Lilli M. Vincenz People talk about being in and out now, there was no out, there was just in. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement . Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution 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. Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation Leroy S. Mobley Based on And it was those loudest people, the most vulnerable, the most likely to be arrested, were the ones that were doing the real fighting. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. 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. Raymond Castro:Incendiary devices were being thrown in I don't think they were Molotov cocktails, but it was just fire being thrown in when the doors got open. Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. All the rules were off in the '60s. 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. 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. TV Host (Archival):That's a very lovely dress too that you're wearing Simone. Alexis Charizopolis 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 . A few of us would get dressed up in skirts and blouses and the guys would all have to wear suits and ties. Homosexuality was a dishonorable discharge in those days, and you couldn't get a job afterwards. She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. 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. The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. 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. Marc Aubin June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. I'm losing everything that I have. Linton Media John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. John O'Brien:All of a sudden, the police faced something they had never seen before. Revealing and, by turns, humorous and horrifying, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotional and political spark of today's gay rights movement - the events that . People that were involved in it like me referred to it as "The First Run." ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International 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. Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Our radio was cut off every time we got on the police radio. If you would like to read more on the topic, here's a list: Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and NPR One. 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. We'll put new liquor in there, we'll put a new mirror up, we'll get a new jukebox." And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. Doric Wilson:When I was very young, one of the terms for gay people was twilight people, meaning that we never came out until twilight, 'til it got dark. Hugh Bush Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. The New York Times / Redux Pictures You know. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. 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. John DiGiacomo The mob was saying, you know, "Screw you, cops, you think you can come in a bust us up? Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. Mafia house beer? 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. The mirrors, all the bottles of liquor, the jukebox, the cigarette machines. Liz Davis The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." 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. Narrator (Archival):This is one of the county's principal weekend gathering places for homosexuals, both male and female. I mean does anyone know what that is? Jorge Garcia-Spitz It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, we did use the small hoses on the fire extinguishers. 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. You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. I had never seen anything like that. 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. If you came to a place like New York, you at least had the opportunity of connecting with people, and finding people who didn't care that you were gay. Chris Mara, Production Assistants The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. That's more an uprising than a riot. And the cops got that. The windows were always cloaked. Because one out of three of you will turn queer. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:There were all these articles in likeLife Magazineabout how the Village was liberal and people that were called homosexuals went there. Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. But as we were going up 6th Avenue, it kept growing. We knew it was a gay bar, we walked past it. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. 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. 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. They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. Danny Garvin:Something snapped. [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. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. Before Stonewall 1984 Directed by Greta Schiller, Robert Rosenberg Synopsis 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. You gotta remember, the Stonewall bar was just down the street from there. Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. And in a sense the Stonewall riots said, "Get off our backs, deliver on the promise." Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. 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. View in iTunes. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! Nobody. BBC Worldwide Americas Corbis Jerry Hoose What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. The events. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. 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. People started throwing pennies. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. Before Stonewall (1984) - full transcript 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. Martin Boyce:We were like a Hydra. And the people coming out weren't going along with it so easily. People could take shots at us. But the . Eventually something was bound to blow. Because that's what they were looking for, any excuse to try to bust the place. Other images in this film are I was a man. But I was just curious, I didn't want to participate because number one it was so packed. A person marching in a gay rights parade along New York's Fifth Avenue on July 7th, 1979. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. And the police escalated their crackdown on bars because of the reelection campaign. 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. Stonewall Forever is a documentary from NYC's LGBT Community Center directed by Ro Haber. 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. The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. 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. The Underground Lounge Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. But we had to follow up, we couldn't just let that be a blip that disappeared. Martha Shelley:The riot could have been buried, it could have been a few days in the local newspaper and that was that. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. 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. And it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. 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. Synopsis. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And by the time the police would come back towards Stonewall, that crowd had gone all the around Washington Place come all the way back around and were back pushing in on them from the other direction and the police would wonder, "These are the same people or different people?". I famously used the word "fag" in the lead sentence I said "the forces of faggotry." 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. Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. William Eskridge, Professor of Law: The 1960s were dark ages for lesbians and gay men all over America. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. Cop (Archival):Anyone can walk into that men's room, any child can walk in there, and see what you guys were doing.