And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. You needed a license even to be a beautician and that could be either denied or taken away from you. Colonial House First Run Features Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an email, or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805. WGBH Educational Foundation But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. I mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin me. And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. 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. 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. Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. We don't know. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:In states like New York, there were a whole basket of crimes that gay people could be charged with. The last time I saw him, he was a walking vegetable. 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. 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. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. Jerry Hoose:I remember I was in a paddy wagon one time on the way to jail, we were all locked up together on a chain in the paddy wagon and the paddy wagon stopped for a red light or something and one of the queens said "Oh, this is my stop." 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. There are a lot of kids here. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. 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. Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. View in iTunes. If you came to a place like New York, you at least had the opportunity of connecting with people, and finding people who didn't care that you were gay. And I knew that I was lesbian. And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. Vanessa Ezersky Trevor, Post Production The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. 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. Doing things like that. You know, Howard's concern was and my concern was that if all hell broke loose, they'd just start busting heads. These homosexuals glorify unnatural sex acts. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. So in every gay pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. And some people came out, being very dramatic, throwing their arms up in a V, you know, the victory sign. 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. All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. Heather Gude, Archival Research Detective John Sorenson, Dade County Morals & Juvenile Squad (Archival):There may be some in this auditorium. Directors Greta Schiller Robert Rosenberg (co-director) Stars Rita Mae Brown Maua Adele Ajanaku I'm losing everything that I have. A few of us would get dressed up in skirts and blouses and the guys would all have to wear suits and ties. But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. Danny Garvin:And the cops just charged them. 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. 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. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. We could lose our memory from the beating, we could be in wheelchairs like some were. Almost anything you could name. Evan Eames Dick Leitsch:Well, gay bars were the social centers of gay life. 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. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. David Huggins Michael Dolan, Technical Advisors Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:A rather tough lesbian was busted in the bar and when she came out of the bar she was fighting the cops and trying to get away. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:There were gay bars all over town, not just in Greenwich Village. ITN Source Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. And Howard said, "Boy there's like a riot gonna happen here," and I said, "yeah." Original Language: English. It gives back a little of the terror they gave in my life. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. Jerry Hoose:And I got to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street, crossed the street and there I had found Nirvana. The homosexual, bitterly aware of his rejection, responds by going underground. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. And the first gay power demonstration to my knowledge was against my story inThe Village Voiceon Wednesday. Stonewall Forever Explore the monument Watch the documentary Download the AR app About & FAQ Privacy Policy Danny Garvin:Something snapped. They were afraid that the FBI was following them. And Vito and I walked the rest of the whole thing with tears running down our face. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people. It's not my cup of tea. 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. It was tremendous freedom. Before Stonewall. How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? Things were just changing. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:So at that point the police are extremely nervous. Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? 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. 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. 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. I never believed in that. We heard one, then more and more. 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. ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? Producers Library 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The Stonewall pulled in everyone from every part of gay life. And I had become very radicalized in that time. You cut one head off. 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. He pulls all his men inside. Alan Lechner You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. When you exit, have some identification and it'll be over in a short time." Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations All of the rules that I had grown up with, and that I had hated in my guts, other people were fighting against, and saying "No, it doesn't have to be this way.". I mean I'm talking like sardines. We could easily be hunted, that was a game. 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. The only faces you will see are those of the arresting officers. There was the Hippie movement, there was the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King, and all of these affected me terribly. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. It was nonsense, it was nonsense, it was all the people there, that were reacting and opposing what was occurring. Queer was very big. Even non-gay people. Just making their lives miserable for once. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." John O'Brien:All of a sudden, the police faced something they had never seen before. [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". American Airlines John van Hoesen 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. First you gotta get past the door. Scott Kardel, Project Administration That never happened before. In the sexual area, in psychology, psychiatry. Gay bars were always on side streets out of the way in neighborhoods that nobody would go into. 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. Director . Before Stonewall, the activists wanted to fit into society and not rock the boat. It was a horror story. In the Life This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself.