“FIFTEEN MILLION U.S. HOMOSEXUALS PROTEST FEDERAL TREATMENT,” Jack Nichols, Dr. Frank Kameny, Lilli
“FIFTEEN MILLION U.S. HOMOSEXUALS PROTEST FEDERAL TREATMENT,” Jack Nichols, Dr. Frank Kameny, Lilli Vincenz, and other members of the Mattachine Society Washington and the Daughters of Bilitis picket the White House, Washington, D.C., April 17, 1965. Photo © CORBIS..At about two o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday, April 17, 1965, fifty-two years ago today, three women—Gail Johnson, Judith Kuch, and Lilli Vincenz—and seven men—Frank Kameny, Gene Kleeberg, Paul Kuntzler, Jack Nichols, Perrin Shaffer, Jon Swanson, and Otto Ulrich—walked across Pennsylvania Avenue from Lafayette Park to the White House..The group, conservatively dressed per Kameny’s insistence, and holding signs that read, among other things, “FIFTEEN MILLION U.S.HOMOSEXUALS PROTEST FEDERAL TREATMENT,” “U.S. CLAIMS NO SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS. WHAT ABOUT HOMOSEXUAL CITIZENS?,” and “GOV. WALLACE MET WITH NEGROES, OUR GOV’T WON’T MEET WITH US,” formed an orderly oval and marched for an hour before packing up and leaving with little fanfare..There had been no advance warning, as the group wanted to avoid authorities having the opportunity to block their efforts; this meant, however, that they received almost no attention from the press. Although it was not the first gay rights protest in the country (that likely was the September 1964 Whitehall Center protest), the first White House picket stands as one of the most meaningful events in the history of American queer activism. It signaled the beginning of direct-action protests; it was a paradigm shift..“We’d hoped for more publicity than we got,” Jack Nichols later recalled. “Only ‘The Afro-American’ carried a small item about what we’d done. But we’d done it, and that was what mattered. We’d stood up against the power structure, putting our bodies on the line. Nothing had happened except that we’d been galvanized, and, to a certain extent, immunized against fear.”.By the end of 1965, the direct-action pioneered by the Mattachine Society Washington and its affiliates led to similar protests at the United Nations, the Pentagon, the Civil Service Commission, Independence Hall, and two more at the White House. #HavePrideInHistory #Resist (at The White House) -- source link
#resist#haveprideinhistory