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The next day’s New York Times featured an article about the event with the headline “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars.” Two weeks later, a far more sympathetic piece appeared in The Voice. As they entered, the men spied a sign that read “Patrons Must Face the Bar While Drinking,” an instruction used to thwart cruising.
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The activists knew Julius’ had to refuse them, because the night before, a man who had been served there had later been entrapped by an officer for “gay activity,” meaning the bar was in jeopardy of having its liquor license revoked. “At the time, being homosexual was, in itself, seen as disorderly,” said Dick Leitsch, 81, reminiscing the other day in his apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
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Such refusals fell under a vague regulation that banned taverns from serving patrons deemed “disorderly.” The men, members of the early gay rights group the Mattachine Society, aimed to challenge bars that refused service to gay people, a common practice at the time, though one unsupported by any specific law. Chief among them were Dick Leitsch and Randy Wicker, who recently recounted the history of that time in a fascinating NY Times profile. To mark the 50th anniversary of the "Sip-In," as it was called (as a nod to the sit-ins of the civil rights movement) some of the same activists recreated the scene at Julius' Bar yesterday. Noon - 4/21, celebrate #lgbt #history Julius' Bar 4 50th ann of the "Sip-In" #lgbthistory /ZyPHVq6iMm McDarrah captured the exact moment when the barkeep put his hand over a glass to take it away. This was at the time a radical act-many bars were refusing to serve openly gay customers, and NYC cops routinely raided gay bars, which were threatened with liquor license revocation for "gay activity." Julius' refused to serve the men that day, and Village Voice photographer Fred W. In 1966, three years before the Stonewall riots, a trio of gay rights activists staged a small but significant protest at Julius' Bar in Greenwich Village, where they took seats at the bar, informed the bartender of their sexual orientation, and ordered drinks.