It was a leaflet that attacked the relationship of the police and the Mafia and the bars that we needed to see ended. Alexis Charizopolis It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. Eric Marcus, Writer: The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. We knew that this was a moment that we didn't want to let slip past, because it was something that we could use to bring more of the groups together. John O'Brien: Cops got hurt. Hugh Bush William Eskridge, Professor of Law: The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. 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. So it was a perfect storm for the police.
Scott Kardel, Project Administration And I said to myself, "Oh my God, this will not last.". And the people coming out weren't going along with it so easily.
Eventually something was bound to blow. People talk about being in and out now, there was no out, there was just in. So if any one of you, have let yourself become involved with an adult homosexual, or with another boy, and you're doing this on a regular basis, you better stop quick.
Almost anything you could name. Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. 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. Liz Davis ", Martin Boyce: People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it.
Dick Leitsch: Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. He pulls all his men inside. and I didn't see anything but a forest of hands.
So gay people were being strangled, shot, thrown in the river, blackmailed, fired from jobs. This 1955 educational film warns of homosexuality, calling it "a sickness of the mind.". "Don't fire. 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. Martin Boyce: We were like a Hydra. And so Howard said, "We've got police press passes upstairs." Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. 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. Saying I don't want to be this way, this is not the life I want.
Do you understand me?". And I just didn't understand that. Martin Boyce: That was our only block.
As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. Fred Sargeant: The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". I guess they're deviates. 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. Richard Enman (Archival): Present laws give the adult homosexual only the choice of being, to simplify the matter, heterosexual and legal or homosexual and illegal. 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. TV Host (Archival): That's a very lovely dress too that you're wearing Simone. This, to a homosexual, is no choice at all. People could take shots at us. Windows started to break. John O'Brien: In the Civil Rights Movement, we ran from the police, in the peace movement, we ran from the police. "We're not going.". Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt: There were all these articles in like Life Magazine about how the Village was liberal and people that were called homosexuals went there. Dr. Socarides (Archival): Homosexuality is in fact a mental illness which has reached epidemiological proportions. (c) 2011 And all of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. Things were just changing.
Naturally, you get careless, you fall for it, and the next thing you know, you have silver bracelets on both arms. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. The shop had been threatened, we would get hang-up calls, calls where people would curse at us on the phone, we'd had vandalism, windows broken, streams of profanity. 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. 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. below. They would bang on the trucks. This is every year in New York City. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter, The Village Voice: And then the next night. by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor William Eskridge, Professor of Law: The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. Colonial House
The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. 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. This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. the most exciting films. 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. Hunted, hunted, sometimes we were hunted. Maureen Jordan What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." Mike Nuget Watch HD Movies Online For Free and Download the latest movies.
Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. The Catholic Church, be damned to hell. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter, The Village Voice: Saturday night there it was. Danny Garvin: There was more anger and more fight the second night. everywhere, everydevice, and everything ;). Read more. It was an age of experimentation. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." In the trucks or around the trucks. This site does not store any files on its server. Thus a movement was born and steps toward equality were (and still are being) taken. Slate: Perversion for Profit (1965), Citizens for Decency Through Law. All kinds of designers, boxers, big museum people.