Cause I was from the streets. All the rules were off in the '60s. They had a warrant. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." They would not always just arrest, they would many times use clubs and beat. Alan Lechner But we're going to pay dearly for this. WebArrest Reports From the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. Seymour Wishman Frank Kameny As the riots progressed, an international gay rights movement was born. Perhaps the man in question was having a bit of fun at the arresting officers expense. Stonewall When police raided Stonewall Inn on the morning of June 28, it came as a surprisethe bar wasnt tipped off this time. 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. Just making their lives miserable for once. 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. 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. ( New York : New York University Press , 2019 . On the one-year anniversary of the riots, thousands of people marches in the streets of Manhattan from the Stonewall Inn to Central Park in was then called Christopher Street Liberation Day, Americas first gay pride parade, (History, 2017). J. Michael Grey While Stonewall became well known due to the media coverage and the subsequent annual Pride traditions, it was a culmination of years of LGBTQ+ activism. Stonewall They were the storm troopers. And the harder she fought, the more the cops were beating her up and the madder the crowd got. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. Marc Steins The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History is a primary-source collection of the sort that a professor might assign in a class on social movements. This 1955 educational film warns of homosexuality, calling it "a sickness of the mind.". Updated: May 31, 2022 | Original: May 31, 2017. ), Pine has been vilified by a number of gay writers, but from all my interactions with him I believe his account was truthful and accurate, Mr. Carter said. He is the founder of Mattachine Society of New York. American Airlines '1Cmj`VUJlh**rUPlMmc_J)?lM6}L7@P?|h,hqzFf4'7`Z0FgGfoLv(rVGb`_p!^lxJ*j/;d8RhUUJ\*Rrq'zNphGlXKbQci{:TIFEPu@B?@=f/1)@dB9ldx+=dWR$>{^w(/2II^Q,e,)1;y1,E~cum}4VRQ,;W]mTN1TW mw$$%Zjmd1CyCyu`WU6. Fred Sargeant:Three articles of clothing had to be of your gender or you would be in violation of that law. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. He said, "Okay, let's go." Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Our radio was cut off every time we got on the police radio. In the Life Many historians characterized the uprising as a spontaneous protest against the perpetual police harassment and social discrimination suffered by a variety of sexual minorities in the 1960s. We were thinking about survival. Vanessa Ezersky Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? manner of the way the police conducted themselves. And there was tear gas on Saturday night, right in front of the Stonewall. In 1966, they purchased Stonewall Inn (a straight bar and restaurant), cheaply renovated it, and reopened it the next year as a gay bar. And so there was this drag queen standing on the corner, so they go up and make a sexual offer and they'd get busted. (Sourcing) Who was Dick Leitsch? It was the only time I was in a gladiatorial sport that I stood up in. Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. I am not alone, there are other people that feel exactly the same way.". 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. an unknown object. Mr. Van Ronk eventually pleaded guilty to harassment, a violation. informativespeechoutline.docx - In the Civil Rights Lauren Noyes. A word that would be used in the 1960s for gay men and lesbians. Alexandra Meryash Nikolchev, On-Line Editors Atascadero was known in gay circles as the Dachau for queers, and appropriately so. From theWikimedia Commons. And when she grabbed that everybody knew she couldn't do it alone so all the other queens, Congo Woman, queens like that started and they were hitting that door. Stonewall And, it was, I knew I would go through hell, I would go through fire for that experience. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. The Stonewall Riots served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement and led to the creation of various gay activist groups in the United States and around the world. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. I said, "I can go in with you?" I could never let that happen and never did. Stonewall Riots But I gave it up about, oh I forget, some years ago, over four years ago. I had never seen anything like that. The concept behind the initial Pride march was formally proposed by lesbian activist Ellen Broidy (NYU Student Homophile League), who had written the proposaltogether with Craig Rodwell (Homophile Youth Movement). Martha Shelley:The riot could have been buried, it could have been a few days in the local newspaper and that was that. Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. Martha Babcock Jerry Hoose:I was chased down the street with billy clubs. 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. Gay bars were places of refuge where gay men and lesbians and other individuals who were considered sexually suspect could socialize in relative safety from public harassment. The mirrors, all the bottles of liquor, the jukebox, the cigarette machines. HIS 100 Module Four Activity Narratives.docx - HIS 100 In 1969, a series of riots over police action against The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, changed the landscape of homosexual society quite literally overnight. COMM 2081 - Chapter 8; Not able to do anything. 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. It was terrifying. The only faces you will see are those of the arresting officers. I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. Cause we could feel a sense of love for each other that we couldn't show out on the street, because you couldn't show any affection out on the street. This 19-year-old serviceman left his girlfriend on the beach to go to a men's room in a park nearby where he knew that he could find a homosexual contact. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. Maybe the guys name was real (parents do name their kids after saints) but maybe it was just given at the time of arrest. I met this guy and I broke down crying in his arms. Essay On The Stonewall Riot Stonewall Rebellion - HIS 100 - Perspectives in History - Research And they were gay. Barney Karpfinger Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Stonewall Uprising | American Experience | PBS University, A Watch documentary footage of the first Pride march held in New York City on June 28, 1970, Gay and Proud, a documentary by activist Lilli Vincenz: The S.V.A. Windows started to break. WGBH Educational Foundation And they started smashing their heads with clubs. We'll put new liquor in there, we'll put a new mirror up, we'll get a new jukebox." You know. John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. They were not used to a bunch of drag queens doing a Rockettes kick line and sort of like giving them all the finger in a way. Trevor, Post Production However, once the bar reopened the next day, the cops planned a surprise raid that upcoming weekend. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble. 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. William Eskridge, Professor of Law: The 1960s were dark ages for lesbians and gay men all over America. It was a raid. Stonewall Riots Alexis Charizopolis This is every year in New York City. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. It is important to note that there were a number of uprisings against police & statebrutality, harassment and entrapment of the LGBT+ communities in the U.S.in the years before Stonewall. Urban Stages Martin Boyce:And then more police came, and it didn't stop. and this is further reason to believe that.. HIS 100 Module Four Activity Narratives.docx - HIS 100 They began to jeer at and jostle the police and then threw bottles and debris. Alexis Charizopolis Jerry Hoose:The police would come by two or three times a night. In 1966, three years before Stonewall, members of The Mattachine Society, an organization dedicated to gay rights, staged a sip-in where they openly declared their sexuality at taverns, daring staff to turn them away and suing establishments who did. Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? Katrina Heilbroner Although the Stonewall riots cannot be said to have initiated the gay rights movement as such, it did serve as a catalyst for a new generation of political activism. Joe DeCola Danny Garvin:We became a people. Dick Leitsch:There were Black Panthers and there were anti-war people. It's the first time I'm fully inside the Stonewall. Dick Leitsch:We wore suits and ties because we wanted people, in the public, who were wearing suits and ties, to identify with us. Mike Wallace (Archival):The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:There were all these articles in likeLife Magazineabout how the Village was liberal and people that were called homosexuals went there. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." City Room, a news blog of live reporting, features and reader conversations about New York City, has been archived. How Did the Rainbow Flag Become a Symbol of LGBTQ Pride? 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. WebStonewall (1995), another fictional presentation of the events leading up to the riots After Stonewall (1999), a documentary of the years from Stonewall to century's end Stonewall Uprising (2010), a documentary presentation using archival footage, photographs, documents and witness statements Producers Library The day will soon come when everyone will be able to walk in the sunshine that being able to be ones self provides. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. For such reasons, LGBT individuals flocked to gay bars and clubs, places of refuge where they could express themselves openly and socialize without worry. The police had a history of raiding the nightclub and targeting its patrons because of their sexual orientation. Nice to remember that fighting the police is sometimes a necessary part of the struggle for liberation. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". Remember everything. Metropolitan Diary continues to publish! Find out how the Stonewall uprising sparked a new era of LGBTQ activism, This article was most recently revised and updated by, Theres a Riot Goin On: Riots in U.S. History (Part Two), 5 Important Places in Global LGBTQIA+ History. Stonewall Riots 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. And I found them in the movie theatres, sitting there, next to them. New York papers tend to call it the Stonewall uprising, not the Stonewall riot, because it played out as six days of skirmishes between young gay, lesbian, and The five days of rioting that ensued changed forever the face of gay and lesbian life. Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. I believe hes an honorable man, By Marc Stein . Why We Remember Stonewall. Patricia Yusah, Marketing and Communications The Stonewall Riots unofficially kicked off the LGBTQ movement. There was at least one gay bar that was run just as a hustler bar for straight gay married men. Colonial House That's it. It was as if an artist had arranged it, it was beautiful, it was like mica, it was like the streets we fought on were strewn with diamonds. Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. On this 50th anniversary of Stonewall, the National Archives pays homage to those who risked their lives protesting for their basic human rights. Susana Fernandes 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." Danny Garvin Club attendees had to sign their names in a book upon entry to maintain the clubs false exclusivity. Things were being thrown against the plywood, we piled things up to try to buttress it. Based on hundreds of interviews, an exhaustive search of public and previously sealed files and over a decade of intensive research, Stonewall tells the definitive story of this singular event in history. More progressives should keep that in mind these days. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of straight America, in terms of the middle class, was recoiling in horror from what was happening all around them at that time, in that summer and the summer before. Do you understand me?". 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. other rioters, Wolfgang Podolski and Thomas Staton, whose involvement in the disturbances had not been documented before. He was later sued by the police officer, Gilbert Weisman, for assault, and had to pay a fine. What Happened at the Stonewall Riots? A Timeline of the 1969 For the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, an anthology chronicling the tumultuous fight for LGBTQ rights in the 1960s and the activists who spearheaded it June 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising - the most significant event in the gay liberation movement and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. WebLast Friday the privacy of the Stonewall was invaded by police from the First Division. Robin Haueter They really were objecting to how they were being treated. Eric Marcus, Recreation Still Photography Dick Leitsch:You read about Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal and all these actors and stuff, Liberace and all these people running around doing all these things and then you came to New York and you found out, well maybe they're doing them but, you know, us middle-class homosexuals, we're getting busted all the time, every time we have a place to go, it gets raided. First steps to freedom. The most infamous of those institutions was Atascadero, in California.