Two years ago – on June 22, 2018 – Mattachine Society president and pre-Stonewall gay rights activist Dick Leitsch died at the age of 83. I’ll share with readers what I wrote about him in a Facebook post a few weeks ago. I wanted to highlight him and his work for Pride Month.
Mattachine and the ‘Sip-In’
In his work with the Mattachine Society, Dick pushed the group in a much more radical direction. In that, he represented very well a long forgotten era of the gay rights movement sandwiched between the gay conservatism of the 1950s and the liberation era kicked off by Stonewall itself. Though Dick Leitsch stepped down from Mattachine leadership near the beginning of the liberation era, I think he sympathized with its goals. If, perhaps, not always its methods.
Dick’s big moment came in 1966. With some friends, he entered Julius‘ taven – a block from the Stonewall Inn. They announced themselves as homosexuals and ordered drinks. After the bartender refused service, they challenged in court local New York legislation prohibiting gay patrons from gathering in bars. It was a critical event in overturning this kind of discriminatory legislation.
The story of why the early-mid 1960s was forgotten is itself contentious and thorny. Many leaders from the era died during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. The liberation movement made for more interesting headlines, and the conservative movement made for a sharper contrast and clearer narrative. The few attempts at telling a consistent narrative usually end up turning Leitsch into either a conservative or a liberationist. See, for instance, the 1995 film Stonewall.
Uncle Dick
Dick Leitsch, of course, lived through it all. And then some. But I don’t really know him as a gay rights hero. I simply know about those things. The closest I ever really came to discussing these things with him was a time we happened to walk past Julius’ tavern.
Dick isn’t my uncle – he’s my friend’s uncle – but I know him as ‘Uncle Dick,’ a charming host and storyteller. For me, the most recognizable piece of his standard biography is the fact that he was the first gay journalist to interview Bette Midler. Upon meeting Dick Leitsch, one immediately gets the impression he’d make a great interviewer.
Some friends and I took a few road trips to New York over 15 years ago, and we stayed at Dick’s apartment during our trips. He lived well-positioned near the 72nd and Broadway subway station, and he seemed to know everything about New York. Maybe he didn’t love giving walking tours, but he seemed to love giving them for us. His apartment was cute and rent-controlled, and his sense of style was…eclectic.
Readers can find my favorite part of his apartment in the photo with this post – the gay school bus. That’s the Dick I knew.
