Making Gay History: Before Stonewall - Characters

(in order of appearance)

This play was created in 2020, and the language used to define the LGBTQ+ community has evolved since the time these interviews were conducted. For the purposes of these descriptors, we use words and identifiers that are meaningful and appropriate for today’s language. We cannot include or presume to know all parts of a person’s identity, thus we have included identifiers that we feel are most essential to understanding each person’s place in history and this play’s focus on stories before 1969.

All interviews were conducted by Eric Marcus from 1988 to 1990, unless otherwise noted. At various points throughout the play, the actors speak the words of Eric Marcus and others who were present during the original interviews.

Chuck Rowland – White, gay, cisgender man; co-founder of the Mattachine Society in 1950, Los Angeles.

Sylvia Rivera – Latinx, transgender woman; activist and participant in the Stonewall uprising.

Wendell Sayers – Black, gay, cisgender man; first African American attorney hired to work in the Colorado state attorney general’s office.

Shirley Willer – White, lesbian, cisgender woman, president of the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, then president of the national chapter of the organization.

J. J. Belanger – White, gay, cisgender man; World War II veteran and early member of the Mattachine Society.

Morris Foote – White, gay, cisgender, man; resident of Boise, Idaho, during the “homosexual panic” of 1955 that resulted in 1500 police questionings, 16 arrests, and 10 jail sentences.

Dick Leitsch – White, gay, cisgender man; early leader of the Mattachine Society and participant in the Julius Bar Sip In on April 21, 1966, in Greenwich Village.

Dr. Evelyn Hooker – White, heterosexual, cisgender woman; psychologist and author of the landmark study, “The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual” (1957).

Bayard Rustin – Black, gay, cisgender man; mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Interviewed by Peg Byron in 1986.

Ernestine Eckstein – Black, lesbian, cisgender woman; vice president of the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis in the mid 1960s. Interviewed by Barbara Gittings and Kay Lahusen in 1965.

Harry Hay – White, gay, cisgender man; founder of the Mattachine Society in 1950, Los Angeles

Del Martin – White, lesbian, cisgender woman; co-founder of the Daughters of Bilitis in 1955 and life partner of Phyllis Lyon

Phyllis Lyon – White, lesbian, cisgender woman; co-founder of the Daughters of Bilitis in 1955 and life partner of Del Martin

Frank Kameny – White, gay, cisgender man; helped found the Mattachine Society of Washington, DC; sued the federal government after being fired for being a homosexual

Barbara Gittings – White, lesbian, cisgender woman; activist and life partner of Kay Lahusen; member of the Daughters of Bilitis and co-editor of The Ladder, the organization’s magazine

Kay Lahusen – White, lesbian, cisgender woman; activist and life partner of Barbara Gittings; member of the Daughters of Bilitis and co-editor of The Ladder, the organization’s magazine

Billye Talmadge – White, lesbian, cisgender woman; early member of the San Francisco chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis

Herbert Donaldson – White, gay cisgender man; attorney arrested for his participation in the 1965 New Year’s Day Mardi Gras Ball in San Francisco for the Council on Religion and the Homosexual

Evander Smith – Native American, gay, cisgender man; attorney arrested for his participation in the 1965 New Year’s Day Mardi Gras Ball in San Francisco for the Council on Religion and the Homosexual

Marsha P. Johnson – Black, transgender woman; activist and participant in the Stonewall uprising

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