before stonewall documentary transcript

Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. Geoff Kole I was never seduced by an older person or anything like that. 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. ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. Don't fire until I fire. Things were just changing. Before Stonewall (1984) - IMDb There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy There are a lot of kids here. It eats you up inside not being comfortable with yourself. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. Not even us. People could take shots at us. Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. 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. Because one out of three of you will turn queer. Just making their lives miserable for once. And then they send them out in the street and of course they did make arrests, because you know, there's all these guys who cruise around looking for drag queens. We don't know. by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor The events of that night have been described as the birth of the gay-rights movement. Robin Haueter This, to a homosexual, is no choice at all. Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. Before Stonewall, the activists wanted to fit into society and not rock the boat. 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." Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was a bottle club which meant that I guess you went to the door and you bought a membership or something for a buck and then you went in and then you could buy drinks. John O'Brien In the trucks or around the trucks. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Raymond Castro:Society expected you to, you know, grow up, get married, have kids, which is what a lot of people did to satisfy their parents. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Martha Shelley 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 . And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. It premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on June 27, 1985. It meant nothing to us. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. Seymour Wishman We love to hear from our listeners! I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. 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. 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. You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. And, it was, I knew I would go through hell, I would go through fire for that experience. Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want. Dana Gaiser Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". Joe DeCola 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. Sophie Cabott Black [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. 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. Before Stonewall (1984) Movie Script | Subs like Script We had been threatened bomb threats. There was the Hippie movement, there was the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King, and all of these affected me terribly. And they started smashing their heads with clubs. 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. 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. Cause we could feel a sense of love for each other that we couldn't show out on the street, because you couldn't show any affection out on the street. 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. Clever. A person marching in a gay rights parade along New York's Fifth Avenue on July 7th, 1979. BEFORE STONEWALL - Alliance of Women Film Journalists Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. This 1968 Film Put Drag Queens In The Spotlight Before Stonewall - HuffPost And I had become very radicalized in that time. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation And there was tear gas on Saturday night, right in front of the Stonewall. Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. They pushed everybody like to the back room and slowly asking for IDs. Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? I never believed in that. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. Bettye Lane And we all relaxed. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." That's what gave oxygen to the fire. But we're going to pay dearly for this. Not able to do anything. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? Homo, homo was big. All rights reserved. Synopsis. Danny Garvin:Something snapped. Daniel Pine You needed a license even to be a beautician and that could be either denied or taken away from you. 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. Brief Summary Of The Documentary 'Before Stonewall' | Bartleby We were all there. 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? It was as if they were identifying a thing. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. I mean it didn't stop after that. 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. "We're not going.". There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. Watch Before Stonewall | Prime Video - amazon.com But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. It was fun to see fags. The Stonewall had reopened. 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. Fifty years ago, a riot broke out at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? First Run Features But, that's when we knew, we were ourselves for the first time. WPA Film Library, Thanks to Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. 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. 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. Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. Susana Fernandes Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." I said, "I can go in with you?" That's it. And you felt bad that you were part of this, when you knew they broke the law, but what kind of law was that? 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. Homosexuality was a dishonorable discharge in those days, and you couldn't get a job afterwards. But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. 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. And I just didn't understand that. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We were looking for secret exits and one of the policewomen was able to squirm through the window and they did find a way out. Tom Caruso Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. People started throwing pennies. And Howard said, "Boy there's like a riot gonna happen here," and I said, "yeah." Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. They could be judges, lawyers. Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. David Alpert 1969: The Stonewall Uprising - Library of Congress Doric Wilson:That's what happened Stonewall night to a lot of people. Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. Eric Marcus, Writer:Before Stonewall, there was no such thing as coming out or being out. He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. Susan Liberti Revealing and. We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". This time they said, "We're not going." Slate:Activity Group Therapy (1950), Columbia University Educational Films. John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. Cop (Archival):Anyone can walk into that men's room, any child can walk in there, and see what you guys were doing. 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. Today, that event is seen as the start of the gay civil rights movement, but gay activists and organizations were standing up to harassment and discrimination years before. It was the only time I was in a gladiatorial sport that I stood up in. NBC News Archives From left: "Before Stonewall" director Greta Schiller, executive producer John Scagliotti and co-director Robert Rosenberg in 1985. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:So at that point the police are extremely nervous. A medievalist. Pamela Gaudiano Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. 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.". Detective John Sorenson, Dade County Morals & Juvenile Squad (Archival):There may be some in this auditorium. 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 . Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. We knew that this was a moment that we didn't want to let slip past, because it was something that we could use to bring more of the groups together. You were alone. David Carter 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. Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. 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. Martha Babcock WGBH Educational Foundation Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. 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. Scott McPartland/Getty Images The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. But that's only partially true. Maureen Jordan Danny Garvin It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. I mean I'm talking like sardines. Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. Slate:Perversion for Profit(1965), Citizens for Decency Through Law. David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries 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. A sickness of the mind. We were winning. It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. He said, "Okay, let's go." Because he was homosexual. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. 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." Beginning of our night out started early. They frequent their own clubs, and bars and coffee houses, where they can escape the disapproving eye of the society that they call straight. Audience Member (Archival):I was wondering if you think that there are any quote "happy homosexuals" for whom homosexuality would be, in a way, their best adjustment in life? Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. You see these cops, like six or eight cops in drag. I learned, very early, that those horrible words were about me, that I was one of those people. Janice Flood Greg Shea, Legal They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. The homosexual, bitterly aware of his rejection, responds by going underground. John O'Brien:Heterosexuals, legally, had lots of sexual outlets. That was our world, that block. 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. There may be some girls here who will turn lesbian. Transcript Enlarge this image 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. Like, "Joe, if you fire your gun without me saying your name and the words 'fire,' you will be walking a beat on Staten Island all alone on a lonely beach for the rest of your police career. TV Host (Archival):Ladies and gentlemen, the reason for using first names only forthese very, very charming contestants is that right now each one of them is breaking the law. National History Archive, LGBT Community Center I made friends that first day. And the police escalated their crackdown on bars because of the reelection campaign. LGBTQ+ History Before Stonewall | Stacker Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly W hen police raided a Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, on June 28, 1969 50 years ago this month the harassment was routine for the time. In the Life Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. Dick Leitsch:Mattachino in Italy were court jesters; the only people in the whole kingdom who could speak truth to the king because they did it with a smile. Martin Boyce:I heard about the trucks, which to me was fascinated me, you know, it had an imagination thing that was like Marseilles, how can it only be a few blocks away? And the police were showing up. Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. We heard one, then more and more. You gotta remember, the Stonewall bar was just down the street from there. It was one of the things you did in New York, it was like the Barnum and Bailey aspect of it. Before Stonewall streaming: where to watch online? - JustWatch Andy Frielingsdorf, Reenactment Actors Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects But everybody knew it wasn't normal stuff and everyone was on edge and that was the worst part of it because you knew they were on edge and you knew that the first shot that was fired meant all the shots would be fired. 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. The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations