In a reenactment of the first lesbian rights rally at the White House that took place 59 years ago on April 17, 1965, about 30 LGBTQ activists marched a round picket line in front of the White House on April 17, carrying signs calling for an end to prejudice against “homosexuals.”
In front of the White House border on Pennsylvania Avenue, crowds of vacationers watched the protesters as they squatted incessantly in solitude. In accordance with the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C.’s dress code, several of the people were wearing suits and ties, and the women were wearing garments, as was the case with the 1965 incident. C., the town’s first gay rights group that organized the 1965 event.
Wednesday’s dramatization was organized by D.C. in a rally against President Joe Biden and his presidency, which the organization praised as a strong supporter of LGBTQ rights, was made clear at the event by Rainbow History Project.
The Rainbow History Project standard who organized the event, Vincent Slatt, said,” I think this was an incredible event. He said,” We had twice as many as we had hoped for that came today.”
Slatt praised the success of the dramatization and how far we have come. Additionally, the recognition of what else must we do.”
Slatt claimed that individuals in the event who weren’t carrying protest signs distributed writing outlining the event’s objectives.
According to a traveler distributed by participants, the demands made by the protesters at the 1965 event included a ban on gays from working in the government, a ban on gays from serving in the military, a ban on gays from receiving security clearances, and a ban on the government from meeting with the LGBTQ community.
Some of the queer staff inside the White House discovered this was happening and came out to greet us, Slatt said. “The another factor that I think is really, truly moving is. He noted how much has changed since 1965, when the Mattachine Society’s response to a text Johnson sent in 1965 showed how much has changed since then.
So it was particularly significant for us to see gay people in the White House pay their respects and greet us, Slatt said. “That was hardly expected now.”
Longtime D.C. was among those walking the fence line. C. One of the only surviving survivors of the April 1965 White House picketers, is LGBT right activist Paul Kuntzler. At Wednesday’s reenactment function, Kuntzler claimed to be proud to have carried a newly printed copy of the signal during the 1965 opposition. It stated, “Fifteen Million Homosexuals Protest Federal Treatment.”
Japer Bowles, chairman of D.C., was likewise present at the event. C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs. Bowser gave Slatt a statement declaring Mattachine Society Day on April 17, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Bowser presented it with Bowser’s gift. C.
The Mattachine Society of Washington boldly held the country’s first picket for gay rights on April 17, 1965, marking the creation of public presentations supporting those rights and paving the way for Pride parades and events all over the country,” the statement reads.
According to armed Secret Service agents, about 30 hours after the dramatization event began, the picketers would have to cross the street on the street in front of Lafayette Park because of a security problem and continue the protesting. One of the Secret Company soldiers, when questioned by the Washington Blade about the safety issue, replied that he had no further information other than that his superiors had informed him that the White House road would need to be partially cleared of all people.
In keeping with the 1965 picketing event, which lasted an hour, members in the event quickly resumed their fence column on the road in front of Lafayette Park for another 30 days or so. m. to 5:20 p. m., according to Rainbow History Project’s study into the 1965 function.
A separate rally in Lafayette Park, which was staged by the LGBTQ picketers in solitude, featured speakers shouting through enhanced speakers. The demonstration was led by an Al Baqee Organization-sponsored Muslim institution and was directed at the Saudi Arabian government.
The Rainbow History Project claims, among other things, that the reenactment function was a gift to D.C.-area gay rights advocate Lilli Vincenz, who participated in the 1965 White House protesting, and D.C. Gay right pioneer Frank Kameny was the result administrator of the 1965 White House opposition and the Mattachine Society of Washington’s founding in the early 1960s. Kameny died in 2011 and Vincenz died in 2023.
The protest signs carried by individuals in the reenactment event, which were reproduced from the 1965 function, had these messages:
- “Discrimination Against Homosexuals is as evil as Discrimination Against Negroes and Jews;”
- “Government really combat prejudice, never promote it.
- “White House Wants Answers to Our Letters, AFRAID OF US?
- “HOMOSEXUALS Died for their Country, Too”
- “First Class Citizenship for HOMOSEXUALS”
- “Sexual Preference is Irrelevant to Employment”
