Pridelets for April 17
On this day in 1965, the Mattachine Society of Washington pickets the White House to protest treatment of gays in both the United States and Cuba
On the march are demonstration leader Jack Nichols, MSW head Dr. Frank Kameny, Gail Johnson, Gene Kleeberg, Judith Kuch, Paul Kuntzler, Perrin Shaffer, Jon Swanson, Otto Ulrich, and Lilli Vincenz.
Says Jack Nichols of the event, "Never before had gay people as an organized group paraded openly for our rights."
Nichols recalls, "The picket took place during mid-afternoon. It was the Saturday before Easter, and tourists walked the downtown streets. Lige [Clarke], driving the convertible, took me to the White House curb and helped me unload signs. Then he drove off to work the afternoon shift at the Pentagon. Gail arrived at the site on the back seat of Ray's motorcycle. It was agreed I should lead the picket line. The reason for this was that I was tall and an all-American sort. Also, I suppose, because I'd conceived the event. Frank Kameny marched behind me and Lilli Vincenz behind him ... As we marched, I looked about at our well-dressed little band. Kameny had insisted that we seven men must wear suits and ties, and the women, dresses and heels. New Yorkers later complained that we Washingtonians looked like a convention of undertakers, but given the temper of the times, Kameny's insistence was apropos. 'If you're asking for equal employment rights,' he intoned, 'look employable!' In the staid nation's capital, dressing for the occasion was, in spite of New York critics, proper. We paraded in a small circle. Behind lampposts stood unknown persons photographing us. Were they government agents? Perrin and Otto wore sunglasses so absolute identification would be difficult should they fall prey to security investigations. We walked for an hour that passed, as I'd predicted, without incident. A few tourists gawked and there were one or two snickers, more from confusion than from prejudice. We'd hoped for more publicity than we got. 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."