Existing comment:
Craig Rodwell, 1940-1993
with John Timmins, Dick Leitsch, and Randy Wicker
This photograph shows four members of the Mattachine Society in 1966, including Craig Rodwell-pictured facing the camera with his eyes downcast-demanding to be served at Julius's Bar in Greenwich Village. At the time, many bars refused to sell liquor to gays because New York regulations forbade the practice. This so-called "sip-in" by Rodwell and other activists was intended to call attention to this and other forms of discrimination against the gay community. Moving to New York at the age of eighteen, Rodwell emerged as one of the most prominent and aggressive gay rights activists of the period. He moved the Mattachine Society in a more confrontational direction and insisted that the movement be part of the general civil rights and liberation movements of the 1960s. He was a major figure in the "Stonewall" riots of 1969 and later founded what became the first Gay Pride parade.
Fred McDarrah, 1966 |