Celebrating the life of Lilli Vincenz
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.
