The Orlando tragedy has focused attention on the long history of violence that the LGBT community has suffered in its path to equality and greater acceptance. The modern LGBT rights movement is generally acknowledged to have taken off in 1969 after patrons protested police high-handedness in a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in New York City. Called the Stonewall riots, the event reshaped the gay rights narrative in the US and, subsequently, the world.
Stonewall was a landmark not merely for what it touched off but also because it was helmed by lesbians and transgender women and men of colour in drag who resisted the police on the night of June 8, 1969. While Hollywood productions have often elided this diversity (look for evidence to the 2015 film by Roland Emmerich that has a young, white male leading the rebellion), several indies have paid loving homage to the original disruptors.
The documentaries Stormé: The Lady of the Jewel Box (1991) and A Stormé Life (2009) chart the life of Stormé De Larverie, a lesbian and popular drag performer, who ignited the riot by punching a police officer in the face. Born to a white father and black mother, DeLarverie was a regular in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood where Stonewall was situated, a bohemian hotspot for queer artists and performers.Several activists emerged from the violence of Stonewall, most notably Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson. Allies and transgender women of colour, the duo co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, a group that worked with homeless drag queens. Sylvia Rivera: A Tribute (2002) and Pay It No Mind: The Life and Times of Marsha P Johnson (2012) record the immeasurable contribution these gutsy women made to a movement that has often failed to take care of its most vulnerable victims.
Stonewall was unique in that it precipitated a nationwide movement against homophobia and subsumed members of otherwise antagonistic parties in the culture wars. From women to blacks to the differently abled, everyone joined the demand to have the right to love as they wished. Stonewall marked a definitive break from how homosexuality was received in the public sphere, not only by homosexuals themselves but also the larger American public.
It is this painful but ultimately triumphant history that John Scagliotti showcases in his two seminal documentaries, Before Stonewall (1984) and After Stonewall (1989). The films together document how although Stonewall was not the first resistance against prevalent attitudes towards homosexuality it became a turning point unleashing a new political energy into the modern gay rights movement.
Before Stonewall, produced by Scagliotti and directed by Greta Schiller, examines the burgeoning avenues for meeting that New York City provided throughout the first half of the 20th century. These places were off the radar of respectable society – homosexuality was still a dirty word – and thus afforded their patrons a community that they could otherwise not find.
The film also chronicles how Stonewall was perhaps waiting to happen. By the end of WWII, more women were participating in the labour force, marking a shift in attitudes towards gender that benefitted sexual minorities. Furthermore, the victimisation that blacks and other people of colour faced was compounded by homophobia. In that respect, Stonewall was the opportune spark that set fire to systemic oppression of the LGBT community.
If Before Stonewall is all about the secret thrill of finding a community, After Stonewall goes above ground as attempts are made to break down long-standing walls. Directed by John Scagliotti and featuring interviews with such LGBT stalwarts as author Armistead Maupin and Congressman Barney Frank, the film looks at how gay rights became an increasingly important constituent of the politics reshaping America after the Vietnam War. From openly gay politicians like Harvey Milk to the rise of predominantly gay neighbourhoods like the Castro in San Francisco, the 1970s and ’80s marked a definitive shift in the gay rights movement.
The backlash was equally severe. The documentary tracks how, with the onset of AIDS in the 1980s, politicians led by Ronald Reagan delayed and dithered on providing assistance to the community even as the far right dubbed HIV an act of retribution by God. The Democrats were scarcely better. It was under Bill Clinton that the military instituted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, a grievous policy that forced homosexuals serving in the armed forces to hide their sexuality. It was Clinton again who signed the 1996 Defence of Marriage Act, which restricted the definition of marriage to an alliance between a man and a woman.
How times have changed! After Stonewall closes at the turn of the millennium but already, one can sense hope in the air, as a movement for equality that has jumped many hoops hunkers down for its next goal: marriage equality. Fifteen years later, it would be granted when the United States Supreme Court makes gay marriage a nationwide reality.
Stonewall remains an abiding inspiration in the battle against what has been called “the last remaining prejudice”. From anti-trans violence to neo-Nazi attacks, the LGBT community remains susceptible to the most brutal forms of assault. The movement for acceptance will continue, helped along by the memory of those brave men and women whose painstaking journey these films capture.