By MICHAEL ODMARK
Gay rights leaders on Thursday urged landmark status for Julius’ Bar in Greenwich Village, where 50 years ago three gay men organized a “Sip-In” in order to expose the homophobic practices of the time.
As preparations began for the 50th anniversary party, with rainbow-colored balloons and Judy Garland on the radio, Andrew Berman from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation made an official plea to the city.
“It is easy for this kind of history to be lost,” Berman said. “One critical way in which we ensure that history is remembered is to honor and preserve the sites connected to events like these.”
The “Sip-In” predated the Stonewall riots by three years.
Dick Leitsch and Randy Wicker, two of the original demonstrators and former members of the early gay rights group, The Mattachine Society, showed up to restage the event and offer their continued support for maintaining the site’s legacy.
“Until this time gay people had never really fought back,” said Leitsch in a 2008 interview. “We just sort of take in everything passively, didn’t do anything about it. And this time we did it, and we won.”
Julius’, which opened in 1840, is the oldest gay bar in New York City and one of the oldest continuously operating bars in the city. The more widely recognized Stonewall Inn, just a block away, was declared an official landmark last year. Berman hopes the city will grant Julius’ the same honor.
“We have been waging a campaign for two and a half years to get the City to designate this site a landmark.” Berman said. “It is time for Mayor de Blasio and the Landmarks Preservation Commission to act, and to make Julius’ a New York City landmark.”
The patrons drank to that.
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