Gay people are celebrated today in ways unthinkable before heroes like Dick Leitsch helped make it possible for gays to exist more fully in mainstream society. In 1960s New York and elsewhere, bars could refuse to serve people who were gay, and there were rules in some bars requiring patrons to be facing the bar so they could not be perceived as “cruising.” Police routinely set out to entrap men for seeking gay sex and arrest them. The New York Times routinely referred to gay men as "deviates" and simply being gay was seen ipso facto as being disorderly.

I didn't know Dick Leitsch's story until I read his obituary over the summer, so I wanted to post it here to commemorate his actions and thank him posthumously for making the world a better place. He set out to change those rules and staged a “sip in” at a bar in Greenwich Village where he and some friends identified themselves as homosexuals to the bartender, who refused them a drink and placed his hand over a glass in a photo that captured the moment.

One of the reviewers of MY BARE NAKED HEART expressed skepticism about my depiction of the discrimination against gay young men in college in the 1950s saying she didn’t remember the gay men she knew as having it that bad. The 1950s predate me, but I know with all certainty from my experiences of college life in the ‘80s that the ‘50s certainly had to have been bad and the discrimination and hatred very real. It only got better from the actions of many heroes who should never be forgotten.

There’s still a long ways to go, particularly if you are a gay couple who wants to buy a wedding cake from bigoted red state bakers. But, the world is a better place because of the actions of heroes like Dick Leitsch. A huge thanks, Dick, and here’s to you!

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/ob...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/ny...