Upcoming documenatary to look at "The Last Dance Raid"

Here's some news I'm pretty excited about: work has begun on The Last Dance Raid: The Event That Changed Gay History, a documentary examining a 1965 event that many credit as being a turning point for gay rights in San Francisco.

The event in question was a New Year's Eve dance at the California Hall that had the support of The Council on Religion and the Homosexual, a group of San Francisco religious leaders who argued against police harassment of LGBT people. Despite attempts to work with the police in planning the ball, it was raided soon after it began and ministers (as well as the pregnant wife of one minister) were arrested along with the gay attendees of the party.

Those arrests got people to reconsider their view of gays facing police harassment, not only was it shocking to see ministers arrested along with gays (since the ministers' presence put doubt to the idea that "They must've been doing something wrong if the police arrested them.") but it made people listen when local religious leaders spoke against the discrimination that was a part of everyday life for LGBT people.

I never knew about the Council on Religion and the Homosexual until I lived in San Francisco. Since then I've been disappointed that this part of gay history isn't better known. In some ways, it's an interesting contrast to the Stonewall Riots. The California Hall raid was a turning point that involved heterosexual supporters standing up for gays, while Stonewall was about gays standing up for themselves.

Right now, we're seeing a few documentaries examining gays and religion, like Camp Out, which is about gay, Christan teens reconciling their faith with their sexuality. Or For the Bible Tells Me So, which questions if the Bible really does condemn homosexuality. The Last Dance Raid brings a unique take, looking at religious leaders who didn't see a conflict between religion and being gay back as far as 1965.

The Last Dance Raid is still in development at the moment, with the producers seeking funding to finish it.