Queer History Establishment dumps Randy Wicker

On October 12, 2004, a distinguished panel of queer historians
spoke at the San Francisco Public Library, downtown.

After their presentations, an audience member stood up and said:
"This question is about the 'homophile' period on the East Coast.
Randy Wicker claims that the first queer U.S. picket was
in September 1964,
in New York, at the Army induction center;
several months before the well-known 1965 picket at the White House.
Is Wicker correct?"

At least two panelists replied that Wicker was first;
BUT that his 1964 picket
was just a bunch of individuals, not an organization.

The questioner then asserted that there were
two organizations sponsoring the picket:
the Homosexual League of New York,
and the New York City League for Sexual Freedom.

Panelists again dismissed Wicker's role;
because HLNY was very small;
and because LSF wasn't exclusively (nor even primarily) gay.

Thus the panelists implied that the 1965 picket was historic,
but that the 1964 picket wasn't.


This attitude justifies the Establishment's practice of honoring
Franklin Kameny, Ph.D.,
leader of Washington D.C. Mattachine,
as organizer of the first queer picket line;
while dismissing Wicker's earlier picket.


The underlying assumptions seem to be:
(1) If Wicker, a gay man, individually organizes a picket on a queer issue
(military discrimination against queers), that just doesn't count.
(2) If non-queer allies participate in a queer-led picket on a queer issue,
then the picket isn't legitimately part of queer history.


Do those assumptions seem logical?
Objective?
Fair?


Does the queer history Establishment have some other motivation
for denying or minimizing Wicker's pioneering role?

Do they simply dislike Wicker as a person?

Or do they delete his 1964 picket because Wicker disgraced
himself, several years later,
by opposing the Stonewall Riots of 1969?

For that stance, he certainly merits harsh criticism --
but does Wicker really deserve to be erased from queer history?

In George Orwell's novel 1984, the protagonist's government job
includes erasing disfavored persons from official publications.
Orwell thus parodies a well-known Soviet practice.

Plus ca change,
plus ca meme chose.....




-- fan of Wicker
(despite his faults)
October 2004
.............