‘The Beginning of a Conversation’: What It Was Like to Be an LGBTQ Activist Before Stonewall

Randolfe Wicker is wearing a suit and tie. Today, it’s a suit with a cartoon Lady Liberty tie and a button of Stonewall activist Marsha P. Johnson pinned to his lapel—accented by a pair of earrings made out of screws. But for several decades, Wicker, now 81, was never seen in public without his suit-and-tie uniform in a much more traditional black.

He was wearing that black suit and tie at what’s thought to be the first U.S.

Randolfe Wicker is wearing a suit and tie. Today, it’s a suit with a cartoon Lady Liberty tie and a button of Stonewall activist Marsha P. Johnson pinned to his lapel—accented by a pair of earrings made out of screws. But for several decades, Wicker, now 81, was never seen in public without his suit-and-tie uniform in a much more traditional black. He was wearing that black suit and tie at what’s thought to be the first U.S.