Martin Boyce And Dick Leitsch, who was the head of the Mattachine Society said, "Who's in favor?" It was a leaflet that attacked the relationship of the police and the Mafia and the bars that we needed to see ended. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:TheNew York TimesI guess printed a story, but it wasn't a major story. You know, it's just, everybody was there. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. 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. Seymour Wishman Dick Leitsch:There were Black Panthers and there were anti-war people. I met this guy and I broke down crying in his arms. Robin Haueter Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969. 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. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. I was in the Navy when I was 17 and it was there that I discovered that I was gay. I learned, very early, that those horrible words were about me, that I was one of those people. Raymond Castro:I'd go in there and I would look and I would just cringe because, you know, people would start touching me, and "Hello, what are you doing there if you don't want to be touched?" Hunted, hunted, sometimes we were hunted. Janice Flood They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. And the people coming out weren't going along with it so easily. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It really should have been called Stonewall uprising. Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? So if any one of you, have let yourself become involved with an adult homosexual, or with another boy, and you're doing this on a regular basis, you better stop quick. Raymond Castro:We were in the back of the room, and the lights went on, so everybody stopped what they were doing, because now the police started coming in, raiding the bar. Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. 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. Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. Daily News 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. Lilli M. Vincenz Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects 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. We went, "Oh my God. Just let's see if they can. Mike Nuget John O'Brien:We had no idea we were gonna finish the march. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. 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.". This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. And you felt bad that you were part of this, when you knew they broke the law, but what kind of law was that? And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. All rights reserved. Remember everything. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. It was as if they were identifying a thing. TV Host (Archival):That's a very lovely dress too that you're wearing Simone. Dick Leitsch:New York State Liquor Authority had a rule that one known homosexual at a licensed premise made the place disorderly, so nobody would set up a place where we could meet because they were afraid that the cops would come in to close it, and that's how the Mafia got into the gay bar business. John O'Brien:And deep down I believed because I was gay and couldn't speak out for my rights, was probably one of the reasons that I was so active in the Civil Rights Movement. 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? There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. In the sexual area, in psychology, psychiatry. 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. I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. I mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin me. 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. And they started smashing their heads with clubs. 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. And it was those loudest people, the most vulnerable, the most likely to be arrested, were the ones that were doing the real fighting. Amber Hall With this outpouring of courage and unity the gay liberation movement had begun. Urban Stages It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." Based on It's like, this is not right. 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." Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. Martha Shelley:When I was growing up in the '50s, I was supposed to get married to some guy, produce, you know, the usual 2.3 children, and I could look at a guy and say, "Well, objectively he's good looking," but I didn't feel anything, just didn't make any sense to me. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. Glenn Fukushima Quentin Heilbroner Geoff Kole David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. Martha Shelley:They wanted to fit into American society the way it was. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. A word that would be used in the 1960s for gay men and lesbians. That was scary, very scary. You knew you could ruin them for life. All the rules were off in the '60s. A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. This time they said, "We're not going." 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. He pulls all his men inside. John O'Brien:I was very anti-police, had many years already of activism against the forces of law and order. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. 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. Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. Before Stonewall. Synopsis. There may be some girls here who will turn lesbian. Where did you buy it? Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:At a certain point, it felt pretty dangerous to me but I noticed that the cop that seemed in charge, he said you know what, we have to go inside for safety. They were to us. Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. 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 . 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. "Don't fire. It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. People standing on cars, standing on garbage cans, screaming, yelling. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. The mirrors, all the bottles of liquor, the jukebox, the cigarette machines. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. People started throwing pennies. 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. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. It won the Best Film Award at the Houston International Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature at Filmex, First Place at the National Educational Film Festival, and Honorable Mention at the Global Village Documentary Festival. Slate:Activity Group Therapy (1950), Columbia University Educational Films. 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. The men's room was under police surveillance. And the rest of your life will be a living hell. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016. Not even us. Because its all right in the Village, but the minute we cross 14th street, if there's only ten of us, God knows what's going to happen to us.". 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 cut one head off. Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. J. Michael Grey Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. BBC Worldwide Americas John O'Brien:Our goal was to hurt those police. Martin Boyce:And then more police came, and it didn't stop. Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. Martha Babcock I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. John Scagliotti You gotta remember, the Stonewall bar was just down the street from there. Jeremiah Hawkins and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. Activists had been working for change long before Stonewall. Martin Boyce:And I remember moving into the open space and grabbing onto two of my friends and we started singing and doing a kick line. Some of the pre-Stonewall uprisings included: Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1967 Black Night Brawl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 5, 1961. 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. 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. Other images in this film are And the cops got that. This 1955 educational film warns of homosexuality, calling it "a sickness of the mind.". 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. John O'Brien:There was one street called Christopher Street, where actually I could sit and talk to other gay people beyond just having sex. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives Fifty years ago, a riot broke out at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. 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. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:But there were little, tiny pin holes in the plywood windows, I'll call them the windows but they were plywood, and we could look out from there and every time I went over and looked out through one of those pin holes where he did, we were shocked at how big the crowd had become. And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. 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 then there were all these priests ranting in church about certain places not to go, so you kind of knew where you could go by what you were told not to do. The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. 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. John O'Brien:If a gay man is caught by the police and is identified as being involved in what they called lewd, immoral behavior, they would have their person's name, their age and many times their home address listed in the major newspapers. 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. David Carter, Author ofStonewall:Most raids by the New York City Police, because they were paid off by the mob, took place on a weeknight, they took place early in the evening, the place would not be crowded. Chris Mara, Production Assistants Fred Sargeant They would bang on the trucks. Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. People talk about being in and out now, there was no out, there was just in. Richard Enman (Archival):Well, let me say, first of all, what type of laws we are not after, because there has been much to-do that the Society was in favor of the legalization of marriage between homosexuals, and the adoption of children, and such as that, and that is not at all factual at all. Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. WGBH Educational Foundation Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s.