0:00:00.760,0:00:03.204
We paid an awful lot of dues

0:00:03.204,0:00:08.440
so that the younger people of today

0:00:08.440,0:00:12.910
can feel the freedom to walk along holding hands.

0:00:12.910,0:00:15.197
It did not start with Stonewall.

0:00:15.782,0:00:18.994
They used to have something in Harlem called Funmaker's Ball

0:00:18.994,0:00:21.720
and they would do that every Thanksgiving.

0:00:22.197,0:00:24.706
And we would go to the Funmaker's Ball,

0:00:24.706,0:00:26.610
and that's really when the cops would be nasty

0:00:26.610,0:00:29.425
cause the gay guys would come and dress up like women,

0:00:29.425,0:00:31.393
and people would come in and enjoy themselves,

0:00:31.393,0:00:34.180
and they'd stand outside and get the guys as they came out,

0:00:34.180,0:00:36.477
and the women sometimes, and arrest them.

0:00:37.231,0:00:40.728
When we were younger, uh,

0:00:40.728,0:00:43.886
because we did not have any role models,

0:00:44.148,0:00:46.880
uh, roles were defined,

0:00:46.880,0:00:49.830
people were into playing roles,

0:00:49.830,0:00:54.680
and people dressed and acted out whatever role that they,

0:00:54.680,0:00:59.529
uh, found, that they were suited for.

0:01:00.883,0:01:05.666
And, um, it was a law at that time

0:01:05.666,0:01:10.356
that you had to wear 3 pieces of female clothing,

0:01:10.356,0:01:15.546
or else they would uh take you to jail for impersonation.

0:01:15.592,0:01:22.881
During this time of Stonewall, um, I was not living in New York at the time.

0:01:22.881,0:01:25.219
And, uh, so I missed that.

0:01:25.219,0:01:30.702
But I had been involved in many raids and harassment by the police

0:01:30.702,0:01:32.312
in my own community.

0:01:33.020,0:01:38.680
We had a very viable, uh, black lesbian and gay community

0:01:38.680,0:01:41.053
in different, not only in Harlem,

0:01:41.053,0:01:47.787
but in Brooklyn, and in The Bronx, and

0:01:47.787,0:01:49.957
uh, I can't say too much for Queens and Staten Island

0:01:49.957,0:01:51.678
because they're a foreign country.

0:01:52.570,0:01:54.880
And what happened was,

0:01:55.073,0:02:03.019
that, um, the um bars downtown, uh, weren't making money.

0:02:03.327,0:02:09.756
And someone discovered that there was a lot of money being spent in Harlem.

0:02:09.756,0:02:12.640
And in other black communities.

0:02:12.640,0:02:16.086
And they systematically either burnt them down

0:02:16.086,0:02:17.883
closed them down

0:02:17.883,0:02:21.874
or they started having a lot of problems with police,

0:02:21.874,0:02:26.240
um, for different violations and stuff and things like that.

0:02:26.240,0:02:31.707
And as bar after bar and club after club closed down

0:02:31.707,0:02:41.797
clubs in The Village that years prior did not welcome the, uh, citizens of these neighbourhoods

0:02:41.797,0:02:47.760
<u><u></u></u> and South Bronx, and Jamaica and Harlem,

0:02:47.760,0:02:51.642
they let you in and took your money,

0:02:51.642,0:02:54.104
but they still did not treat you any better.

0:02:54.335,0:02:59.072
Until the current lesbian and gay community

0:02:59.072,0:03:02.230
acknowledges that there were contributions

0:03:02.230,0:03:08.082
made by other lesbians and gay men of all colours,

0:03:08.082,0:03:15.140
to the freedom of lesbians and gays prior to Stonewall,

0:03:15.140,9:59:59.000
there will always be some...[cuts off]