1 00:00:00,760 --> 00:00:03,204 We paid an awful lot of dues 2 00:00:03,204 --> 00:00:08,440 so that the younger people of today 3 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:12,910 can feel the freedom to walk along holding hands. 4 00:00:12,910 --> 00:00:15,197 It did not start with Stonewall. 5 00:00:15,782 --> 00:00:18,994 They used to have something in Harlem called Funmaker's Ball 6 00:00:18,994 --> 00:00:21,720 and they would do that every Thanksgiving. 7 00:00:22,197 --> 00:00:24,706 And we would go to the Funmaker's Ball, 8 00:00:24,706 --> 00:00:26,610 and that's really when the cops would be nasty 9 00:00:26,610 --> 00:00:29,425 cause the gay guys would come and dress up like women, 10 00:00:29,425 --> 00:00:31,393 and people would come in and enjoy themselves, 11 00:00:31,393 --> 00:00:34,180 and they'd stand outside and get the guys as they came out, 12 00:00:34,180 --> 00:00:36,477 and the women sometimes, and arrest them. 13 00:00:37,231 --> 00:00:40,728 When we were younger, uh, 14 00:00:40,728 --> 00:00:43,886 because we did not have any role models, 15 00:00:44,148 --> 00:00:46,880 uh, roles were defined, 16 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:49,830 people were into playing roles, 17 00:00:49,830 --> 00:00:54,680 and people dressed and acted out whatever role that they, 18 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:59,529 uh, found, that they were suited for. 19 00:01:00,883 --> 00:01:05,666 And, um, it was a law at that time 20 00:01:05,666 --> 00:01:10,356 that you had to wear 3 pieces of female clothing, 21 00:01:10,356 --> 00:01:15,546 or else they would uh take you to jail for impersonation. 22 00:01:15,592 --> 00:01:22,881 During this time of Stonewall, um, I was not living in New York at the time. 23 00:01:22,881 --> 00:01:25,219 And, uh, so I missed that. 24 00:01:25,219 --> 00:01:30,702 But I had been involved in many raids and harassment by the police 25 00:01:30,702 --> 00:01:32,312 in my own community. 26 00:01:33,020 --> 00:01:38,680 We had a very viable, uh, black lesbian and gay community 27 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:41,053 in different, not only in Harlem, 28 00:01:41,053 --> 00:01:47,787 but in Brooklyn, and in The Bronx, and 29 00:01:47,787 --> 00:01:49,957 uh, I can't say too much for Queens and Staten Island 30 00:01:49,957 --> 00:01:51,678 because they're a foreign country. 31 00:01:52,570 --> 00:01:54,880 And what happened was, 32 00:01:55,073 --> 00:02:03,019 that, um, the um bars downtown, uh, weren't making money. 33 00:02:03,327 --> 00:02:09,756 And someone discovered that there was a lot of money being spent in Harlem. 34 00:02:09,756 --> 00:02:12,640 And in other black communities. 35 00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:16,086 And they systematically either burnt them down 36 00:02:16,086 --> 00:02:17,883 closed them down 37 00:02:17,883 --> 00:02:21,874 or they started having a lot of problems with police, 38 00:02:21,874 --> 00:02:26,240 um, for different violations and stuff and things like that. 39 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:31,707 And as bar after bar and club after club closed down 40 00:02:31,707 --> 00:02:41,797 clubs in The Village that years prior did not welcome the, uh, citizens of these neighbourhoods 41 00:02:41,797 --> 00:02:47,760 and South Bronx, and Jamaica and Harlem, 42 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:51,642 they let you in and took your money, 43 00:02:51,642 --> 00:02:54,104 but they still did not treat you any better. 44 00:02:54,335 --> 00:02:59,072 Until the current lesbian and gay community 45 00:02:59,072 --> 00:03:02,230 acknowledges that there were contributions 46 00:03:02,230 --> 00:03:08,082 made by other lesbians and gay men of all colours, 47 00:03:08,082 --> 00:03:15,140 to the freedom of lesbians and gays prior to Stonewall, 48 00:03:15,140 --> 99:59:59,999 there will always be some...[cuts off]