1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:09,959 --> 00:00:11,459 - Can you see okay? - Mm-hmm. 4 00:00:37,292 --> 00:00:41,126 Susan Kleckner led the crew. 5 00:00:41,417 --> 00:00:42,792 Is she coming? 6 00:00:44,042 --> 00:00:46,542 - She might be. - Good, I hope she is. 7 00:00:47,459 --> 00:00:50,834 They did a good job of filming it. 8 00:00:56,792 --> 00:01:00,376 Everybody looks so relaxed. 9 00:01:09,084 --> 00:01:12,417 It was a very different parade in those days. 10 00:01:12,709 --> 00:01:14,792 I mean, we were very afraid. 11 00:01:16,251 --> 00:01:18,376 We didn't know what would happen to us 12 00:01:20,126 --> 00:01:23,792 and maybe our mothers 13 00:01:24,084 --> 00:01:25,834 would see us on the evening news. 14 00:01:26,834 --> 00:01:28,459 It was very scary. 15 00:01:31,709 --> 00:01:35,792 We look very brave, but maybe we aren't. 16 00:01:36,084 --> 00:01:36,792 There's still. 17 00:01:52,501 --> 00:01:54,751 But you know, among ourselves, 18 00:01:58,542 --> 00:02:00,167 we felt strong, 19 00:02:00,459 --> 00:02:03,417 but then seeing the faces lined up 20 00:02:03,709 --> 00:02:07,251 against us on the streets, it was different. 21 00:02:12,126 --> 00:02:13,626 This footage of the 1971 22 00:02:13,917 --> 00:02:16,959 Christopher Street Liberation Day parade and Gay In 23 00:02:17,251 --> 00:02:19,709 was shot by the Women's Liberation Cinema, 24 00:02:20,001 --> 00:02:23,834 a group that included Kate Millett, Susan Kleckner, 25 00:02:24,126 --> 00:02:27,459 Robin Mead, Lenore Bode, and others. 26 00:02:28,667 --> 00:02:30,417 They were working together on a documentary 27 00:02:30,709 --> 00:02:33,959 which would premiere later that year called "Three Lives." 28 00:02:34,251 --> 00:02:36,459 What you are looking at is raw footage. 29 00:02:37,584 --> 00:02:39,292 It is a document of the day. 30 00:02:40,626 --> 00:02:43,626 Kate Millett says that the fact that there is something 31 00:02:43,917 --> 00:02:45,459 for us to look at tonight, 32 00:02:45,751 --> 00:02:49,126 something tangible from their efforts shooting that day 33 00:02:49,417 --> 00:02:50,959 is an accident of history. 34 00:02:53,584 --> 00:02:56,917 The images that we are watching tonight unfold in a loop. 35 00:02:57,209 --> 00:03:00,251 They start at the end, the end of the march, that is. 36 00:03:00,542 --> 00:03:01,792 The Gay In 37 00:03:02,084 --> 00:03:04,792 in Central Park and end again at the end, 38 00:03:05,084 --> 00:03:06,542 which is also the beginning. 39 00:03:06,834 --> 00:03:08,709 We will return to Central Park. 40 00:03:10,792 --> 00:03:11,751 There is something of the way 41 00:03:12,042 --> 00:03:14,667 this collection of raw footage moves that resonates 42 00:03:14,959 --> 00:03:17,334 with my experience at this moment of history. 43 00:03:17,626 --> 00:03:19,667 These early moments of gay liberation, 44 00:03:20,792 --> 00:03:22,709 the footage is out of sequence, 45 00:03:23,001 --> 00:03:25,709 only a partial document of an event. 46 00:03:26,001 --> 00:03:28,459 It flirts with the bodies it images 47 00:03:28,751 --> 00:03:30,626 lingering long on some 48 00:03:30,917 --> 00:03:34,001 passing over others with little notice 49 00:03:34,292 --> 00:03:35,584 and leaving countless more 50 00:03:35,876 --> 00:03:38,001 wholly outside the frame of vision. 51 00:04:32,834 --> 00:04:34,251 A younger self. 52 00:04:37,792 --> 00:04:39,709 In the published calendar of events 53 00:04:40,001 --> 00:04:42,626 for what was called the 1971 Gay Pride Week 54 00:04:42,917 --> 00:04:46,501 and Christopher Street Liberation Day, it says, 55 00:04:46,792 --> 00:04:50,584 "Sunday June 27th, Christopher Street Liberation Day. 56 00:04:50,876 --> 00:04:54,084 "Assemble for mass march 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM 57 00:04:54,376 --> 00:04:58,792 "on Christopher Street from 7th Avenue to West Street. 58 00:04:59,084 --> 00:05:00,626 "The march will start at 2:00 PM 59 00:05:00,917 --> 00:05:04,209 "to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park for a gay in. 60 00:05:04,501 --> 00:05:07,542 "Bring signs, musical instruments, balloons 61 00:05:07,834 --> 00:05:09,917 "food to share and love." 62 00:05:12,376 --> 00:05:15,917 In his July 1st, 1971 article for the Village Voice 63 00:05:16,209 --> 00:05:18,667 Arthur Bell writes about the march. 64 00:05:18,959 --> 00:05:20,042 The headline is, 65 00:05:20,334 --> 00:05:24,917 The Year Two: A Marcher's Report Toward a Gay Community. 66 00:05:25,834 --> 00:05:29,501 Bell begins, "Happy Birthday, gay liberation. 67 00:05:29,792 --> 00:05:31,167 "Happy birthday to you. 68 00:05:31,459 --> 00:05:32,584 "The baby is two years old 69 00:05:32,876 --> 00:05:36,126 "and the song is sung by Martha Shelley and Alan Young 70 00:05:36,417 --> 00:05:40,334 "and Judy from New York's Defunct Gay Liberation Front 71 00:05:40,626 --> 00:05:42,417 "under a Christopher Street banner, 72 00:05:42,709 --> 00:05:45,126 "a stone's throw from the old Stonewall Inn 73 00:05:45,417 --> 00:05:48,042 "so long ago and far away. 74 00:05:48,334 --> 00:05:50,084 "Helping along with the celebration 75 00:05:50,376 --> 00:05:52,876 "are about 6,000 birthday guests. 76 00:05:53,167 --> 00:05:55,251 "They've come from Toronto and Washington 77 00:05:55,542 --> 00:05:57,792 "and Hartford and Columbus and Amherst, 78 00:05:58,084 --> 00:06:01,459 "and all five boroughs and flood Christopher Street 79 00:06:01,751 --> 00:06:04,334 "from Sheridan Square, almost to the river. 80 00:06:04,626 --> 00:06:08,584 "Sunday under a cloudless pansexual sky. 81 00:06:08,876 --> 00:06:10,126 "Isn't it beautiful? 82 00:06:10,417 --> 00:06:12,709 "Beautiful, just beautiful. 83 00:06:13,001 --> 00:06:13,834 "Happy birthday. 84 00:06:14,126 --> 00:06:15,167 "Happy birthday. 85 00:06:15,459 --> 00:06:16,584 "Happy birthday." 86 00:06:23,626 --> 00:06:28,167 Sylvia of Star is there, and Marsha with Bebe and Natasha. 87 00:06:28,459 --> 00:06:31,792 Yellow balloons on long strings are printed gay 88 00:06:32,084 --> 00:06:34,251 and tied to wristbands and headbands. 89 00:06:34,542 --> 00:06:35,626 Occasionally one breaks away 90 00:06:35,917 --> 00:06:39,042 and flies up, up over, liberated. 91 00:06:39,334 --> 00:06:40,501 Free and gone. 92 00:06:41,501 --> 00:06:43,417 Jill Johnston is there. 93 00:06:43,709 --> 00:06:44,917 She gives me a bear hug and says, 94 00:06:45,209 --> 00:06:47,584 "Sometimes I wish I were a male homosexual," 95 00:06:47,876 --> 00:06:49,459 as Pete Fisher and Mark Reuben pass 96 00:06:49,751 --> 00:06:53,584 arm in arm caressing, Kate Millett arrives. 97 00:06:53,876 --> 00:06:55,709 "This is a very beautiful day," she says. 98 00:06:56,001 --> 00:06:57,917 "A very important day." 99 00:06:58,209 --> 00:06:59,251 It's fantastic. 100 00:06:59,542 --> 00:07:01,667 This whole sense of freedom and euphoria. 101 00:07:01,959 --> 00:07:04,751 I feel a sense of common identity with everyone here. 102 00:07:05,042 --> 00:07:08,792 It's a strong feeling and happy and fine. 103 00:07:12,959 --> 00:07:14,542 Media, media everywhere. 104 00:07:14,834 --> 00:07:16,834 Global Village with a crew of four 105 00:07:17,126 --> 00:07:18,584 and the Life and Newsweek reporters 106 00:07:18,876 --> 00:07:21,209 who've been following us around these many weeks 107 00:07:21,501 --> 00:07:24,876 and radio and TV networks and amateur camera buffs 108 00:07:25,167 --> 00:07:27,917 shooting away at the crowd and at each other 109 00:07:28,209 --> 00:07:31,792 out of the closets into the media and into your living room. 110 00:07:32,084 --> 00:07:33,542 America beware. 111 00:07:42,834 --> 00:07:44,959 This is we're, you know, 112 00:07:45,251 --> 00:07:47,209 we're sort of moving on now. 113 00:07:47,501 --> 00:07:51,626 This is our second one, and so on and so forth. 114 00:07:51,917 --> 00:07:55,084 We're getting stronger 115 00:07:58,459 --> 00:08:01,417 but it's still a kind of private 116 00:08:01,709 --> 00:08:06,042 as compared with that big show they have nowadays. 117 00:08:07,709 --> 00:08:12,626 This was so much smaller 118 00:08:13,959 --> 00:08:16,001 and so much more vulnerable. 119 00:08:24,751 --> 00:08:25,584 And people, 120 00:08:28,042 --> 00:08:30,459 they use a lot of their imagination. 121 00:08:38,542 --> 00:08:41,959 It's not so, it's not so forced. 122 00:08:42,251 --> 00:08:46,209 It's kind of naive and innocent. 123 00:08:58,126 --> 00:08:59,042 It feels, you know, 124 00:08:59,334 --> 00:09:03,417 this sort of youthful vigor of the beginning of things. 125 00:09:20,667 --> 00:09:22,334 Now we're moving out. 126 00:09:27,626 --> 00:09:28,834 I think that's Ann Poland. 127 00:09:29,126 --> 00:09:29,709 I'm not sure. 128 00:09:31,417 --> 00:09:34,209 We do try harder. 129 00:09:50,042 --> 00:09:54,626 I mean it has that amateur quality. 130 00:09:55,542 --> 00:09:56,876 The health service. 131 00:10:12,084 --> 00:10:13,126 The Christopher Street Liberation Day committee 132 00:10:13,417 --> 00:10:17,292 made a flyer called Get Involved for Would Be Marchers. 133 00:10:18,459 --> 00:10:20,792 It said, "Of the three movements left in this country, 134 00:10:21,084 --> 00:10:23,292 "women's, Indian, and gay, 135 00:10:23,584 --> 00:10:26,501 "gay lib will be chiefly on display and on trial 136 00:10:26,792 --> 00:10:30,084 "before perhaps millions of watchers this coming Sunday. 137 00:10:31,042 --> 00:10:34,001 "To present the most attractive possible picture to all 138 00:10:34,292 --> 00:10:36,084 "as non-violent demonstrators 139 00:10:36,376 --> 00:10:40,042 "we would be wise to follow a few tried and true principles. 140 00:10:40,334 --> 00:10:43,709 "To wit, respect city laws covering parades. 141 00:10:44,001 --> 00:10:44,876 "If you don't know what these are 142 00:10:45,167 --> 00:10:47,417 "contact the New York Council of Legal Observers 143 00:10:47,709 --> 00:10:48,376 "or pick up a booklet 144 00:10:48,667 --> 00:10:50,501 "from the American Civil Liberties Union 145 00:10:50,792 --> 00:10:53,959 "entitled demonstration guidelines. 146 00:10:54,251 --> 00:10:57,376 "Don't attempt to carry banners or placards supported 147 00:10:57,667 --> 00:11:00,167 "by anything other than cardboard staunches. 148 00:11:00,459 --> 00:11:01,751 "Do not bring wooden poles 149 00:11:02,042 --> 00:11:05,417 "or metal shafts as both are regarded as weapons. 150 00:11:05,709 --> 00:11:08,042 "No umbrella unless there is a deluge. 151 00:11:09,626 --> 00:11:12,709 "Do not wear anything that can be misread as a weapon, 152 00:11:13,001 --> 00:11:15,709 "which means large or sharp pointed rings, 153 00:11:16,001 --> 00:11:19,959 "heavy belt buckles, watches, chains, et cetera. 154 00:11:20,251 --> 00:11:23,876 "Dress as simply as possible without encumbrances. 155 00:11:24,167 --> 00:11:26,417 "Do not carry a knife on your person. 156 00:11:26,709 --> 00:11:28,126 "This is a day when the police department 157 00:11:28,417 --> 00:11:29,251 "will be very vigilant, 158 00:11:29,542 --> 00:11:31,709 "perhaps even hostile and trigger happy. 159 00:11:32,001 --> 00:11:35,459 "So take care of yourself by being meticulously cooperative 160 00:11:35,751 --> 00:11:37,376 "even docile in a pinch. 161 00:11:38,334 --> 00:11:41,709 "Do not leave the march route except to relieve yourself. 162 00:11:42,667 --> 00:11:45,959 "Any orders from the CSLD marshals are to be recorded 163 00:11:46,251 --> 00:11:49,209 "as protective advice and should not be defied. 164 00:11:50,126 --> 00:11:53,251 "Remember that gays are lovers, not fighters. 165 00:11:54,209 --> 00:11:56,167 "Have compassion for that person 166 00:11:56,459 --> 00:11:59,376 "who may be coming out in a public way for the first time. 167 00:11:59,667 --> 00:12:01,126 "Please don't frighten anyone back 168 00:12:01,417 --> 00:12:03,501 "into the pre stonewall closet. 169 00:12:03,792 --> 00:12:06,626 "Everyone present on Sunday is an honored guest 170 00:12:06,917 --> 00:12:08,667 "of the Gay Liberation Movement." 171 00:12:22,876 --> 00:12:26,292 - Now our march is sort of, you know, 172 00:12:26,584 --> 00:12:29,251 a folk event, an ethnic event, 173 00:12:29,542 --> 00:12:34,334 part of the tourism of New York 174 00:12:35,042 --> 00:12:39,959 but then it was a much more fragile event. 175 00:12:43,709 --> 00:12:46,084 Again, from Arthur Bell's Voice article, 176 00:12:46,376 --> 00:12:49,001 "The big parade starts, a marshal shouts, 177 00:12:49,292 --> 00:12:52,417 "keep behind the Christopher Street Liberation sign. 178 00:12:52,709 --> 00:12:53,584 "Somewhere back there. 179 00:12:53,876 --> 00:12:56,209 "A contingent from Perth Amboy 180 00:12:56,501 --> 00:12:59,292 "totes a sheet spray painted and stenciled. 181 00:12:59,584 --> 00:13:00,751 "A dream is a dream. 182 00:13:01,042 --> 00:13:02,126 "Reality is real. 183 00:13:02,417 --> 00:13:05,001 "Open the door to the way we feel. 184 00:13:05,292 --> 00:13:07,334 "I see a gay Jewish revolution banner 185 00:13:07,626 --> 00:13:09,959 "and the gay activist Alliance Lambda 186 00:13:10,251 --> 00:13:12,126 "and all those Lambda shirts. 187 00:13:14,792 --> 00:13:16,876 "As the march progresses up 6th Avenue, 188 00:13:17,167 --> 00:13:20,959 "past foam rubber city past the flower and plant block, 189 00:13:21,251 --> 00:13:23,126 "the upright banners move further behind 190 00:13:23,417 --> 00:13:25,626 "and the three city blocks of marchers 191 00:13:25,917 --> 00:13:28,292 "become nine city blocks. 192 00:13:28,584 --> 00:13:31,667 "By 34th Street, we're up to 15. 193 00:13:31,959 --> 00:13:33,751 "There are no incidents. 194 00:13:34,042 --> 00:13:37,667 "Some sidewalk observers heed the call and join us." 195 00:13:49,459 --> 00:13:52,126 But we had the gaiety that goes with it, 196 00:13:52,417 --> 00:13:54,667 you know, balloons and all the rest of it. 197 00:13:57,209 --> 00:13:59,334 At a 42nd Street construction site, 198 00:13:59,626 --> 00:14:01,876 three hard hats make ha ha gestures. 199 00:14:03,876 --> 00:14:05,292 Even though we're very uncertain 200 00:14:05,584 --> 00:14:10,376 about what we're doing compared with how we ended up. 201 00:14:10,876 --> 00:14:13,251 At 45th Street, an observer remarks, 202 00:14:13,542 --> 00:14:15,042 "I'm getting to feel like a real creep here 203 00:14:15,334 --> 00:14:16,876 "with my husband and baby. 204 00:14:17,167 --> 00:14:18,709 "I'm getting to feel abnormal." 