a portion of the 1968 film, the second largest minority by producer and director leave incense, and joining us here is charles francis he s the president of the machine society which is what. we are an lgbt history society. we find old materials that have been forgotten, sealed, or basically deleted and use those materials to talk about gay civil rights and the ongoing struggle for gay civil equality. we will show you both films in their entirety in a couple of minutes. one is seven minutes. the other is 12 minutes. your connection to the films is what? we were honored to be chosen by lilli vincenz, the creator of these films the producer, the director. she chose us to bring together her archives, including these films, and donate them to the library of congress, and that is what we did. they belong to the american people thanks to the generosity of lilli vincenz. where is she now? i am honored to pinch hit for her. she s not well enough to be here but i m h
he manages the department lesbian gay transsexual and bisexual department. and mr. trust thought. we re looking forward to learning a lot, and looking back through your eyes and perspectives on where we were 50 years ago. it is kind of hard to believe. i would like to start with you if we can. what was new york like what was america like, for gays and lesbian and transgender citizens before the stonewall riots. what was it like for the lgbtq community. it is really counter intuitive, because there is a common tendency in this country, to assume you don t for the we go back in history the worst things are going to be. but in the whole history of the entirety of the u.s. history, the sixties and fifties were probably the very worst time for lgbt people. that is because, there have been a period of liberalization in the 1920s, and you know it was generally a liberal period in the 1920s. with the great depression coming along, that seem to begin a clamp down on and i will use t
award. also with u.s. today is detective brian downy, the president of the gay officers action league goal of new york which is addressing the needs and issues and concerns of the lgbt community. also on hand with us today is lieutenant brett parson, district native. how many years on the force? almost 26. 26 years. and he manages, you should know, the department s lesbian gay, bisexual transgender liaison unit here in d.c. and mr. prescott, a journalist, novelist, screen writer as well and columnist for salon. so thank you all for taking part in this today. i m looking forward to learning a lot and looking back with you through your eyes and perspectives on where we were 50 years ago. it s kind of hard to believe. david, i would like to start with you, if we can. what was new york like? what was america like, for gay, lesbians, transgender citizens before the stonewall riots? what was it like for the lgbt community? well, it s really counterintuitive because there s
up next, a discussion on the 1969 police raid on the stonewall inn and how it sparked the gay rights movement. this is from the national law enforcement museum in washington, d.c. well, it s my pleasure and honor to be back with you and back with as we stream as well. we re looking back on 50 years, where we were 50 years ago at the stonewall riots and how far we ve come, the changes that have been made and the changes still to come, too. before we get started, i would like to introduce our esteemed panel, if we can. starting with david carter, the author of stonewall the riots that sparked the gay revolution, the basis for american experience, the film stonewall uprising which won a peabody award. also with u.s. today is detective brian downy, the president of the gay officers action league goal of new york which is addressing the needs and issues and concerns of the lgbt community. also on hand with us today is lieutenant brett parson, district native. how many years
also detective brian downey. also is lieutenant brett parson, district native. he manages the department lesbian gay transsexual and bisexual department. thank you all for taking part in this today. i am looking forward to learning a lot and looking back with you through your eyes and perspectives on where we were 50 years ago. it is kind of hard to believe. david, i would like to start with you if we can. what was new york like, what was america like before the stonewall riots? what was it like for the lgbt community. david: it is counter intuitive. there is a common tendency in this country to assume that the further we go back in history, the worse things are going to be. actually, in the history of and the interior d of u.s. in the entirety of u.s. history, the 60 s and 50 s were the worst time for lgbt people. that is because there had been a period of liberalization in the 1920 s. but with the great depression coming along, that seemed to begin a clampdown on i wi