#jacknichols

Jack Nichols (March 16, 1938 - May 2, 2005) protests the State Department, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1965. Photo by Kay Tobin, c/o @nyplpicturecollection. . Jack Nichols, who was born seventy-nine years ago today, was one of the most important figures in the early east coast homophile movement and one of the best-known figures in the early post-Stonewall gay liberation movement. . In 1961, Nichols co-founded the Mattachine Society of Washington with Frank Kameny, and he later founded the Mattachine Society of Florida. . Throughout the 1960s, Nichols organized and participated in the first public gay rights demonstrations, including those at the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department; he also participated in the Annual Reminders at Independence Hall each July 4 from 1965 to 1969. In 1967, Nichols was one of the first Americans to discuss his homosexuality on national television, and, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was instrumental in the successful lobbying of the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. . In the mid-1960s, Nichols and his partner, Lige Clarke, began writing a column, “The Homosexual Citizen,” for The Mattachine Review. (The title—“The Homosexual Citizen”—first appeared in the 1950s in a column written by lesbian pioneer Dr. Lilli Vincenz.) In 1968, the couple was approached to write the column for Screw magazine; “The Homosexual Citizen,” as it appeared in Screw, was the first queer-interest column regularly to appear in a non-queer publication. The couple also published books, including “I have more fun with you than anybody” and “Roommates Can’t Always Be Lovers.” In 1969, Nichols and Clarke founded Gay magazine; it was the first weekly gay newspaper to appear widely on newsstands. . Nichols and Clarke, once described as "the most famous gay couple in America," were vital participants in the queer liberation movement until Clarke's murder in 1975; Nichols remained active until his death in May 2005. . Jack Nichols died of cancer on May 2, 2005; he was sixty-seven. #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #JackNichols #Resist (at Washington, District of Columbia)

Candy Pop x Jason the Toymaker. Ticcijack is so damn cute fr 🥺💕

| D.A.P. Visions of Cherry Grove and The Pines by Jack Nichols, 1976. From 'Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction' by Christopher Rawlins. Published by @metropolisbooks. Read more on artbook.com. #horacegifford #fireisland #metropolisbooks #gayarchitecture #fireislandarchitecture #christopherrawlins #jacknichols #cherrygrove #fireislandpines

Jack Nichols (March 16, 1938 - May 2, 2005) protests the State Department's discriminatory practices, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1965. In 1961, Jack Nichols and Frank Kameny co-founded the Mattachine Society of Washington, and Nichols later founded the Mattachine Society of Florida. In the 1960s, Nichols organized and participated in the first gay rights demonstrations at the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department; he also participated in the Annual Reminders at Independence Hall each July 4 from 1965 to 1969. In 1967, Nichols was one of the first Americans to discuss his homosexuality on national television, and, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was instrumental in the successful lobbying of the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. In 1969, Nichols and his partner Lige Clarke founded GAY, the first weekly newspaper for the gay community in the United States. Nichols and Clarke, once described as "the most famous gay couple in America," were vital participants in the movement until Clarke's murder in 1975; Nichols remained active until his death in November 2005. Jack Nichols would turn seventy-eight today. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #gay #bi #trans #lesbian #pride #jacknichols #ligeclarke #foundingparents (at U.S. Department of State)

Reverend Troy Perry, Lige Clarke, and Jack Nichols, Gay Unity Festival, Columbia University, March 12, 1971. Photo by Kay Tobin, @nyplpicturecollection. The weekend of March 12, 1971, saw a number of important events in New York State, starting with Columbia University's Gay Unity Festival. The Festival, organized by the Gay Activists Alliance and the student-run Gay People at Columbia (founded by Morty Manford in 1968 as one of the first gay student groups in the country; Manford later participated at the Stonewall riots and helped found the Gay Liberation Front, and his mother, Jeanne Manford, helped found Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)), featured appearances by Rev. Troy Perry (founder of Metropolitan Community Church) and Lige Clarke and Jack Nichols (founders of GAY, the country's first weekly newspaper by and for the gay community). After the Columbia event, activists traveled to Albany for demonstrations there before descending on Washington, D.C., to participate in the final days of Frank Kameny's congressional campaign (note the "KAMENY" buttons worn by Perry, Clarke, and Nichols). #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #gay #bi #trans #lesbian #pride #troyperry #ligeclarke #jacknichols #mortymanford #kaytobin #foundingparents #shouldersofgiants #gayunityfestival #kamenyforcongress (at Horace Mann Hall, Teachers College - Columbia University)

Mattachine Society leaders (including Dr. Frank Kameny, second from right, and Jack Nichols, center), East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) conference, New York City, September 26, 1965. @nyplpicturecollection. By 1965, Frank Kameny understood that "the entire validity...of everything for which [the homophile movement] stands rests upon" adopting a "position denying that homosexuality is a sickness." On March 4, 1965, Kameny and Jack Nichols convinced the leadership of the D.C. Mattachine Society to make the following declaration: “[D.C. Mattachine] takes the position that in the absence of valid evidence to the contrary, homosexuality is not a sickness, disturbance, or other pathology in any sense, but is merely a preference, orientation, or propensity on par with, and not different in kind from, heterosexuality.” The statement marked the beginning of a new era: without "valid evidence," the gay community refused to accept the prevailing sickness theory. On December 15, 1973, the American Psychological Association voted to remove homosexuality from its list of mental diseases. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #gay #bi #trans #lesbian #pride #frankkameny #jacknichols #eastcoasthomophileorganizations #lillvincenz #dickleitsch #mattachinesociety (at New York, New York)