In reflecting on his many years of involvement in U. S. elections and the LGBTQ rights activity, Paul Kuntzler points out that Dec. 28 of this year will mark his 62nd year as a native of Washington, D. C. And he also points out that two weeks before that, on Dec. 26, he did enjoy his 82nd day.
Those who have known Paul Kuntzler over the years say that while his is hardly a household name in politics and the LGBTQ rights motion, he has played a vital role as an normal hero and behind- the- scenes organizer for the Democrat Party and the local and national LGBTQ rights movement.
Among other things, Kuntzler served as campaign manager for D. C. gay rights forerunner Frank Kameny’s 1971 position as the first openly gay member for the U. S. Congress when Kameny ran for the previously created position of non- election Representative to the U. S. House of Representatives for D. C.
In his position as campaign manager, Kuntzler is even credited with arranging for more than a few volunteers from the then- Gay Activists Alliance and Gay Youth group of New York City to come to D. C. on a vehicle that the Kameny plan paid for to help obtain the needed 5, 000 signatures to get Kameny’s label on the ballot.
” I knew how hard that was going to be”, Kuntzler said. ” And I recognized we were not going to accomplish this all on our own”, adding that the queer participants from New York, who joined forces with local D. C. individuals, obtained a total of 7, 800 names of registered D. C. citizens to obtain Kameny’s name on the ballot.
Although Kameny finished in fifth place in a six- candidate race, his run as the first openly gay member for the U. S. Congress drew nationwide attention, including support from professional Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward, who made a$ 500 commitment to the Kameny battle while they were performing at the time at D. C.’s National Theater.
Observers of the LGBTQ rights movement at that time considered Kameny’s election an important advancement in the effort to advance LGBTQ right both in D. C. and global.
” Looking back, that perhaps was one of the most important points I did in my life”, Kuntzler said in recalling his position as Kameny’s plan manager.
He says his involvement in politics began in the summer of 1960 in his town of Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., a Detroit district, when he so- founded the Grosse Pointe Young Democrats and served as a charity on the national strategy of John F. Kennedy.
” I met JFK at the Detroit aircraft and shook his hand”, Kuntzler recalls while he joined a crowd of supporters welcoming Kennedy on his appearance for a promotion journey in Michigan. ” It was Labor Day weekend – Sunday, Sept. 4, 1960″, Kuntzler said in demonstrating an incredible remember of dates and events.
Kuntzler, who traveled to D. C. to enter the Kennedy opening on Jan. 20, 1961, said the ideology of the Kennedy management prompted him to move to D. C. one month later to be involved in politics and the budding gay rights movement.
” I met Frank Kameny at Lafayette Chicken Hut on Sunday, Feb. 25, 1962″, Kuntzler says in referring to the subsequently- common D. C. queer table. ” And he was then chairman of the Mattachine Society of Washington”, Kuntzler noted, which was the first major gay rights team in D. C. that Kameny inc- founded.
” He invited me to enter the following Mattachine Society meeting”, Kuntzler recalls. ” So, on Tuesday, March 6, 1962, at Earl Aiken’s apartment on Harvard Street, I became the 17th part of the D. C. Mattachine Society. “, Kuntzler continued. ” And at the age of 20, I was the only small involved in the gay right movements consisting of about 150 people in five American places”, he said. ” I’m the only one still living of the classic 17″.
Kuntzler’s role in the local and regional LGBTQ rights movements for more than 50 years began when he joined the Mattachine Society of D. C. He remembers participating in the nation’s first gay rights demonstration in front of the White House in April 1965 alongside Kameny and another Mattachine Society people, making history.
Kuntzler claimed to have brought a huge poster-sized sign that read,” 15 Million Homosexuals Protest Federal Treatment,” with him. He claimed that Jack Nichols, a co-founder of the Mattachine Society of D.C., requested permission to display that mark on the fence line outside the White House. He was given authority to do so by Kuntzler.
Kuntzler claims that he still has a sizable United Press International pictures of Nichols carrying the signal alongside Kameny, gay advocate Lilli Vincenz, and him with the White House serving as the background.
Kuntzler pursued a career in management for various organizations over the course of the next three decades or more, serving as the founder and organizer of numerous Transgender organizations and projects. He worked for the D.C.-based National Science Teachers Association as associate executive director for sales of workshops, exhibits, and promotion from 1973 to 2007.
His numerous behind-the-scenes involvements include serving as the first manager for the Gay Rights National Lobby in 1975. This was one of the country’s first federal LGBTQ rights organizations with its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and it eventually became the Human Rights Campaign in 1980, for which he also briefly held the position. Kuntzler joined the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, D.C.’s first LGBTQ Democrat organization, as a co-founder in 1979.
Additionally, Kuntzler contributed to the founding of the National Convention Project in 1979, an initiative to appoint openly gay delegates and include a “gay rights” clause in the Democratic Party’s 1980 system. As a result of the work, the Democratic Party adopted an LGBT-supporting platform at the time and elected about 100 boldly LGBT delegates to the 1980 protocol from states across the nation, including D. C.
When then-Democratic President Jimmy Carter lost the November 1980 national election to Republican Ronald Reagan, Kuntzler and the others involved in the project, which he called a victory, expressed their deep disappointment. However, he claimed that over the following several years, his work on behalf of the Democrat Party and LGBTQ rights issues was motivated.
According to Kuntzler, his 42-year-old local partner Stephen Brent Miller, who passed away in July 2004, was the most significant person in his life.
According to Kuntzler, Stephen and I first met on Friday, March 30, 1962, at Lafayette Chicken Hut. According to Kuntzler, Stephen sent me a beverage while I was seated on the side and he later came across, sat over, and we talked. On the following Sunday in April 1962, we went on our first meeting.
Before seeing a film, the two went to breakfast. They then took the van to Frank Kameny’s home. It was a welcome celebration in the home that Kameny had just gotten hedging to book for his place of residence and his efforts to uphold gay rights. People who knew the couple have said that Miller, a specialized stenographer who later launched his personal court reporting company, Miller Reporting, immediately assumed the role of being the devoted spouse to an activist.
According to Kuntzler, attending the Human Rights Campaign’s monthly Washington breakfast next month—one of the biggest LGBTQ events in the country —and hearing from President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Bden was yet another indication of advancement for the LGBTQ rights movement.
When asked if he had any suggestions for the LGBTQ community right now, Kuntzler replied,” I believe we must continue to be diligent.
