News
Celebrating the life of Lilli Vincenz
U.S. senator, activists reflect on legacy of pioneering LGBTQ rights advocate
A dozen people familiar with the accomplishments of LGBTQ rights advocate Lilli Vincenz, who died on June 27 at the age of 85, have elegantly expressed and captured the pioneering work and legacy of Vincenz as an LGBTQ rights advocate, psychotherapist, and documentary filmmaker.
Among the accomplishments of Vincenz considered most significant by those whose views are included here, including U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) and two gay historians, is her role as a documentary filmmaker capturing 1960s-era gay protests.
Among the Vincenz films considered significant, which are now available for viewing through the Vincenz papers and film collection at the Library of Congress, include her 1968 film “The Second Largest Minority” and her 1970 film “Gay and Proud.”
The 1968 film captures what activists say appears to be the first known documentary of a 1960s-era pre-Stonewall gay and lesbian protest outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall organized by the Mattachine Society gay rights organization with ties to D.C., Philly, and New York City.
The second film in 1970 captured the first Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade in New York City to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York’s Greenwich Village.
The activists contributing to this tribute to Vincenz say these historic films were just one part of the enormous contributions that Vincenz has made to the LGBTQ rights movement beginning in the 1960s through the early 2000s.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.)
Discussing 1960s-era ‘gay’ documentary films made by Lilli; excerpt from interview in Mattachine Society Documentary ‘Gay and Proud: Lilli’s Legacy’:
She recorded a history that without her work would remain untold in many respects. I prize, and cherish, and respect not only those participants in activism but those who recorded it so people like me decades later could learn about them and learn about our history. Lilli Vincenz is one of those prescient individuals, courageous individuals who made that possible.
I remember coming out when I was in college. I tried to read up on the history of the LGBTQ movement. I remember at the time seeing some documentaries. It gave me a deep appreciation of some of the pioneers who did courageous things when few others were, and also the fact that some of those things were documented allowed somebody like me many years later to find a family that I didn’t know I had as a member of a larger community.
Not only did she have the foresight to come with a camera in order to record this immensely historic event, but she knew the importance of distributing it to people in other areas of the country who could perhaps gain some confidence and courage out of seeing what was happening in New York City and other cities. She made copies and sent it to gay bars and other groups who would then show the film, giving people a greater understanding of a movement that they were a part of and perhaps the courage to speak out and be more visible.
There was an understanding, particularly by Lilli, that when we were visible and vocal, we could make change. And through their courage, that began to happen.
The fact that we have a copy today and that institutions like the Library of Congress have found this to be a remarkable piece of history and is preserving it for generations to come is a real statement of their understanding and all of our understanding of how movements for change work and how much a part of our country’s history this struggle is and was.
Daniel L. Hays, president, Equality NoVa
The LGBTQ+ community lost another trailblazer, an icon with the passing of Lilli Vincenz. From her work – multi-decades work – beginning in the early 60s, to her preservation of the movement’s history in documentaries, her work was critical to us getting to where we are in the fight for equality. The heavens received an angel that surely is looking down on us all with rainbow wings.
Charles Francis, president, Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C.
The last time I saw Lilli was a special moment of personal triumph for her, an honoree invited by President Obama during PRIDE 2014 at the White House. There she stood in the East Room beside a velvet rope with one of the original, hand-lettered picket signs held high outside on the sidewalk 50 years before.
It read: End Official Persecution of Homosexuals. She was the first lesbian to join the original Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., and picketed at the front gate along with the Mattachine led by Frank Kameny and the Daughters of Bilitis. All were scorned by the Johnson administration that viciously enforced the federal ban and investigation of homosexuals in the U.S. Civil Service Commission and the military. The Johnson folks claimed it was about the “revulsion” of fellow employees forced to work alongside “self-avowed” homosexuals.
She had already been kicked out of the Women’s Army Corp because of her homosexuality in 1963 and had nothing to lose and everything to gain for her own dignity and LGBTQ generations to come. Lilli was so beautiful, graceful and dignified both in the day and in that moment with the old picket in the East Room. (The picket sign was donated by the Kameny Papers Project in 2006 to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History that loaned it to the White House in 2014.)
Lillian Faderman, historian, former California State University professor and acclaimed author of many books, including ‘To Believe In Women: What Lesbians Have Done For America – A History.’ (From the documentary film “Gay and Proud: Lilli’s Legacy”)
Lilli’s story is one of such bravery. She was so ahead of her time…She was very bright, very gifted, and very beautiful too. She got kicked out of the army because she was a lesbian…She was remarkable in her willingness to step forward to be out there. It was, after all, still dangerous in the early 1960s to be known as a homosexual. And Lilli didn’t seem to give a damn.
Anyone who saw [Vincenz’s film] “Gay and Proud” realized that these huge marches were possible. It really got the ball rolling. And slowly other groups began to have marches in their cities. Until now, when millions of people march around the country.
Loraine Hutchins, longtime D.C. area Bi+ rights advocate
I’m grateful for Lilli’s work in the world and went to her early groups at her house and then later to the events at Ethical Culture Society. Will miss her a lot. Always felt support as a young and aging bi woman by Lilli.
Kris McLaughlin, former president, Equality Northern Virginia
Lesbian activist Cheryl Spector introduced me to Lilli and Nancy in the early 2000s, when I was president of the Arlington Gay & Lesbian Alliance (now called Equality Northern Virginia). I was impressed by Lilli’s disciplined approach to LGBT+ equality and understood that better after watching the film “Gay Pioneers” by Equality Forum.
She was fierce, courageous, and determined. I believe that she knew how grateful we are for her groundbreaking efforts and think it’s fitting that she left us during Pride month.
Kevin Naff, editor, Washington Blade
As one of the founders of the Washington Blade back in 1969, Lilli Vincenz’s passion and legacy live on in the work of today’s Blade journalists. We are proud to honor her memory through our mission of telling the LGBTQ community’s stories and history through our lens 54 years later.
Malcolm Lazin, founder and executive director, Equality Forum and LGBT History Month
After Barbara Gittings, the mother of the LGBTQ civil rights movement, and Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons, founders of the Daughter of Bilitis, Lilli Vincenz is arguably the most important lesbian in the founding of our civil rights movement. I had the honor of knowing her and her life partner Nancy Ruth Davis.
After receiving a master of English from Columbia University in 1960, Lilli served in the Women’s Army Corp at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. She was outed and thereafter discharged pursuant to federal policy. Not one to give in or give up, in 1963 Lilli joined the D.C. chapter of the Mattachine Society, an early gay organization. As a Mattachine member, Lilli attended the first meeting with the Civil Service Commission to challenge its discrimination policy against gays and lesbians.
In 1965, she was the only lesbian to participate in the rally in front of the White House against Fidel Castro rounding up and incarcerating Cuban gays. This was the first gay demonstration at the White House.
In 1965, Lilli was one of about 40 participants at the 1st Annual Reminder in front of Independence Hall on July 4th and thereafter at each of the five Annual Reminders. These Annual Reminders included activists from D.C., Philadelphia, and New York. Spearheaded by Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings, they were the first time gays were out and called for overall equality. Their non-violent demands for democratic change laid the basis for the LGBTQ civil rights movement.
In 1970, the Annual Reminders were suspended. Lilli Vincenz joined Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, New York activist Craig Rodwell and others, who helped organize the Christopher Street Liberation Day parade to remember the Stonewall Uprising.
That activism is now known as the 1st New York Pride Parade. Vincenz filmed that parade as well as the 1968 Annual Reminder.
In 1971, Vincenz was active in Frank Kameny for Congress, the first time that an openly gay person ran in a federal election. From 1971 to 1979, Vincenz hosted a monthly Gay Women’s Open House in D.C. In 1990, Lilli earned a Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Maryland. She had an active therapy practice.