205 00:14:19,001 --> 00:14:20,751 Well, as time went on, 206 00:14:21,042 --> 00:14:22,084 it got stronger and stronger. 207 00:14:22,376 --> 00:14:23,376 There's Sue Johnson. 208 00:14:26,376 --> 00:14:27,626 Near the Statler Hilton, 209 00:14:27,917 --> 00:14:30,876 a group of young women sing, "I enjoy being a dyke," 210 00:14:31,167 --> 00:14:32,376 "Join us, join us," 211 00:14:32,667 --> 00:14:35,834 shout the marchers to the bellhops and hotel guests. 212 00:14:36,126 --> 00:14:37,876 "Beyond the moon is Lesbos," 213 00:14:38,167 --> 00:14:40,626 says a frizzled haired woman to a passerby. 214 00:14:44,376 --> 00:14:46,126 There is something both remarkable 215 00:14:46,417 --> 00:14:49,376 and unremarkable about this footage. 216 00:14:49,667 --> 00:14:51,376 There's something deeply familiar about it 217 00:14:51,667 --> 00:14:54,251 For any of us who may have walked that route before 218 00:14:54,542 --> 00:14:57,792 in any number of pride parades, anti-war demos, 219 00:14:58,084 --> 00:15:01,292 dyke marches or political funerals over the years. 220 00:15:02,292 --> 00:15:04,042 Something even more familiar about it 221 00:15:04,334 --> 00:15:07,417 for any of us who have taken a camera into these events 222 00:15:07,709 --> 00:15:11,334 to try to picture, record, image what occurred. 223 00:15:13,417 --> 00:15:15,917 This took more courage than you can imagine, 224 00:15:16,209 --> 00:15:20,834 to come out on the streets of New York uptown 225 00:15:21,126 --> 00:15:23,501 and all the crowds on the side of the street 226 00:15:23,792 --> 00:15:25,917 staring us down. 227 00:15:26,209 --> 00:15:30,126 It was, see, we're out of the village now and it's getting, 228 00:15:38,417 --> 00:15:42,876 there's a great deal of, oh, 229 00:15:47,959 --> 00:15:50,334 showing off and so on and so forth. 230 00:15:50,626 --> 00:15:53,084 But people are really uncertain 231 00:15:53,376 --> 00:15:55,917 about how this is going to pan out. 232 00:15:56,209 --> 00:15:57,417 What's going to be the results? 233 00:15:57,709 --> 00:16:02,001 I mean, we could be attacked on 40th street or something. 234 00:16:02,292 --> 00:16:04,501 We didn't know what would happen. 235 00:16:07,209 --> 00:16:08,834 And here's of course some of our, 236 00:16:10,792 --> 00:16:12,209 but they're doing okay. 237 00:16:12,501 --> 00:16:14,667 They're taking their hats off to us. 238 00:16:16,084 --> 00:16:17,584 That was a surprise too. 239 00:16:22,251 --> 00:16:24,126 The cameras of the Women's Liberation Cinema 240 00:16:24,417 --> 00:16:27,709 place us where we have been before in a sense, 241 00:16:28,001 --> 00:16:30,584 in the space of the camera that also marches. 242 00:16:30,876 --> 00:16:32,084 And we are thus in the space 243 00:16:32,376 --> 00:16:35,792 of this marching camera's desire to remember 244 00:16:36,084 --> 00:16:38,626 and to image these particular bodies 245 00:16:38,917 --> 00:16:41,001 that take to these particular streets 246 00:16:41,292 --> 00:16:43,376 on this particular day, 247 00:16:43,667 --> 00:16:45,292 and these are not my friends 248 00:16:45,584 --> 00:16:47,501 but people whose work I have read 249 00:16:47,792 --> 00:16:51,667 who I know about through texts or images or stories 250 00:16:51,959 --> 00:16:55,876 and this is not a moment I lived, but one lived by others. 251 00:16:57,001 --> 00:17:00,709 It is true in a sense that courage is hard to picture. 252 00:17:01,001 --> 00:17:03,084 The images show strength, 253 00:17:03,376 --> 00:17:04,584 but how can we see courage 254 00:17:04,876 --> 00:17:07,501 if we can't see in the picture the fear? 255 00:17:08,584 --> 00:17:10,667 How do we perceive the vulnerability 256 00:17:10,959 --> 00:17:13,751 when the signs and the bodies declare themselves 257 00:17:14,042 --> 00:17:16,834 with such ferocity and clarity? 258 00:17:17,126 --> 00:17:19,751 Second class citizenship must go. 259 00:17:20,042 --> 00:17:22,042 Closets are for clothes. 260 00:17:22,334 --> 00:17:24,042 Out of the closet and into the streets, 261 00:17:24,334 --> 00:17:27,001 off the couches and onto the streets. 262 00:17:27,959 --> 00:17:30,209 There is Gay Rhode Island 263 00:17:30,501 --> 00:17:35,292 and Boston Gay and Gay Baltimore and organizations. 264 00:17:36,459 --> 00:17:38,417 Sylvia Saxon Society, 265 00:17:38,709 --> 00:17:41,584 Street Queens Liberation Movement, 266 00:17:41,876 --> 00:17:44,876 lavender Menace, Radical Lesbians. 267 00:17:45,959 --> 00:17:50,709 And then there is power and revolution and liberation. 268 00:17:51,001 --> 00:17:55,709 Gay power, dyke power, gay revolution, 269 00:17:56,001 --> 00:17:59,792 sisterhood is yours, lesbians unite. 270 00:18:00,084 --> 00:18:01,792 Unite and fight. 271 00:18:02,084 --> 00:18:04,417 Gay sisterhood is powerful. 272 00:18:04,709 --> 00:18:07,251 Women's liberation is a lesbian plot. 273 00:18:07,542 --> 00:18:09,917 Come out against war and oppression. 274 00:18:10,209 --> 00:18:12,042 Gay liberation now 275 00:18:12,334 --> 00:18:14,501 and then there is love. 276 00:18:14,792 --> 00:18:16,709 Gay power to gay love. 277 00:18:17,001 --> 00:18:19,084 Love is a many gendered thing. 278 00:18:19,376 --> 00:18:21,792 We will not hide our love away. 279 00:18:22,084 --> 00:18:24,209 Homosexual love is beautiful. 280 00:18:24,501 --> 00:18:27,209 I am a radical lesbian and I am beautiful. 281 00:18:28,126 --> 00:18:30,251 An army of lovers cannot lose. 282 00:18:30,542 --> 00:18:32,001 Bloom where you are planted. 283 00:18:32,292 --> 00:18:33,251 She kissed you once. 284 00:18:33,542 --> 00:18:34,876 Will she kiss you again? 285 00:18:35,167 --> 00:18:38,667 Be sure, join the lesbian revolution. 286 00:18:38,959 --> 00:18:42,417 Bode, our camera person, one of them. 287 00:18:45,959 --> 00:18:47,334 We had to make a cinema 288 00:18:47,626 --> 00:18:49,917 that was just for women or by women 289 00:18:50,209 --> 00:18:52,834 or because of women or because women got together 290 00:18:53,126 --> 00:18:55,042 and did it and so on and so forth. 291 00:18:55,334 --> 00:18:56,876 So it really had our point of view 292 00:18:57,167 --> 00:19:00,501 and we had done it ourselves and so forth. 293 00:19:00,792 --> 00:19:02,459 I mean, by now this is probably, 294 00:19:02,751 --> 00:19:05,126 you know, sort of monstrous and silly, 295 00:19:05,417 --> 00:19:08,834 but at the time it meant a great deal to do that 296 00:19:09,751 --> 00:19:11,792 because we hadn't done it before. 297 00:19:12,084 --> 00:19:15,959 We'd been, you know, acting and so on and so forth 298 00:19:16,251 --> 00:19:19,834 but we hadn't defined it ourselves. 299 00:19:21,501 --> 00:19:24,376 You know, we brought the cameras and see what would happen. 300 00:19:25,876 --> 00:19:28,042 That we got anything that we could save 301 00:19:28,334 --> 00:19:29,667 was quite remarkable. 302 00:19:34,001 --> 00:19:36,667 That it could be shown at an occasion like this is 303 00:19:37,709 --> 00:19:42,417 well, an accident of history. 304 00:19:47,251 --> 00:19:48,542 I have a historical context 305 00:19:48,834 --> 00:19:52,584 in which to understand this event, this day, this march. 306 00:19:52,876 --> 00:19:55,084 I know that the riots at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 307 00:19:55,376 --> 00:19:58,917 catalyzed a group of trans and queer activists 308 00:19:59,209 --> 00:20:00,751 to a deeper radicalism 309 00:20:01,042 --> 00:20:04,459 and hundreds of non activists to action. 310 00:20:05,917 --> 00:20:06,959 It was reported that people 311 00:20:07,251 --> 00:20:10,834 in the crowd outside of Stonewall started yelling gay power 312 00:20:11,126 --> 00:20:12,959 taking up the language of resistance used 313 00:20:13,251 --> 00:20:15,084 in the black power movement. 314 00:20:15,376 --> 00:20:16,959 Weeks after the riots in June, 315 00:20:17,251 --> 00:20:19,751 a group of activists came together as a group, 316 00:20:20,042 --> 00:20:21,251 Gay Liberation Front, 317 00:20:21,542 --> 00:20:23,834 describing themselves as a militant coalition 318 00:20:24,126 --> 00:20:27,167 of radical and revolutionary homosexual men and women 319 00:20:27,459 --> 00:20:28,876 committed to fight the oppression 320 00:20:29,167 --> 00:20:31,209 of the homosexual as a minority group 321 00:20:31,501 --> 00:20:34,126 and to demand the right to self-determination 322 00:20:34,417 --> 00:20:35,667 of our own bodies. 323 00:20:36,626 --> 00:20:38,459 In the name Gay Liberation Front, 324 00:20:38,751 --> 00:20:40,667 the group aligned themselves not only 325 00:20:40,959 --> 00:20:44,001 with active liberation struggles inside the US 326 00:20:44,292 --> 00:20:47,209 but also with the National Liberation Front in Vietnam. 327 00:20:49,001 --> 00:20:53,126 Gay liberation began in the midst of the Vietnam War. 328 00:20:56,459 --> 00:20:58,084 By the time this march happened, 329 00:20:58,376 --> 00:21:00,334 the GLF had already disbanded, 330 00:21:00,626 --> 00:21:02,376 but present at this event were several groups 331 00:21:02,667 --> 00:21:04,042 that had splintered off from the GLF 332 00:21:04,334 --> 00:21:06,667 for various practical and political reasons. 333 00:21:08,084 --> 00:21:09,834 One of these was the radical lesbians 334 00:21:10,126 --> 00:21:14,834 whose 1970 text, "The Woman Identified Woman" begins, 335 00:21:15,126 --> 00:21:16,667 "What is a lesbian? 336 00:21:16,959 --> 00:21:18,584 "A lesbian is the rage of all women 337 00:21:18,876 --> 00:21:21,459 "condensed to the point of explosion." 338 00:21:22,876 --> 00:21:26,959 The three page text ends with the following paragraph, 339 00:21:27,959 --> 00:21:30,001 "It is the primacy of women relating to women 340 00:21:30,292 --> 00:21:31,917 "of women creating a new consciousness 341 00:21:32,209 --> 00:21:33,584 "of and with each other, 342 00:21:33,876 --> 00:21:36,084 "which is at the heart of women's liberation 343 00:21:36,376 --> 00:21:38,459 "and the basis for cultural revolution? 344 00:21:39,501 --> 00:21:41,292 "Together we must find, reinforce 345 00:21:41,584 --> 00:21:44,042 "and validate our authentic selves. 346 00:21:45,251 --> 00:21:47,459 "As we do this, we confirm in each other 347 00:21:47,751 --> 00:21:52,001 "that struggling incipient sense of pride and strength 348 00:21:52,292 --> 00:21:54,709 "the divisive barriers begin to melt. 349 00:21:55,001 --> 00:21:58,084 "We feel this growing solidarity with our sisters. 350 00:21:58,376 --> 00:22:00,459 "We see ourselves as prime, 351 00:22:00,751 --> 00:22:03,667 "find our centers inside of ourselves. 352 00:22:03,959 --> 00:22:06,959 "We find receding the sense of alienation 353 00:22:07,251 --> 00:22:10,959 "of being cut off, of being behind a locked window, 354 00:22:11,251 --> 00:22:12,792 "of being unable to get out. 355 00:22:13,084 --> 00:22:15,001 "What we know is inside. 356 00:22:15,292 --> 00:22:17,209 "We feel a realness, 357 00:22:17,501 --> 00:22:20,792 "feel at last we are coinciding with ourselves 358 00:22:21,084 --> 00:22:24,292 "with that real self, with that consciousness. 359 00:22:24,584 --> 00:22:27,751 "We begin a revolution to end the imposition 360 00:22:28,042 --> 00:22:30,126 "of all coercive identifications 361 00:22:30,417 --> 00:22:34,251 "and to achieve maximum autonomy in human expression. 362 00:22:35,709 --> 00:22:38,376 "What can be deceptive from the distance of history 363 00:22:38,667 --> 00:22:40,584 "from the distance of the document of an event 364 00:22:40,876 --> 00:22:45,001 "such as this is that these placards banners and slogans, 365 00:22:45,292 --> 00:22:48,459 "these declarations of identity, affinity and desire, 366 00:22:48,751 --> 00:22:53,459 "these manifestos on queer expression appear fully resolved 367 00:22:53,751 --> 00:22:56,917 "fixed like their image on the screen. 368 00:22:57,209 --> 00:23:00,626 "Maybe this is where the monstrosity lies, 369 00:23:00,917 --> 00:23:02,126 "in the static claims made 370 00:23:02,417 --> 00:23:05,126 "on these singular and collective bodies 371 00:23:05,417 --> 00:23:08,292 "and the static demands on these slippery 372 00:23:09,834 --> 00:23:10,709 "and fragile articulations. 373 00:23:11,792 --> 00:23:14,834 "Maybe this is also where the vulnerability can be seen 374 00:23:15,126 --> 00:23:18,292 "in and between the real and the proposed. 375 00:23:18,584 --> 00:23:20,334 "In and between demonstrations of power 376 00:23:20,626 --> 00:23:23,501 "and clarity and in and in between 377 00:23:23,792 --> 00:23:27,376 "the profound newness of all of these words 378 00:23:27,667 --> 00:23:32,417 "and all of these images and all of these actions." 379 00:23:34,167 --> 00:23:39,084 There's an interesting quality about the bodies. 380 00:23:39,751 --> 00:23:44,209 I mean, everybody is having a good time 381 00:23:44,501 --> 00:23:48,084 and nobody seems angry or frustrated or, 382 00:24:01,959 --> 00:24:03,334 it's a special day. 383 00:24:28,126 --> 00:24:31,167 Everybody touches each other with goodwill 384 00:24:31,459 --> 00:24:34,417 and humor and friendliness. 385 00:24:34,709 --> 00:24:36,584 And these people, of course, 386 00:24:36,876 --> 00:24:39,709 don't know each other for the most part, a few of them do, 387 00:24:40,001 --> 00:24:44,792 but we're becoming, you know, a tribe at this point. 388 00:24:45,251 --> 00:24:50,001 So we have good feelings towards each other. 389 00:24:51,959 --> 00:24:53,251 In a letter 390 00:24:53,542 --> 00:24:54,376 to the Christopher Street Liberation Day committee 391 00:24:54,667 --> 00:24:57,917 a marcher writes, "Dear CSLD people, 392 00:24:58,209 --> 00:25:02,251 "I am enclosing $35 as a donation to the CSLD committee 393 00:25:02,542 --> 00:25:04,876 "on behalf of myself and Will Rivers 394 00:25:05,167 --> 00:25:07,417 "as profits from the sale of our button. 395 00:25:07,709 --> 00:25:10,376 "How dare you presume I'm heterosexual. 396 00:25:10,667 --> 00:25:11,751 "I would also like to share with you 397 00:25:12,042 --> 00:25:14,292 "some of my feelings about the events of the day. 398 00:25:15,334 --> 00:25:18,167 "I very much enjoyed marching with my brothers and sisters. 399 00:25:18,459 --> 00:25:21,167 "I ran into people I hadn't seen in some time. 400 00:25:21,459 --> 00:25:22,501 "I also met new people. 401 00:25:22,792 --> 00:25:27,042 "We talked, hugged, joked, sang, cheered 402 00:25:27,334 --> 00:25:28,459 "and a lot of other things. 403 00:25:29,459 --> 00:25:31,709 "I had a chance to wander through the march 404 00:25:32,001 --> 00:25:34,209 "and look and talk with people I rarely run into 405 00:25:34,501 --> 00:25:36,709 "in my normal gay rounds. 406 00:25:37,001 --> 00:25:39,584 "It was a joy seeing all those beautiful people." 407 00:25:42,792 --> 00:25:44,667 And another writes a more pointed message 408 00:25:44,959 --> 00:25:46,959 to the treasurer of the committee. 409 00:25:47,251 --> 00:25:50,626 "Dear brother Rex, I had a delightful time in New York, 410 00:25:50,917 --> 00:25:53,959 "learned just how well gay liberation had worked there 411 00:25:54,251 --> 00:25:56,084 "and had a lot of surprises 412 00:25:56,376 --> 00:25:56,917 "and I guess you were 413 00:25:57,209 --> 00:25:59,792 "the most delightful surprise of them all. 414 00:26:00,084 --> 00:26:01,917 "I'm delighted that you are so enthusiastic 415 00:26:02,209 --> 00:26:05,334 "that you just yelled and yelled and then lost your voice. 416 00:26:05,626 --> 00:26:07,876 "That's the ecstasy of being gay. 417 00:26:08,167 --> 00:26:10,001 "Thanks for the ring you gave me 418 00:26:10,292 --> 00:26:12,876 "but I feel that it might have been given to me 419 00:26:13,167 --> 00:26:14,917 "in a moment of high emotion, 420 00:26:15,209 --> 00:26:16,251 "and if that's true 421 00:26:16,542 --> 00:26:18,751 "and you can't live without it, let me know. 422 00:26:19,042 --> 00:26:22,376 "On the other hand, I wear it and I am proud of it. 423 00:26:22,667 --> 00:26:25,084 "Can you be kind to kiss John Paul for me? 424 00:26:26,042 --> 00:26:28,001 "Peace, love, joy. 425 00:26:28,292 --> 00:26:29,959 "Signed, Maurice." 426 00:26:31,209 --> 00:26:32,542 Love and sexual desire 427 00:26:32,834 --> 00:26:34,667 are a part of many political movements 428 00:26:34,959 --> 00:26:37,667 and there's nothing so unusual about the implication 429 00:26:37,959 --> 00:26:38,917 these marchers demonstrate 430 00:26:39,209 --> 00:26:43,209 between sexual desire and political desire. 431 00:26:43,501 --> 00:26:44,626 But looking at this footage now 432 00:26:44,917 --> 00:26:46,292 makes me understand more clearly 433 00:26:46,584 --> 00:26:49,542 that this nascent tribe of liberationists, 434 00:26:50,501 --> 00:26:52,417 gay liberationists, 435 00:26:52,709 --> 00:26:55,167 was also constructing new sets of relations 436 00:26:55,459 --> 00:26:58,959 between love, sex, and politics. 437 00:26:59,251 --> 00:27:00,792 Because the expression of love, 438 00:27:01,084 --> 00:27:04,251 sexual desire, gender, queer sexuality, 439 00:27:04,542 --> 00:27:06,126 was under constraint. 440 00:27:06,417 --> 00:27:07,917 Love, sexual desire, 441 00:27:08,209 --> 00:27:10,626 the expression of gender and queer sexuality 442 00:27:10,917 --> 00:27:13,584 was the tool of our resistance. 443 00:27:13,876 --> 00:27:16,376 Fucking was not ancillary to our politics 444 00:27:16,667 --> 00:27:19,917 not a libidinal excess to the liberation work. 445 00:27:20,209 --> 00:27:21,459 It was integral to it. 446 00:27:22,376 --> 00:27:25,042 Living this queer love was a strategy 447 00:27:25,334 --> 00:27:28,042 toward overthrowing the violent oppression 448 00:27:28,334 --> 00:27:29,459 of heteronormativity. 449 00:27:30,501 --> 00:27:35,209 That is why these bodies taking to the streets in 1971 450 00:27:35,501 --> 00:27:38,417 were so particularly threatening and vulnerable. 451 00:27:40,167 --> 00:27:43,042 When I first saw the slogan dyke power on a placard 452 00:27:43,334 --> 00:27:45,584 at the 1993 March on Washington 453 00:27:45,876 --> 00:27:48,251 I never thought about its historical beginning 454 00:27:48,542 --> 00:27:50,001 nor did I think about that 455 00:27:50,292 --> 00:27:52,834 when I saw it again on a banner in '95 456 00:27:53,126 --> 00:27:55,917 or being passed out as a sticker in '97 457 00:27:56,209 --> 00:27:57,417 or written on a sign 458 00:27:57,709 --> 00:28:01,251 held by this cute 20 something transman in 2004. 459 00:28:02,751 --> 00:28:05,709 I didn't think about it in terms of the power of black power 460 00:28:06,001 --> 00:28:07,917 or liberation movements. 461 00:28:08,209 --> 00:28:11,417 I saw it as pride, and in that it seemed useful for the day, 462 00:28:11,709 --> 00:28:12,834 but not much longer. 463 00:28:13,792 --> 00:28:16,167 Black power seemed to have teeth. 464 00:28:16,459 --> 00:28:18,834 Gay power seemed a kind of posing. 465 00:28:20,042 --> 00:28:21,876 But now as I look at these images 466 00:28:22,167 --> 00:28:23,876 of this vulnerable becoming tribe 467 00:28:24,167 --> 00:28:26,084 that wasn't quite sure if it would make it to the end 468 00:28:26,376 --> 00:28:29,042 of the event to Central Park, 469 00:28:29,334 --> 00:28:33,417 I realize how wisely they exerted their precise power 470 00:28:33,709 --> 00:28:35,584 to fuck and to love 471 00:28:35,876 --> 00:28:37,959 to chant about loving and fucking 472 00:28:38,251 --> 00:28:40,751 to dress one's best, to look beautiful 473 00:28:41,042 --> 00:28:44,542 to strut and twirl and shake and kick, 474 00:28:44,834 --> 00:28:46,209 to seduce the camera, 475 00:28:46,501 --> 00:28:49,292 seduce the public, seduce the homophobe. 476 00:28:50,584 --> 00:28:52,209 And I found myself coming back 477 00:28:52,501 --> 00:28:56,126 to a text that my friend Every Ocean Hughes wrote 478 00:28:56,417 --> 00:29:00,834 as part of a dialogue about love, aesthetics, and politics. 479 00:29:01,126 --> 00:29:05,917 She says, "Love is a strategy, medium sight and seen. 480 00:29:07,251 --> 00:29:08,709 "Love is an act. 481 00:29:09,001 --> 00:29:10,959 "Love is not a quantifiable element, 482 00:29:11,251 --> 00:29:14,292 "able to be parsed between politics and poetics 483 00:29:14,584 --> 00:29:16,084 "for it constantly transforms 484 00:29:16,376 --> 00:29:19,126 "the definition of those very terms. 485 00:29:19,417 --> 00:29:22,959 "Before I speak economy and resistance I must be explicit. 486 00:29:23,251 --> 00:29:26,376 "Queer love, queer love exemplifies itself 487 00:29:26,667 --> 00:29:29,334 "by its lack of singular object relations 488 00:29:29,626 --> 00:29:33,709 "and an insistence on unstable and mutable boundaries. 489 00:29:34,001 --> 00:29:36,584 "My insistence on queer love is because 490 00:29:36,876 --> 00:29:40,084 "the unspoken alternative would be heteronormative love." 491 00:29:42,209 --> 00:29:44,126 Distinguishing this discourse of love 492 00:29:44,417 --> 00:29:47,292 as one that implicitly speaks queer love. 493 00:29:47,584 --> 00:29:50,251 We do not take for granted modes of reproduction, 494 00:29:50,542 --> 00:29:54,251 exchange values, or teleological engagements. 495 00:29:54,542 --> 00:29:57,709 We allow simultaneous investments, contradictions, 496 00:29:58,001 --> 00:30:01,251 excess relief and excess. 497 00:30:01,542 --> 00:30:03,042 The theater of queer love 498 00:30:03,334 --> 00:30:08,042 employs politics, poetics and aesthetics in equal measure. 499 00:30:08,334 --> 00:30:10,209 Queering love transforms the vocabulary 500 00:30:10,501 --> 00:30:12,626 with which we address our object 501 00:30:12,917 --> 00:30:16,292 and the ensuing acts need not be translated. 502 00:30:22,876 --> 00:30:24,459 Finally, the park. 503 00:30:26,626 --> 00:30:27,542 We made it. 504 00:30:29,084 --> 00:30:31,001 Queer love is not economical 505 00:30:31,292 --> 00:30:33,042 and that is political. 506 00:30:33,334 --> 00:30:36,584 Love as a medium is part of an economy of resistance. 507 00:30:36,876 --> 00:30:39,167 Ecstatic resistance, I would say, 508 00:30:39,459 --> 00:30:42,626 provoking questions of memory and tactics. 509 00:30:46,126 --> 00:30:46,917 All the way uptown. 510 00:30:47,209 --> 00:30:48,959 We didn't get destroyed or demolished 511 00:30:49,251 --> 00:30:53,042 or arrested or jumped or anything. 512 00:30:58,334 --> 00:30:59,626 I wonder if there's something for us 513 00:30:59,917 --> 00:31:02,709 in this demonstration of gay power to gay love. 514 00:31:03,001 --> 00:31:06,084 This demonstration of coinciding with oneself 515 00:31:06,376 --> 00:31:10,042 coinciding with various projections of oneself, 516 00:31:10,334 --> 00:31:12,292 projections of the self we desire, 517 00:31:12,584 --> 00:31:14,626 or maybe the self we desire to be 518 00:31:14,917 --> 00:31:17,959 amongst others on these special days. 519 00:31:22,126 --> 00:31:22,876 Just this feeling 520 00:31:23,167 --> 00:31:26,251 of open space was very reassuring. 521 00:31:32,876 --> 00:31:33,792 And as I see these bodies moving through 522 00:31:34,084 --> 00:31:35,042 and taking over the streets 523 00:31:35,334 --> 00:31:36,876 that I still move on and through. 524 00:31:37,917 --> 00:31:41,292 I wonder if we can reuse this model of power and love 525 00:31:41,584 --> 00:31:43,501 not to return to that moment 526 00:31:43,792 --> 00:31:47,751 but to reengage our own queer and queered positions 527 00:31:48,042 --> 00:31:51,334 as we sit in the space of a very different political moment 528 00:31:51,626 --> 00:31:54,334 with a very different idea of queerness 529 00:31:54,626 --> 00:31:56,792 in the midst of a very different war. 530 00:32:37,417 --> 00:32:38,459 I think we had the feeling 531 00:32:38,751 --> 00:32:41,542 that we filled the park.