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. It was a horror story. That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. Transcript A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. Martha Shelley:I don't know if you remember the Joan Baez song, "It isn't nice to block the doorway, it isn't nice to go to jail, there're nicer ways to do it but the nice ways always fail." And Howard said, "Boy there's like a riot gonna happen here," and I said, "yeah." Martha Shelley William Eskridge, Professor of Law:At the peak, as many as 500 people per year were arrested for the crime against nature, and between 3- and 5,000 people per year arrested for various solicitation or loitering crimes. Doric Wilson National Archives and Records Administration Doric Wilson:There was joy because the cops weren't winning. You see, Ralph was a homosexual. Danny Garvin:Bam, bam and bash and then an opening and then whoa. The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. They didn't know what they were walking into. And the people coming out weren't going along with it so easily. 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. Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. They pushed everybody like to the back room and slowly asking for IDs. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. And, I did not like parading around while all of these vacationers were standing there eating ice cream and looking at us like we were critters in a zoo. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community Frank Kameny And the police escalated their crackdown on bars because of the reelection campaign. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world. It eats you up inside. 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. Lauren Noyes. Amber Hall I could never let that happen and never did. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. Remember everything. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:All throughout the 60s in New York City, the period when the New York World's Fair was attracting visitors from all over America and all over the world. Glenn Fukushima Cop (Archival):Anyone can walk into that men's room, any child can walk in there, and see what you guys were doing. 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. 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. And we had no right to such. We heard one, then more and more. And I had become very radicalized in that time. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. 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. How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? The mob was saying, you know, "Screw you, cops, you think you can come in a bust us up? (c) 2011 But as visibility increased, the reactions of people increased. He is not interested in, nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. Martin Boyce:And then more police came, and it didn't stop. Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. I made friends that first day. When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. And it was those loudest people, the most vulnerable, the most likely to be arrested, were the ones that were doing the real fighting. His movements are not characteristic of a real boy. John O'Brien:Cops got hurt. Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. But we couldn't hold out very long. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. You had no place to try to find an identity. I hope it was. Synopsis. Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. Daily News And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. For the first time the next person stood up. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. 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. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:Gay people who were sentenced to medical institutions because they were found to be sexual psychopaths, were subjected sometimes to sterilization, occasionally to castration, sometimes to medical procedures, such as lobotomies, which were felt by some doctors to cure homosexuality and other sexual diseases. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. 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. I was in the Navy when I was 17 and it was there that I discovered that I was gay. It was a down at a heels kind of place, it was a lot of street kids and things like that. Queer was very big. 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. And they were gay. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:Ed Koch who was a democratic party leader in the Greenwich Village area, was a specific leader of the local forces seeking to clean up the streets. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. That's what gave oxygen to the fire. 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. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. Narrator (Archival):This is one of the county's principal weekend gathering places for homosexuals, both male and female. 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. We were all there. You needed a license even to be a beautician and that could be either denied or taken away from you. John van Hoesen They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. 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. 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. The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. Dick Leitsch:We wore suits and ties because we wanted people, in the public, who were wearing suits and ties, to identify with us. The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." Danny Garvin And the cops got that. I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. Yvonne Ritter:I had just turned 18 on June 27, 1969. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. This was the first time I could actually sense, not only see them fearful, I could sense them fearful. You knew you could ruin them for life. It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. Nobody. They were the storm troopers. Slate:In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. 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. 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. Before Stonewall pries open the closet door, setting free dramatic stories from the early 1900's onwards of public and private existence as experienced by LGBT Americans. We had no speakers planned for the rally in Central Park, where we had hoped to get to. 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 windows were always cloaked. And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." 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. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:TheNew York TimesI guess printed a story, but it wasn't a major story. 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. The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. 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 They frequent their own clubs, and bars and coffee houses, where they can escape the disapproving eye of the society that they call straight. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects 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. 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. Because if you don't have extremes, you don't get any moderation. When you exit, have some identification and it'll be over in a short time." Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:What was so good about the Stonewall was that you could dance slow there. We were winning. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. 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. Because one out of three of you will turn queer. 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. The cops were barricaded inside. Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. 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. It was a real good sound to know that, you know, you had a lot of people out there pulling for you. [2][3] Later in 2019, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4][5][6]. Raymond Castro Jimmy hadn't enjoyed himself so much in a long time. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. It meant nothing to us. Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude Yvonne Ritter:And then everybody started to throw pennies like, you know, this is what they were, they were nothing but copper, coppers, that's what they were worth.
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