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What was condemned now
strives for acceptance.

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We are living through
one of the greatest revolutions

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in history, the birth of
a new civilization.

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For decades they've been coming for us.

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Get around here,
queer. Get those fruits outside.

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And it didn't matter
if we were singing a song,

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struttin' our stuff, or speaking our truth.

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Outside, outside, move it.

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Well, times they are a changing.

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And in New York City,
the patrons of a little gay bar

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in the Village are about
to end the '60s with a bang.

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It's time to strut out
of the bars to fight in the streets.

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Darling, I want my gay rights now!

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This is the story of Stonewall,

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the story of a riot and a revolution

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and the march toward power and pride.

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Gay Power! Gay Power! Gay Power!

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Revolution now!

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CREDITS

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The story of Stonewall
isn't just one story.

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Everyone who was
there has their own tale to tell,

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and to understand how
and why it all went down

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on a hot summer night in 1969,

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we have to take a walk through the Village,

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Greenwich Village in New York City

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and meet some Village
people who will tell it like it was

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and tell us exactly what
set the stage for the rage.

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Like Mr. Martin Boyce, 21 years old in 1969

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and an eye-witness to it all.

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Well, the character
of the Village in the 1960s

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was a welcome mat where gays could go.

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But you felt if you went
down there, you were very hopeful

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that things could go your way.

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You could make friends and
meet other interesting people.

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Everybody could find a little
spot in the Village

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or at least tolerance, but real tolerance.

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And that was all we really
wanted from a neighborhood.

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Hey, Tim. How are you?

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I left home when I was 19.

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Now meet lesbian feminist
activist, Martha Shelley.

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That year I joined the
first women's judo class

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in New York City, and
that's where I met lesbians.

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I hung around bookstores.

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I used to hang around the section

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where the trash novels were
that had pictures of women

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on the front cover.

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Lesbian pulp fiction.
Some of it pretty awful.

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Was this also in Manhattan?

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Yeah, it was in Greenwich Village.

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When the dust settles on Stonewall,

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she will help lead the way forward,

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as will this fine fellow,

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one of the forefathers of Pride itself,

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Craig Rodwell.

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As soon as I heard that all the queers

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live in Greenwich Village in New York City,

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I literally started saving my money.

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And two months out of high school,

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I was here on a bus with two suitcases.

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There was a group of about
at least a dozen of us

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that hung out together on the streets.

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I suppose it was the beginning
of a Stonewall generation,

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even though it was 10 years
before Stonewall.

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For one thing, we were
here in Greenwich Village

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leading openly gay lives.

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It took me two summers
cleaning toilets on Fire Island

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to save up enough money to afford a shop

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on Mercer Street, right
over here in the Village.

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I called it the Oscar Wilde
Memorial Bookshop.

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Well, the most important
thing about it is it was going to be

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an openly gay, visible
presence on the street.

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I've always firmly believed,
and I think today

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it's just as important as ever,
that will always be visible.

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To me, it was more of a positive thing.

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I had everything to gain
by being openly gay.

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What did you have to gain?

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Well, just being me,
being myself, being free,

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being a whole person, not being afraid.

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You and your books.

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I first heard about the
Stonewall because

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I was with the hip crowd.

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Hip or not, everyone in the Village

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knew the Mayor of Christopher Street,

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the iconic Miss Marsha P. Johnson.

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First it was just a gay men's bar,

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and they didn't allow no women in.

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And then they started allowing women in,

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and then they let the drag queens in.

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It was about dancing, people could dance.

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And me, I wasn't into dancing that much,

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but the real thing was
the excitement of everybody going.

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The first place I ever seen go-go boys,

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'cause they used to have several go-go boys

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that used to dance on
the bar at that place.

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And then they had these
drag queens working there,

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and there was this, uh, Tiffany
and, oh, this other drag queen

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that used to work there in the
coat check room.

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They really had a culture in there.

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It was really interesting and meaningful,

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because here there was a
group of gays that, you know,

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really enjoying themselves as
if the world were normal

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and not worrying that the sun won't come up

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and not worrying about
tomorrow, and in an amazing way,

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a celebration of surviving another day,

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living another night, maybe
meeting another trick.

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Now let's take a seat at the bar next to

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the one and only, Sylvia Rivera,
a soldier in the battle

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for gay liberation and transgender rights.

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Before the Stonewall Riot,

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I was involved in the
Black Liberation Movement.

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Back then my revolutionary blood was going.

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I did a lot of marches.

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I had to do something to show
everyone the world was changing.

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- Power to the people!
- Power to the people!

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I got involved in a lot
of different things

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because I had so much
anger about this world

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and the way they were treating people.

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We demand an end to discrimination

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against homosexuals.

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The first time that I got arrested,

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I was like, "I'm going where?"

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So you went to jail a few times.

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Oh, I went to jail a lot of times.

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50 times? 100 times?

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About 200 times.

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If you walked down 42nd street
and even looked like a faggot,

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you were going to jail.

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They'd get you for hustling,

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and if you were looking a little too cute,

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like I look right now, you
know, in women's clothing,

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well, they'd arrest you for
impersonating a lady.

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In 1960's America, laws
were harsher against gays

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than in Cuba, Russia, or East Germany.

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Gay sex in your own home
got you anywhere from

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a light fine to 20 years in prison.

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In Pennsylvania and California,
sex offenders could be locked

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in a mental institution for life.

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And in seven states, you
could be castrated.

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While socially in some ways

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New York City was more sophisticated,

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having a Bohemian center
like Greenwich Village

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where gay people could at least
find others like themselves

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and be tolerated, New York City was also

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cutting edge in catching homosexuals.

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New York City was the first
place to have vice squads.

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They were the first place to do
stakeouts of homosexuals,

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to put mirrors, two-way
mirrors in bathrooms

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and microphones in park benches.

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Complaints have been received
against the operations

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of this restroom for some time.

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Now a pattern of homosexuality
was centered in the city.

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We were confronted with a problem.

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You know, picking up
strangers in his hell hole

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could be a dangerous game.

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Well, I only do it occasionally.

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Occasionally?

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Yeah, like every other day.

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On Greenwich Avenue, it was a
major cruising area at the time.

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I mean, every night there'd
be hundreds of gay guys

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sitting on cars.

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But if a cop came along,
everybody would get up

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and start walking,

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and if you didn't they'd come
up and they'd poke you.

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It was just an easy way for
them to fill a quota

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and at the same time harass the queers.

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It was a vicious circle.

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What was everyone afraid of?

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Being beaten or arrested,
and I suppose ultimately,

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of being publicly identified
as a homosexual.

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What would that mean?

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Well, perhaps loss of job, or
when they would raid gay bars,

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the papers would publish
the name and address

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and where they worked,

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of the people who were arrested
on the front page of the papers

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the next day.

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I mean, like they were mass murderers.

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And even though booze got
legal after prohibition,

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gay people still couldn't

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legally get a drink at a bar in 1969.

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The NYPD said serving
gays and trans folks a drink

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was disorderly, and therefore
the bar could lose its license.

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So who came to our rescue?

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The Genovese crime family.

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Out of the goodness of their
hearts, naturally.

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The mob ended up running
most of the gay bars in New York,

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and the Stonewall was the
jewel in their crown.

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The Genovese family opened Stonewall

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and spent $3,500 on the decor.

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The first night they were
open, they took in $5,000.

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The next night, another $5,000.

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Not bad.

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Most gay bars at that time
lasted three to six months.

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The Stonewall was unusual

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in that it lasted almost three years.

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And I think one reason that happened

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is because it was the most
lucrative gay bar in Manhattan.

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And it was the biggest
payer to the sixth precinct.

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They got more money from the Stonewall Inn

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than they did from any
other bar or institution.

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It was about $2,000 a month.

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Now here's a lesson in
Greenwich Village economics

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and the way Lily Law
made a little extra cash

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at our expense.

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You see, the mafia didn't want
any trouble serving us gays,

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so they paid off the sixth precinct.

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The cops will call up the Stonewall

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and give them a heads up
they were on their way.

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They'd confiscate a little booze and cash,

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arrest a few queers to keep up appearances.

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And that was just another
night out in the Village.

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The cops needed the mafia,
the mafia needed the cops.

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It was a disgusting system of exploitation.

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It was very corrupt.

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The Village at the time was
a very dangerous place

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if you went off Christopher on your own,

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depending what time of night.

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I mean, there was a lot of gay bashing,

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but in order to gay bash
you, they got to isolate you.

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It's almost like a pride of lions.

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They isolate you, and then they get you.

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So you had to be wary.

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The further you got from
Christopher Street,

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the more wary you were.

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There was also vigilantism in Queens.

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There was a gay cruising
area in Kew Gardens.

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People were going there at night

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using walkie talkies to
coordinate attacks on gay men.

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When the police were
called, they didn't do anything.

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They took the side of the vigilantes.

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So people felt like there
was nowhere to turn.

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'68, '69 rolled around, things got worse.

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There were about 8 murders in 10 weeks.

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A transit cop killed two
gay men down by the piers.

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And then you have
people having their throats slashed.

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There were bodies being
carried out of subway stations.

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Two of the other more horrible
killings were brutal stabbings

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and slashings in the subway johns,

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and both were very similar
in that the victims were nude

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and were stabbed and
slashed 50 or 60 times.

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There was great pools of
blood involved in both cases.

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There was graffiti apparently written on

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both of the john walls which
said, "I'm going to kill

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00:12:44,145 --> 00:12:46,433
all the queers," or something
to that effect.

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It was a horror story in New York City.

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The symptoms of society's breakdown

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erupt on a worldwide scale.

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We are living through one of the
greatest revolutions in history,

251
00:13:04,690 --> 00:13:06,690
the birth of a new civilization.

252
00:13:07,329 --> 00:13:09,965
Protests shatter the structure of the old.

253
00:13:09,990 --> 00:13:13,990
What was condemned now
strives for acceptance,

254
00:13:13,991 --> 00:13:15,990
symptoms of a society that is cracking

255
00:13:15,991 --> 00:13:17,941
under the pressures for change.

256
00:13:18,543 --> 00:13:21,543
1969 has been a hell of a year,

257
00:13:21,544 --> 00:13:23,830
topping off one hell of a decade.

258
00:13:23,855 --> 00:13:27,447
We have a lift off 32 minutes
past the hour.

259
00:13:27,472 --> 00:13:29,462
Lift off on Apollo 11.

260
00:13:29,487 --> 00:13:31,487
A man is about to step on the moon.

261
00:13:31,488 --> 00:13:34,978
Martin Luther King Jr.'s killer
was just sentenced.

262
00:13:35,003 --> 00:13:39,003
And bodies are still coming
home daily from Vietnam.

263
00:13:39,004 --> 00:13:41,003
Nixon just got sworn in,

264
00:13:41,004 --> 00:13:44,282
and the fight for civil
rights is in full swing.

265
00:13:44,307 --> 00:13:45,594
What you're witnessing today

266
00:13:45,619 --> 00:13:48,619
is the beginning of a new active movement.

267
00:13:48,620 --> 00:13:52,619
We are simply following the lead
of the Black Power movement.

268
00:13:52,620 --> 00:13:54,619
The Black man said, "Black is beautiful,

269
00:13:54,620 --> 00:13:55,619
therefore, I am proud."

270
00:13:56,127 --> 00:13:58,021
Well, we are now saying, "Gay is good,

271
00:13:58,046 --> 00:13:59,366
and therefore, we are proud."

272
00:13:59,391 --> 00:14:03,077
A radical wave is building
in the gay movement.

273
00:14:03,102 --> 00:14:07,667
Year after year from picket
lines to protests,

274
00:14:07,692 --> 00:14:10,114
from raids to riots.

275
00:14:10,310 --> 00:14:14,310
But the biggest wave yet is about to break.

276
00:14:19,167 --> 00:14:22,143
Lifelong gay rights activist Mark Siegel

277
00:14:22,168 --> 00:14:24,168
found himself at Stonewall,

278
00:14:24,169 --> 00:14:27,371
just as history was about to be made.

279
00:14:28,168 --> 00:14:33,168
Stonewall was a fire in the
belly of the equality movement.

280
00:14:33,169 --> 00:14:37,168
Even so, accounts of it are full
of myths and misinformation.

281
00:14:37,169 --> 00:14:39,168
The biggest fallacy is when people say,

282
00:14:39,169 --> 00:14:40,168
"Of course they were upset,

283
00:14:40,193 --> 00:14:42,445
Judy Garland was being buried that day."

284
00:14:42,470 --> 00:14:44,470
"Somewhere Over The Rainbow?"

285
00:14:44,471 --> 00:14:47,134
That song was wishful thinking,

286
00:14:47,159 --> 00:14:49,728
an anthem for an older generation.

287
00:14:49,753 --> 00:14:52,753
In this bar, we were about
to smash that rainbow.

288
00:14:52,754 --> 00:14:55,753
We didn't have to travel
anywhere or go over anything

289
00:14:55,754 --> 00:14:56,753
to get what we want.

290
00:14:56,754 --> 00:15:00,369
That night I wasn't in full drag.

291
00:15:00,394 --> 00:15:03,394
I was dressed very pleasantly.

292
00:15:03,395 --> 00:15:05,394
I was wearing a woman's suit.

293
00:15:05,395 --> 00:15:08,997
I made this fabulous suit at home.

294
00:15:09,022 --> 00:15:14,369
It was light beige, something
very summery, lots of hair.

295
00:15:14,394 --> 00:15:16,394
We had just come back from Washington,

296
00:15:16,395 --> 00:15:17,934
my first lover and I.

297
00:15:17,959 --> 00:15:21,959
We were passing bad paper
around making lots of money.

298
00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:25,959
We were passing forged checks, and I said,

299
00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:27,959
"Let's go to Stonewall."

300
00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:30,934
It's June 28, 1969,

301
00:15:30,959 --> 00:15:33,638
and I've only been in New
York for one month.

302
00:15:33,787 --> 00:15:37,787
Stonewall was filled that
night with its usual clientele...

303
00:15:37,788 --> 00:15:41,787
drag queens, hustlers, older
men who liked younger guys,

304
00:15:41,788 --> 00:15:44,189
and stragglers like me.

305
00:15:44,623 --> 00:15:46,762
I was in the back of the bar
near the dance floor

306
00:15:46,787 --> 00:15:48,967
where the younger people usually hang out.

307
00:15:49,389 --> 00:15:53,787
The lights in the room
blink, a signal there'll be a raid.

308
00:15:53,788 --> 00:15:56,215
As they always do, the cops walked in like

309
00:15:56,240 --> 00:15:58,240
they owned the place, cocky,

310
00:15:58,241 --> 00:16:00,418
assured they could do or say
whatever they wanted

311
00:16:00,443 --> 00:16:02,443
and push people around with impunity.

312
00:16:02,444 --> 00:16:04,655
Get those fruits outside.
Come on, let's go.

313
00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:07,751
Go on, outside, outside, move it.

314
00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:10,445
- Are the cops inside?
- Yeah.

315
00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:13,680
Let's go, let's get out of here.

316
00:16:13,681 --> 00:16:17,680
Anyone with a decent job or
family ran away from that bar

317
00:16:17,681 --> 00:16:20,442
as fast as they could to
avoid being arrested.

318
00:16:20,467 --> 00:16:22,864
Those who remained were the drag queens,

319
00:16:22,889 --> 00:16:24,342
hustlers, and runaways.

320
00:16:24,889 --> 00:16:27,889
Some people in the crowd
started throwing pennies.

321
00:16:27,890 --> 00:16:29,889
The nickels, the dimes.

322
00:16:29,890 --> 00:16:30,889
That was the payoff.

323
00:16:30,890 --> 00:16:33,493
You already got some, and here's some more.

324
00:16:33,518 --> 00:16:35,518
It was like a godsend thing.

325
00:16:35,519 --> 00:16:38,518
I just happened to be there
when it all jumped off.

326
00:16:38,519 --> 00:16:39,518
And I said, "Great."

327
00:16:39,519 --> 00:16:42,248
I said, "Now is my time to do my own thing,

328
00:16:42,273 --> 00:16:43,600
for my own people!"

329
00:16:43,625 --> 00:16:46,225
I started yelling, "Gay Power!"

330
00:16:46,250 --> 00:16:49,835
and, "Get the mafia out of the bars!"

331
00:16:51,008 --> 00:16:53,282
But there was trouble between
one of the drag queens

332
00:16:53,307 --> 00:16:55,306
in the paddy wagon and the cop outside,

333
00:16:55,565 --> 00:16:56,994
and she kicked him.

334
00:16:57,283 --> 00:17:02,283
I only saw her heel kick
him back, but that was enough.

335
00:17:02,284 --> 00:17:03,902
You heard it. You heard it.

336
00:17:03,927 --> 00:17:06,927
The sounds of flesh and bone against metal.

337
00:17:06,928 --> 00:17:09,146
And, you know, it was a sound we all knew.

338
00:17:09,623 --> 00:17:12,623
Beautiful butch, gay civil rights icon

339
00:17:12,624 --> 00:17:14,623
Stormé DeLarverie.

340
00:17:14,624 --> 00:17:18,073
She very well may have
been the match that lit the fuse.

341
00:17:18,098 --> 00:17:20,823
I saw this one boy being
taken out by three officers.

342
00:17:20,848 --> 00:17:22,848
One of them did a drop kick on him.

343
00:17:22,849 --> 00:17:25,269
Another one senselessly
hit him from the back.

344
00:17:25,294 --> 00:17:27,294
A cop said to me, "Move, faggot!"

345
00:17:27,295 --> 00:17:28,370
thinking I was a gay guy.

346
00:17:28,395 --> 00:17:30,792
I said, "I will not, and
don't you dare touch me."

347
00:17:30,817 --> 00:17:33,144
Four officers then attacked
me, handcuffed me.

348
00:17:33,169 --> 00:17:34,777
When I told them I was cuffed too tightly,

349
00:17:34,802 --> 00:17:37,802
one of the officers hit me
over the head with a billy-club.

350
00:17:37,803 --> 00:17:39,435
As I was bleeding from the head,

351
00:17:39,460 --> 00:17:43,029
I turned to the crowd, and I said,

352
00:17:43,054 --> 00:17:45,593
"Why don't you guys do something?!"

353
00:17:47,273 --> 00:17:49,062
And that's when everything exploded.

354
00:17:52,273 --> 00:17:53,553
You're pigs!

355
00:17:53,944 --> 00:17:55,944
You're a pig, too, mister.

356
00:17:55,945 --> 00:17:57,944
You're a pig, too, you know it?

357
00:17:57,945 --> 00:17:59,944
You're a pig, too.

358
00:17:59,945 --> 00:18:01,703
You're a fucking Nazi, baby!

359
00:18:02,430 --> 00:18:04,140
The riot was on in my section.

360
00:18:04,165 --> 00:18:05,100
On!

361
00:18:05,125 --> 00:18:07,125
We're not going to take this shit anymore.

362
00:18:07,126 --> 00:18:08,601
Not me. And not a lot of people.

363
00:18:09,023 --> 00:18:10,670
Seize the time.

364
00:18:10,695 --> 00:18:13,695
Howard Smith, reporter
for the Village Voice,

365
00:18:13,696 --> 00:18:17,695
was also on the scene,
reporting from behind enemy lines.

366
00:18:18,132 --> 00:18:20,178
When I got to Stonewall
with my press pass,

367
00:18:20,203 --> 00:18:22,203
things were already tense.

368
00:18:22,228 --> 00:18:24,228
I noticed the full moon.

369
00:18:24,253 --> 00:18:28,253
This kind of crowd freaks easily.

370
00:18:28,254 --> 00:18:31,409
I found Deputy Inspector
Pine and followed him.

371
00:18:31,558 --> 00:18:32,955
He says, "Let's get in there.

372
00:18:32,980 --> 00:18:35,158
We'll lock ourselves in, it's safer."

373
00:18:35,183 --> 00:18:36,752
We bolt the heavy door.

374
00:18:36,777 --> 00:18:39,939
Two or three people picked up
parking meters and trash cans

375
00:18:39,971 --> 00:18:42,221
and started using them as battering rams.

376
00:18:42,246 --> 00:18:44,830
It was medieval, you know?

377
00:18:44,855 --> 00:18:48,284
Cross the moat and break
the castle door down!

378
00:18:48,855 --> 00:18:51,855
Inside, we could hear the
shattering windows

379
00:18:51,856 --> 00:18:55,855
followed by what we imagined
to be bricks banging on the door.

380
00:18:55,856 --> 00:18:57,463
And there's voices yelling...

381
00:18:57,488 --> 00:18:59,011
"Let's take over the fucking place!"

382
00:19:00,859 --> 00:19:02,936
I asked one cop if he was scared.

383
00:19:02,961 --> 00:19:06,086
"No," he says. But they all look uneasy.

384
00:19:07,311 --> 00:19:10,075
By now the mind's eye has forgotten

385
00:19:10,100 --> 00:19:13,810
about the character of the
mob because the sound

386
00:19:13,835 --> 00:19:19,835
that filters in does not
suggest dancing faggots.

387
00:19:19,836 --> 00:19:24,835
It sounds like a powerful
rage bent on vendetta.

388
00:19:29,608 --> 00:19:31,803
I remember seeing the
full moon over the bridge.

389
00:19:33,608 --> 00:19:35,209
Then I found out what happened.

390
00:19:35,608 --> 00:19:37,608
From lack of sleep and exhaustion,

391
00:19:37,609 --> 00:19:41,608
I was sort of feverish, and
I lay on my couch

392
00:19:41,609 --> 00:19:43,608
thinking, "We got to do something,

393
00:19:43,609 --> 00:19:46,608
we got to do something,
we can't just let this pass."

394
00:19:46,609 --> 00:19:49,608
Stonewall was no one-night affair.

395
00:19:49,609 --> 00:19:53,608
The genie was out of the bottle,
and the anger and the injustice

396
00:19:53,609 --> 00:19:56,021
that had been building up for years

397
00:19:56,046 --> 00:20:00,458
ignited another night of fire and fury.

398
00:20:00,483 --> 00:20:02,483
The president of the Mattachine Society

399
00:20:02,484 --> 00:20:04,483
at the time was Dick Leitsch.

400
00:20:05,061 --> 00:20:07,989
This is his report from the front lines

401
00:20:08,014 --> 00:20:11,014
written the night after the
riot in the Mattachine newsletter.

402
00:20:11,015 --> 00:20:15,014
The next day, a crowd filled
the streets and singing

403
00:20:15,015 --> 00:20:17,014
and chanting filled the park.

404
00:20:17,268 --> 00:20:20,243
The crowd surged out on
to the street and shouted,

405
00:20:20,268 --> 00:20:23,540
"Christopher Street belongs to the queens!

406
00:20:23,565 --> 00:20:25,565
Liberate the street!"

407
00:20:26,789 --> 00:20:28,568
Sounds like more pigs on the way.

408
00:20:29,211 --> 00:20:31,211
Never again will the fruits, the fags,

409
00:20:31,212 --> 00:20:34,211
the lesbians, the queers be
pushed into submission.

410
00:20:34,281 --> 00:20:37,281
More and more police cars arrived.

411
00:20:37,875 --> 00:20:40,475
I see Marsha at the top of this light pole

412
00:20:40,500 --> 00:20:42,335
in platform heels, right?

413
00:20:42,695 --> 00:20:47,695
And the next thing you know,
she drops something heavy

414
00:20:47,696 --> 00:20:51,163
right on the hood of the cop car.

415
00:20:51,695 --> 00:20:55,679
And that's when everything got quiet.

416
00:20:57,070 --> 00:21:00,155
Everybody looked around
because it was silent. Why?

417
00:21:00,664 --> 00:21:03,904
Nothing in a riot is more frightening

418
00:21:03,929 --> 00:21:05,976
or unnerving than silence.

419
00:21:06,929 --> 00:21:10,774
And you heard this thumping,
like goose-stepping,

420
00:21:12,547 --> 00:21:16,547
and the crowd opened,
and there was the tactical police force,

421
00:21:16,572 --> 00:21:22,180
armed to the teeth...
shields and face shields.

422
00:21:23,547 --> 00:21:26,212
It looks like the pigs are
forming a line to break us up.

423
00:21:26,237 --> 00:21:28,900
Honey, one kick line deserves another.

424
00:21:28,925 --> 00:21:30,439
Come on, all you queens,

425
00:21:30,464 --> 00:21:33,439
let's show them the power
of a high stepping chorus.

426
00:21:33,464 --> 00:21:36,464
Lift them legs, honey. This
ain't no convent social.

427
00:21:36,465 --> 00:21:40,095
And we all made this long
line of Rockette-like kicks

428
00:21:40,120 --> 00:21:42,120
and singing one of our big ditties

429
00:21:42,121 --> 00:21:43,596
we used to always sing when
we all got drunk.

430
00:21:43,621 --> 00:21:45,621
? We are the Village Girls ?

431
00:21:45,622 --> 00:21:47,621
? We wear our hair in curls ?

432
00:21:47,622 --> 00:21:52,621
? We wear our dungarees
above our nellie knees ?

433
00:21:52,622 --> 00:21:53,783
But that's when it stopped

434
00:21:53,808 --> 00:21:55,456
because that's what they charged us.

435
00:22:01,808 --> 00:22:04,071
You know, nature has a special way

436
00:22:04,096 --> 00:22:05,932
of protecting natural things.

437
00:22:06,126 --> 00:22:09,126
Watch as policemen's
truncheon destroys egg.

438
00:22:09,151 --> 00:22:10,151
No good.

439
00:22:10,152 --> 00:22:12,989
Nature's helmet for the
tomato is also valueless

440
00:22:13,014 --> 00:22:16,014
when the policemen's truncheon destroys it.

441
00:22:16,015 --> 00:22:20,014
Pumpkin... closest thing to a human head.

442
00:22:20,015 --> 00:22:21,636
Watch what happens.

443
00:22:21,661 --> 00:22:24,661
Night after night, the battle raged on.

444
00:22:28,661 --> 00:22:32,661
At one point, a cop grabbed
a wild Puerto Rican queen

445
00:22:32,662 --> 00:22:35,661
and lifted up his arm to bring
his club down on her.

446
00:22:35,662 --> 00:22:40,661
In her best Maria Montez
voice, the queen challenged,

447
00:22:40,662 --> 00:22:44,661
"How'd you like a big Spanish
dick up your little Irish ass?"

448
00:22:44,662 --> 00:22:48,930
A high shrill voice screams
out, "Save our sister!"

449
00:22:48,955 --> 00:22:51,312
50 homosexuals rush the cops

450
00:22:51,337 --> 00:22:53,414
and take the queen back in the crowd.

451
00:22:53,439 --> 00:22:54,976
They formed a solid front

452
00:22:55,001 --> 00:22:57,716
to keep the cops from
regaining their prisoner,

453
00:22:57,741 --> 00:22:59,372
letting the cops hit them with their sticks

454
00:22:59,397 --> 00:23:00,888
rather than let them through.

455
00:23:00,913 --> 00:23:03,146
Whoever assumes a swishy queen

456
00:23:03,171 --> 00:23:05,171
can't fight should have seen them.

457
00:23:05,172 --> 00:23:09,171
Makeup dripping, gowns
askew, fighting for their home,

458
00:23:09,172 --> 00:23:12,646
and fiercely proving no one
would take it away from them.

459
00:23:12,671 --> 00:23:15,671
Turning over cars, and, oh, my dear,

460
00:23:15,672 --> 00:23:19,765
blocking traffic and screaming
and hollering and everything.

461
00:23:20,671 --> 00:23:21,929
I'm looking around.

462
00:23:22,273 --> 00:23:28,671
I'm seeing my people, the
hustlers, the drag queens,

463
00:23:29,671 --> 00:23:33,671
showing the cops and even
some of our fellow gays

464
00:23:33,672 --> 00:23:35,671
that we were human beings

465
00:23:36,033 --> 00:23:38,671
and we'd be fighting for a
piece of this world,

466
00:23:38,672 --> 00:23:39,897
thank you very much.

467
00:23:40,275 --> 00:23:43,275
We are united for the first time...

468
00:23:43,276 --> 00:23:47,275
lesbian separatists, gay men in
fairy communes,

469
00:23:47,276 --> 00:23:49,688
people who had been part of
other civil rights movements

470
00:23:49,713 --> 00:23:51,713
but never thought about one of their own,

471
00:23:51,714 --> 00:23:56,542
hustlers, drag queens, and
many like me who knew

472
00:23:56,567 --> 00:23:57,761
there was something out there for us

473
00:23:57,786 --> 00:24:00,331
but didn't know what it was.

474
00:24:00,356 --> 00:24:02,356
It found us.

475
00:24:07,364 --> 00:24:10,838
On the last night, Wednesday,
word had spread

476
00:24:10,863 --> 00:24:13,863
to some of the heterosexual
new left revolutionaries

477
00:24:13,864 --> 00:24:16,863
who came to the Village
itching for the revolution

478
00:24:16,864 --> 00:24:18,863
to begin here and now.

479
00:24:18,864 --> 00:24:21,863
But over the past few nights,
some of the gays felt they had

480
00:24:21,864 --> 00:24:23,863
made their point and left.

481
00:24:24,445 --> 00:24:27,623
But those who stayed
witnessed one last horrible

482
00:24:27,648 --> 00:24:29,623
blast of police violence.

483
00:24:30,279 --> 00:24:32,623
The fighting with the police
only lasted an hour,

484
00:24:33,333 --> 00:24:36,648
but once it was over, one
could argue that Christopher Street

485
00:24:36,673 --> 00:24:40,673
and the minds of many
homosexuals had been liberated.

486
00:24:43,453 --> 00:24:45,648
Now let me be clear.

487
00:24:45,649 --> 00:24:48,648
Stonewall was no damn riot.

488
00:24:48,649 --> 00:24:50,648
It was a civil disobedience.

489
00:24:50,649 --> 00:24:52,418
It was an uprising.

490
00:24:53,648 --> 00:24:55,648
It was a rebellion!

491
00:25:02,603 --> 00:25:04,931
As the sun began to rise, you know,

492
00:25:04,956 --> 00:25:06,627
with my head down and tired,

493
00:25:06,652 --> 00:25:10,057
I kept looking up, and I saw
this queen who was exhausted

494
00:25:10,652 --> 00:25:14,260
and couldn't go on anymore,
was just on a stoop exhausted

495
00:25:14,285 --> 00:25:18,285
but at peace because near her
was a cop who was also exhausted

496
00:25:18,286 --> 00:25:20,499
that made no attempt to bother her.

497
00:25:20,524 --> 00:25:22,272
I mean, the riot was really over.

498
00:25:22,297 --> 00:25:26,030
Still, the street was glistening.

499
00:25:26,055 --> 00:25:27,836
It was one of the most beautiful
things I ever saw.

500
00:25:27,861 --> 00:25:30,861
The whole street, just like diamonds,

501
00:25:30,862 --> 00:25:32,759
but in reality it was broken glass,

502
00:25:33,493 --> 00:25:36,774
The smell of the smoke of
burning garbage cans was there.

503
00:25:37,165 --> 00:25:39,320
All those smells that a riot make,

504
00:25:39,345 --> 00:25:41,703
even a certain kind of sweat.

505
00:25:41,728 --> 00:25:43,970
It was ugly and beautiful.

506
00:25:45,728 --> 00:25:50,211
The end of the night and
how that street glistened.

507
00:25:53,313 --> 00:25:56,586
Very few things historically arise
out of nothing.

508
00:25:57,071 --> 00:26:01,477
The Stonewall demonstration
was a direct follow up

509
00:26:01,502 --> 00:26:05,118
and consequence of the fact
that we had blazed the trail

510
00:26:05,143 --> 00:26:10,227
starting in 1965 with public
demonstrations by gay people.

511
00:26:11,190 --> 00:26:12,813
We had risen up before...

512
00:26:12,838 --> 00:26:14,838
the New Year's Ball in San Francisco,

513
00:26:14,839 --> 00:26:18,838
the Reminder Day Notices,
the Black Cat Protests.

514
00:26:18,839 --> 00:26:21,838
These are just a few examples,
but there were more.

515
00:26:21,839 --> 00:26:24,375
And if the Compton's Riot of 1966

516
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,838
didn't set it all off, there
just wasn't enough

517
00:26:27,839 --> 00:26:29,838
combustible material in the culture yet.

518
00:26:29,839 --> 00:26:31,838
We needed those three
years of counterculture

519
00:26:31,839 --> 00:26:34,368
and civil unrest to stoke the flame,

520
00:26:34,393 --> 00:26:36,869
because that's how you get an inferno!

521
00:26:38,393 --> 00:26:43,735
Whatever one may think
of the merits of that particular

522
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:48,461
form of protest or dissent,
those are not that relevant.

523
00:26:48,486 --> 00:26:51,627
What's important is the message
which is being conveyed,

524
00:26:51,994 --> 00:26:55,994
and that is that we've been
shoved around for 3,000 years

525
00:26:55,995 --> 00:26:58,994
and we're tired of it and
we're starting to shove back,

526
00:26:58,995 --> 00:27:01,116
and if we don't get what's coming to us

527
00:27:01,141 --> 00:27:02,141
and get it promptly,

528
00:27:02,142 --> 00:27:03,852
there's going to be a lot
more shoving back.

529
00:27:05,196 --> 00:27:08,689
Problem is, Stonewall
had changed how hard some of us

530
00:27:08,714 --> 00:27:10,222
wanted to shove.

531
00:27:11,714 --> 00:27:15,714
I no longer believed in the
polite, apologetic,

532
00:27:15,715 --> 00:27:17,945
well-mannered methods of the Mattachine.

533
00:27:19,672 --> 00:27:23,094
So over the next year,
I started thinking about ways to

534
00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:25,692
commemorate Stonewall,
all of the things we had just

535
00:27:25,717 --> 00:27:29,717
seen and felt and a way to
keep the momentum going.

536
00:27:29,718 --> 00:27:33,717
2-4-6-8, gays unite to smash the state!

537
00:27:33,718 --> 00:27:36,278
The Stonewall Rebellion served notice

538
00:27:36,303 --> 00:27:38,303
on the heterosexual majority

539
00:27:38,328 --> 00:27:41,303
that a growing number of
gays were not afraid anymore

540
00:27:41,304 --> 00:27:43,882
and were not content to
continue living out their lives

541
00:27:43,907 --> 00:27:45,907
in fear and oppression.

542
00:27:45,908 --> 00:27:48,907
Stonewall didn't make front page news,

543
00:27:48,932 --> 00:27:52,127
but there was a loose
network of about 60 gay groups

544
00:27:52,152 --> 00:27:55,244
across the country, and word spread.

545
00:27:55,269 --> 00:27:57,666
And the organizing intensified.

546
00:27:57,691 --> 00:28:00,691
And the momentum swelled for the first time

547
00:28:00,692 --> 00:28:04,691
into a real grassroots movement.

548
00:28:04,692 --> 00:28:07,241
One of the largest of the new organizations in New York

549
00:28:07,266 --> 00:28:08,944
is the Gay Liberation Front.

550
00:28:08,969 --> 00:28:11,516
Bob Kohler tells when it was founded.

551
00:28:12,462 --> 00:28:16,047
June 28, '69, the day after the riots.

552
00:28:17,462 --> 00:28:20,192
Black Civil Rights movement,

553
00:28:20,418 --> 00:28:23,472
the struggle against the Vietnam War,

554
00:28:23,497 --> 00:28:26,497
the women's movement, feminist politics,

555
00:28:26,498 --> 00:28:29,497
and of course the gay cause.

556
00:28:29,498 --> 00:28:34,497
We felt that the struggles
should be united, not separated,

557
00:28:34,498 --> 00:28:37,497
and that they were part
of the same struggle.

558
00:28:39,196 --> 00:28:41,750
We started a group to put out a
newspaper which became

559
00:28:41,775 --> 00:28:44,414
Come Out! that showed the
grandness of our schemes

560
00:28:44,439 --> 00:28:46,085
and the feeling we had that the revolution

561
00:28:46,110 --> 00:28:47,523
was right around the corner

562
00:28:47,664 --> 00:28:49,749
and that we were part of this vanguard

563
00:28:49,774 --> 00:28:52,774
of this great revolution that
was just about to happen.

564
00:28:52,775 --> 00:28:57,348
We were young and idealistic
and wonderful and brave, naive.

565
00:28:57,373 --> 00:28:58,669
All those things.

566
00:29:01,373 --> 00:29:04,136
The GLF was one of the first
groups to focus

567
00:29:04,161 --> 00:29:08,161
on these intersectional battles
of class, race, and sexuality.

568
00:29:08,162 --> 00:29:11,161
However, the Gay Activist Alliance,

569
00:29:11,162 --> 00:29:15,550
founded in December, 1969,
focused more singularly

570
00:29:15,575 --> 00:29:17,161
on gay and lesbian rights

571
00:29:17,162 --> 00:29:21,161
and were no less radical in
their tactics of disruption.

572
00:29:21,162 --> 00:29:25,161
Oh, this is definitely the Marriage Bureau,

573
00:29:25,162 --> 00:29:28,161
but it's been taken over by
the Gay Activists Alliance.

574
00:29:28,162 --> 00:29:29,575
You calling us garbage?

575
00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:32,600
Come back here and say that
to a gay person's face!

576
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:34,600
Gay Power!

577
00:29:34,601 --> 00:29:37,164
- Louder!
- Gay Power!

578
00:29:37,189 --> 00:29:40,189
- Loudest!
- Gay power!!

579
00:29:40,267 --> 00:29:42,820
Over the past year, homosexuals
have been coming out

580
00:29:42,845 --> 00:29:47,406
into public, refusing to
hide in the closets, as we say.

581
00:29:47,431 --> 00:29:49,125
What do you want the police to do?

582
00:29:49,150 --> 00:29:50,383
We want them off our backs.

583
00:29:50,408 --> 00:29:54,016
We want them to stop harassing
us, stop pushing us around.

584
00:29:54,408 --> 00:29:58,382
Now I'm a proud member of
the GLF and the GAA,

585
00:29:58,999 --> 00:30:03,256
but I started to realize,
sometimes, if you're not white

586
00:30:03,281 --> 00:30:06,707
or middle class, you might
not always fit in.

587
00:30:06,732 --> 00:30:07,732
Why are you here today?

588
00:30:08,114 --> 00:30:11,732
Darling, I want my gay rights now!

589
00:30:11,733 --> 00:30:14,732
I think it's about time the gay
brothers and sisters

590
00:30:14,733 --> 00:30:16,732
got their rights.

591
00:30:16,733 --> 00:30:18,732
And especially the women!

592
00:30:19,191 --> 00:30:22,191
My brothers and sisters
from the gay community

593
00:30:22,192 --> 00:30:24,191
were not very, very supportive.

594
00:30:25,111 --> 00:30:26,883
They left us in the dark.

595
00:30:26,908 --> 00:30:29,908
I mean, I'd given up my job,

596
00:30:29,909 --> 00:30:32,579
given up everything for gay liberation.

597
00:30:32,604 --> 00:30:35,009
I was sleeping in Sheridan Square Park

598
00:30:35,034 --> 00:30:37,034
and hustling to support the movement,

599
00:30:37,035 --> 00:30:39,822
and some of them just called
us street people.

600
00:30:40,346 --> 00:30:44,448
So in 1970, I started

601
00:30:44,473 --> 00:30:47,581
the Street Transvestite
Action Revolutionaries

602
00:30:47,606 --> 00:30:51,606
with my best friend, Marsha P Johnson.

603
00:30:51,607 --> 00:30:55,606
We fought for the liberation of our people.

604
00:30:55,607 --> 00:30:58,606
And a lot of those who
put us down didn't appreciate

605
00:30:58,607 --> 00:31:01,606
the fact that we were
there when they weren't.

606
00:31:01,607 --> 00:31:04,903
We decided we're
going to take care of our own

607
00:31:04,928 --> 00:31:06,928
since no one in the movement would.

608
00:31:06,929 --> 00:31:09,928
When we asked the community to help us,

609
00:31:09,929 --> 00:31:12,928
there was nobody to help us.

610
00:31:12,929 --> 00:31:14,340
We were nothing.

611
00:31:15,262 --> 00:31:16,754
We were nothing.

612
00:31:19,928 --> 00:31:23,262
With the community mobilized
in new and different ways,

613
00:31:23,287 --> 00:31:27,379
another Reminder Day full
of suits and polite politics

614
00:31:27,404 --> 00:31:30,404
seemed, I don't know, antiquated.

615
00:31:30,405 --> 00:31:33,237
So me, my lover Fred, and our friends,

616
00:31:33,262 --> 00:31:37,597
Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes, we
presented the idea of a march

617
00:31:37,622 --> 00:31:39,917
to all the gay groups as a way
to show the world

618
00:31:39,942 --> 00:31:42,942
how far we'd come in the
year since Stonewall,

619
00:31:42,943 --> 00:31:47,214
and then activists in Chicago, Los Angeles,

620
00:31:47,239 --> 00:31:50,737
San Francisco started planning
their own marches.

621
00:31:50,762 --> 00:31:55,339
And the idea, in a nutshell,
is to set aside the day

622
00:31:55,371 --> 00:32:02,254
for a show of unity, solidarity,
and pride of gay people.

623
00:32:04,254 --> 00:32:09,229
Clout was important because
unless you have clout,

624
00:32:09,254 --> 00:32:11,494
you're a victim, you know?

625
00:32:11,519 --> 00:32:13,519
And we were tired of being victims.

626
00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:16,519
Jerry Hoose of the Gay Liberation Front

627
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:19,519
was there at Stonewall and
took the first steps

628
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:22,519
in the very first Pride March.

629
00:32:24,519 --> 00:32:28,519
The first parade was in many ways

630
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:29,847
a very frightening event.

631
00:32:30,855 --> 00:32:34,729
All sorts of threats had
come into us, bomb threats.

632
00:32:35,129 --> 00:32:37,175
People could take shots at us.

633
00:32:37,628 --> 00:32:39,417
We were scared.

634
00:32:40,129 --> 00:32:43,129
On top of that, the night
before the march,

635
00:32:43,130 --> 00:32:46,129
a bunch of gay bashers
beat some boys senseless

636
00:32:46,130 --> 00:32:48,276
not too far from Stonewall.

637
00:32:48,301 --> 00:32:50,652
Not a good omen for the day ahead.

638
00:32:52,301 --> 00:32:54,576
We didn't know how many
people were going to show up.

639
00:32:54,717 --> 00:32:57,717
We were very fearful that
no one would show up.

640
00:33:00,404 --> 00:33:04,887
We formed at Christopher
Street by Seventh Avenue,

641
00:33:04,912 --> 00:33:07,473
like a block down from the Stonewall.

642
00:33:07,498 --> 00:33:11,498
Exactly one hour later,
the march began to move.

643
00:33:11,499 --> 00:33:13,498
I wasn't going to miss this for anything.

644
00:33:13,499 --> 00:33:17,498
After being stomped on and
talked down to for years, no!

645
00:33:17,499 --> 00:33:19,563
This was our moment.

646
00:33:20,498 --> 00:33:25,498
Oh, and me and my friends,
we came suffragette serious.

647
00:33:25,499 --> 00:33:27,498
Now let's get walking!

648
00:33:33,308 --> 00:33:36,526
I remember it being maybe 100, 200 people.

649
00:33:36,551 --> 00:33:39,551
But as we were going up Sixth Avenue,

650
00:33:39,552 --> 00:33:42,551
it kept growing and growing and growing.

651
00:33:45,551 --> 00:33:48,551
I kept looking back, and it
got bigger and bigger

652
00:33:48,552 --> 00:33:51,551
and bigger and bigger, and
as we got to the park,

653
00:33:51,552 --> 00:33:55,777
I remember turning around,
and it was endless.

654
00:33:56,113 --> 00:33:58,113
Thousands of people.

655
00:34:01,204 --> 00:34:03,204
There's been nothing like this before,

656
00:34:03,237 --> 00:34:06,220
and I hope it sets a tone and a
trend for the whole future.

657
00:34:06,245 --> 00:34:08,237
Beautiful. Just beautiful.

658
00:34:08,238 --> 00:34:10,309
It's absolutely incredible.

659
00:34:10,334 --> 00:34:12,284
Oh, it's fantastic.

660
00:34:12,309 --> 00:34:14,816
- I feel better.
- This is really where it's at.

661
00:34:15,380 --> 00:34:17,779
No, really, straight people
can do all this carrying on

662
00:34:17,804 --> 00:34:19,248
and holding hands and kiss in the park.

663
00:34:19,273 --> 00:34:20,505
Why can't we do it?

664
00:34:20,530 --> 00:34:22,530
They ain't no better than I am.

665
00:34:25,626 --> 00:34:29,352
It was one of the two or three
greatest moments of my life.

666
00:34:30,651 --> 00:34:33,803
It was just pure happiness.

667
00:34:35,651 --> 00:34:38,651
Now let's stop being the fucking
kind of homosexuals

668
00:34:38,652 --> 00:34:41,626
who are hiding, and let's get
on to Michigan Avenue.

669
00:34:44,651 --> 00:34:46,891
Last year a group of homosexuals rioted in

670
00:34:46,916 --> 00:34:50,916
the city of New York against the oppression

671
00:34:50,917 --> 00:34:51,916
that they felt there.

672
00:34:51,917 --> 00:34:54,916
We decided to make it an
annual day for homosexuals

673
00:34:54,917 --> 00:34:56,916
all across the nation.

674
00:34:56,917 --> 00:35:01,307
That's the day I consider the
gay community became real.

675
00:35:01,332 --> 00:35:05,332
The riot was like the conception,

676
00:35:06,293 --> 00:35:08,604
and the day of the first march

677
00:35:08,629 --> 00:35:11,096
was the birth of the gay community.

678
00:35:11,121 --> 00:35:14,653
I used to dream about
millions of homosexuals

679
00:35:14,678 --> 00:35:16,903
marching through the
streets openly and everything.

680
00:35:16,928 --> 00:35:18,544
And that's come to pass in my life.

681
00:35:18,928 --> 00:35:20,169
So it was more than a dream.

682
00:35:20,194 --> 00:35:22,801
It was almost a vision,
in a way, of the future.

683
00:35:22,826 --> 00:35:25,951
We are everywhere! We are everywhere!

684
00:35:43,826 --> 00:35:47,826
We are everywhere! We are everywhere!

685
00:35:47,827 --> 00:35:50,826
We are everywhere!

686
00:35:55,373 --> 00:35:58,246
We'll always have strength
if we stand together.

687
00:35:58,271 --> 00:36:00,153
And when we march forward,

688
00:36:00,178 --> 00:36:04,201
we need to take everyone
in our community with us.

689
00:36:05,178 --> 00:36:08,699
It's a message that by 1973 some people

690
00:36:08,724 --> 00:36:10,699
had already forgotten.

691
00:36:20,326 --> 00:36:24,326
Luckily, Sylvia was there to
remind them.

692
00:36:24,327 --> 00:36:27,326
You all better quiet down.

693
00:36:28,185 --> 00:36:33,326
I've been trying to get up
here all day for your gay brothers

694
00:36:33,327 --> 00:36:37,301
and your gay sisters in jail

695
00:36:37,326 --> 00:36:40,982
that write me every motherfucking week

696
00:36:41,326 --> 00:36:44,326
and ask for your help,

697
00:36:44,327 --> 00:36:48,708
and you all don't do a
goddamned thing for them.

698
00:36:49,326 --> 00:36:53,326
The people that are trying to
do something for all of us,

699
00:36:53,327 --> 00:36:55,762
and not men and women

700
00:36:55,787 --> 00:37:00,418
that belong to a white
middle-class, white club!

701
00:37:00,443 --> 00:37:03,396
And that's what y'all belong to.

702
00:37:04,443 --> 00:37:08,043
I believe in the gay power.

703
00:37:08,068 --> 00:37:11,068
I believe in us getting our rights, or else

704
00:37:11,069 --> 00:37:14,099
I would not be out
there fighting for our rights.

705
00:37:15,068 --> 00:37:19,068
I will not no longer put up with this shit.

706
00:37:19,069 --> 00:37:23,068
I have been beaten, I have
had my nose broken,

707
00:37:23,318 --> 00:37:27,318
I have been thrown in
jail, I have lost my job,

708
00:37:27,319 --> 00:37:31,583
I have lost my apartment
for gay liberation.

709
00:37:32,318 --> 00:37:34,318
Think about that!

710
00:37:36,318 --> 00:37:40,318
Revolution now!

711
00:37:40,319 --> 00:37:42,318
Gay power...

712
00:37:44,216 --> 00:37:47,318
Louder! Gay power!

713
00:38:02,318 --> 00:38:08,318
Power to the people, to all
LGBTQ-plus people.

714
00:38:08,319 --> 00:38:13,293
We have been here fighting
for our rights for years,

715
00:38:13,318 --> 00:38:14,318
for decades.

716
00:38:14,319 --> 00:38:19,318
And we are here fighting still.

717
00:38:19,319 --> 00:38:23,318
They can give us our rights,
and they can try to take them away.

718
00:38:23,319 --> 00:38:29,318
So we need to take what's
ours by any means necessary.

719
00:38:29,319 --> 00:38:32,318
Are you ready to march?

720
00:38:32,319 --> 00:38:34,318
Are you ready to fight?

721
00:38:34,319 --> 00:38:37,318
So what are you waiting for?

722
00:38:37,319 --> 00:38:39,318
Join the revolution!

723
00:38:42,366 --> 00:38:48,205
CREDITS