For the first time the next person stood up. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. But we went down to the trucks and there, people would have sex. How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. Danny Garvin:It was the perfect time to be in the Village. And there, we weren't allowed to be alone, the police would raid us still. And I ran into Howard Smith on the street,The Village Voicewas right there. Katrina Heilbroner Fifty years ago, a riot broke out at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. I learned, very early, that those horrible words were about me, that I was one of those people. The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. Martha Shelley:I don't know if you remember the Joan Baez song, "It isn't nice to block the doorway, it isn't nice to go to jail, there're nicer ways to do it but the nice ways always fail." 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. You see these cops, like six or eight cops in drag. You needed a license even to be a beautician and that could be either denied or taken away from you.
Why 'Before Stonewall' Was Such a Hard Movie to Make - The Atlantic Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of 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. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. Fred Sargeant:Three articles of clothing had to be of your gender or you would be in violation of that law. But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. 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. Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. Jerry Hoose
'Before Stonewall' Tracks the Pre-Movement Era | International Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. Leroy S. Mobley And we were singing: "We are the Village girls, we wear our hair in curls, we wear our dungarees, above our nellie knees." Robin Haueter That's what gave oxygen to the fire. 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. We did use humor to cover pain, frustration, anger. 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. 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. Not even us. We didn't expect we'd ever get to Central Park. We went, "Oh my God. Because he was homosexual. The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. 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. On June 28, 1969, New York City police raided a Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, setting off a three-day riot that launched the modern American gay rights movement. Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. We were winning. 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) 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. We were thinking about survival. William Eskridge, Professor of Law: The 1960s were dark ages for lesbians and gay men all over America. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. 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.
1969: The Stonewall Uprising - Library of Congress Before Stonewall (1984) - Plot Summary - IMDb Also, through this fight, the "LGBT" was born. "We're not going.". So in every gay pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. Dana Kirchoff But we're going to pay dearly for this. I was a man. And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. There was at least one gay bar that was run just as a hustler bar for straight gay married men.
Documentary | Stonewall Forever The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. In the sexual area, in psychology, psychiatry. Doug Cramer 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. There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. Original Language: English. Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. Some of the pre-Stonewall uprisings included: Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1967 Black Night Brawl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 5, 1961. The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. ABCNEWS VideoSource William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." Based on First you gotta get past the door. But the . Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It really should have been called Stonewall uprising. Before Stonewall. That wasn't ours, it was borrowed. 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. 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.". It eats you up inside not being comfortable with yourself. TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? It was an age of experimentation. Chris Mara, Production Assistants And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. Never, never, never. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution The mob was saying, you know, "Screw you, cops, you think you can come in a bust us up? Things were being thrown against the plywood, we piled things up to try to buttress it. 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. 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. 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. 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. It was a horror story. Heather Gude, Archival Research I mean you got a major incident going on down there and I didn't see any TV cameras at all. 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 LGBT community. Frank Kameny Where did you buy it? Just let's see if they can. 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. So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. 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. BBC Worldwide Americas That was our world, that block. Nobody.
Before Stonewall | Apple TV 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. It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. This 1955 educational film warns of homosexuality, calling it "a sickness of the mind.". One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade.