On this day in 1966, the New York Mattachine Society walked into Julius Bar in Greenwich Village and did something radical: they announced they were gay and asked to be served. Led by president Dick Leitsch, the Sip-In was a deliberate civil rights action modeled on lunch counter sit-ins, designed to challenge the New York State Liquor Authority's rule that serving alcohol to gay people was a crime. Bar owners across the city had been threatened with license revocation simply for allowing queer patrons to gather, making every gay bar a space of legal jeopardy. When Julius refused them service, the Mattachine Society took the state to court and won, as the city's human rights commission ultimately declared that such discrimination could not continue. It was a reminder that our visibility has always been an act of courage, and that the spaces where we find each other are worth fighting for.
When did you first find a place where you could be completely, openly yourself?