There she is, at the front of the picket line in front of the White House way back in 1965. Before Stonewall, there was a vital gay rights movement not coopted by the far left or by the Democratic Party fundraising machine. Frank Kameny, another of the key founders of the movement, remembers Gittings (AP obit here) who died Sunday thus:
I will miss Barbara keenly She was a truly valued and cherished colleague, associate, and friend -- one of a kind in my own life. We were in close, continuing, and cooperative contact, mutully supportively and enormously productively for both of us individually and for the world around us, from the early 1960s until the very present. She was my co-council at Pentagon security clearance cases, worked closely and extensively with me in the psychiatric effort, cooperated in writing published articles and chapters and in joint speaking engagements where we complimented and supplemented each other nicely -- and a fellow picketer and demonstrator.
When I look at Gittings' successors, in particular the waste of time, money and space that is the Human Rights Campaign, I remember a time when gay activism had integrity and courage.