before stonewall documentary transcriptbefore stonewall documentary transcript

There's a little door that slides open with this power-hungry nut behind that, you see this much of your eyes, and he sees that much of your face, and then he decides whether you're going to get in. 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. But we had to follow up, we couldn't just let that be a blip that disappeared. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We didn't have the manpower, and the manpower for the other side was coming like it was a real war. In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. This was ours, here's where the Stonewall was, here's our Mecca. [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation Before Stonewall 1984 Unrated 1 h 27 m IMDb RATING 7.5 /10 1.1K YOUR RATING Rate Play trailer 2:21 1 Video 7 Photos Documentary History The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. "We're not going.". Daniel Pine Dan Martino Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. TV Host (Archival):Ladies and gentlemen, the reason for using first names only forthese very, very charming contestants is that right now each one of them is breaking the law. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. First you gotta get past the door. The events. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a man during a confrontation in Greenwich Village after a Gay Power march in New York. But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. And the cops got that. Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? John O'Brien:Cops got hurt. Maureen Jordan TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? 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. Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. You know, it's just, everybody was there. 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. Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. Dan Bodner The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." But that's only partially true. 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. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:The Stonewall, they didn't have a liquor license and they were raided by the cops regularly and there were pay-offs to the cops, it was awful. But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. 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. People that were involved in it like me referred to it as "The First Run." Then the cops come up and make use of what used to be called the bubble-gum machine, back then a cop car only had one light on the top that spun around. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. 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. Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. I mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin me. Judith Kuchar Because he was homosexual. The only faces you will see are those of the arresting officers. Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? Yvonne Ritter:It's like people who are, you know, black people who are used to being mistreated, and going to the back of the bus and I guess this was sort of our going to the back of the bus. But, that's when we knew, we were ourselves for the first time. It meant nothing to us. And there, we weren't allowed to be alone, the police would raid us still. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. It was done in our little street talk. ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. Robin Haueter A medievalist. Danny Garvin:Everybody would just freeze or clam up. Newly restored for the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Before Stonewall pries open the . 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.". It's not my cup of tea. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. Tom Caruso Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The Stonewall pulled in everyone from every part of gay life. What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." I met this guy and I broke down crying in his arms. 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?" It premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on June 27, 1985. We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". Is that conceivable? I could never let that happen and never did. It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. 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? 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. All rights reserved. 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. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016. The shop had been threatened, we would get hang-up calls, calls where people would curse at us on the phone, we'd had vandalism, windows broken, streams of profanity. Things were just changing. "Don't fire. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. It was one of the things you did in New York, it was like the Barnum and Bailey aspect of it. Doric Wilson Slate:Activity Group Therapy (1950), Columbia University Educational Films. Director . Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. Almost anything you could name. Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. A sickness of the mind. 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. The windows were always cloaked. Katrina Heilbroner Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." Fred Sargeant:The effect of the Stonewall riot was to change the direction of the gay movement. And I just didn't understand that. 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. Before Stonewall, the activists wanted to fit into society and not rock the boat. This, to a homosexual, is no choice at all. 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. Because to be gay represented to me either very, super effeminate men or older men who hung out in the upper movie theatres on 42nd Street or in the subway T-rooms, who'd be masturbating. And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! Danny Garvin:Something snapped. Frank Kameny Doric Wilson:That's what happened Stonewall night to a lot of people. Noah Goldman Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. I never believed in that. For the first time the next person stood up. Martin Boyce:I heard about the trucks, which to me was fascinated me, you know, it had an imagination thing that was like Marseilles, how can it only be a few blocks away? It was right in the center of where we all were. Jerry Hoose Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. Geoff Kole This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. Dick Leitsch:It was an invasion, I mean you felt outraged and stuff like you know what, God, this is America, what's this country come to? It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." 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. Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." Paul Bosche Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. And we all relaxed. They pushed everybody like to the back room and slowly asking for IDs. Because as the police moved back, we were conscious, all of us, of the area we were controlling and now we were in control of the area because we were surrounded the bar, we were moving in, they were moving back. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:If someone was dressed as a woman, you had to have a female police officer go in with her. We didn't expect we'd ever get to Central Park. WGBH Educational Foundation Cause I was from the streets. You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. Daily News Never, never, never. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. It was terrifying. They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. This 19-year-old serviceman left his girlfriend on the beach to go to a men's room in a park nearby where he knew that he could find a homosexual contact. Where did you buy it? She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. Also, through this fight, the "LGBT" was born. That wasn't ours, it was borrowed. John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. But we couldn't hold out very long. They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. Danny Garvin:We had thought of women's rights, we had thought of black rights, all kinds of human rights, but we never thought of gay rights, and whenever we got kicked out of a bar before, we never came together. They didn't know what they were walking into. Before Stonewall. BBC Worldwide Americas Danny Garvin:And the cops just charged them. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. Slate:Perversion for Profit(1965), Citizens for Decency Through Law. They were getting more ferocious. The film combined personal interviews, snapshots and home movies, together with historical footage. Alexandra Meryash Nikolchev, On-Line Editors 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. 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. Raymond Castro:If that light goes on, you know to stop whatever you're doing, and separate. All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. Chris Mara The mob was saying, you know, "Screw you, cops, you think you can come in a bust us up? Chris Mara, Production Assistants Homosexuality was a dishonorable discharge in those days, and you couldn't get a job afterwards. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. And it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. They would bang on the trucks. John O'Brien:In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. I mean it didn't stop after that. And it just seemed like, fantastic because the background was this industrial, becoming an industrial ruin, it was a masculine setting, it was a whole world. Fred Sargeant:Things started off small, but there was an energy that began to flow through the crowd. When you exit, have some identification and it'll be over in a short time." Mike Nuget And you felt bad that you were part of this, when you knew they broke the law, but what kind of law was that? David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. 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.

How To Open Joycon Without Screwdriver, Alan Hamel Suzanne Somers Net Worth, 2008 West Virginia Football Roster, Articles B