Dick Leitsch

Richard Joseph Leitsch (May 11, 1935 – June 22, 2018), also known as Richard Valentine Leitsch and more commonly Dick Leitsch, was an American LGBT rights activist.

Richard Joseph Leitsch (who also went by Richard Valentine Leitsch, adopting a family name as his middle name) was born on May 11, 1935, in Louisville, Kentucky to Joseph Leitsch, who owned a wholesale tobacco business, and Ann (Moran) Leitsch.

Richard, known as Dick, had three younger siblings.

Leitsch's desire from childhood to live in New York City was influenced by movies and live radio broadcasts based in New York.

Leitsch later said that he first experienced attraction towards boys in elementary school, then had his first sexual experiences as a student at Flaget High School.

Though he lived in a Catholic setting with his family and accounts vary as to whether he came out to his parents explicitly, they were broadly accepting and unusually progressive for the time.

Leitsch graduated from high school in 1953 and went on to Bellarmine University, though he did not finish his degree.

Leitsch moved to New York City in 1959.

While cruising down Greenwich Avenue, Leitsch encountered an attractive man named Craig Rodwell who invited Leitsch back to his apartment.

The two eventually began a love affair.

Leitsch would call Rodwell and ask him if he wanted to go to the movies, only to be told by Rodwell that he was going to the Mattachine meetings.

Initially, Leitsch laughed.

He was president of gay rights group the Mattachine Society in the 1960s.

He conceptualized and led the "Sip-In" at Julius' Bar, one of the earliest acts of gay civil disobedience in the United States, LGBT activists used "sip-ins" to attempt to gain the legal right to drink in bars in New York.

He was also known for being the first gay reporter to publish an account of the Stonewall Riots and the first person to interview Bette Midler in print media.

He had been to a Mattachine meeting in 1962 where he heard Albert Ellis give a lecture on homosexuality as an illness.

Leitsch felt revolted when Ellis received a standing ovation and had no further interest in an organization which he viewed as out of step with the times.

Eventually though, in an effort to spend more time with Rodwell, Leitsch agreed to attend Mattachine meetings with him.

Eventually Leitsch became an active member of Mattachine, putting in many hours of volunteering.

Inspired by a fiery and eloquent speech given by Frank Kameny advocating for the gay rights movement to model themselves after the highly successful Civil Rights Movement, Julian Hodges organized a group to run for election in 1965.

Hodges would run for president, and Leitsch as president-elect.

Initially reluctant, Leitsch eventually agreed to run on the ticket.

In his statement of intent, Leitsch promised to work on ending police entrapment of gay men and various forms of discrimination.

The progressive platform proved right for the times and the ticket swept the May elections.

Unexpectedly, Julian Hodges stepped down later that year.

In the course of less than a year, Leitsch went from a reluctant President-Elect to President of Mattachine-New York.

These events occurred around the same time that John Lindsay was inaugurated as the Mayor of New York City.

Leitsch worked behind the scenes frequently with the new mayor on gay issues in the city.

Inspired by the lunch counter sit-ins in the south, Leitsch conceptualized the "sip-in".

On April 21, 1966, members of the New York Chapter of the Mattachine Society staged a "sip-in" aiming to change the legal landscape.

Dick Leitsch, the society's president, Craig Rodwell the society's vice president, and Mattachine activist John Timmons planned to draw attention to the practice by identifying themselves as homosexuals before ordering a drink in order to bring court scrutiny to the regulation.

Leitsch is said to have stated: "We are homosexuals. We are orderly, we intend to remain orderly, and we are asking for service."

The three first targeted the Ukrainian-American Village Restaurant at St. Mark's Place and Third Avenue in the East Village, Manhattan which had a sign, "If you are gay, please go away."

In Leitsch's words, "being gay, we got there late" when the three showed up after a New York Times reporter had asked a manager about the protest and the manager had closed the restaurant for the day.

They then targeted a Howard Johnson's and a bar called Waikiki where they were served in spite of the note, with a bartender saying later, "How do I know they're homosexual? They ain't doing nothing homosexual."

Frustrated, they then went to Julius, where a clergyman had been arrested a few days earlier for soliciting sex.

The group was joined there by Mattachine member Randy Wicker, as well as a New York Times reporter and a Village Voice photographer, Fred W. McDarrah.

A sign in the window read, "This is a raided premises."

The bartender initially started preparing them a drink, but then put his hand over the glass which McDarrah then photographed, after Leitsch announced, "We are homosexuals."

He went on, "We are orderly, we intend to remain orderly, and we are asking for service."