We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. 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. A CBS news public opinion survey indicates that sentiment is against permitting homosexual relationships between consenting adults without legal punishment. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, we did use the small hoses on the fire extinguishers. Paul Bosche Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. And as awful as people might think that sounds, it's the way history has always worked. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:And they were, they were kids. It was first released in 1984 with its American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and its European premiere at the Berlinale, followed by a successful theatrical release in many countries and a national broadcast on PBS. 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. It must have been terrifying for them. Synopsis. And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. Martin Boyce:In the early 60s, if you would go near Port Authority, there were tons of people coming in. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. 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. In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . Not even us. Jorge Garcia-Spitz Danny Garvin:Something snapped. That night, we printed a box, we had 5,000. 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. Jimmy hadn't enjoyed himself so much in a long time. It was tremendous freedom. Martin Boyce:Mind you socks didn't count, so it was underwear, and undershirt, now the next thing was going to ruin the outfit. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. 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. Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. Because if they weren't there fast, I was worried that there was something going on that I didn't know about and they weren't gonna come. All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. 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. And there, we weren't allowed to be alone, the police would raid us still. These homosexuals glorify unnatural sex acts. Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. Cop (Archival):Anyone can walk into that men's room, any child can walk in there, and see what you guys were doing. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. 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? Marcus spoke with NPR's Ari Shapiro about his conversations with leaders of the gay-rights movement, as well as people who were at Stonewall when the riots broke out. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. We were going to propose something that all groups could participate in and what we ended up producing was what's now known as the gay pride march. Mike Nuget Danny Garvin:People were screaming "pig," "copper." When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. Alan Lechner 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. And the rest of your life will be a living hell. Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969. Susana Fernandes We didn't want to come on, you know, wearing fuzzy sweaters and lipstick, you know, and being freaks. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. This is every year in New York City. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Our radio was cut off every time we got on the police radio. 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. As kids, we played King Kong. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:This was the Rosa Parks moment, the time that gay people stood up and said no. I said, "I can go in with you?" Yvonne Ritter:I did try to get out of the bar and I thought that there might be a way out through one of the bathrooms. Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. I really thought that, you know, we did it. You know. Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. I mean they were making some headway. Doric Wilson:That's what happened Stonewall night to a lot of people. Danny Garvin:It was the perfect time to be in the Village. Jerry Hoose:And we were going fast. And I had become very radicalized in that time. People started throwing pennies. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. Homosexuality was a dishonorable discharge in those days, and you couldn't get a job afterwards. 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.". Jerry Hoose The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California. Maureen Jordan Susan Liberti It's like, this is not right. We love to hear from our listeners! They really were objecting to how they were being treated. John O'Brien:It was definitely dark, it was definitely smelly and raunchy and dirty and that's the only places that we had to meet each other, was in the very dirty, despicable places. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. I was never seduced by an older person or anything like that. Fred Sargeant:Someone at this point had apparently gone down to the cigar stand on the corner and got lighter fluid. Because he was homosexual. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. 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. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt Abstract. Hugh Bush 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. Greg Shea, Legal All rights reserved. The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. We could lose our memory from the beating, we could be in wheelchairs like some were. Where did you buy it? And this went on for hours. But as we were going up 6th Avenue, it kept growing. One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. It premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on June 27, 1985. And it was those loudest people, the most vulnerable, the most likely to be arrested, were the ones that were doing the real fighting. We knew it was a gay bar, we walked past it. Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. 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. I am not alone, there are other people that feel exactly the same way.". If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. Danny Garvin:With Waverly Street coming in there, West Fourth coming in there, Seventh Avenue coming in there, Christopher Street coming in there, there was no way to contain us. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? 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. It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. And it was fantastic. First you gotta get past the door. And if we catch you, involved with a homosexual, your parents are going to know about it first. [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. One never knows when the homosexual is about. W hen police raided a Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, on June 28, 1969 50 years ago this month the harassment was routine for the time. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. MacDonald & Associates Quentin Heilbroner And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. So it was a perfect storm for the police. 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. I learned, very early, that those horrible words were about me, that I was one of those people. David Huggins Doric Wilson:When I was very young, one of the terms for gay people was twilight people, meaning that we never came out until twilight, 'til it got dark. And I ran into Howard Smith on the street,The Village Voicewas right there. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. 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. A year earlier, young gays, lesbians and transgender people clashed with police near a bar called The Stonewall Inn. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. You gotta remember, the Stonewall bar was just down the street from there. Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was a bottle club which meant that I guess you went to the door and you bought a membership or something for a buck and then you went in and then you could buy drinks. The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. It gives back a little of the terror they gave in my life. 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. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016. The events of that night have been described as the birth of the gay-rights movement. In addition to interviews with activists and scholars, the film includes the reflections of renowned writer Allen Ginsberg. They were the storm troopers. That night, the police ran from us, the lowliest of the low. Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. It was one of the things you did in New York, it was like the Barnum and Bailey aspect of it. Original Language: English. As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. Other images in this film are I wanted to kill those cops for the anger I had in me. Daniel Pine American Airlines The men's room was under police surveillance. You know, it's just, everybody was there. The severity of the punishment varies from state to state. Dan Martino Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives Windows started to break. Jerry Hoose:I mean the riot squad was used to riots. Trevor, Post Production 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." hide caption. Before Stonewall, the activists wanted to fit into society and not rock the boat. Dana Gaiser Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas.