Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. 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. J. Michael Grey 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. How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? American Airlines 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 All rights reserved. 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. Revisiting the newly restored "Before Stonewall" 35 years after its premiere, Rosenberg said he was once again struck by its "powerful" and "acutely relevant" narrative. So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. It meant nothing to us. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. Mafia house beer? The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. Martha Babcock Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement . Quentin Heilbroner Maureen Jordan Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. 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 gay community. Because that's what they were looking for, any excuse to try to bust the place. We didn't expect we'd ever get to Central Park. Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. Director . Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. ABCNEWS VideoSource 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. Noah Goldman I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. People could take shots at us. 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. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? 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. Danny Garvin:We were talking about the revolution happening and we were walking up 7th Avenue and I was thinking it was either Black Panthers or the Young Lords were going to start it and we turned the corner from 7th Avenue onto Christopher Street and we saw the paddy wagon pull up there. "Don't fire. 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. And we were singing: "We are the Village girls, we wear our hair in curls, we wear our dungarees, above our nellie knees." Jay Fialkov This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. Raymond Castro Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Our radio was cut off every time we got on the police radio. It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. There were gay bars in Midtown, there were gay bars uptown, there were certain kinds of gay bars on the Upper East Side, you know really, really, really buttoned-up straight gay bars. 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. He said, "Okay, let's go." Martin Boyce:You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way. 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. We did use humor to cover pain, frustration, anger. 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. It was terrifying. 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. Trevor, Post Production I had never seen anything like that. It was as if an artist had arranged it, it was beautiful, it was like mica, it was like the streets we fought on were strewn with diamonds. It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. It's like, this is not right. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . Raymond Castro:So finally when they started taking me out, arm in arm up to the paddy wagon, I jumped up and I put one foot on one side, one foot on the other and I sprung back, knocking the two arresting officers, knocking them to the ground. Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. So it was a perfect storm for the police. And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. In addition to interviews with activists and scholars, the film includes the reflections of renowned writer Allen Ginsberg. Creating the First Visual History of Queer Life Before Stonewall Making a landmark documentary about LGBTQ Americans before 1969 meant digging through countless archives to find traces of. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. The New York Times / Redux Pictures 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. A sickness of the mind. Jorge Garcia-Spitz This was ours, here's where the Stonewall was, here's our Mecca. The award winning film Before Stonewall pries open the closet door, setting free the dramatic story of the sometimes horrifying public and private existences experienced by gay and lesbian Americans since the 1920s.
PDF BEFORE STONEWALL press kit - First Run Features 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. We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. Urban Stages
archives.nypl.org -- Before Stonewall production files Before Stonewall, the activists wanted to fit into society and not rock the boat. WPA Film Library, Thanks to 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. Martha Shelley:Before Stonewall, the homophile movement was essentially the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis and all of these other little gay organizations, some of which were just two people and a mimeograph machine. 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. Fred Sargeant:Things started off small, but there was an energy that began to flow through the crowd. The groundbreaking 1984 film "Before Stonewall" introduced audiences to some of the key players and places that helped spark the Greenwich Village riots. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. 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. A word that would be used in the 1960s for gay men and lesbians. hide caption. It was as if they were identifying a thing. A few of us would get dressed up in skirts and blouses and the guys would all have to wear suits and ties. 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. Giles Kotcher And I just didn't understand that. Not able to do anything. 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. 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. I made friends that first day. Slate:Activity Group Therapy (1950), Columbia University Educational Films. The Chicago riots, the Human Be-in, the dope smoking, the hippies. 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. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. Stonewall Forever is a documentary from NYC's LGBT Community Center directed by Ro Haber. That was scary, very scary.
Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community