S.V.A. Supporter Quarter-of-a-Century (1969 to 1994) New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay (New York City's 103rd Mayor) 2000 Former Mayor John V. Lindsay -- the handsome knight with the shining sword on the white horse -- died from pneumonia and dealing longtime with an unwelcomed illness known as Parkinson's. The former New York four-term Congressman from the Upper East Side in Manhattan and two-term New York City Mayor passed away not in his beloved NYC but at a medical facility in Hilton Head, South Carolina, where he had moved with his wife Mary a few years prior. Born on November 24, 1921 in New York City, the Mayor died on December 20, 2000 at the age of 79. The first Gay organization that Mayor Lindsay met with was the STONEWALL Veterans' Association -- then known as the "Stonewall Veterans Club". On the S.V.A.'s first visit to City Hall, the Stonewall veterans did our increasingly known "knock, knock" approach -- we did not have an appointment. But because of our timely civil rights mission, our visible numbers and our undeterred determination, a scheduled appointment was quickly arranged for the following week -- directly with the Mayor and some of his staffers. (All the while we believed that his brother Jonathan was fiercely rumored to be Gay.) That historic and momentous meeting occurred at City Hall in late August 1969 less than two months after the Stonewall Rebellion ended. Mayor Lindsay was the perfect mayor for an incereasingly and openly Gay City of New York. The first Gay Pride march in 1970 had many logisitc and legal problems which caught both the City and us by surprise. This included but was not limited to some abuse and much harassment by the NYC police. Mayor Lindsay was rightly displeased with this and he personally ensured that such would not repeat the next year. In 1971, the Mayor negotiated sensible guidelines and safety measures for the second Gay Pride March. (They were not parades at that point.) Politically, John V. Lindsay was a progressive Republican, then he became a Liberal Party candidate for his mayoral re-election on 1969 (after as a sitting Repub mayor he incredibly did not receive the Repub nod) and, in 1971 Mr. Lindsay rightly reataliated by switching to the Democratic Party. In 1972, he was a Democratic presidential candidate. Most appropriately, the last two letters that Mayor Lindsay gave to any Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgender ("GLBT") organization -- twenty-one years after he completed his mayorality in 1973 -- were to his favorite group the S.V.A. and its sister group the Imperial QUEENS of New York ("IQNY"). Both organizations are headed by someone the Mayor knew rather well, very harmoniously and surely long: Williamson Henderson. Please see a Mayor Lindsay letter below on the historic occasion of "Stonewall 25" mailed to Williamson and sent for the IQNY. 1994 
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S.V.A. Honorary Member Mayor John V. Lindsay
John V. Lindsay ("JVL") was elected Mayor of the City of New York in 1965 on the Republican and Liberal political party lines. Prior to being mayor, JVL served in the New York City Council. He was the Mayor when the Stonewall Rebellion occurred in the evenings/nights of late June into early July of 1969. Popular Mayor Lindsay was re-elected Mayor of New York City in November of 1969 only on the Liberal Party line (a third party candidate) -- just several months after the Stonewall Rebellion.
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Updated:
5th of October 2008
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Supporters of S.V.A. |