Guest Post: What I Learned From Revisiting My 1984 Documentary "Before He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. Jerry Hoose:I was chased down the street with billy clubs. I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. They were getting more ferocious. Doing things like that. I really thought that, you know, we did it. TV Host (Archival):That's a very lovely dress too that you're wearing Simone. Chris Mara, Production Assistants I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. We didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. I grew up in a very Catholic household and the conflict of issues of redemption, of is it possible that if you are this thing called homosexual, is it possible to be redeemed? That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. Cop (Archival):Anyone can walk into that men's room, any child can walk in there, and see what you guys were doing. Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious. Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. Fred Sargeant 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. 1969: The Stonewall Uprising - Library of Congress The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. We could easily be hunted, that was a game. It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community 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. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. And the police were showing up. I had never seen anything like that. You had no place to try to find an identity. Things were just changing. Obama signed the memorandum to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. 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. But we couldn't hold out very long. In the sexual area, in psychology, psychiatry. Other images in this film are [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. Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. We were all there. You see, Ralph was a homosexual. John O'Brien:Our goal was to hurt those police. The mirrors, all the bottles of liquor, the jukebox, the cigarette machines. Danny Garvin:And the cops just charged them. Trevor, Post Production And it was those loudest people, the most vulnerable, the most likely to be arrested, were the ones that were doing the real fighting. It was a down at a heels kind of place, it was a lot of street kids and things like that. I was a man. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. 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. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. Is that conceivable? Martin Boyce:That was our only block. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. Beginning of our night out started early. It was tremendous freedom. You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. 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. Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? But the . I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. 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. Glenn Fukushima 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. 1984 documentary film by Greta Schiller and Robert Rosenberg, "Berlinale 2016: Panorama Celebrates Teddy Award's 30th Anniversary and Announces First Titles in Programme", "Guest Post: What I Learned From Revisiting My 1984 Documentary 'Before Stonewall', "See the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry, From Purple Rain to Clerks", "Complete National Film Registry Listing", "Before Stonewall - Independent Historical Film", Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly Restored), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Before_Stonewall&oldid=1134540821, Documentary films about United States history, Historiography of LGBT in the United States, United States National Film Registry films, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 19 January 2023, at 05:30. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. Director . The Stonewall had reopened. And the Stonewall was part of that system. Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. Narrator (Archival):This is one of the county's principal weekend gathering places for homosexuals, both male and female. I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. I made friends that first day. And if we catch you, involved with a homosexual, your parents are going to know about it first. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. People could take shots at us. We could lose our memory from the beating, we could be in wheelchairs like some were. 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. John O'Brien:We had no idea we were gonna finish the march. 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. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. Alan Lechner 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:There were all these articles in likeLife Magazineabout how the Village was liberal and people that were called homosexuals went there. Andrea Weiss is a documentary filmmaker and author with a Ph.D. in American History. If anybody should find out I was gay and would tell my mother, who was in a wheelchair, it would have broken my heart and she would have thought she did something wrong. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. Katrina Heilbroner Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. 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. We don't know. You were alone. 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. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:So at that point the police are extremely nervous. Martha Shelley 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. It was nonsense, it was nonsense, it was all the people there, that were reacting and opposing what was occurring. Urban Stages This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. Noah Goldman Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. Abstract. I was a homosexual. Scott Kardel, Project Administration We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. We were scared. The cops were barricaded inside. 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. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly And we were singing: "We are the Village girls, we wear our hair in curls, we wear our dungarees, above our nellie knees." 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." kui Danny Garvin:With Waverly Street coming in there, West Fourth coming in there, Seventh Avenue coming in there, Christopher Street coming in there, there was no way to contain us. A sickness of the mind. And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. 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. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? David Alpert Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We had maybe six people and by this time there were several thousand outside. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. I said, "I can go in with you?" ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. Queer was very big. 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. But that's only partially true. Transcript of Re-Release: The Stonewall | Happy Scribe 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. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. The film combined personal interviews, snapshots and home movies, together with historical footage. That's it. Martin Boyce Susan Liberti And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. Martin Boyce:All of a sudden, Miss New Orleans and all people around us started marching step by step and the police started moving back. Ellen Goosenberg A word that would be used in the 1960s for gay men and lesbians. He may appear normal, and it may be too late when you discover he is mentally ill. John O'Brien:I was a poor, young gay person. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. 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. The New York State Liquor Authority refused to issue liquor licenses to many gay bars, and several popular establishments had licenses suspended or revoked for "indecent conduct.". All the rules were off in the '60s. Dr. Socarides (Archival):I think the whole idea of saying "the happy homosexual" is to, uh, to create a mythology about the nature of homosexuality. And I knew that I was lesbian. Eric Marcus, Writer:It was incredibly hot. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, we did use the small hoses on the fire extinguishers. Martin Boyce:Well, in the front part of the bar would be like "A" gays, like regular gays, that didn't go in any kind of drag, didn't use the word "she," that type, but they were gay, a hundred percent gay. Frank Simon's documentary follows the drag contestants of 1967's Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant, capturing plenty of on- and offstage drama along the way. And that's what it was, it was a war. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. 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 Lauren Noyes. 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. Liz Davis Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. It was a 100% profit, I mean they were stealing the liquor, then watering it down, and they charging twice as much as they charged one door away at the 55. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco Dan Bodner Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. So I run down there. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. 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. Martin Boyce:I had cousins, ten years older than me, and they had a car sometimes. Not able to do anything. John O'Brien:All of a sudden, the police faced something they had never seen before. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. Jerry Hoose:I remember I was in a paddy wagon one time on the way to jail, we were all locked up together on a chain in the paddy wagon and the paddy wagon stopped for a red light or something and one of the queens said "Oh, this is my stop." And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. That wasn't ours, it was borrowed. With this outpouring of courage and unity the gay liberation movement had begun. The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. (c) 2011 Atascadero was known in gay circles as the Dachau for queers, and appropriately so. The police weren't letting us dance. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. Lilli M. Vincenz 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 . 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. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. Suzanne Poli Martin Boyce:The day after the first riot, when it was all over, and I remember sitting, sun was soon to come, and I was sitting on the stoop, and I was exhausted and I looked at that street, it was dark enough to allow the street lamps to pick up the glitter of all the broken glass, and all the debris, and all the different colored cloth, that was in different places. Dick Leitsch:There were Black Panthers and there were anti-war people. But the before section, I really wanted people to have a sense of what it felt like to be gay, lesbian, transgender, before Stonewall and before you have this mass civil rights movement that comes after Stonewall. One never knows when the homosexual is about. Greenwich Village's Stonewall Inn has undergone several transformations in the decades since it was the focal point of a three-day riot in 1969. John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. Frank Kameny 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. Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969.
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