WEBVTT 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:03.204 We paid an awful lot of dues 00:00:03.204 --> 00:00:08.440 so that the younger people of today 00:00:08.440 --> 00:00:12.910 can feel the freedom to walk along holding hands. 00:00:12.910 --> 00:00:15.197 It did not start with Stonewall. 00:00:15.782 --> 00:00:18.994 They used to have something in Harlem called Funmaker's Ball 00:00:18.994 --> 00:00:21.720 and they would do that every Thanksgiving. 00:00:22.197 --> 00:00:24.706 And we would go to the Funmaker's Ball, 00:00:24.706 --> 00:00:26.610 and that's really when the cops would be nasty 00:00:26.610 --> 00:00:29.425 cause the gay guys would come and dress up like women, 00:00:29.425 --> 00:00:31.393 and people would come in and enjoy themselves, 00:00:31.393 --> 00:00:34.180 and they'd stand outside and get the guys as they came out, 00:00:34.180 --> 00:00:36.477 and the women sometimes, and arrest them. 00:00:37.231 --> 00:00:40.728 When we were younger, uh, 00:00:40.728 --> 00:00:43.886 because we did not have any role models, 00:00:44.148 --> 00:00:46.880 uh, roles were defined, 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:49.830 people were into playing roles, 00:00:49.830 --> 00:00:54.680 and people dressed and acted out whatever role that they, 00:00:54.680 --> 00:00:59.529 uh, found, that they were suited for. 00:01:00.883 --> 00:01:05.666 And, um, it was a law at that time 00:01:05.666 --> 00:01:10.356 that you had to wear 3 pieces of female clothing, 00:01:10.356 --> 00:01:15.546 or else they would uh take you to jail for impersonation. 00:01:15.592 --> 00:01:22.881 During this time of Stonewall, um, I was not living in New York at the time. 00:01:22.881 --> 00:01:25.219 And, uh, so I missed that. 00:01:25.219 --> 00:01:30.702 But I had been involved in many raids and harassment by the police 00:01:30.702 --> 00:01:32.312 in my own community. 00:01:33.020 --> 00:01:38.680 We had a very viable, uh, black lesbian and gay community 00:01:38.680 --> 00:01:41.053 in different, not only in Harlem, 00:01:41.053 --> 00:01:47.787 but in Brooklyn, and in The Bronx, and 00:01:47.787 --> 00:01:49.957 uh, I can't say too much for Queens and Staten Island 00:01:49.957 --> 00:01:51.678 because they're a foreign country. 00:01:52.570 --> 00:01:54.880 And what happened was, 00:01:55.073 --> 00:02:03.019 that, um, the um bars downtown, uh, weren't making money. 00:02:03.327 --> 00:02:09.756 And someone discovered that there was a lot of money being spent in Harlem. 00:02:09.756 --> 00:02:12.640 And in other black communities. 00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:16.086 And they systematically either burnt them down 00:02:16.086 --> 00:02:17.883 closed them down 00:02:17.883 --> 00:02:21.874 or they started having a lot of problems with police, 00:02:21.874 --> 00:02:26.240 um, for different violations and stuff and things like that. 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:31.707 And as bar after bar and club after club closed down 00:02:31.707 --> 00:02:41.797 clubs in The Village that years prior did not welcome the, uh, citizens of these neighbourhoods 00:02:41.797 --> 00:02:47.760 and South Bronx, and Jamaica and Harlem, 00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:51.642 they let you in and took your money, 00:02:51.642 --> 00:02:54.104 but they still did not treat you any better. 00:02:54.335 --> 00:02:59.072 Until the current lesbian and gay community 00:02:59.072 --> 00:03:02.230 acknowledges that there were contributions 00:03:02.230 --> 00:03:08.082 made by other lesbians and gay men of all colours, 00:03:08.082 --> 00:03:15.140 to the freedom of lesbians and gays prior to Stonewall, 00:03:15.140 --> 99:59:59.999 there will always be some...[cuts off]