This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Lilipo25 (talk | contribs) at 18:45, 27 April 2020. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 18:45, 27 April 2020 by Lilipo25 (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Fred Sargeant (b. 1948) is an American gay rights activist. He is a veteran of the 1969 Stonewall riots and was a co-organizer of the first Gay Pride March.
Sargeant is a retired lieutenant of the Stamford, Connecticut Police Department.
Early activism
Sargeant grew up in Connecticut and moved to New York City in his late teens, There, he met and began dating Craig Rodwell, owner and proprietor of New York's only gay bookstore, the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in Greenwich Village. The bookstore was a gathering place for young gay activists, and soon Sargeant was an active member of the Homophile Youth Movement that sought equal rights for homosexuals in the United States. (1)
Stonewall riots
Shortly after midnight on June 28, 1969, Sargeant and Rodwell were returning from dinner at a friend's home and stopped to check on the bookshop, which was near the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar and club. They saw a crowd of about 75 people gathered outside the Inn and a police car in front, and were told the club had been raided. As police emerged from inside the Stonewall leading a customer, someone began throwing coins at the officers and others joined in, forcing the police to retreat back into the building as the raid turned into a riot. (1)
At dawn, Sargeant and Rodwell went back to their apartment and put together the first of many leaflets about the riot and gay rights that they then printed copies of in the bookshops. They distributed the copies around Greenwich Village. (1)
Gay pride
As a member of the Mattachine Society, Rodwell had participated in annual
The Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations convened in Philadelphia in the autumn of 1969. Lesbian activists Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes successfully pushed through a resolution for a NYC march to commemorate the first anniversary of Stonewall. Rodwell and Sargeant utilized the bookshop's mailing list to gather support and participants for the march, applied for permits, and negotiated the details with over a dozen different gay advocacy groups such as the Gay Liberation Front, the Lavender Menace and the Gay Activists Alliance. On the first anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, Sargeant and Rodwell, along with other members of the Gay Liberation Front, hosted the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, now considered the first NYC Pride March. (1)
Sargeant marched at the front of the parade. He wrote in an article for the Village Voice in 2010:
"At one point, I climbed onto the base of a light pole and looked back. I was astonished; we stretched out as far as I could see, thousands of us. There were no floats, no music, no boys in briefs. The cops turned their backs on us to convey their disdain, but the masses of people kept carrying signs and banners, chanting and waving to surprised onlookers." (2)
Personal life
This sandbox is in the article namespace. Either move this page into your userspace, or remove the {{User sandbox}} template.