1 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,000 -What was condemned now strives for acceptance. 2 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,000 -We are living through one of the greatest revolutions 3 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:25,000 in history, the birth of a new civilization. 4 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:27,000 -For decades they've been coming for us. 5 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,000 -Get around here, queer. Get those fruits outside. 6 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:33,000 -And it didn't matter if we were singing a song, 7 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,000 struttin' our stuff, or speaking our truth. 8 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:39,000 -Outside, outside, move it. 9 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,000 -Well, times they are a changing. 10 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:46,000 And in New York City, the patrons of a little gay bar 11 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:51,000 in the Village are about to end the '60s with a bang. 12 00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:00,000 It's time to strut out of the bars to fight in the streets. 13 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,000 -Darling, I want my gay rights now! 14 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:06,000 -This is the story of Stonewall, 15 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:10,000 the story of a riot and a revolution 16 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:13,000 and the march toward power and pride. 17 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:16,000 -Gay Power! Gay Power! Gay Power! 18 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,000 -Revolution now! 19 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,000 -♪ I should be so lucky ♪ 20 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,000 -♪ I should be so lucky ♪ 21 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:26,000 ♪ To live a day not hunted ♪ 22 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,000 -♪ I should be so lucky ♪ 23 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,000 -♪ I'mma keep on fightin' ♪ 24 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:34,000 ♪ Till that day comin' ♪ 25 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,000 -♪ I should be so ♪ 26 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,000 ♪♪ 27 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,000 -The story of Stonewall isn't just one story. 28 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:48,000 Everyone who was there has their own tale to tell, 29 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,000 and to understand how and why it all went down 30 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:54,000 on a hot summer night in 1969, 31 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,000 we have to take a walk through the Village, 32 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,000 Greenwich Village in New York City 33 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:03,000 and meet some Village people who will tell it like it was 34 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:09,000 and tell us exactly what set the stage for the rage. 35 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:15,000 ♪♪ 36 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:20,000 Like Mr. Martin Boyce, 21 years old in 1969 37 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:22,000 and an eye-witness to it all. 38 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,000 -Well, the character of the Village in the 1960s 39 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:28,000 was a welcome mat where gays could go. 40 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:31,000 But you felt if you went down there, you were very hopeful 41 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:33,000 that things could go your way. 42 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,000 You could make friends and meet other interesting people. 43 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,000 Everybody could find a little spot in the Village 44 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,000 or at least tolerance, but real tolerance. 45 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:44,000 And that was all we really wanted from a neighborhood. 46 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:47,000 -Hey, Tim. How are you? 47 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000 -I left home when I was 19. 48 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:54,000 -Now meet lesbian feminist activist, Martha Shelley. 49 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,000 -That year I joined the first women's judo class 50 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:01,000 in New York City, and that's where I met lesbians. 51 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:03,000 I hung around bookstores. 52 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:04,000 I used to hang around the section 53 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,000 where the trash novels were that had pictures of women 54 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,000 on the front cover. 55 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:12,000 Lesbian pulp fiction. Some of it pretty awful. 56 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:14,000 -Was this also in Manhattan? 57 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:17,000 -Yeah, it was in Greenwich Village. 58 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,000 -When the dust settles on Stonewall, 59 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,000 she will help lead the way forward, 60 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,000 as will this fine fellow, 61 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:27,000 one of the forefathers of Pride itself, 62 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,000 Craig Rodwell. 63 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:30,000 -As soon as I heard that all the queers 64 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:32,000 live in Greenwich Village in New York City, 65 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:34,000 I literally started saving my money. 66 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:36,000 And two months out of high school, 67 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,000 I was here on a bus with two suitcases. 68 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,000 There was a group of about at least a dozen of us 69 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,000 that hung out together on the streets. 70 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:47,000 I suppose it was the beginning of a Stonewall generation, 71 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:49,000 even though it was 10 years before Stonewall. 72 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,000 For one thing, we were here in Greenwich Village 73 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:53,000 leading openly gay lives. 74 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:57,000 -It took me two summers cleaning toilets on Fire Island 75 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,000 to save up enough money to afford a shop 76 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,000 on Mercer Street, right over here in the Village. 77 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,000 I called it the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. 78 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,000 -Well, the most important thing about it is it was going to be 79 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:13,000 an openly gay, visible presence on the street. 80 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:15,000 I've always firmly believed, and I think today 81 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:19,000 it's just as important as ever, that will always be visible. 82 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:20,000 To me, it was more of a positive thing. 83 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:23,000 I had everything to gain by being openly gay. 84 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,000 -What did you have to gain? 85 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,000 -Well, just being me, being myself, being free, 86 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:32,000 being a whole person, not being afraid. 87 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:34,000 -You and your books. 88 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:40,000 -I first heard about the Stonewall because 89 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:44,000 I was with the hip crowd. 90 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,000 -Hip or not, everyone in the Village 91 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,000 knew the Mayor of Christopher Street, 92 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:52,000 the iconic Miss Marsha P. Johnson. 93 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,000 -First it was just a gay men's bar, 94 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:58,000 and they didn't allow no women in. 95 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:00,000 And then they started allowing women in, 96 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:04,000 and then they let the drag queens in. 97 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:09,000 -It was about dancing, people could dance. 98 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:11,000 And me, I wasn't into dancing that much, 99 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,000 but the real thing was the excitement of everybody going. 100 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:16,000 -The first place I ever seen go-go boys, 101 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:18,000 'cause they used to have several go-go boys 102 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:21,000 that used to dance on the bar at that place. 103 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:23,000 And then they had these drag queens working there, 104 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:28,000 and there was this, uh, Tiffany and, oh, this other drag queen 105 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:32,000 that used to work there in the coat check room. 106 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:33,000 -They really had a culture in there. 107 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,000 It was really interesting and meaningful, 108 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,000 because here there was a group of gays that, you know, 109 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:42,000 really enjoying themselves as if the world were normal 110 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,000 and not worrying that the sun won't come up 111 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:49,000 and not worrying about tomorrow, and in an amazing way, 112 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:53,000 a celebration of surviving another day, 113 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:57,000 living another night, maybe meeting another trick. 114 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:02,000 -Now let's take a seat at the bar next to 115 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:07,000 the one and only, Sylvia Rivera, a soldier in the battle 116 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:11,000 for gay liberation and transgender rights. 117 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:13,000 -Before the Stonewall Riot, 118 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,000 I was involved in the Black Liberation Movement. 119 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,000 Back then my revolutionary blood was going. 120 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:21,000 I did a lot of marches. 121 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:24,000 I had to do something to show everyone the world was changing. 122 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,000 -Power to the people! -Power to the people! 123 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,000 -I got involved in a lot of different things 124 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,000 because I had so much anger about this world 125 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,000 and the way they were treating people. 126 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:38,000 -We demand an end to discrimination 127 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:39,000 against homosexuals. 128 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:41,000 -The first time that I got arrested, 129 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:45,000 I was like, "I'm going where?" [ Laughs ] 130 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:46,000 -So you went to jail a few times. 131 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:49,000 -Oh, I went to jail a lot of times. 132 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:50,000 -50 times? 100 times? 133 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:53,000 -About 200 times. 134 00:06:53,000 --> 00:07:00,000 -If you walked down 42nd street and even looked like a faggot, 135 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:01,000 you were going to jail. 136 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:03,000 -They'd get you for hustling, 137 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:04,000 and if you were looking a little too cute, 138 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:07,000 like I look right now, you know, in women's clothing, 139 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:12,000 well, they'd arrest you for impersonating a lady. 140 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:16,000 -In 1960's America, laws were harsher against gays 141 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:19,000 than in Cuba, Russia, or East Germany. 142 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:22,000 Gay sex in your own home got you anywhere from 143 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:26,000 a light fine to 20 years in prison. 144 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,000 In Pennsylvania and California, sex offenders could be locked 145 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,000 in a mental institution for life. 146 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:35,000 And in seven states, you could be castrated. 147 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,000 -While socially in some ways 148 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:41,000 New York City was more sophisticated, 149 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:44,000 having a Bohemian center like Greenwich Village 150 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:46,000 where gay people could at least find others like themselves 151 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,000 and be tolerated, New York City was also 152 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:52,000 cutting edge in catching homosexuals. 153 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,000 New York City was the first place to have vice squads. 154 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:03,000 They were the first place to do stakeouts of homosexuals, 155 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:06,000 to put mirrors, two-way mirrors in bathrooms 156 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:08,000 and microphones in park benches. 157 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:10,000 -Complaints have been received against the operations 158 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:12,000 of this restroom for some time. 159 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:16,000 Now a pattern of homosexuality was centered in the city. 160 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:18,000 We were confronted with a problem. 161 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,000 -You know, picking up strangers in his hell hole 162 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:22,000 could be a dangerous game. 163 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:23,000 -Well, I only do it occasionally. 164 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:26,000 -Occasionally? 165 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,000 -Yeah, like every other day. 166 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:34,000 -On Greenwich Avenue, it was a major cruising area at the time. 167 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:36,000 I mean, every night there'd be hundreds of gay guys 168 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:38,000 sitting on cars. 169 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:40,000 But if a cop came along, everybody would get up 170 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:42,000 and start walking, 171 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:44,000 and if you didn't they'd come up and they'd poke you. 172 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:45,000 It was just an easy way for them to fill a quota 173 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,000 and at the same time harass the queers. 174 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:52,000 It was a vicious circle. 175 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:53,000 -What was everyone afraid of? 176 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:57,000 -Being beaten or arrested, and I suppose ultimately, 177 00:08:57,000 --> 00:08:59,000 of being publicly identified as a homosexual. 178 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:01,000 -What would that mean? 179 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:04,000 -Well, perhaps loss of job, or when they would raid gay bars, 180 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:06,000 the papers would publish the name and address 181 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,000 and where they worked, 182 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:10,000 of the people who were arrested on the front page of the papers 183 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:11,000 the next day. 184 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:15,000 I mean, like they were mass murderers. 185 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:18,000 -And even though booze got legal after prohibition, 186 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:19,000 gay people still couldn't 187 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:23,000 legally get a drink at a bar in 1969. 188 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,000 The NYPD said serving gays and trans folks a drink 189 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:32,000 was disorderly, and therefore the bar could lose its license. 190 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:35,000 So who came to our rescue? 191 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:37,000 The Genovese crime family. 192 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:42,000 Out of the goodness of their hearts, naturally. 193 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:45,000 The mob ended up running most of the gay bars in New York, 194 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:49,000 and the Stonewall was the jewel in their crown. 195 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:51,000 The Genovese family opened Stonewall 196 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:54,000 and spent $3,500 on the decor. 197 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:59,000 The first night they were open, they took in $5,000. 198 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,000 The next night, another $5,000. 199 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:04,000 -Not bad. 200 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:10,000 -Most gay bars at that time lasted three to six months. 201 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:11,000 The Stonewall was unusual 202 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:14,000 in that it lasted almost three years. 203 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:16,000 And I think one reason that happened 204 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:20,000 is because it was the most lucrative gay bar in Manhattan. 205 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:25,000 And it was the biggest payer to the sixth precinct. 206 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:28,000 They got more money from the Stonewall Inn 207 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:30,000 than they did from any other bar or institution. 208 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:33,000 It was about $2,000 a month. 209 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:39,000 -Now here's a lesson in Greenwich Village economics 210 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:43,000 and the way Lily Law made a little extra cash 211 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:44,000 at our expense. 212 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:48,000 You see, the mafia didn't want any trouble serving us gays, 213 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:51,000 so they paid off the sixth precinct. 214 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:52,000 -The cops will call up the Stonewall 215 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:56,000 and give them a heads up they were on their way. 216 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:58,000 They'd confiscate a little booze and cash, 217 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:04,000 arrest a few queers to keep up appearances. 218 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:08,000 And that was just another night out in the Village. 219 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:12,000 -The cops needed the mafia, the mafia needed the cops. 220 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:15,000 It was a disgusting system of exploitation. 221 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:17,000 It was very corrupt. 222 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,000 -The Village at the time was a very dangerous place 223 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:22,000 if you went off Christopher on your own, 224 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:25,000 depending what time of night. 225 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,000 I mean, there was a lot of gay bashing, 226 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:30,000 but in order to gay bash you, they got to isolate you. 227 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:31,000 It's almost like a pride of lions. 228 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:35,000 They isolate you, and then they get you. 229 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:38,000 So you had to be wary. 230 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:40,000 The further you got from Christopher Street, 231 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:42,000 the more wary you were. 232 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:45,000 -There was also vigilantism in Queens. 233 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:49,000 There was a gay cruising area in Kew Gardens. 234 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:50,000 People were going there at night 235 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:54,000 using walkie talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. 236 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:57,000 When the police were called, they didn't do anything. 237 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:01,000 They took the side of the vigilantes. 238 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,000 So people felt like there was nowhere to turn. 239 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:08,000 '68, '69 rolled around, things got worse. 240 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:12,000 There were about 8 murders in 10 weeks. 241 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:16,000 A transit cop killed two gay men down by the piers. 242 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:20,000 And then you have people having their throats slashed. 243 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,000 There were bodies being carried out of subway stations. 244 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:28,000 -Two of the other more horrible killings were brutal stabbings 245 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:30,000 and slashings in the subway johns, 246 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:33,000 and both were very similar in that the victims were nude 247 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:35,000 and were stabbed and slashed 50 or 60 times. 248 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:39,000 There was great pools of blood involved in both cases. 249 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:41,000 There was graffiti apparently written on 250 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:43,000 both of the john walls which said, "I'm going to kill 251 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:47,000 all the [bleep] queers," or something to that effect. 252 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:50,000 -It was a horror story in New York City. 253 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:57,000 -The symptoms of society's breakdown 254 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:00,000 erupt on a worldwide scale. 255 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:04,000 We are living through one of the greatest revolutions in history, 256 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:06,000 the birth of a new civilization. 257 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:09,000 Protests shatter the structure of the old. 258 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:13,000 What was condemned now strives for acceptance, 259 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,000 symptoms of a society that is cracking 260 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:18,000 under the pressures for change. 261 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:21,000 -1969 has been a hell of a year, 262 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:23,000 topping off one hell of a decade. 263 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:26,000 -We have a lift off 32 minutes past the hour. 264 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:29,000 Lift off on Apollo 11. 265 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:31,000 -A man is about to step on the moon. 266 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:34,000 Martin Luther King Jr.'s killer was just sentenced. 267 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:38,000 And bodies are still coming home daily from Vietnam. 268 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:40,000 Nixon just got sworn in, 269 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:44,000 and the fight for civil rights is in full swing. 270 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:45,000 -What you're witnessing today 271 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:48,000 is the beginning of a new active movement. 272 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:52,000 We are simply following the lead of the Black Power movement. 273 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:54,000 The Black man said, "Black is beautiful, 274 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:55,000 therefore, I am proud." 275 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:57,000 Well, we are now saying, "Gay is good, 276 00:13:57,000 --> 00:13:59,000 and therefore, we are proud." 277 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:02,000 -A radical wave is building in the gay movement. 278 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:07,000 Year after year from picket lines to protests, 279 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:10,000 from raids to riots. 280 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:14,000 But the biggest wave yet is about to break. 281 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:21,000 Lifelong gay rights activist Mark Siegel 282 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:23,000 found himself at Stonewall, 283 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:27,000 just as history was about to be made. 284 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:32,000 -Stonewall was a fire in the belly of the equality movement. 285 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:36,000 Even so, accounts of it are full of myths and misinformation. 286 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,000 The biggest fallacy is when people say, 287 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:39,000 "Of course they were upset, 288 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:42,000 Judy Garland was being buried that day." 289 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:44,000 "Somewhere Over The Rainbow?" 290 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:46,000 That song was wishful thinking, 291 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:49,000 an anthem for an older generation. 292 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:52,000 In this bar, we were about to smash that rainbow. 293 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:55,000 We didn't have to travel anywhere or go over anything 294 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:56,000 to get what we want. 295 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:00,000 -That night I wasn't in full drag. 296 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,000 I was dressed very pleasantly. 297 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,000 I was wearing a woman's suit. 298 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:08,000 I made this fabulous suit at home. 299 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:13,000 It was light beige, something very summery, lots of hair. 300 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,000 We had just come back from Washington, 301 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:17,000 my first lover and I. 302 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:21,000 We were passing bad paper around making lots of money. 303 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:25,000 We were passing forged checks, and I said, 304 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:27,000 "Let's go to Stonewall." 305 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:30,000 -It's June 28, 1969, 306 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:33,000 and I've only been in New York for one month. 307 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:37,000 Stonewall was filled that night with its usual clientele -- 308 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:41,000 drag queens, hustlers, older men who liked younger guys, 309 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:44,000 and stragglers like me. 310 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:45,000 I was in the back of the bar near the dance floor 311 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:49,000 where the younger people usually hang out. 312 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:53,000 The lights in the room blink, a signal there'll be a raid. 313 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:55,000 As they always do, the cops walked in like 314 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:57,000 they owned the place, cocky, 315 00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,000 assured they could do or say whatever they wanted 316 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:01,000 and push people around with impunity. 317 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:04,000 -Get those fruits outside. Come on, let's go. 318 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:08,000 -Go on, outside, outside, move it. 319 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,000 -Are the cops inside? -Yeah. 320 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,000 -Let's go, let's get out of here. 321 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:17,000 -Anyone with a decent job or family ran away from that bar 322 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:20,000 as fast as they could to avoid being arrested. 323 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:22,000 Those who remained were the drag queens, 324 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:24,000 hustlers, and runaways. 325 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:27,000 -Some people in the crowd started throwing pennies. 326 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,000 The nickels, the dimes. 327 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:30,000 That was the payoff. 328 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,000 You already got some, and here's some more. 329 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,000 It was like a godsend thing. 330 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:38,000 I just happened to be there when it all jumped off. 331 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:39,000 And I said, "Great." 332 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:41,000 I said, "Now is my time to do my own thing, 333 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:43,000 for my own people!" 334 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:45,000 -I started yelling, "Gay Power!" 335 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:50,000 and, "Get the mafia out of the bars!" 336 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:52,000 -But there was trouble between one of the drag queens 337 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,000 in the paddy wagon and the cop outside, 338 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:56,000 and she kicked him. 339 00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:01,000 I only saw her heel kick him back, but that was enough. 340 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:03,000 You heard it. You heard it. 341 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:06,000 The sounds of flesh and bone against metal. 342 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,000 And, you know, it was a sound we all knew. 343 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:12,000 -Beautiful butch, gay civil rights icon 344 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,000 Stormé DeLarverie. 345 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:17,000 She very well may have been the match that lit the fuse. 346 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:20,000 -I saw this one boy being taken out by three officers. 347 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:22,000 One of them did a drop kick on him. 348 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:25,000 Another one senselessly hit him from the back. 349 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:27,000 A cop said to me, "Move, faggot!" 350 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:28,000 thinking I was a gay guy. 351 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,000 I said, "I will not, and don't you dare touch me." 352 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:32,000 Four officers then attacked me, handcuffed me. 353 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,000 When I told them I was cuffed too tightly, 354 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:37,000 one of the officers hit me over the head with a billy-club. 355 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:39,000 As I was bleeding from the head, 356 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:42,000 I turned to the crowd, and I said, 357 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:46,000 "Why don't you guys do something?!" 358 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,000 And that's when everything exploded. 359 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:53,000 -You're pigs! 360 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,000 You're a pig, too, mister. 361 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:57,000 You're a pig, too, you know it? 362 00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:59,000 You're a pig, too. 363 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:02,000 -You're a fucking Nazi, baby! 364 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:04,000 -The riot was on in my section. 365 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:05,000 On! 366 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:07,000 -We're not going to take this shit anymore. 367 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:08,000 Not me. And not a lot of people. 368 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:10,000 Seize the time. 369 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:13,000 -Howard Smith, reporter for the Village Voice, 370 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:17,000 was also on the scene, reporting from behind enemy lines. 371 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:19,000 -When I got to Stonewall with my press pass, 372 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:21,000 things were already tense. 373 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:24,000 I noticed the full moon. 374 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:28,000 This kind of crowd freaks easily. 375 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:31,000 I found Deputy Inspector Pine and followed him. 376 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:32,000 He says, "Let's get in there. 