history-had already existed for nearly a decade at that point, and its work in advocating for equal civil rights for gay people predated the Stonewall Uprising in New York City by nearly 20 years. The Mattachine Society-considered one of the earliest gay activist groups in U.S. The staid fashion choice went hand-in-hand with the work Wicker did with the Mattachine Society, which he joined in 1958 when he was 20 years old. But people would still sit and listen to you, and that’s the beginning of a conversation.” “It was assumed we were mentally ill it was considered that we were certainly criminals, and we were also considered to be morally depraved. “A black suit and tie works wonders anywhere, because if you wear a black suit and tie people will stop and listen to you and consider what you have to say,” he told TIME one recent afternoon at his apartment in Hoboken, N.J. Wicker jokes that he looked like a preacher for most of the 1960s-but for one of the earliest LGBTQ activists, it was a political choice. And he donned that suit again when he protested New York’s prohibition against serving gay patrons during a “sip-in” in 1966.
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He wore it when he answered questions on-air in 1965 as one of the first openly gay men to appear on television. picket for gay civil rights, which took place in New York City in 1964. He was wearing that black suit and tie at what’s thought to be the first U.S. But for several decades, Wicker, now 81, was never seen in public without his suit-and-tie uniform in a much more traditional black.
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Johnson pinned to his lapel-accented by a pair of earrings made out of screws. Today, it’s a suit with a cartoon Lady Liberty tie and a button of Stonewall activist Marsha P. Randolfe Wicker is wearing a suit and tie.