Leo Martello (September 26, 1930 — June 29, 2000) was a noted Wicn prit, gay rights activist, Greenwich Village rint, and thor. He was a foundg member of the Strega Tradn, a morn form of Wic rmed by Italian herage and anctral teachgs. Durg his life, he published a number of books on such oteric subjects as
Contents:
- INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
- GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
- OUT OF THE BROOM CLOSET: GAY ACTIVIST & VILLAGE WICN LEO MARTELLO
- GREENWICH VILLAGE, STORIED HOME OF BOHEMIA AND GAY HISTORY
INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
The Stonewall Rts, also lled the Stonewall Uprisg, took place on June 28, 1969, New York Cy, after police raid the Stonewall Inn, a lol gay club. The raid sparked a rt among bar patrons and neighborhood rints as police hled employe and patrons out of the bar, leadg to six days of protts and vlent clash. The Stonewall Rts served as a talyst for the gay rights movement. * gay rights activists greenwich village *
But engagg gay behavr public (holdg hands, kissg or dancg wh someone of the same sex) was still illegal, so police harassment of gay bars ntued and many bars still operated whout liquor licens— part bee they were owned by the Rights Before StonewallThe first documented U.
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
In his book The Women's Hoe of Detentn, Hugh Ryan wr about the New York Cy prison and the role played the gay rights movement of the '60s, cludg the 1969 Stonewall Uprisg. * gay rights activists greenwich village *
In 1966, three years before Stonewall, members of The Mattache Society, an anizatn dited to gay rights, staged a “sip-” where they openly clared their sexualy at taverns, darg staff to turn them away and sug tablishments who did.
When The Commissn on Human Rights led that gay dividuals had the right to be served bars, police raids were temporarily Stonewall Inn The crime syndite saw prof terg to shunned gay clientele, and by the mid-1960s, the Genove crime fay ntrolled most Greenwich Village gay bars. And was one of the few—if not the only—gay bar left that allowed were still a fact of life, but ually rpt ps would tip off Mafia-n bars before they occurred, allowg owners to stash the alhol (sold whout a liquor license) and hi other illegal activi. Stonewall's LegacyThough the Stonewall uprisg didn’t start the gay rights movement, was a galvanizg force for LGBT polil activism, leadg to numero gay rights anizatns, cludg the Gay Liberatn Front, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD (formerly Gay and Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn), and PFLAG (formerly Parents, Fai and Friends of Lbians and Gays) the one-year anniversary of the rts on June 28, 1970, thoands of people marched the streets of Manhattan om the Stonewall Inn to Central Park what was then lled “Christopher Street Liberatn Day, ” Ameri’s first gay pri para.
”In 2016, then-Print Barack Obama signated the se of the rts—Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and the surroundg streets and siwalks—a natnal monument regnn of the area’s ntributn to gay Gallery The Stonewall Inn is a bar loted New York Cy’s Greenwich Village that served as a haven the 1960s for the cy’s gay, lbian and transgenr muny. "On the first night of the rts, people rcerated the prison uld actually see what was happeng out their wdows, and they started a rt all their own, settg fire to their belonggs and throwg them down to the streets below while chantg 'Gay rights!
PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
Gay rights movement, civil rights movement that advot equal rights for LGBTQ persons—that is, for lbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons—and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life. * gay rights activists greenwich village *
On the Hoe of D's role Greenwich Village beg a gay pal of New York One of the big ways is that so many queer women and trans men were beg arrted around the cy every year and brought to this one place where they would be tried, where they would be held, where they would go for health screengs, where they would get fgerprted.
” The same day, a small group of San Francisns marched down Polk Street, then had a “gay-” piic that was broken up by equtrian and other New York groups had spent months planng the Manhattan event wh the help of anizers like Brenda Howard, a bisexual activist who had cut her anizg teeth durg the anti-Vietnam movement of the late 1960s. Her discharge om the ary over her homosexualy had turned her to an activist.Cred...Kay Tob/The New York Public LibraryPublished July 19, 2023Updated July 23, 2023Lilli Vcenz, who beme a gay rights activist the hhed, reprsive era before the Stonewall rebelln of 1969, when such a ncept srcely existed, makg a mark as a newspaper edor, documentary filmmaker and psychotherapist voted to L.G.B.T.Q. Vicenz beme, by most acunts, the first lbian to picket the Whe Hoe support of equal rights for gay people as a member of the Mattache Society of Washgton, an early gay rights anizatn.The prott — the first of s kd, acrdg to the Library of Congrs — and others that followed were small but brought visibily to a movement s fancy.“What did I want to acplish?” she told Gay Today about her early efforts wh the society.
OUT OF THE BROOM CLOSET: GAY ACTIVIST & VILLAGE WICN LEO MARTELLO
<strong>The long read</strong>: A police raid on a gay bar New York led to the birth of the Pri movement half a century ago – but the fight for LGBTQ+ rights go back much further than that * gay rights activists greenwich village *
Vcenz beme the first out lbian to appear on the ver of a natnal gay magaze, The Ladr, a publitn produced by the untry’s first lbian-rights group, the Dghters of Bilis, acrdg to a retrospective on her life and reer by Lillian Farman, a historian of lbian and gay culture.Wh her scbbed, all-Amerin looks, Dr. Vcenz also ntributed to the e on the other si of a mera, makg two 16-limeter films that were later hailed as signifint artifacts of the early gay rights movement.The first, tled “The Send-Largt Mory,” documents a Mattache Society prott ont of Inpennce Hall Philalphia on July 4, 1968.To morn ey, the black-and-whe film, roughly seven mut, seems anythg but seismic.
Lookg like a home movie, shows clean-cut protters office attire marchg an orrly circle, rryg plards wh msag like “Sexual Preference Is Irrelevant to Employment.”But the prott was revolutnary for the tim.“The whole notn of gay people publicly exprsg their sentiments that fashn was beyond nceptualizatn until we started dog ,” the Mattache Society’s -founr, Frankl E. The uprisg, after a police raid at Stonewall Inn, a gay bar Greenwich Village, was a turng pot the gay rights movement.“Gay and Proud” shows a much larger, and shaggier, gatherg of protters takg a more ant stance the para, chantg fiantly and wavg plards wh msag like “I am a lbian and I am betiful.”In addn to providg a “val piece of gay history,” Ms.
Vcenz’s films “gave visual documentatn of the astonishg distance that the gay movement had traveled between 1968 and 1970.” Even the tl of the films, she add, showed “how the movement ceased beechg and beme -your-face challengg.”ImageDr. E., for lbians, gays [homosexual mal], bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons); seeks to elimate sodomy laws; and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life.
GREENWICH VILLAGE, STORIED HOME OF BOHEMIA AND GAY HISTORY
* gay rights activists greenwich village *
) Gay rights prr to the 20th century Relig admonns agast sexual relatns between dividuals of the same sex (particularly men) long stigmatized such behavur, but most legal s Europe were silent on the subject of homosexualy and bisexualy. Dpe Paragraph 175 and the failure of the WhK to w s repeal, homosexual and bisexual men and women experienced a certa amount of eedom Germany, particularly durg the Weimar perd, between the end of World War I and the Nazi seizure of power.
In the Uned Stat this greater visibily brought some backlash, particularly om the ernment and the police: the ernment often fired gay civil servants, the ary attempted to purge s ranks of gay soldiers (a policy enacted durg World War II), and police vice squads equently raid gay bars and arrted their patrons. In the Uned Stat the first major male anizatn, found 1950–51 by Harry Hay Los Angel, was the Mattache Society (s name reputedly rived om a medieval French society of masked players, the Société Mattache, to reprent the public “maskg” of homosexualy), while the Dghters of Bilis (named after the Sapphic love poems of Pierre Louÿs, Chansons Bilis), found 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart San Francis, was a leadg group for women.
In Bra 1957 a missn chaired by Sir John Wolfenn issued a groundbreakg report (see Wolfenn Report) remendg that private homosexual liaisons between nsentg adults be removed om the doma of crimal law; a later the remendatn was implemented by Parliament the Sexual Offenc Act.
Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, both key figur the gay liberatn movement, will be honored wh a permanent stallatn Greenwich Village. * gay rights activists greenwich village *
Now headquartered Geneva and renamed the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA World), plays a signifint role ordatg ternatnal efforts to promote human rights and fight discrimatn agast LGBTQ and tersex persons. This support, along wh mpaigns by gay activists urgg gay men and women to “e out of the closet” (ed, the late 1980s, Natnal Comg Out Day was tablished, and is now celebrated on October 11 most untri), enuraged gay men and women to enter the polil arena as ndidat.