377 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:34,000 We'll lock ourselves in, it's safer." 378 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:36,000 We bolt the heavy door. 379 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,000 -Two or three people picked up parking meters and trash cans 380 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:41,000 and started using them as battering rams. 381 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,000 It was medieval, you know? 382 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,000 Cross the moat and break the castle door down! 383 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:51,000 -Inside, we could hear the shattering windows 384 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:55,000 followed by what we imagined to be bricks banging on the door. 385 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:56,000 And there's voices yelling... 386 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:00,000 -"Let's take over the fucking place!" 387 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,000 -I asked one cop if he was scared. 388 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:06,000 "No," he says. But they all look uneasy. 389 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,000 By now the mind's eye has forgotten 390 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:13,000 about the character of the mob because the sound 391 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:19,000 that filters in does not suggest dancing faggots. 392 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:24,000 It sounds like a powerful rage bent on vendetta. 393 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:33,000 -I remember seeing the full moon over the bridge. 394 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:35,000 Then I found out what happened. 395 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:37,000 From lack of sleep and exhaustion, 396 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:41,000 I was sort of feverish, and I lay on my couch 397 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,000 thinking, "We got to do something, 398 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:46,000 we got to do something, we can't just let this pass." 399 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,000 -Stonewall was no one-night affair. 400 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:53,000 The genie was out of the bottle, and the anger and the injustice 401 00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:55,000 that had been building up for years 402 00:19:55,000 --> 00:20:00,000 ignited another night of fire and fury. 403 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,000 The president of the Mattachine Society 404 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:04,000 at the time was Dick Leitsch. 405 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,000 This is his report from the front lines 406 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:10,000 written the night after the riot in the Mattachine newsletter. 407 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:14,000 -The next day, a crowd filled the streets and singing 408 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:16,000 and chanting filled the park. 409 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:19,000 The crowd surged out on to the street and shouted, 410 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:23,000 "Christopher Street belongs to the queens! 411 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:25,000 Liberate the street!" 412 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,000 -Sounds like more pigs on the way. 413 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:30,000 -Never again will the fruits, the fags, 414 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:33,000 the lesbians, the queers be pushed into submission. 415 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,000 -More and more police cars arrived. 416 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,000 -I see Marsha at the top of this light pole 417 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:42,000 in platform heels, right? 418 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:47,000 And the next thing you know, she drops something heavy 419 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:51,000 right on the hood of the cop car. 420 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:56,000 And that's when everything got quiet. 421 00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:00,000 -Everybody looked around because it was silent. Why? 422 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,000 Nothing in a riot is more frightening 423 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:06,000 or unnerving than silence. 424 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:12,000 And you heard this thumping, like goose-stepping, 425 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,000 and the crowd opened, and there was the tactical police force, 426 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:21,000 armed to the teeth -- shields and face shields. 427 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,000 -It looks like the pigs are forming a line to break us up. 428 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:28,000 -Honey, one kick line deserves another. 429 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,000 Come on, all you queens, 430 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,000 let's show them the power of a high stepping chorus. 431 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:36,000 Lift them legs, honey. This ain't no convent social. 432 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,000 -And we all made this long line of Rockette-like kicks 433 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,000 and singing one of our big ditties 434 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:43,000 we used to always sing when we all got drunk. 435 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:45,000 -♪ We are the Village Girls ♪ 436 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,000 ♪ We wear our hair in curls ♪ 437 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:52,000 ♪ We wear our dungarees above our nellie knees ♪ 438 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:53,000 -But that's when it stopped 439 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:57,000 because that's what they charged us. 440 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,000 -You know, nature has a special way 441 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:06,000 of protecting natural things. 442 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,000 Watch as policemen's truncheon destroys egg. 443 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:10,000 No good. 444 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:12,000 Nature's helmet for the tomato is also valueless 445 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:15,000 when the policemen's truncheon destroys it. 446 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:19,000 Pumpkin -- closest thing to a human head. 447 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:21,000 Watch what happens. 448 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,000 -Night after night, the battle raged on. 449 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:32,000 -At one point, a cop grabbed a wild Puerto Rican queen 450 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:35,000 and lifted up his arm to bring his club down on her. 451 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:40,000 In her best Maria Montez voice, the queen challenged, 452 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:44,000 "How'd you like a big Spanish dick up your little Irish ass?" 453 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:48,000 A high shrill voice screams out, "Save our sister!" 454 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,000 50 homosexuals rush the cops 455 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:53,000 and take the queen back in the crowd. 456 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:54,000 They formed a solid front 457 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,000 to keep the cops from regaining their prisoner, 458 00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:58,000 letting the cops hit them with their sticks 459 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:00,000 rather than let them through. 460 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,000 -Whoever assumes a swishy queen 461 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:04,000 can't fight should have seen them. 462 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:08,000 Makeup dripping, gowns askew, fighting for their home, 463 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:12,000 and fiercely proving no one would take it away from them. 464 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:15,000 -Turning over cars, and, oh, my dear, 465 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:20,000 blocking traffic and screaming and hollering and everything. 466 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:21,000 -I'm looking around. 467 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:28,000 I'm seeing my people, the hustlers, the drag queens, 468 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:33,000 showing the cops and even some of our fellow gays 469 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,000 that we were human beings 470 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,000 and we'd be fighting for a piece of this world, 471 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:39,000 thank you very much. 472 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:42,000 -We are united for the first time -- 473 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:46,000 lesbian separatists, gay men in fairy communes, 474 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:49,000 people who had been part of other civil rights movements 475 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:51,000 but never thought about one of their own, 476 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:55,000 hustlers, drag queens, and many like me who knew 477 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:57,000 there was something out there for us 478 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,000 but didn't know what it was. 479 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,000 It found us. 480 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:10,000 -On the last night, Wednesday, word had spread 481 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,000 to some of the heterosexual new left revolutionaries 482 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:16,000 who came to the Village itching for the revolution 483 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:18,000 to begin here and now. 484 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:21,000 But over the past few nights, some of the gays felt they had 485 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,000 made their point and left. 486 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:27,000 But those who stayed witnessed one last horrible 487 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,000 blast of police violence. 488 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:32,000 The fighting with the police only lasted an hour, 489 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:36,000 but once it was over, one could argue that Christopher Street 490 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:40,000 and the minds of many homosexuals had been liberated. 491 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,000 -Now let me be clear. 492 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:48,000 Stonewall was no damn riot. 493 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,000 It was a civil disobedience. 494 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:53,000 It was an uprising. 495 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,000 It was a rebellion! 496 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:58,000 [ Siren wailing ] 497 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:04,000 -As the sun began to rise, you know, 498 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,000 with my head down and tired, 499 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:10,000 I kept looking up, and I saw this queen who was exhausted 500 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,000 and couldn't go on anymore, was just on a stoop exhausted 501 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:17,000 but at peace because near her was a cop who was also exhausted 502 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:19,000 that made no attempt to bother her. 503 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,000 I mean, the riot was really over. 504 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:25,000 Still, the street was glistening. 505 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,000 It was one of the most beautiful things I ever saw. 506 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,000 The whole street, just like diamonds, 507 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:33,000 but in reality it was broken glass, 508 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,000 The smell of the smoke of burning garbage cans was there. 509 00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,000 All those smells that a riot make, 510 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:41,000 even a certain kind of sweat. 511 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:44,000 It was ugly and beautiful. 512 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:50,000 The end of the night and how that street glistened. 513 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,000 -Very few things historically arise out of nothing. 514 00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:01,000 The Stonewall demonstration was a direct follow up 515 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,000 and consequence of the fact that we had blazed the trail 516 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:10,000 starting in 1965 with public demonstrations by gay people. 517 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,000 -We had risen up before -- 518 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:14,000 the New Year's Ball in San Francisco, 519 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:18,000 the Reminder Day Notices, the Black Cat Protests. 520 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,000 These are just a few examples, but there were more. 521 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,000 And if the Compton's Riot of 1966 522 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,000 didn't set it all off, there just wasn't enough 523 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,000 combustible material in the culture yet. 524 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:31,000 -We needed those three years of counterculture 525 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,000 and civil unrest to stoke the flame, 526 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:36,000 because that's how you get an inferno! 527 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:43,000 -Whatever one may think of the merits of that particular 528 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:47,000 form of protest or dissent, those are not that relevant. 529 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:51,000 What's important is the message which is being conveyed, 530 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:55,000 and that is that we've been shoved around for 3,000 years 531 00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,000 and we're tired of it and we're starting to shove back, 532 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:00,000 and if we don't get what's coming to us 533 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:02,000 and get it promptly, 534 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,000 there's going to be a lot more shoving back. 535 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:08,000 -Problem is, Stonewall had changed how hard some of us 536 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:11,000 wanted to shove. 537 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:15,000 I no longer believed in the polite, apologetic, 538 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,000 well-mannered methods of the Mattachine. 539 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:22,000 So over the next year, I started thinking about ways to 540 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:25,000 commemorate Stonewall, all of the things we had just 541 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:29,000 seen and felt and a way to keep the momentum going. 542 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:33,000 -2-4-6-8, gays unite to smash the state! 543 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,000 -The Stonewall Rebellion served notice 544 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,000 on the heterosexual majority 545 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:40,000 that a growing number of gays were not afraid anymore 546 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:43,000 and were not content to continue living out their lives 547 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:45,000 in fear and oppression. 548 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:48,000 -Stonewall didn't make front page news, 549 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:51,000 but there was a loose network of about 60 gay groups 550 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:55,000 across the country, and word spread. 551 00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,000 And the organizing intensified. 552 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:00,000 And the momentum swelled for the first time 553 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,000 into a real grassroots movement. 554 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,000 -One of the largest of the new organizations in New York 555 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,000 is the Gay Liberation Front. 556 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:12,000 Bob Kohler tells when it was founded. 557 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:17,000 -June 28, '69, the day after the riots. 558 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,000 -Black Civil Rights movement, 559 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:23,000 the struggle against the Vietnam War, 560 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:26,000 the women's movement, feminist politics, 561 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:29,000 and of course the gay cause. 562 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:34,000 We felt that the struggles should be united, not separated, 563 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:37,000 and that they were part of the same struggle. 564 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,000 We started a group to put out a newspaper which became 565 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,000 Come Out! that showed the grandness of our schemes 566 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,000 and the feeling we had that the revolution 567 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:47,000 was right around the corner 568 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:49,000 and that we were part of this vanguard 569 00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,000 of this great revolution that was just about to happen. 570 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:56,000 We were young and idealistic and wonderful and brave, naive. 571 00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,000 All those things. 572 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:03,000 -The GLF was one of the first groups to focus 573 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:07,000 on these intersectional battles of class, race, and sexuality. 574 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,000 However, the Gay Activist Alliance, 575 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:14,000 founded in December, 1969, focused more singularly 576 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:16,000 on gay and lesbian rights 577 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:20,000 and were no less radical in their tactics of disruption. 578 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:24,000 -Oh, this is definitely the Marriage Bureau, 579 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,000 but it's been taken over by the Gay Activists Alliance. 580 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:29,000 -You calling us garbage? 581 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,000 Come back here and say that to a gay person's face! 582 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:34,000 Gay Power! 583 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,000 -Louder! -Gay Power! 584 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:39,000 -Loudest! -Gay power!! 585 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,000 -Over the past year, homosexuals have been coming out 586 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:47,000 into public, refusing to hide in the closets, as we say. 587 00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:48,000 -What do you want the police to do? 588 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:50,000 -We want them off our backs. 589 00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:54,000 We want them to stop harassing us, stop pushing us around. 590 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:58,000 -Now I'm a proud member of the GLF and the GAA, 591 00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:02,000 but I started to realize, sometimes, if you're not white 592 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:06,000 or middle class, you might not always fit in. 593 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:07,000 -Why are you here today? 594 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:11,000 -Darling, I want my gay rights now! 595 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,000 I think it's about time the gay brothers and sisters 596 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:16,000 got their rights. 597 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:18,000 And especially the women! 598 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:22,000 -My brothers and sisters from the gay community 599 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:24,000 were not very, very supportive. 600 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,000 They left us in the dark. 601 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:29,000 -I mean, I'd given up my job, 602 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,000 given up everything for gay liberation. 603 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:34,000 I was sleeping in Sheridan Square Park 604 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,000 and hustling to support the movement, 605 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:40,000 and some of them just called us street people. 606 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:43,000 So in 1970, I started 607 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:47,000 the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries 608 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:51,000 with my best friend, Marsha P Johnson. 609 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:55,000 We fought for the liberation of our people. 610 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,000 And a lot of those who put us down didn't appreciate 611 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,000 the fact that we were there when they weren't. 612 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:04,000 We decided we're going to take care of our own 613 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,000 since no one in the movement would. 614 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:09,000 -When we asked the community to help us, 615 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,000 there was nobody to help us. 616 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:15,000 We were nothing. 617 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:17,000 We were nothing. 618 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,000 -With the community mobilized in new and different ways, 619 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:27,000 another Reminder Day full of suits and polite politics 620 00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,000 seemed, I don't know, antiquated. 621 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:32,000 So me, my lover Fred, and our friends, 622 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:37,000 Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes, we presented the idea of a march 623 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:39,000 to all the gay groups as a way to show the world 624 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:42,000 how far we'd come in the year since Stonewall, 625 00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:46,000 and then activists in Chicago, Los Angeles, 626 00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:50,000 San Francisco started planning their own marches. 627 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:54,000 -And the idea, in a nutshell, is to set aside the day 628 00:31:54,000 --> 00:32:02,000 for a show of unity, solidarity, and pride of gay people. 629 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:08,000 -Clout was important because unless you have clout, 630 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:11,000 you're a victim, you know? 631 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,000 And we were tired of being victims. 632 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:16,000 -Jerry Hoose of the Gay Liberation Front 633 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,000 was there at Stonewall and took the first steps 634 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,000 in the very first Pride March. 635 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,000 -The first parade was in many ways 636 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:30,000 a very frightening event. 637 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:34,000 All sorts of threats had come into us, bomb threats. 638 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,000 People could take shots at us. 639 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,000 We were scared. 640 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,000 -On top of that, the night before the march, 641 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:45,000 a bunch of gay bashers beat some boys senseless 642 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:48,000 not too far from Stonewall. 643 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:52,000 Not a good omen for the day ahead. 644 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,000 -We didn't know how many people were going to show up. 645 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,000 We were very fearful that no one would show up. 646 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:04,000 We formed at Christopher Street by Seventh Avenue, 647 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,000 like a block down from the Stonewall. 648 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:11,000 -Exactly one hour later, the march began to move. 649 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,000 -I wasn't going to miss this for anything. 650 00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:17,000 After being stomped on and talked down to for years, no! 651 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:20,000 This was our moment. 652 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:25,000 Oh, and me and my friends, we came suffragette serious. 653 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:27,000 Now let's get walking! 654 00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:36,000 -I remember it being maybe 100, 200 people. 655 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,000 But as we were going up Sixth Avenue, 656 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:42,000 it kept growing and growing and growing. 657 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:45,000 [ Crowd chanting ] 658 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:48,000 I kept looking back, and it got bigger and bigger 659 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:51,000 and bigger and bigger, and as we got to the park, 660 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:55,000 I remember turning around, and it was endless. 661 00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,000 Thousands of people. 662 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:02,000 -There's been nothing like this before, 663 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:06,000 and I hope it sets a tone and a trend for the whole future. 664 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:07,000 -Beautiful. Just beautiful. 665 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,000 -It's absolutely incredible. 666 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:11,000 Oh, it's fantastic. 667 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,000 I feel better. -This is really where it's at. 668 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:17,000 -No, really, straight people can do all this carrying on 669 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:18,000 and holding hands and kiss in the park. 670 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,000 Why can't we do it? 671 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:22,000 They ain't no better than I am. 672 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:30,000 -It was one of the two or three greatest moments of my life. 673 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:35,000 It was just pure happiness. 674 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:38,000 -Now let's stop being the fucking kind of homosexuals 675 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:40,000 who are hiding, and let's get on to Michigan Avenue. 676 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:44,000 [ Crowd chanting ] 677 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:46,000 -Last year a group of homosexuals rioted in 678 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:50,000 the city of New York against the oppression 679 00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:51,000 that they felt there. 680 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:54,000 We decided to make it an annual day for homosexuals 681 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:56,000 all across the nation. 682 00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:00,000 -That's the day I consider the gay community became real. 683 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:05,000 The riot was like the conception, 684 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:08,000 and the day of the first march 685 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,000 was the birth of the gay community. 686 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:14,000 -I used to dream about millions of homosexuals 687 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:16,000 marching through the streets openly and everything. 688 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,000 And that's come to pass in my life. 689 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:19,000 So it was more than a dream. 690 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:21,000 It was almost a vision, in a way, of the future. 691 00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:26,000 -We are everywhere! We are everywhere! 692 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:34,000 ♪♪ 693 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:42,000 ♪♪ 694 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:46,000 -We are everywhere! We are everywhere! 695 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:49,000 We are everywhere! 696 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:58,000 -We'll always have strength if we stand together. 697 00:35:58,000 --> 00:35:59,000 And when we march forward, 698 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:04,000 we need to take everyone in our community with us. 699 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:08,000 It's a message that by 1973 some people 700 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:09,000 had already forgotten. 701 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:11,000 -[ Shouts indistinctly ] 702 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:15,000 [ Cheering ] 703 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:24,000 -Luckily, Sylvia was there to remind them. 704 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:27,000 -You all better quiet down. 705 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:33,000 I've been trying to get up here all day for your gay brothers 706 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,000 and your gay sisters in jail 707 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:41,000 that write me every motherfucking week 708 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,000 and ask for your help, 709 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:49,000 and you all don't do a goddamned thing for them. 710 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:53,000 The people that are trying to do something for all of us, 711 00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:55,000 and not men and women 712 00:36:55,000 --> 00:37:00,000 that belong to a white middle-class, white club! 713 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:04,000 And that's what y'all belong to. 714 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:07,000 I believe in the gay power. 715 00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:10,000 I believe in us getting our rights, or else 716 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:14,000 I would not be out there fighting for our rights. 717 00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:18,000 I will not no longer put up with this shit. 718 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:22,000 I have been beaten, I have had my nose broken, 719 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:27,000 I have been thrown in jail, I have lost my job, 720 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:32,000 I have lost my apartment for gay liberation. 721 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:34,000 Think about that! 722 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:40,000 Revolution now! 723 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:42,000 Gay power... 724 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:47,000 Louder! Gay power! 725 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,000 [ Cheering ] 726 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:52,000 ♪♪ 727 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:55,000 [ Applause ] 728 00:37:55,000 --> 00:38:02,000 ♪♪ 729 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:08,000 -Power to the people, to all LGBTQ-plus people. 730 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:12,000 We have been here fighting for our rights for years, 731 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:14,000 for decades. 732 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:19,000 And we are here fighting still. 733 00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:23,000 They can give us our rights, and they can try to take them away. 734 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:29,000 So we need to take what's ours by any means necessary. 735 00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,000 Are you ready to march? 736 00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:34,000 Are you ready to fight? 737 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:37,000 So what are you waiting for? 738 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,000 Join the revolution! 739 00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:43,000 ♪♪ 740 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:47,000 -♪ I should be so lucky ♪ 741 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:51,000 ♪ To live a day not hunted ♪ 742 00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:54,000 ♪ I'mma keep on fightin' ♪ 743 00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,000 ♪ Till that day comin' ♪ 744 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,000 -♪ Like a son of a gun ♪ 745 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,000 ♪ Only runnin' for fun ♪ 746 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,000 -♪ Don't give a care what the world say ♪ 747 00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:09,000 ♪ Ain't a damn thing funny ♪ -♪ Ain't a damn thing funny ♪ 748 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:11,000 -♪ I should be so lucky ♪ 749 00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:14,000 -♪ I should be so lucky ♪ -♪ I should, I should ♪ 750 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:18,000 -♪ If I die tonight, the world's my witness ♪ 751 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:21,000 -♪ My witness ♪ 752 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:25,000 -♪ If I die tonight, history will miss me ♪ 753 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:27,000 -♪ I should be so lucky ♪ 754 00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:29,000 ♪ I should ♪