Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. We heard one, then more and more. And then they send them out in the street and of course they did make arrests, because you know, there's all these guys who cruise around looking for drag queens. Ellen Goosenberg I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. Before Stonewall. Chris Mara 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. 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. There may be some girls here who will turn lesbian. A sickness of the mind. 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. 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. Amber Hall Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. 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. NBC News Archives Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. Liz Davis 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. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." Remember everything. And they started smashing their heads with clubs. Because that's what they were looking for, any excuse to try to bust the place. 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. In 1969 it was common for police officers to rough up a gay bar and ask for payoffs. We did use humor to cover pain, frustration, anger. Doric Wilson I was a man. Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. "Don't fire. And gay people were standing around outside and the mood on the street was, "They think that they could disperse us last night and keep us from doing what we want to do, being on the street saying I'm gay and I'm proud? But as visibility increased, the reactions of people increased. 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. In the Life 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. This book, and the related documentary film, use oral histories to present students with a varied view of lesbian and gay experience. Alexis Charizopolis Glenn Fukushima That's it. I was a homosexual. 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. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We only had about six people altogether from the police department knowing that you had a precinct right nearby that would send assistance. Creating the First Visual History of Queer Life Before Stonewall Making a landmark documentary about LGBTQ Americans before 1969 meant digging through countless archives to find traces of. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. MacDonald & Associates It eats you up inside. And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. 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. And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. That this was normal stuff. 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. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . You know. And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. Vanessa Ezersky So I got into the subway, and on the car was somebody I recognized and he said, "I've never been so scared in my life," and I said, "Well, please let there be more than ten of us, just please let there be more than ten of us. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. 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. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. With this outpouring of courage and unity the gay liberation movement had begun. Before Stonewall. John O'Brien:I knew that the words that were being said to put down people, was about me. Atascadero was known in gay circles as the Dachau for queers, and appropriately so. It was done in our little street talk. Geoff Kole His movements are not characteristic of a real boy. Here are my ID cards, you knew they were phonies. Things were just changing. A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. Barak Goodman 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. And there was tear gas on Saturday night, right in front of the Stonewall. Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. 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. 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. But we had to follow up, we couldn't just let that be a blip that disappeared. Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. 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? For the first time, we weren't letting ourselves be carted off to jails, gay people were actually fighting back just the way people in the peace movement fought back. Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. It was as if they were identifying a thing. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. 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. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It really should have been called Stonewall uprising. They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. Even non-gay people. Dana Gaiser Hunted, hunted, sometimes we were hunted. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:The moment you stepped out that door there would be hundreds facing you. And if we catch you, involved with a homosexual, your parents are going to know about it first. Frank Kameny 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. The mirrors, all the bottles of liquor, the jukebox, the cigarette machines. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. All the rules were off in the '60s. In the trucks or around the trucks. 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. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. That never happened before. Slate:The Homosexual(1967), CBS Reports. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. We were scared. First Run Features So gay people were being strangled, shot, thrown in the river, blackmailed, fired from jobs. Eric Marcus has spent years interviewing people who were there that night, as well as those who were pushing for gay rights before Stonewall. A CBS news public opinion survey indicates that sentiment is against permitting homosexual relationships between consenting adults without legal punishment. The men's room was under police surveillance. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. You see these cops, like six or eight cops in drag. ITN Source The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. But, that's when we knew, we were ourselves for the first time. In addition to interviews with activists and scholars, the film includes the reflections of renowned writer Allen Ginsberg. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016. Corbis As kids, we played King Kong. But I'm wearing this police thing I'm thinking well if they break through I better take it off really quickly but they're gunna come this way and we're going to be backing up and -- who knows what'll happen. That's more an uprising than a riot. Seymour Wishman 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. Raymond Castro:Incendiary devices were being thrown in I don't think they were Molotov cocktails, but it was just fire being thrown in when the doors got open. 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. View in iTunes. Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. John O'Brien:Cops got hurt. That's what gave oxygen to the fire. Dan Bodner Suzanne Poli Katrina Heilbroner There was all these drags queens and these crazy people and everybody was carrying on. 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. You cut one head off. Cause I was from the streets. And it was fantastic. He said, "Okay, let's go." Is that conceivable? The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights.