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The Civil Rights movement in
America had a huge influence

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on the shape of the Gay Rights movement

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as it grew through the 1950s and '60s.

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The man who believes in nonviolence

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is prepared to be crushed, but
he will never crush others.

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Lorraine Hansberry, who became famous

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for her groundbreaking play
"A Raisin in the Sun,"

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was a queer revolutionary
hiding in plain sight.

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She was a radical voice for Civil Rights

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who passionately confronted a society

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that oppressed her by
race, gender, and sexuality.

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Every human being is in enormous conflict

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about something.

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Civil rights leader
Bayard Rustin was openly gay,

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yet his openness was a source of
conflict within the movement.

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Much like today,

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it was dangerous to be both black and gay.

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From the world stage
to the small, local stage,

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activist José Sarria used humor and song

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to create community and build unity.

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And when our community is attacked

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on a festive New Year's Eve,

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we look to our brothers and
sisters who came before us.

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Say it loud and say it proud.

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Black is beautiful!

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Gay is good!

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What do you say?

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CREDITS

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The highest gift that man has is art,

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and I am audacious enough to
think of myself as an artist.

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But there is both joy and beauty

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and illumination and communion

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between people to be achieved

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through the dissection of personality.

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That's what I want to do.

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I want to reach a little
closer to the world

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and see if we can share
some illuminations together

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about each other.

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_

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It was opening night,

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and Lorraine Hansberry had
decided to go for glamour.

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What does the public intellectual wear

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when she's ready for her close-up?

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The vivacious 28-year-old writer

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usually zipped around New
York's Greenwich Village

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in chinos or corduroys,

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button-down shirts and cardigans,

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white sneakers and socks.

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But for the Broadway debut of
her play "A Raisin in the Sun,"

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she set and styled her hair

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and did herself up in a black
dress with bejeweled earrings.

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I sat in the third row with my
husband of six years,

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Bobby Nemiroff, who bankrolled my writing

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and endured my tantrums and fits.

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A few aisles over, with a
male date, sat Helen Leeds,

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an earnest New York University law student

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and my point of entry into
a circle of Village gay girls.

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Helen gabbed with Renee Kaplan,

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a dapper young woman on
whom I harbored a crush.

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My girlfriends speculated on
their intellectual pal,

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the only black woman in
their white lesbian circle.

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"What was that marriage
about, anyway?" they wondered.

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Who knew?

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Maybe they would get a
peek at the couple's dynamic

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at the dinner party at Sardi's later.

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The lights dimmed.

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-I don't have the right to be very personal

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about the reception to this play.

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I think what it reflects at
this particular moment

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in our country, there's a new mood,

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and, uh, the American people are
feeling like, "Make new sounds."

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And I'm glad I was here to make them.

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"A Raisin in the Sun,"

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the first play written by an
African-American woman

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to ever be performed on Broadway,

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tells the story of a black
family on Chicago's south side

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as they struggle to improve their lives.

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It was a powerful indictment

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of racism and segregation in America.

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It was universally acclaimed,
and Lorraine Hansberry...

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young, gifted, and black...
became a literary star.

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"A Raisin in the Sun" has just taken

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the theatrical season by storm.

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It's sold out.

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It's a raging commercial hit.

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It's won the Drama Critics' prize.

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It's acknowledged to be one

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of the really important
plays of the season.

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Frankly, I think we did a good play.

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It's a respectable script.

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And I like to think that it's art,

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but a certain that in terms
of the question of time,

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I think there exists in
American life at this moment

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some sort of hunger

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and that part of the response to this play

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undoubtedly has to do with the fact

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that people are feeling very
warm towards anything

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that says man has a little dignity.

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He's very complicated. He's very mixed up.

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Chairman of the board!

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I look at you and I see the final triumph

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of stupidity in this world.

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And a very charming
and alive little sister.

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Is this slightly autobiographical?

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Oh, she's very autobiographical.

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My brother would tell you that.

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I enjoyed making fun of her

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because I have that kind of confidence

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about what she represents.

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She's precocious.

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She's over outspoken,

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but I also feel that she
doesn't have a word in the play

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that I don't agree with still today.

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Many prominent Black figures at the time

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were surveilled by the FBI,

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and Lorraine Hansberry was no different.

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While never actively hunted or arrested,

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agents would keep a watchful eye

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soon after she moved to New York City.

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Their constant scrutiny of her work

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allowed more subtle
aspects of her private life

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to go unnoticed.

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Security matter... Lorraine Hansberry,

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born 5-19-30, daughter of wealthy family

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with considerable real-estate holdings.

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Attended University of
Wisconsin but did not graduate.

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Moved to New York City in early '50s

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and has pursued writing
career since that time.

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Once settled there, she went to work
for the newspaper Freedom,

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the new voice of Negro liberation.

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She had been a passionate
political activist in college,

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but now, mentored by Freedom's editor,

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her political and creative
power truly blossomed.

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She threw herself fully into her work,

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into the social and
political life of Harlem,

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engaging with the Civil
Rights struggle at home,

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as well as the fight
against colonialism abroad.

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Lorraine attended a protest
outside New York University

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for discriminatory hiring practices

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and there met Robert Nemiroff,
another young revolutionary.

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They mutually admired each other's work.

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They mutually admired each other.

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And soon they were married.

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They moved to Greenwich Village.

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They fully immersed
themselves in the cultural

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and political vortex of the Village...

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art, writing, activism.

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You should learn everything
you can in school,

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then come out and use it against them.

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They found friends who
encouraged, challenged,

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and fought alongside them
as they continued to be driven

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by a passionate sense of social justice.

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I don't know whether you've
seen some of the meetings

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that go on nightly up in Harlem.

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Oh, yes, I have.

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- Black nationalists.
- Yes.

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Do you think that's a good idea?

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Oh, at this moment I do, yes.

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- You do, really?
- Absolutely.

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I think it's absolutely necessary

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that, uh, people who are

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just coming into their own in the world

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must be as dramatic about
it as they possibly can,

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must embrace all causes,
must embrace all methods.

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Lorraine spoke truth to
power in her plays and politics,

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but while she never publicly
discussed her own sexuality,

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her affection for her husband
and her love for women

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were equally rich and complex realities

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of her intersectional life.

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It is noted that the subject
and her husband

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reside at two different addresses.

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It is believed that the purpose
for these two addresses

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is for business reasons.

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Husband stated his wife was unavailable

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and had "retreated" to
her private residence,

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a customary practice of his wife

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whenever she was engaged in "writing."

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Robert would come to
regard Lorraine's lesbianism

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as an essential part of her being,

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and their marriage and
romantic relationship

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were always on truthful and mutual terms.

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She engaged with the burgeoning
homosexual rights movement

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through fiction and letters,

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employing pseudonyms and complex arguments.

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The year she quietly separated from Bob,

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Lorraine wrote letters to "The Ladder,"

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the newsletter published
by lesbian organization

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Daughters of Bilitis.

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I wanted to leap into the questions

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of heterosexually married lesbians.

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I am one of those, incidentally,

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who is going to stick to lowercase

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until somebody convinces me

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that what the homosexual wants and needs

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is not autonomy from the human race,

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but utter integration into it.

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I feel, however, that
I could be wrong about it.

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I suspect that the problem
of the married woman

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who would prefer
emotional-physical relationships

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with other women is
proportionally much higher

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than a similar statistic for men.

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This because the estate of
woman being what it is.

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James Baldwin lived eight
blocks away from me

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at 81 Horatio Street.

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We struck up a friendship that
helped mitigate the whiteness

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of my homosexual world.

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Our connection was explosive, fraternal.

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James Baldwin has accomplished,

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as he has made us want
to talk to each other.

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And to do that, he has had to
say things that, yes, shock.

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He has had to say things
that even I must criticize myself.

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I have hesitated to say
before he led the way,

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this is what he has accomplished and
we should thank God for him.

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While her profile as a leading figure

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in the Civil Rights movement grew,

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she had less time for writing,

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but her fierce opinions were
always in great demand.

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How do you talk about
300 years in four minutes?

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The whole idea of debating
whether or not Negroes

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should defend themselves is an insult.

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If anybody comes and does ill in
your home or your community,

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obviously you try your best to kill 'em.

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We've tried it all.

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There isn't anything that
hasn't been exhausted.

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And now the charge of
impatience is simply unbearable.

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We have to find some way
with these dialogues

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to show and to encourage the white liberal

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to stop being a liberal and
become an American radical.

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At 28, I finally made my
debut into a small,

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almost cotillion-like lesbian set.

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This animated, lighthearted lesbian scene

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was about the furthest I could get

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from the socialist and intellectual worlds

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in which my husband and I moved.

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It was my husband's idea in 1960

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to take some of the "Raisin" money

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and invest it in a house
in Greenwich Village.

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Dorothy Secules, a woman 15 years my senior

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who I had been going with,

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had been renting there since the 1930s.

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Dorothy stayed. I took the top floor.

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I had found a woman I respected and needed.

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The most ordinary human
being has within him

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elements of profundity,
of profound anguish.

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Every human being is in enormous
conflict about something,

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even if it's how you get to work
in the morning and all of that.

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So that I thought that it
would be very interesting

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in the contemporary
American theatrical moment

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to explore the most ordinary man...

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Hansberry's death at age
34 of pancreatic cancer

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provided no resolution
to the absurd divisions

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that partitioned her life...

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the fissures between intellect and emotion,

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art and activism, love and autonomy.

258
00:13:41,515 --> 00:13:43,249
Everywhere she went,
she felt like she'd left

259
00:13:43,274 --> 00:13:45,187
a part of herself behind somewhere,

260
00:13:45,922 --> 00:13:48,007
but she was determined to be whole.

261
00:13:49,485 --> 00:13:55,851
The deathbed can be a theater,
a place to stage a resolution.

262
00:13:56,485 --> 00:13:59,994
Hansberry apparently told Dorothy
she loved her there.

263
00:14:02,485 --> 00:14:07,485
But usually it brings fear and pain,

264
00:14:07,486 --> 00:14:11,516
not what could be or should be...

265
00:14:13,485 --> 00:14:14,485
but what is.

266
00:14:20,274 --> 00:14:24,274
Feminist, Marxist, radical, lesbian...

267
00:14:24,275 --> 00:14:26,575
just some of Lorraine Hansberry's

268
00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:28,600
ever-evolving identities.

269
00:14:28,601 --> 00:14:32,600
If only she were still here to
see that her words and work

270
00:14:32,601 --> 00:14:35,600
are more relevant now than ever before.

271
00:14:35,601 --> 00:14:39,600
Another Civil Rights leader of
the time was Bayard Rustin,

272
00:14:39,601 --> 00:14:42,600
associate and adviser to
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

273
00:14:42,601 --> 00:14:47,007
Like Lorraine, Bayard was
also gay but lived more openly,

274
00:14:47,032 --> 00:14:51,828
even as his homosexuality
would keep him in King's shadow.

275
00:14:51,853 --> 00:14:54,421
His enemies, outside and
inside the movement,

276
00:14:54,446 --> 00:14:57,054
would weaponize his sexuality against him,

277
00:14:57,079 --> 00:15:02,079
but he would still choose
to live his life his way.

278
00:15:02,599 --> 00:15:05,409
_

279
00:15:06,079 --> 00:15:08,369
I don't know if you know,
but I was an associate

280
00:15:08,394 --> 00:15:11,227
of Dr. Martin Luther King's
for a number of years.

281
00:15:11,252 --> 00:15:13,369
_

282
00:15:19,306 --> 00:15:21,306
The man who organized this whole thing,

283
00:15:21,307 --> 00:15:23,015
Mr. Bayard Rustin.

284
00:15:28,306 --> 00:15:30,306
Ladies and gentlemen...

285
00:15:30,331 --> 00:15:32,915
_

286
00:15:38,306 --> 00:15:41,019
When I was 20, I happened
to go to a conference

287
00:15:41,044 --> 00:15:43,394
at Bryn Mawr College on the subject of race

288
00:15:43,419 --> 00:15:45,943
because there was a man
who was going to speak there

289
00:15:45,968 --> 00:15:48,419
who was extraordinarily brilliant

290
00:15:48,444 --> 00:15:50,247
and fascinating speaker.

291
00:15:50,272 --> 00:15:52,697
I was just enormously
attracted to this guy,

292
00:15:52,722 --> 00:15:54,722
and he seemed to be the same.

293
00:15:54,723 --> 00:15:57,722
He was an extraordinary person to me.

294
00:15:57,723 --> 00:15:59,316
He had such intelligence,

295
00:15:59,341 --> 00:16:03,895
such a love of life and humor,
really a lot of wisdom.

296
00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:09,920
And he had absolutely no
shame about being gay.

297
00:16:10,336 --> 00:16:13,069
I am a Quaker, and as everyone knows,

298
00:16:13,094 --> 00:16:17,370
Quakers for 300 years have,
on conscientious grounds,

299
00:16:17,395 --> 00:16:20,395
been against participating in war.

300
00:16:21,395 --> 00:16:24,395
Do you think Uncle Sam
respected Rustin's objection

301
00:16:24,396 --> 00:16:25,395
to his war?

302
00:16:25,396 --> 00:16:27,075
Of course not!

303
00:16:27,100 --> 00:16:30,943
He was tossed in jail in 1944 for 28 months

304
00:16:30,968 --> 00:16:33,968
for refusing to participate
in World War II,

305
00:16:33,969 --> 00:16:38,474
but he would remain a rebel behind bars.

306
00:16:38,499 --> 00:16:41,499
Yes, my disciplinary reports
are a good read.

307
00:16:41,500 --> 00:16:44,824
"He has a following among the fanatical few

308
00:16:44,849 --> 00:16:47,849
and continues to be
an institutional problem.

309
00:16:48,279 --> 00:16:51,279
And while Inmate has
no prior criminal record,

310
00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:54,661
it is believed that he
will continue to bring up

311
00:16:54,686 --> 00:16:57,044
racial problems in this institution,

312
00:16:57,069 --> 00:16:59,232
and he is already engaged in the practice

313
00:16:59,257 --> 00:17:01,544
of agitating other inmates
on the race problem.

314
00:17:01,569 --> 00:17:06,241
Additionally, information
has been furnished by five inmates

315
00:17:06,266 --> 00:17:09,866
stating they have knowledge
of unnatural sexual relations

316
00:17:09,891 --> 00:17:12,891
attempted or performed by Rustin."

317
00:17:15,608 --> 00:17:16,997
Some years later,

318
00:17:17,022 --> 00:17:20,022
after a lecture he gave on
world peace in Pasadena,

319
00:17:20,023 --> 00:17:23,514
he was walking the empty
streets quite late at night,

320
00:17:23,539 --> 00:17:26,882
never thinking that
everything he had been working towards

321
00:17:26,907 --> 00:17:29,907
was about to come crashing down.

322
00:17:36,907 --> 00:17:39,907
I was arrested in Pasadena, California,

323
00:17:39,908 --> 00:17:43,907
on January 21, 1953,

324
00:17:43,908 --> 00:17:46,553
on the charge of sex perversion.

325
00:17:47,907 --> 00:17:50,907
I pleaded guilty to
propositioning two males

326
00:17:50,908 --> 00:17:52,230
to engage in sodomy.

327
00:17:53,543 --> 00:17:56,543
I was sentenced to 60 days.

328
00:17:59,347 --> 00:18:01,353
_

329
00:18:01,465 --> 00:18:03,441
_

330
00:18:03,466 --> 00:18:05,003
_

331
00:18:05,568 --> 00:18:07,568
Have you ready my FBI file?

332
00:18:08,568 --> 00:18:10,214
"Considerable investigation

333
00:18:10,239 --> 00:18:12,239
has been conducted concerning Rustin."

334
00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:14,239
Rustin, a self-proclaimed pacifist

335
00:18:14,264 --> 00:18:15,737
and civil rights activist,

336
00:18:15,762 --> 00:18:20,762
was born March 17, 1912,
in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

337
00:18:20,763 --> 00:18:23,197
He joined the Young
Communist League in 1936

338
00:18:23,222 --> 00:18:26,627
and claims he broke with
the organization in June 1941.

339
00:18:26,652 --> 00:18:29,361
In addition to the above,
Rustin has also been arrested

340
00:18:29,386 --> 00:18:31,316
on a number of occasions in connection

341
00:18:31,341 --> 00:18:34,341
with his activities of
an "agitational nature"

342
00:18:34,342 --> 00:18:38,341
concerned with civil
rights and pacifist programs.

343
00:18:40,708 --> 00:18:43,394
Two years after Bayard's
arrest in Pasadena,

344
00:18:43,419 --> 00:18:46,419
the Civil Rights movement
still wasn't ready to embrace a leader

345
00:18:46,420 --> 00:18:48,236
who was unapologetically gay.

346
00:18:48,261 --> 00:18:51,261
The arrest made his
sexuality public knowledge,

347
00:18:51,262 --> 00:18:53,892
and it became a weapon
wielded by his critics

348
00:18:53,917 --> 00:18:55,917
and enemies of the movement.

349
00:18:55,918 --> 00:18:59,235
Looking for help in harmonizing
his private life

350
00:18:59,260 --> 00:19:00,891
with his very public life,

351
00:19:00,921 --> 00:19:04,896
he began visiting
psychiatrist Dr. Robert Ascher.

352
00:19:04,921 --> 00:19:08,921
Bayard was quite depressed
and utterly humiliated.

353
00:19:08,922 --> 00:19:11,921
Psychiatrists, of course,
never talk about their patients,

354
00:19:11,922 --> 00:19:12,921
living or dead.

355
00:19:12,922 --> 00:19:16,216
In this case, Bayard Rustin
asked me please to do so.

356
00:19:16,241 --> 00:19:17,921
He wanted his story to come out.

357
00:19:17,922 --> 00:19:19,921
The main point of my work with him

358
00:19:19,922 --> 00:19:23,921
was to have him understand being
homosexual, that was just fine,

359
00:19:23,922 --> 00:19:27,673
but the society around him
couldn't deal with that.

360
00:19:28,921 --> 00:19:31,140
There are three ways to
deal with injustice.

361
00:19:31,165 --> 00:19:33,140
One is to accept it slavishly,

362
00:19:33,165 --> 00:19:37,466
or one can resist it with arms,
or one can use nonviolence.

363
00:19:37,491 --> 00:19:39,841
Rustin had been a longtime advocate

364
00:19:39,866 --> 00:19:41,685
of nonviolent resistance.

365
00:19:41,710 --> 00:19:44,710
He spent time in India studying
Gandhi's methods.

366
00:19:44,711 --> 00:19:46,710
The man who believes in nonviolence

367
00:19:46,711 --> 00:19:48,965
is prepared to be harmed,

368
00:19:49,413 --> 00:19:53,413
to be crushed, but he will
never crush others.

369
00:19:53,414 --> 00:19:56,962
And when Rosa Parks refused
to give up her seat

370
00:19:56,987 --> 00:19:58,579
on the bus to a white man,

371
00:19:58,604 --> 00:20:02,009
Rustin joined a young
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

372
00:20:02,034 --> 00:20:05,034
in Alabama in 1956.

373
00:20:05,035 --> 00:20:08,034
By adopting Rustin's pacifist tactics,

374
00:20:08,035 --> 00:20:11,321
King prevented the successful
Montgomery Bus Boycott

375
00:20:11,346 --> 00:20:13,845
from turning into a violent confrontation,

376
00:20:13,870 --> 00:20:17,337
and Bayard would become
his trusted mentor and adviser

377
00:20:17,362 --> 00:20:18,987
from then on.

378
00:20:19,104 --> 00:20:21,416
This is a nonviolent protest.

379
00:20:21,441 --> 00:20:24,441
We are depending on
moral and spiritual forces

380
00:20:24,442 --> 00:20:27,441
using the method of passive resistance.

381
00:20:28,873 --> 00:20:31,025
_

382
00:20:31,050 --> 00:20:33,441
That we're asking...

383
00:20:33,442 --> 00:20:36,416
black and white together.

384
00:20:38,441 --> 00:20:41,441
Rustin's achievements in
the movement finally started

385
00:20:41,442 --> 00:20:45,760
to overshadow his 1953 arrest in Pasadena.

386
00:20:45,785 --> 00:20:48,189
But while his sexuality was not central

387
00:20:48,214 --> 00:20:49,799
to his civil rights work,

388
00:20:49,824 --> 00:20:52,409
it was still not fully accepted.

389
00:20:53,433 --> 00:20:55,433
At a given point, there was
a lot of pressure

390
00:20:55,488 --> 00:20:57,838
on Dr. King about my being gay

391
00:20:58,081 --> 00:21:01,488
and particularly
because I would not deny it.

392
00:21:01,489 --> 00:21:03,650
Eventually he set up a committee

393
00:21:03,675 --> 00:21:05,675
to explore whether it
would be dangerous for me

394
00:21:05,676 --> 00:21:07,675
to continue working with him.

395
00:21:07,676 --> 00:21:10,232
After having already worked
with Dr. King for five years,

396
00:21:10,257 --> 00:21:12,257
that committee came to the decision,

397
00:21:12,258 --> 00:21:14,458
given the nature of some
of my past arrests,

398
00:21:14,483 --> 00:21:17,483
that, yes, it would be dangerous.

399
00:21:17,484 --> 00:21:21,483
And in 1960, Dr. King
turned his back on me.

400
00:21:21,484 --> 00:21:24,598
I was banished from
the movement for a time.

401
00:21:25,483 --> 00:21:27,933
But his time would soon come.

402
00:21:27,958 --> 00:21:29,520
A. Philip Randolph,

403
00:21:29,545 --> 00:21:32,545
the influential civil and
labor rights leader,

404
00:21:32,546 --> 00:21:34,545
tasked Bayard with developing

405
00:21:34,546 --> 00:21:38,001
the March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom.

406
00:21:39,545 --> 00:21:42,125
Of course, segregationist politicians

407
00:21:42,150 --> 00:21:44,515
would try and discredit the march.

408
00:21:44,540 --> 00:21:47,540
Senator Strom Thurmond attacked Bayard

409
00:21:47,541 --> 00:21:49,034
on the floor of the Senate,

410
00:21:49,059 --> 00:21:51,558
trying to drag him for being a commie,

411
00:21:51,583 --> 00:21:54,583
a draft dodger, and a homosexual.

412
00:21:54,584 --> 00:21:59,583
The senator is not interested
in me if I were a murderer,

413
00:22:00,083 --> 00:22:04,083
a thief, a liar, or a pervert.

414
00:22:04,168 --> 00:22:08,681
The senator is interested in attacking me

415
00:22:09,083 --> 00:22:13,094
because he is interested
in destroying the movement.

416
00:22:13,119 --> 00:22:16,119
He will not get away with this.

417
00:22:16,120 --> 00:22:18,265
Thinking back, one of the reasons

418
00:22:18,290 --> 00:22:20,945
that I decided that I should
no longer remain in the closet

419
00:22:20,970 --> 00:22:22,970
came from an experience I had one day

420
00:22:22,971 --> 00:22:25,627
way back as far as 1947.

421
00:22:25,652 --> 00:22:27,354
I walked into a bus in the South,

422
00:22:27,379 --> 00:22:29,736
all prepared to do what
I had always done in the South...

423
00:22:29,761 --> 00:22:31,152
take a seat in the rear.

424
00:22:31,175 --> 00:22:34,116
As I was going by the second
seat to go to the rear,

425
00:22:34,141 --> 00:22:36,711
a white child reached out
for the red necktie

426
00:22:36,736 --> 00:22:38,228
I was wearing and pulled it.

427
00:22:38,253 --> 00:22:42,150
Whereupon its mother said,
"Don't touch a nigger."

428
00:22:43,736 --> 00:22:47,055
Something happened, and I said to myself,

429
00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:50,080
"If I go and sit quietly in the
back of that bus now,

430
00:22:50,081 --> 00:22:52,659
that child who was so
innocent of race relations

431
00:22:52,684 --> 00:22:54,270
that it was going to play with me

432
00:22:54,295 --> 00:22:56,684
will have seen so many
blacks go in the back

433
00:22:56,685 --> 00:22:59,684
and sit down quietly that
it's going to end up saying,

434
00:22:59,685 --> 00:23:01,437
'They like it back there.

435
00:23:01,462 --> 00:23:03,961
I've never seen anybody
protest against it.'"

436
00:23:06,462 --> 00:23:08,462
So I said, I owe it to that child,

437
00:23:08,463 --> 00:23:10,427
not only to my own dignity,

438
00:23:10,452 --> 00:23:12,677
but I owe it to that child
that it should be educated

439
00:23:12,702 --> 00:23:15,411
to know that blacks do
not want to sit in the back,

440
00:23:15,436 --> 00:23:17,235
and therefore I should be arrested

441
00:23:17,260 --> 00:23:19,260
letting all these white
people in the bus know

442
00:23:19,318 --> 00:23:21,318
that I do not accept that.

443
00:23:21,319 --> 00:23:25,293
Now, it occurred to me shortly after that

444
00:23:25,318 --> 00:23:27,318
that it was an absolute necessity

445
00:23:27,319 --> 00:23:29,758
for me to declare my homosexuality,

446
00:23:29,783 --> 00:23:32,000
because if I didn't, I would be aiding

447
00:23:32,025 --> 00:23:34,025
and abetting the very prejudice

448
00:23:34,026 --> 00:23:36,755
that was part of the effort to destroy me.

449
00:23:36,780 --> 00:23:38,502
And that in the long run, the only way

450
00:23:38,553 --> 00:23:42,528
I could be a free whole
person was to face the shit!

451
00:23:53,957 --> 00:23:55,957
Bayard Rustin, the deputy director

452
00:23:55,958 --> 00:23:57,957
of the national march committee.

453
00:23:57,958 --> 00:24:01,957
He is giving instructions
to the crowd for the pledge.

454
00:24:01,958 --> 00:24:04,573
The first demand is

455
00:24:04,598 --> 00:24:09,110
that we have effective
Civil Rights legislation,

456
00:24:09,135 --> 00:24:13,135
no compromise, no filibuster,

457
00:24:13,136 --> 00:24:18,135
and that it includes
public accommodations, decent housing,

458
00:24:18,136 --> 00:24:23,135
integrated education, FEPC,
and the right to vote.

459
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:25,135
What do you say?

460
00:24:27,135 --> 00:24:29,537
Lorraine Hansberry and Bayard Rustin

461
00:24:29,562 --> 00:24:31,562
each set powerful examples

462
00:24:31,563 --> 00:24:33,562
for challenging oppressive systems,

463
00:24:33,563 --> 00:24:36,562
pushing the movement
forward in their own ways,

464
00:24:36,563 --> 00:24:38,918
facing different struggles
within themselves

465
00:24:38,943 --> 00:24:40,943
and with the world at large.

466
00:24:40,944 --> 00:24:45,943
But sometimes the world
is a small stage in a small club,

467
00:24:45,944 --> 00:24:49,582
and the struggle for equality
is fought hand to hand,

468
00:24:49,607 --> 00:24:54,607
arm in arm, with high style and a song.

469
00:24:54,632 --> 00:24:57,437
_

470
00:24:57,607 --> 00:25:00,607
An inside look at the life
of San Francisco's homosexuals.

471
00:25:00,608 --> 00:25:02,607
They move in all walks of life.

472
00:25:02,632 --> 00:25:04,913
Except for hairdressing
and a few other occupations,

473
00:25:04,938 --> 00:25:06,211
their presence is unnoticed.

474
00:25:06,648 --> 00:25:09,938
They work to conceal their
sexual orientation by day

475
00:25:09,939 --> 00:25:12,477
and only at night do they
show their true colors

476
00:25:12,502 --> 00:25:14,502
as they gather together in bookstores,

477
00:25:14,503 --> 00:25:17,906
restaurants, nightclubs,
bars, and steam baths,

478
00:25:17,931 --> 00:25:19,731
all catering exclusively

479
00:25:19,756 --> 00:25:22,527
to gay San Francisco's numerous homosexuals

480
00:25:22,552 --> 00:25:24,552
that make up a bigger
chunk of the population

481
00:25:24,553 --> 00:25:27,552
than in any other metropolitan
area of America.

482
00:25:32,552 --> 00:25:34,552
I took a Greyhound bus for San Francisco

483
00:25:34,553 --> 00:25:35,996
with $30 in my pocket.

484
00:25:36,021 --> 00:25:38,021
I came to town, wandered around.

485
00:25:38,022 --> 00:25:42,246
I ran into a police officer,
and I said, "Where's a gay bar?"

486
00:25:42,271 --> 00:25:44,246
And the police officer told me

487
00:25:44,271 --> 00:25:46,482
about this bar called The Black Cat.

488
00:25:46,826 --> 00:25:50,903
-? Hello, hello, everybody ?

489
00:25:50,928 --> 00:25:53,928
? I'm glad to see you are here ?

490
00:25:53,929 --> 00:25:57,928
? To sing and dance and entertain you ?

491
00:25:57,929 --> 00:25:59,928
? And bring you lots of cheer ?

492
00:25:59,929 --> 00:26:03,928
I went Sundays and I found
they had an entertainer named José.

493
00:26:03,929 --> 00:26:06,601
He did satirical operas
done in a comical way.

494
00:26:06,626 --> 00:26:08,453
And he used to put on crazy outfits

495
00:26:08,478 --> 00:26:10,478
and he had a pianist who played.

496
00:26:10,479 --> 00:26:13,221
But the best thing about it was
he very deliberately did them

497
00:26:13,246 --> 00:26:15,287
with a spirit of unity.

498
00:26:15,312 --> 00:26:18,287
Maybe 200 people would fill this bar,

499
00:26:18,312 --> 00:26:20,634
and they would all cheer his satire,

500
00:26:20,659 --> 00:26:22,659
which was sort of gay liberation.

501
00:26:22,660 --> 00:26:25,659
My name is José, José Sarria.

502
00:26:25,660 --> 00:26:28,659
I started to say that gay was good.

503
00:26:28,660 --> 00:26:31,659
There was nothing to be ashamed of.

504
00:26:31,660 --> 00:26:33,659
When I was labeled a homosexual,

505
00:26:33,660 --> 00:26:36,659
I decided that I was going to be the best.

506
00:26:36,660 --> 00:26:41,659
So I put all my efforts in
being a very outstanding,

507
00:26:41,660 --> 00:26:43,659
parentheses, gay person.

508
00:26:43,660 --> 00:26:48,659
I was more Bohemian than the Bohemian.

509
00:26:49,184 --> 00:26:51,289
When I came back from the Army overseas,

510
00:26:51,314 --> 00:26:53,992
I learned, which I could not understand,

511
00:26:54,017 --> 00:26:57,017
how people had to live double lives.

512
00:26:57,018 --> 00:26:59,017
The gentleman who was in the bank

513
00:26:59,018 --> 00:27:02,534
that wore the suit and the
tie and was very correct

514
00:27:02,559 --> 00:27:04,559
was a cocksucker like I was.

515
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:08,089
Only he didn't advertise it in the daytime.

516
00:27:08,114 --> 00:27:12,652
That was one of my prime
things that I did at The Black Cat

517
00:27:12,677 --> 00:27:15,014
was to show how these nelly queens

518
00:27:15,039 --> 00:27:17,039
that worked in the financial district

519
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:20,039
were nobody but themselves.

520
00:27:25,039 --> 00:27:28,491
Even when I began doing
my shows, I never change my name.

521
00:27:28,516 --> 00:27:33,516
I created a character, but
I didn't change my name.

522
00:27:33,517 --> 00:27:37,516
If I wore a dress, I am José.

523
00:27:37,517 --> 00:27:42,516
If wear men's clothes, I am José.

524
00:27:42,517 --> 00:27:45,988
And if I wear no clothes...

525
00:27:47,516 --> 00:27:50,516
I am still José.

526
00:27:58,516 --> 00:28:00,516
Perfect, darling, perfect.

527
00:28:03,011 --> 00:28:05,275
It was the beginning of my awareness

528
00:28:05,300 --> 00:28:07,300
that I was not only a gay person,

529
00:28:07,301 --> 00:28:08,908
but that I should be aware

530
00:28:08,933 --> 00:28:10,933
of other gay people and their rights, too.

531
00:28:10,934 --> 00:28:13,658
Because José would say,
"Let's unite," you know.

532
00:28:13,683 --> 00:28:16,683
We must realize that the vice squad is here

533
00:28:16,684 --> 00:28:18,045
because the vice squad, in the '50s,

534
00:28:18,070 --> 00:28:21,070
used to park their police
cars outside of gay bars.

535
00:28:21,071 --> 00:28:22,490
And they used to take down

536
00:28:22,515 --> 00:28:24,201
the names of people when they entered.

537
00:28:24,226 --> 00:28:26,531
They used to come in and stand around

538
00:28:26,556 --> 00:28:29,101
and just generally intimidate people

539
00:28:29,126 --> 00:28:32,126
and make people feel that
they were less than human.

540
00:28:32,127 --> 00:28:34,420
It was a frightening period.

541
00:28:34,445 --> 00:28:37,445
Just read what they print
about gays and lesbians.

542
00:28:37,446 --> 00:28:41,445
Is it any wonder we consider
ourselves second-rate citizens?

543
00:28:41,446 --> 00:28:44,805
We think, "I have no rights."

544
00:28:45,098 --> 00:28:48,098
The police, they arrest anyone,

545
00:28:48,099 --> 00:28:49,761
just for walking down the street

546
00:28:49,786 --> 00:28:52,786
or for having a drink at a bar.

547
00:28:52,787 --> 00:28:56,786
We pay fines because we
don't want to get locked up.

548
00:29:00,178 --> 00:29:03,178
The only time that you could
wear a dress was Halloween,

549
00:29:03,179 --> 00:29:05,673
but the dress had to come off at midnight.

550
00:29:05,698 --> 00:29:07,361
That was the law, and the law reads,

551
00:29:07,386 --> 00:29:09,259
"with the intent to deceive."

552
00:29:09,284 --> 00:29:13,284
I circumvented this by
having everybody put a sign on

553
00:29:13,309 --> 00:29:15,284
saying, "I am a boy."

554
00:29:15,285 --> 00:29:19,773
So when the cops would
arrest you, you were not deceiving.

555
00:29:20,730 --> 00:29:23,517
And as they were arresting
them and hassling them,

556
00:29:23,542 --> 00:29:26,542
we were singing,
"Onward, Christian soldiers,

557
00:29:26,543 --> 00:29:28,542
glory, glory, hallelujah,

558
00:29:28,543 --> 00:29:30,186
God save the nelly queens."

559
00:29:30,211 --> 00:29:32,953
It was done with high fashion.

560
00:29:34,211 --> 00:29:36,979
I want to make my brothers and sisters see

561
00:29:37,004 --> 00:29:39,004
that we do have rights!

562
00:29:39,005 --> 00:29:43,004
And even though outlandish
as I was, I was not second-rate.

563
00:29:43,005 --> 00:29:45,384
I was number-one citizen.

564
00:29:45,409 --> 00:29:46,752
And I preached this.

565
00:29:46,777 --> 00:29:48,752
I had to make people realize

566
00:29:48,777 --> 00:29:50,478
that they had to be part of San Francisco

567
00:29:50,503 --> 00:29:52,275
to make it the city that it was.

568
00:29:52,300 --> 00:29:54,537
And the only way you
can be part of the city

569
00:29:54,562 --> 00:29:56,562
is to get out and voice your opinion.

570
00:29:56,819 --> 00:29:58,225
The gay people of that day

571
00:29:58,250 --> 00:30:00,250
thought that they had
to register with a number

572
00:30:00,251 --> 00:30:01,564
that they would be identified.

573
00:30:01,589 --> 00:30:03,095
And so they did not vote.

574
00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:04,853
And I told them, "This is crazy."

575
00:30:04,878 --> 00:30:07,878
I'll never forget, I took
a leading gay person

576
00:30:07,879 --> 00:30:08,878
who owns a business today,

577
00:30:08,879 --> 00:30:11,878
and I made him register
in front of 250 people

578
00:30:11,879 --> 00:30:13,878
to show that they weren't
going to arrest him.

579
00:30:13,879 --> 00:30:15,878
Well, then this started
a surge, and I said,

580
00:30:15,879 --> 00:30:18,718
"Well, now I think I
should run for office."

581
00:30:19,878 --> 00:30:21,878
In 1961,

582
00:30:21,879 --> 00:30:25,053
José ran for the San
Francisco Board of Supervisors,

583
00:30:25,078 --> 00:30:28,764
16 years before Harvey Milk
would win that seat.

584
00:30:28,789 --> 00:30:30,789
He was the first openly gay candidate

585
00:30:30,814 --> 00:30:32,999
for public office in the United States.

586
00:30:33,024 --> 00:30:35,694
And he got close to 6,000 votes.

587
00:30:35,719 --> 00:30:37,255
I ran for one reason...

588
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:39,849
to prove that gay people had the right

589
00:30:39,874 --> 00:30:43,068
to run for public office,
that I had the right

590
00:30:43,093 --> 00:30:46,982
that anybody else had to do
anything within the law.

591
00:30:51,701 --> 00:30:53,043
Up until that time,

592
00:30:53,068 --> 00:30:56,654
the gay community was very "I," "I."

593
00:30:56,679 --> 00:31:00,679
And "I," "I" communities do not go far.

594
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:01,679
They die.

595
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:05,229
We have to become a "we" community.

596
00:31:05,254 --> 00:31:07,744
We have to work together.

597
00:31:07,769 --> 00:31:10,215
We have to help one another.

598
00:31:10,769 --> 00:31:12,769
United we stand.

599
00:31:12,770 --> 00:31:16,475
Or divided they'll catch us one by one.

600
00:31:16,500 --> 00:31:18,500
Unity is the strongest thing.

601
00:31:18,501 --> 00:31:22,727
Division is the fastest way
that they can wedge in,

602
00:31:22,752 --> 00:31:26,752
divide you, throw you into
a tizzy, and win the battle.

603
00:31:28,752 --> 00:31:31,968
I'm very stirred by
this because at that time,

604
00:31:31,993 --> 00:31:34,280
there was nowhere to go for your freedom.

605
00:31:34,305 --> 00:31:36,874
And you were very much
aware that there was no freedom,

606
00:31:36,899 --> 00:31:38,874
that your freedom was in the gay bar,

607
00:31:38,899 --> 00:31:40,113
but when you got out on the street,

608
00:31:40,138 --> 00:31:41,899
you had to be mister straight.

609
00:31:41,900 --> 00:31:43,899
But José would make
these political comments

610
00:31:43,900 --> 00:31:47,281
about our rights as homosexuals,
and at the end of every concert,

611
00:31:47,306 --> 00:31:49,306
he would have everybody in the room stand.

612
00:31:49,331 --> 00:31:53,306
We'd put our arms around
each other, and we would...

613
00:31:57,545 --> 00:32:01,545
We would sing "God Save Us Nelly Queens."

614
00:32:04,545 --> 00:32:07,271
? God save us nelly queens ?

615
00:32:07,296 --> 00:32:09,202
And it sounds very silly,

616
00:32:09,296 --> 00:32:11,501
but if you lived at that time

617
00:32:11,526 --> 00:32:13,939
and you were aware of the
oppression coming down

618
00:32:13,964 --> 00:32:15,964
from the police department and from society

619
00:32:15,965 --> 00:32:17,964
and that there was nowhere to turn...

620
00:32:17,965 --> 00:32:20,504
? And lesbians, too ?

621
00:32:20,529 --> 00:32:22,529
...to be able to put your arms...

622
00:32:25,504 --> 00:32:27,504
...around other gay men

623
00:32:27,505 --> 00:32:32,053
and be able to stand up and
say "God Save Us Nelly Queens,"

624
00:32:32,078 --> 00:32:35,078
we were really not saying,
"God Save Us Nelly Queens."

625
00:32:35,079 --> 00:32:37,636
We were saying, "We have our rights, too!"

626
00:32:37,661 --> 00:32:41,230
? God save ?

627
00:32:41,255 --> 00:32:48,255
? Us queens ?

628
00:32:54,972 --> 00:32:59,972
For one moment, they admitted,
and with pride, what they were.

629
00:32:59,997 --> 00:33:04,479
I've always said it is no crime to be gay.

630
00:33:04,901 --> 00:33:07,997
The crime lies in getting caught.

631
00:33:10,997 --> 00:33:14,997
Gay bars in the 1960s could
be considered safe havens,

632
00:33:14,998 --> 00:33:16,997
welcoming ports in the storm,

633
00:33:16,998 --> 00:33:19,997
a shelter from the critical
and dangerous world

634
00:33:19,998 --> 00:33:21,997
outside their inconspicuous doors,

635
00:33:21,998 --> 00:33:24,997
but safety is never guaranteed.

636
00:33:24,998 --> 00:33:29,222
Less than 400 miles south
of The Black Cat in San Francisco,

637
00:33:29,247 --> 00:33:32,997
another Black Cat purrs with nightlife.

638
00:33:37,694 --> 00:33:41,694
Perhaps a dozen of Los Angeles'
80-plus homosexual bars

639
00:33:41,695 --> 00:33:44,414
line the mile of Sunset Boulevard

640
00:33:44,439 --> 00:33:47,439
between Sanborn Junction and Silver Lake.

641
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:51,040
Most are beer bars with
pool tables, jukeboxes,

642
00:33:51,065 --> 00:33:53,321
coin-operated game machines.

643
00:33:53,346 --> 00:33:56,274
The buildings are shabby,
the rent is cheap,

644
00:33:56,299 --> 00:33:58,299
and business failures are common.

645
00:33:58,300 --> 00:34:01,629
There'd been a series
of counterculture demonstrations

646
00:34:01,654 --> 00:34:02,418
along the strip,

647
00:34:02,443 --> 00:34:05,418
with police cracking down
and cracking heads.

648
00:34:05,443 --> 00:34:07,418
But with the Christmas holiday approaching,

649
00:34:07,443 --> 00:34:11,443
a kind of cease-fire had
been called by protesters.

650
00:34:11,444 --> 00:34:14,418
All was quiet until Pasadena police raid

651
00:34:14,443 --> 00:34:18,443
the Catacombs Art Gallery,
arresting 100 on drug charges.

652
00:34:18,444 --> 00:34:20,443
Then, minutes into the new year,

653
00:34:20,444 --> 00:34:24,095
LAPD vice squad rampages
through the gay bars

654
00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:27,120
in L.A.'s Silver Lake district.

655
00:34:30,237 --> 00:34:31,783
The bar looked festive.

656
00:34:31,808 --> 00:34:34,040
Colored balloons covered the ceiling.

657
00:34:34,065 --> 00:34:37,065
There were three
glittering Christmas trees.

658
00:34:37,066 --> 00:34:40,374
There were also police
officers, eight of them.

659
00:34:40,399 --> 00:34:41,756
They might have been anybody.

660
00:34:41,781 --> 00:34:45,101
Anonymity is a game
people play in such a place.

661
00:34:45,415 --> 00:34:48,781
Some witnesses claim
to have spotted the officers.

662
00:34:48,782 --> 00:34:52,433
The claim makes no sense,
not in light of what happened.

663
00:34:52,458 --> 00:34:55,199
That the room was packed
full of people in drag

664
00:34:55,224 --> 00:34:58,371
means they did not know
the police were there,

665
00:34:58,396 --> 00:35:01,396
certainly not a squad of them.

666
00:35:02,070 --> 00:35:05,070
One. Happy New Year!

667
00:35:11,435 --> 00:35:12,816
At this signal...

668
00:35:12,841 --> 00:35:14,425
The cops!

669
00:35:14,450 --> 00:35:17,450
...the uniformed officers appeared
with clubs to assist.

670
00:35:17,451 --> 00:35:19,117
- No!
- Plainclothes men,

671
00:35:19,142 --> 00:35:24,142
brandishing guns and fists
as their only identification,

672
00:35:24,143 --> 00:35:26,142
at the stroke of midnight

673
00:35:26,143 --> 00:35:29,142
proceed to knock anyone they
could reach to the floor.

674
00:35:29,143 --> 00:35:32,142
Anyone fortunate enough to
get up and ask who they were

675
00:35:32,143 --> 00:35:33,007
received a gun to their head

676
00:35:33,032 --> 00:35:37,165
and were told that was the
only identification they would need.

677
00:35:38,743 --> 00:35:42,505
Alarmed, a man in women's
clothes ran for the front door.

678
00:35:42,530 --> 00:35:45,530
The butt end of a pool cue felled him,

679
00:35:45,531 --> 00:35:47,530
one ear split and bleeding.

680
00:35:47,531 --> 00:35:50,530
A bartender was seized by the shoulders,

681
00:35:50,531 --> 00:35:54,796
dragged bodily across the bar
amid splintering glass,

682
00:35:54,821 --> 00:35:58,413
and hustled outside where
uniformed police waited.

683
00:35:58,438 --> 00:35:59,983
Towards the rear of the room,

684
00:36:00,008 --> 00:36:04,008
a patron was flung headfirst
against the jukebox.

685
00:36:04,009 --> 00:36:05,725
A youth in taffeta,

686
00:36:05,750 --> 00:36:08,750
forced to bend across the
hood of a patrol car,

687
00:36:08,751 --> 00:36:11,079
tore the paper leis from his neck

688
00:36:11,104 --> 00:36:13,750
and dropped them to the gutter.

689
00:36:13,751 --> 00:36:15,750
A stout man in a red wig,

690
00:36:15,751 --> 00:36:18,750
secondhand movie star
gown, and high-heeled shoes

691
00:36:18,751 --> 00:36:21,340
that were a dazzle of crushed sequins,

692
00:36:21,365 --> 00:36:24,075
tried to look inconspicuous.

693
00:36:24,100 --> 00:36:26,481
He woke up on his stomach on the floor.

694
00:36:26,506 --> 00:36:28,506
An officer knelt on his back.

695
00:36:28,507 --> 00:36:30,506
Handcuffs clicked.

696
00:36:31,091 --> 00:36:33,066
The raid was over.

697
00:36:34,050 --> 00:36:36,091
It had taken 10 minutes.

698
00:36:38,949 --> 00:36:42,307
Inspired by the civil rights
and antiwar movements,

699
00:36:42,332 --> 00:36:43,838
new gay rights groups

700
00:36:43,863 --> 00:36:45,863
were springing up all over the country.

701
00:36:45,864 --> 00:36:48,354
One of them, PRIDE, in Los Angeles,

702
00:36:48,379 --> 00:36:51,135
would form part of the community's response

703
00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:53,705
to the police's violent midnight raid.

704
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,900
I belonged to PRIDE at the time.

705
00:36:57,344 --> 00:37:00,577
And when the Black Cat had happened,

706
00:37:00,602 --> 00:37:04,602
all of the leaders of the gay
community came together

707
00:37:04,603 --> 00:37:08,602
and to organize a demonstration
we were going to have,

708
00:37:08,603 --> 00:37:10,955
and we were really gonna get out

709
00:37:10,980 --> 00:37:13,384
of what they were putting us through.

710
00:37:15,980 --> 00:37:17,980
If you're an oppressed person,

711
00:37:17,981 --> 00:37:19,980
the way gay people were at the time,

712
00:37:20,005 --> 00:37:23,283
you had an empathy for the Black community.

713
00:37:23,769 --> 00:37:25,512
America watches in horror

714
00:37:25,537 --> 00:37:28,395
as the people of Watts, California, riot.

715
00:37:28,420 --> 00:37:31,558
The burning, looting, and sniping
goes on for four days.

716
00:37:31,583 --> 00:37:34,583
It is the most destructive race
riot in American history.

717
00:37:34,584 --> 00:37:38,300
'Cause you know what it
feels like to be alienated

718
00:37:38,325 --> 00:37:42,809
and isolated and made
not to feel a full citizen.

719
00:37:42,834 --> 00:37:46,278
War demonstrators parade
near the Los Angeles hotel.

720
00:37:46,303 --> 00:37:51,704
On Sunset Boulevard, there
were antiwar demonstrations going on.

721
00:37:51,729 --> 00:37:52,969
Police scuffle with the pickets,

722
00:37:52,994 --> 00:37:54,391
attempting to disperse them.

723
00:37:54,416 --> 00:37:57,416
Violence breaks out several
times in less than an hour.

724
00:37:57,417 --> 00:37:59,416
A number of marchers are arrested.

725
00:37:59,417 --> 00:38:04,416
And the police and sheriff's
department attacked them

726
00:38:04,417 --> 00:38:07,416
and beat them within an
inch of their lives,

727
00:38:07,417 --> 00:38:09,416
almost killed some of them.

728
00:38:09,417 --> 00:38:12,343
And we were afraid that
was going to happen to us.

729
00:38:13,416 --> 00:38:18,088
Look at the faces on the
people who those pictures are of.

730
00:38:18,113 --> 00:38:21,113
Do you see anybody smiling?

731
00:38:21,114 --> 00:38:23,346
They were terrified to be there.

732
00:38:23,371 --> 00:38:25,768
But they knew they had to be there.

733
00:38:25,793 --> 00:38:28,430
The mainstream press
ignored the demonstration,

734
00:38:28,455 --> 00:38:30,501
but it was one for the history books.

735
00:38:30,526 --> 00:38:33,526
500 to 600 queer folks and their allies

736
00:38:33,527 --> 00:38:35,820
massed in front of The Black Cat,

737
00:38:35,845 --> 00:38:38,845
demanding an end to police brutality.

738
00:38:38,846 --> 00:38:42,170
It was the largest gay
demonstration of its kind

739
00:38:42,195 --> 00:38:47,195
at that time, 2 1/2 years before Stonewall.

740
00:38:48,686 --> 00:38:50,686
Every little demonstration

741
00:38:50,687 --> 00:38:53,686
added to the freedom that we have today.

742
00:38:53,687 --> 00:38:57,852
And I'm one of the few
people that are left alive

743
00:38:57,877 --> 00:38:59,877
that are in that demonstration.

744
00:39:02,877 --> 00:39:06,515
Protest is a declaration, a challenge,

745
00:39:06,540 --> 00:39:08,540
and by the end of the 1960s,

746
00:39:08,541 --> 00:39:12,046
a new generation is pushing
back against the laws of the land

747
00:39:12,071 --> 00:39:14,071
that bind the liberties of its people,

748
00:39:14,072 --> 00:39:17,380
and gay Americans are
demanding a rightful place

749
00:39:17,405 --> 00:39:22,071
to live and work alongside everyone else.

750
00:39:22,072 --> 00:39:25,071
Our rights as citizens must be recognized

751
00:39:25,072 --> 00:39:27,395
without fear or violence.

752
00:39:27,420 --> 00:39:30,420
We will fight back against discrimination.

753
00:39:30,421 --> 00:39:33,420
We will fight back against injustice.

754
00:39:33,421 --> 00:39:36,087
The fuse is about to be lit.

755
00:39:36,986 --> 00:39:38,446
Watch out!

756
00:39:38,470 --> 00:39:43,806
CREDITS