Craig Rodwell: Marching for Gay Pride

Craig Rodwell, pictured here wearing a solid black tie, was a leader of the LGBTQIA+ movement and founder of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, which celebrated LGBTQIA+ issues and authors. An advocate for aggressive action, he joined the Julius’ Bar sip-in, the Stonewall  Riots, and helped organize the first Gay Pride march.  

Rodwell moved to New York City in 1958 at the age of 18. He was active in the New York branch of the Mattachine Society (1955–76), one of the first gay rights organizations, and formed the Mattachine Young Adults. He is shown here in 1964 protesting the military’s  discriminatory policies outside of the army’s Whitehall Street induction center in New York—one of the earliest LGBTQIA+ demonstrations.

As part of the East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO), Rodwell helped organize the Annual Reminder demonstrations on July 4 in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia from 1965 to 1969. Respectably dressed, the protesters sought to remind Americans that the LGBTQIA+  community deserved equal rights.  

At the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, Rodwell founded the Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN) and published the “New York Hymnal.” As this advertisement notes, the journal aimed to help young LGBTQIA+ individuals “gain a sense of identity and pride.”   

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, frustration at a surprise raid and police harassment grew into a riot. Patrons, community members, and future LGBTQIA+ leaders such as Sylvia Rivera, pictured here in 2000, publicly pushed back for the first time.  Rodwell joined the six-day protest.  

One year after the Stonewall Riots, Rodwell worked with some of the newly formed LGBTQIA+ organizations to commemorate the anniversary with the Christopher Street Liberation Day march. It was the first Gay Pride march.

Nevertheless, some individuals, including transgender activist Sylvia Rivera, were not fully welcomed until later.

Rodwell remained active in the LGBTQIA+ rights movement until his death in 1993. He sold the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop shortly before his passing. It remained open until 2009.  

Today the Stonewall Inn is a national monument, a plaque honors the sip-in at Julius’ Bar, and every year the LGBTQIA+ community and allies march in pride parades across the nation. Rodwell helped show that “Gay is Good.”