She and her partner Nancy Ruth Davis were unofficially married in Key West well before anyone believed that same-sex marriage would be recognized. Lilli appeared in Gay Pioneers, a documentary about the start of the gay civil rights movement. Co-produced by PBS and Equality Forum. I was the documentary’s co-executive producer. At screenings, Lilli would bring her beloved fiddle and entertain audiences.
In 2005, Lilli participated at Independence Hall at the 40th Anniversary of the Annual Reminders. Lilli’s contribution to LGBTQ civil rights and memory are our blessing.
Eric Cervini, American historian, author of acclaimed 2020 biography of gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny, ‘Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. The United States of America.’ From Cervini’s interview in the documentary film “Gay and Proud: Lilli’s Legacy”:
The first ever gay pride march took place on the first anniversary of Stonewall in 1970 and Lilli Vincenz decided that she wanted to capture it and make a film titled, ‘Gay and Proud.’
Almost immediately after she was asked to leave the army, in the fall of 1963, she contacted Frank Kameny and the Mattachine Society of Washington…And only a couple of yeas after that, she became the first lesbian to march in front of the White House for gay equality.
Part of Lilli’s activism was she made documentaries about her own activism and the activism of the Mattachine Society of Washington…Lilli organized a group of six people to help her film this 1970 film, ‘Gay and Proud,’ in New York. And it was capturing the first annual Christopher Street Liberation Day march…Lilli used a 16-millimeter black and white camera. It resulted in an 11-and-a-half-minute documentary that was really the first of its kind.
My first thought on watching it is how similar it is to our parades now. And a lot of people wonder, what is the use of pride and why do we have pride parades? And I think this film reminds you that pride, in every single pride march, is an act of resistance.
In 2013, the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. worked with Lilli to donate her materials to the Library of Congress, and so now anyone can view her films, look at her diaries, and see her history.
Nicholas F. Benton, owner/editor, Falls Church News-Press
I got to know Lilli when her partner, Nancy Davis, came to work for my newspaper in the early 2000s. Both were beyond charming and were frequent attendees at parties I held at my home, always invited to play the fiddle (Lilli) and read captivating short stories of days of Egypt or, then Yugoslavia (Nancy).
I had the honor of being host for their attendance, along with Frank Kameny, at the 2006 Human Rights Campaign National Dinner in Washington, D.C. Truly lovely, humble, and dedicated people.
Bob Witeck, president, Witeck Communications
Lilli Vincenz’ contributions and impact as a civil rights pioneer cannot be underestimated. I am proud that Lilli and her lifelong partner, Nancy Davis, also were neighbors and friends. More significant are the vital chapters in the history of our movement she led and documented with giants like Frank Kameny and Jack Nichols. All are truly revered for their impatience and courage.
I cannot forget the visit we made with Lilli and Nancy to the White House in June 2014 to celebrate Pride during the Obama administration. Remarkably, in the East Room, the president’s staff exhibited one of the original civil rights picket signs that Lilli and her fellow activists carried during their unprecedented 1960s protests outside the White House grounds.
We captured a precious image with Lilli in the East Room that day [in a photo], just moments before one of the staff quietly scolded us. It was a scolding worth savoring to honor a pioneer who taught us how crucial it is to break society’s boundaries.
Vincent Slatt, director of archiving, D.C. Rainbow History Project
Lilli Vincenz had already been active in D.C. 15 years before I was born, and nearly 50 years before I became involved in the RHP archives. I had heard of her name in passing, and met her at an event or two, but, frankly, young gay city guys and suburban lesbian seniors don’t often interact. As I’ve worked with our archives, however, I’ve gotten to know Lilli in a way that I wish other people could. Her name is threaded through so many of the great document collections, magazines and periodicals, photographs and recordings that we’ve amassed over 20 years. One doesn’t have to scrape deeply to find her involvement in our community: she has left footprints in decades of records.
Lilli’s name is not just in the collections we would expect — U.S. Gay Rights, Mattachine Society, Gay Women’s Alternative, The Ladder, Barbara Gittings, Nancy Tucker, and Eva Freund collections. Her efforts are documented in GLAA, PFLAG, Gay Liberation Front, Gay Community Center and the Sodomy Law Repeal collections.
I’ve seen her name in materials from Lambda Rising, the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, and countless other folders where I have stumbled on a letter or document and seen her name. In my earlier years I might not have noticed her or remembered seeing her; nowadays, however, I do and think, “Oh, look who it is again! I didn’t know she was involved with this!”
With the majority of gay history and gay documentation ending up in the trash cans, looking at just the fraction we have saved, I can say this about Lilli Vincenz: her work was deep, and the ripples of her impact have gone wide and are continued to be felt today. When our children and our children’s children crack open the archives and look at our history, they will be in awe of Lilli and what she accomplished. Hopefully, some of those kids will read enough of it to say “Oh, look who it is again!”
Bob Brown, Personal Home Services, Alexandria, Va.
I knew Lilli and her partner Nancy Davis later in life, as I became their housecleaner in 1998 after they answered my classified ad in the Washington Blade. Lilli had a home office as a therapist in Arlington where she helped her patients deal with the often harsh way the LGBTQ community was treated by government, military, police, religious society, and many families. She helped so many people over the years.
She and Nancy both enjoyed travel. Their house was filled with photos from trips they took on Olivia Travel Cruises around the world —18 cruises in total!
Lilli loved her violin and was quite talented. She would often practice in her dining room while I flitted about the house better than AirPods! She cobbled together a group of artists to play music in her airy space above her office/garage and The Ash Grove Players were formed. They played at The American Folk Life Festival, retirement homes and cafes. She loved all styles of music and attended Grammy Award-winner Mark O’Connor’s fiddle camp each summer in Tennessee in the early 2000s. Nancy would recite her poetry and short stories at night around the campfire. They had lots of fun there!
They were a loving couple, Nancy referring to her as “My darling Lilli” and singing “You Are My Sunshine” to her often. This is just a part of the other side of Lilli’s life beyond her heroic activism to push forward equality for us all. I feel quite honored to have known her and Nancy all these years.
Books
New book profiles LGBTQ Ukrainians, documents war experiences
Tuesday marks four years since Russia attacked Ukraine
Journalist J. Lester Feder’s new book profiles LGBTQ Ukrainians and their experiences during Russia’s war against their country.
Feder for “The Queer Face of War: Portraits and Stories from Ukraine” interviewed and photographed LGBTQ Ukrainians in Kyiv, the country’s capital, and in other cities. They include Olena Hloba, the co-founder of Tergo, a support group for parents and friends of LGBTQ Ukrainians, who fled her home in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha shortly after Russia launched its war on Feb. 24, 2022.
Russian soldiers killed civilians as they withdrew from Bucha. Videos and photographs that emerged from the Kyiv suburb showed dead bodies with their hands tied behind their back and other signs of torture.

Olena Shevchenko, chair of Insight, a Ukrainian LGBTQ rights group, wrote the book’s forward.

The book also profiles Viktor Pylypenko, a gay man who the Ukrainian military assigned to the 72nd Mechanized Black Cossack Brigade after the war began. Feder writes Pylypenko’s unit “was deployed to some of the fiercest and most important battles of the war.”
“The brigade was pivotal to beating Russian forces back from Kyiv in their initial attempt to take the capital, helping them liberate territory near Kharkiv and defending the front lines in Donbas,” wrote Feder.
Pylypenko spent two years fighting “on Ukraine’s most dangerous battlefields, serving primarily as a medic.”
“At times he felt he was living in a horror movie, watching tank shells tear his fellow soldiers apart before his eyes,” wrote Feder. “He held many men as they took their final breaths. Of the roughly one hundred who entered the unit with him, only six remained when he was discharged in 2024. He didn’t leave by choice: he went home to take care of his father, who had suffered a stroke.”
Feder notes one of Pylypenko’s former commanders attacked him online when he came out. Pylypenko said another commander defended him.
Feder also profiled Diana and Oleksii Polukhin, two residents of Kherson, a port city in southern Ukraine that is near the mouth of the Dnieper River.
Ukrainian forces regained control of Kherson in November 2022, nine months after Russia occupied it.
Diana, a cigarette vender, and Polukhin told Feder that Russian forces demanded they disclose the names of other LGBTQ Ukrainians in Kherson. Russian forces also tortured Diana and Polukhin while in their custody.
Polukhim is the first LGBTQ victim of Russian persecution to report their case to Ukrainian prosecutors.

Feder, who is of Ukrainian descent, first visited Ukraine in 2013 when he wrote for BuzzFeed.
He was Outright International’s Senior Fellow for Emergency Research from 2021-2023. Feder last traveled to Ukraine in December 2024.
Feder spoke about his book at Politics and Prose at the Wharf in Southwest D.C. on Feb. 6. The Washington Blade spoke with Feder on Feb. 20.
Feder told the Blade he began to work on the book when he was at Outright International and working with humanitarian groups on how to better serve LGBTQ Ukrainians. Feder said military service requirements, a lack of access to hormone therapy and documents that accurately reflect a person’s gender identity and LGBTQ-friendly shelters are among the myriad challenges that LGBTQ Ukrainians have faced since the war began.
“All of these were components of a queer experience of war that was not well documented, and we had never seen in one place, especially with photos,” he told the Blade. “I felt really called to do that, not only because of what was happening in Ukraine, but also as a way to bring to the surface issues that we’d had seen in Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan.”

Feder also spoke with the Blade about the war’s geopolitical implications.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013 signed a law that bans the “promotion of homosexuality” to minors.
The 2014 Winter Olympics took place in Sochi, a Russian resort city on the Black Sea. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine a few weeks after the games ended.
Russia’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown has continued over the last decade.
The Russian Supreme Court in 2023 ruled the “international LGBT movement” is an extremist organization and banned it. The Russian Justice Ministry last month designated ILGA World, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, as an “undesirable” organization.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has sought to align itself with Europe.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after a 2021 meeting with then-President Joe Biden at the White House said his country would continue to fight discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. (Zelenskyy’s relationship with the U.S. has grown more tense since the Trump-Vance administration took office.) Zelenskyy in 2022 publicly backed civil partnerships for same-sex couples.
Then-Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova in 2023 applauded Kyiv Pride and other LGBTQ and intersex rights groups in her country when she spoke at a photo exhibit at Ukraine House in D.C. that highlighted LGBTQ and intersex soldiers. Then-Kyiv Pride Executive Director Lenny Emson, who Feder profiles in his book, was among those who attended the event.
“Thank you for everything you do in Kyiv, and thank you for everything that you do in order to fight the discrimination that still is somewhere in Ukraine,” said Markarova. “Not everything is perfect yet, but you know, I think we are moving in the right direction. And we together will not only fight the external enemy, but also will see equality.”
Feder in response to the Blade’s question about why he decided to write his book said he “didn’t feel” the “significance of Russia’s war against Ukraine” for LGBTQ people around the world “was fully understood.”
“This was an opportunity to tell that big story,” he said.
“The crackdown on LGBT rights inside Russia was essentially a laboratory for a strategy of attacking democratic values by attacking queer rights and it was one as Ukraine was getting closet to Europe back in 2013, 2014,” he added. “It was a strategy they were using as part of their foreign policy, and it was one they were using not only in Ukraine over the past decade, but around the world.”
Feder said Republicans are using “that same strategy to attack queer people, to attack democracy itself.”
“I felt like it was important that Americans understand that history,” he said.
Netherlands
Rob Jetten becomes first gay Dutch prime minister
38-year-old head of government sworn in on Monday
Rob Jetten on Monday became the Netherland’s first openly gay prime minister.
Jetten’s centrist D66 party won the country’s elections last October, narrowly defeating Geert Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom.
King Willem-Alexander on Monday swore in Jetten, who is also the country’s youngest-ever prime minister. The Associated Press notes Jetten’s coalition government includes the center-right Christian Democrats and the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.
“Proud to be able to do this together,” said Jetten in an X post before Willem-Alexander swore him in.
COC Nederland, a Dutch LGBTQ advocacy group, in a statement said Jetten “becoming prime minister shows that your sexual orientation doesn’t have to matter.”
“You can become a construction worker, a doctor, a lawyer, and even prime minister,” said COC Nederland.
The advocacy group noted Jetten has said his government will implement its “Rainbow Agreement” that include calls for strengthening nondiscrimination laws “to better protect transgender and intersex people,” appointing more “discrimination investigators … to address violence against LGBTQ+ people and other minorities,” and introducing measures “to promote acceptance in schools.”
“COC will hold the Cabinet to that promise,” said COC Nederland.
Jetten’s fiancé is Nicolás Keenen, an Argentine field hockey player who competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Jetten is one of two openly gay heads of government: Andorran Prime Minister Xavier Espot Zamora came out in 2023. Gay Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, who is the country’s head of state, took office in 2023.
Leo Varadkar, who was Ireland’s prime minister from 2017-2020 and from 2022-2024, and Xavier Bettel, who was Luxembourg’s prime minister from 2013-2023, are gay. Ana Brnabić, who was Serbia’s prime minister from 2017-2024, is a lesbian.
Former Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir in 2009 became the world’s first openly lesbian head of government. Former Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, former San Marino Captain Regent Paolo Rondelli, and former French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal are also openly gay.
Colombian presidential candidate Claudia López, who is the former mayor of Bogotá, the Colombian capital, would become her country’s first female and first lesbian president if she wins the country’s presidential election that is taking place later this year.
District of Columbia
D.C. police arrest man for burglary at gay bar Spark Social House
Suspect ID’d from images captured by Spark Social House security cameras
D.C. police on Feb. 18 arrested a 63-year-old man “of no fixed address” for allegedly stealing cash from the registers at the gay bar Spark Social House after unlawfully entering the bar at 2009 14th St., N.W., around 12:04 a.m. after it had closed for business, according to a police incident report.
“Later that day officers canvassing for the suspect located him nearby,” a separate police statement says. “63-year-old Tony Jones of no fixed address was arrested and charged with Burglary II,” the statement says.
The police incident report states that the bar’s owner, Nick Tsusaki, told police investigators that the bar’s security cameras captured the image of a man who has frequently visited the bar and was believed to be homeless.
“Once inside, the defendant was observed via the establishment’s security cameras opening the cash register, removing U.S. currency, and placing the currency into the left front pocket of his jacket,” the report says.
Tsusaki told the Washington Blade that he and Spark’s employees have allowed Jones to enter the bar many times since it opened last year to use the bathroom in a gesture of compassion knowing he was homeless. Tsusaki said he is not aware of Jones ever having purchased anything during his visits.
According to Tsusaki, Spark closed for business at around 10:30 p.m. on the night of the incident at which time an employee did not properly lock the front entrance door. He said no employees or customers were present when the security cameras show Jones entering Spark through the front door around 12:04 a.m.
Tsusaki said the security camera images show Jones had been inside Spark for about three hours on the night of the burglary and show him taking cash out of two cash registers. He took a total of $300, Tsusaki said.
When Tsusaki and Spark employees arrived at the bar later in the day and discovered the cash was missing from the registers they immediately called police, Tsusaki told the Blade. Knowing that Jones often hung out along the 2000 block of 14th Street where Spark is located, Tsusaki said he went outside to look for him and saw him across the street and pointed Jones out to police, who then placed him under arrest.
A police arrest affidavit filed in court states that at the time they arrested him police found the stolen cash inside the pocket of the jacket Jones was wearing. It says after taking him into police custody officers found a powdered substance in a Ziploc bag also in Jones’s possession that tested positive for cocaine, resulting in him being charged with cocaine possession in addition to the burglary charge.
D.C. Superior Court records show a judge ordered Jones held in preventive detention at a Feb. 19 presentment hearing. The judge then scheduled a preliminary hearing for the case on Feb. 20, the outcome of which couldn’t immediately be obtained.
