Fred Sargeant:Things started off small, but there was an energy that began to flow through the crowd. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives Other images in this film are 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. Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. 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. A sickness of the mind. Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of And that crowd between Howard Johnson's and Mama's Chik-n-Rib was like the basic crowd of the gay community at that time in the Village. Slate:In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. You know. I mean it didn't stop after that. It eats you up inside not being comfortable with yourself. It was tremendous freedom. There was the Hippie movement, there was the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King, and all of these affected me terribly.