before stonewall documentary transcriptseaside beach club membership fees
before stonewall documentary transcript
This 1955 educational film warns of homosexuality, calling it "a sickness of the mind.". I learned, very early, that those horrible words were about me, that I was one of those people. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And I keep listening and listening and listening, hoping I'm gonna hear sirens any minute and I was very freaked. Because if you don't have extremes, you don't get any moderation. 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 most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. You needed a license even to be a beautician and that could be either denied or taken away from you. In the Life Doric Wilson:There was joy because the cops weren't winning. 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: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. Jerry Hoose:And we were going fast. Susan Liberti (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. 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. 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. The film brings together voices from over 50 years of the LGBTQ rights movement to explore queer activism before, during and after the Stonewall Riots. A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. Hear more of the conversation and historical interviews at the audio link. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. In addition to interviews with activists and scholars, the film includes the reflections of renowned writer Allen Ginsberg. There was at least one gay bar that was run just as a hustler bar for straight gay married men. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. They can be anywhere. 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. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. 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. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. Stacker put together a timeline of LGBTQ+ history leading up to Stonewall, beginning with prehistoric events and ending in the late 1960s. Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. It eats you up inside not being comfortable with yourself. That's what gave oxygen to the fire. 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. by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor Glenn Fukushima Stonewall Forever is a documentary from NYC's LGBT Community Center directed by Ro Haber. Queer was very big. For those kisses. With this outpouring of courage and unity the gay liberation movement had begun. People could take shots at us. 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. When you exit, have some identification and it'll be over in a short time." Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude Quentin Heilbroner The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School In a spontaneous show of support and frustration, the citys gay community rioted for three nights in the streets, an event that is considered the birth of the modern Gay Rights Movement. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. Judy Laster This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. And they started smashing their heads with clubs. Synopsis. Gay bars were always on side streets out of the way in neighborhoods that nobody would go into. Robin Haueter John O'Brien:We had no idea we were gonna finish the march. People started throwing pennies. And today we're talking about Stonewall, which were both pretty anxious about so anxious. 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 So I run down there. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. That was our world, that block. Fifty years ago, a gay bar in New York City called The Stonewall Inn was raided by police, and what followed were days of rebellion where protesters and police clashed. Virginia Apuzzo:What we felt in isolation was a growing sense of outrage and fury particularly because we looked around and saw so many avenues of rebellion. Trevor, Post Production Pamela Gaudiano It's not my cup of tea. Former U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with gay rights activist Frank Kameny after signing a memorandum on federal benefits and non-discrimination in the Oval Office on June 17, 2009. 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. We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". 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. And the police escalated their crackdown on bars because of the reelection campaign. Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. 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. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. Doric Wilson:In those days, the idea of walking in daylight, with a sign saying, "I'm a faggot," was horren--, nobody, nobody was ready to do that. I was a man. They were getting more ferocious. 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. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. Doric Wilson:That's what happened Stonewall night to a lot of people. But I had only stuck my head in once at the 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 didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had been in some gay bars either for a story or gay friends would say, "Oh we're going to go in for a drink there, come on in, are you too uptight to go in?" So anything that would set us off, we would go into action. He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. John O'Brien:All of a sudden, the police faced something they had never seen before. Chris Mara Now, 50 years later, the film is back. And it's interesting to note how many youngsters we've been seeing in these films. I hope it was. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Daniel Pine National History Archive, LGBT Community Center Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. And that crowd between Howard Johnson's and Mama's Chik-n-Rib was like the basic crowd of the gay community at that time in the Village. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. You cut one head off. The police weren't letting us dance. William Eskridge, Professor of Law: The 1960s were dark ages for lesbians and gay men all over America. It meant nothing to us. Gay people were never supposed to be threats to police officers. Things were being thrown against the plywood, we piled things up to try to buttress it. MacDonald & Associates Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. 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. We heard one, then more and more. 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. 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. The groundbreaking 1984 film "Before Stonewall" introduced audiences to some of the key players and places that helped spark the Greenwich Village riots. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? And in a sense the Stonewall riots said, "Get off our backs, deliver on the promise." Martin Boyce John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. The mob was saying, you know, "Screw you, cops, you think you can come in a bust us up? 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. And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. Greg Shea, Legal You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. 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. Abstract. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. Fred Sargeant:When it was clear that things were definitely over for the evening, we decided we needed to do something more. I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. A CBS news public opinion survey indicates that sentiment is against permitting homosexual relationships between consenting adults without legal punishment. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. Patricia Yusah, Marketing and Communications They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. We had no speakers planned for the rally in Central Park, where we had hoped to get to. The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. And, it was, I knew I would go through hell, I would go through fire for that experience. People cheer while standing in front of The Stonewall Inn as the annual Gay Pride parade passes, Sunday, June 26, 2011 in New York. The Underground Lounge [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. 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. 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. I just thought you had to get through this, and I thought I could get through it, but you really had to be smart about it. Danny Garvin:He's a faggot, he's a sissy, queer. Because he was homosexual. Available on Prime Video, Tubi TV, iTunes. 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. Except for the few mob-owned bars that allowed some socializing, it was basically for verboten. Doing things like that. Directors Greta Schiller Robert Rosenberg (co-director) Stars Rita Mae Brown Maua Adele Ajanaku There was no going back now, there was no going back, there was no, we had discovered a power that we weren't even aware that we had. John O'Brien:Heterosexuals, legally, had lots of sexual outlets. It was like a reward. 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. 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 . 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. 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. Alexis Charizopolis Mike Nuget Jerry Hoose:I was chased down the street with billy clubs. Revealing and. 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?". And as awful as people might think that sounds, it's the way history has always worked. The cops were barricaded inside. Available via license: Content may be subject to . Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International Danny Garvin:People were screaming "pig," "copper." If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. Martin Boyce:In the early 60s, if you would go near Port Authority, there were tons of people coming in. 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. Detective John Sorenson, Dade County Morals & Juvenile Squad (Archival):There may be some in this auditorium. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:I never bought a drink at the Stonewall. This time they said, "We're not going." 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. Is that conceivable? 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. People standing on cars, standing on garbage cans, screaming, yelling. I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. 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. They could be judges, lawyers. He said, "Okay, let's go." Scott McPartland/Getty Images Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. And we all relaxed. 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. They were the storm troopers. But we had to follow up, we couldn't just let that be a blip that disappeared. 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. They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. I was in the Navy when I was 17 and it was there that I discovered that I was gay. So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. Martha Babcock Slate:The Homosexual(1967), CBS Reports. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. Linton Media Before Stonewall. And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". 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. John van Hoesen The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. 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.
Michael Barbaro Lisa Tobin Brooklyn,
Articles B
