Julius sip-in

Julius sip-in
Part of the Gay Liberation Movement
Image of bartender at Julius' denying service to men for being gay
Date	April 21, 1966
Location	Julius 40.7350°N 74.0015°W / 40.7350; -74.0015
Caused by	Public accommodations for homosexuals Reaction to the Sit-in movement
Parties
Mattachine Society New York State Liquor Authority

The Julius sip-in was a protest at the Julius Bar in New York City on April 21, 1966, to fight state laws which prevented businesses from serving homosexuals. The protest was organized by the Mattachine Society who were inspired by the sit-in movement. A resulting lawsuit at the New York State Supreme Court found that being gay was not indecent behavior and thus service could not be denied to an individual simply for being homosexual.

Initial sip-ins

Dick Leitsch and Craig Rodwell, the Mattachine Society's president and vice president respectively, and another society activist, John Timmons, planned to draw attention to the practice of businesses denying service to homosexuals. They chose to identify themselves as gay before ordering a drink in order to bring court scrutiny to the regulation. The three read from Mattachine stationery stating, "We are homosexuals. We are orderly, we intend to remain orderly, and we are asking for service."

The three first targeted the Ukrainian-American Village Restaurant at St. Mark's Place and Third Avenue in the East Village, Manhattan which had a sign, "If you are gay, please go away." The three showed up after a New York Times reporter had asked a manager about the protest and the manager had closed the restaurant for the day. Secondly, they targeted a bar called Dom's, which was also closed. They then targeted a Howard Johnson's and a bar called Waikiki. They were served in spite of their note, with a bartender saying later, "How do I know they're homosexual? They ain't doing nothing homosexual."

Julius sip-in

Raid sign exactly as it would have appeared at Julius' in 1966

The Mattachine activists then went to Julius, where a clergyman had been arrested a few days earlier for soliciting sex. A sign in the window read, "This is a raided premises." The bartender initially started preparing them a drink but after Dick Leitsch said the word "homosexual," the bartender said, "I can’t serve you" and put his hand over the glass, which was photographed. The New York Times ran the headline "3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars" the next day.

The Mattachine Society then challenged the liquor rule in court and the courts ruled that gays had a right to peacefully assemble. The ruling undercut the previous State Liquor Authority contention that the presence of gay clientele automatically was grounds for charges of operating a "disorderly" premise. With this right established a new era of licensed, legally operating gay bars began.

Historical marker

On the anniversary of the Sip-In, a plaque was added in 2022 by the Village Preservation and the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project to commemorate the bar's role in LGBT history and activism.