A student protest at Bucks County Community College’s Newtown Township campus in 1968 emerged as one of the country’s earliest demonstrations for gay rights. However, the demonstration, a largely forgotten event, was brought to light in recent years.
The protest, which predated New York City’s Stonewall Inn uprising by a year, went unrecognized for over 50 years until San Francisco history professor Marc Stein uncovered its significance in 2020 while researching old newspaper archives. An article from The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1968 caught his eye.
“I, nor anyone else, had ever heard of it,” Stein said.
The catalyst for the student-led demonstration was the eleventh-hour cancellation of a scheduled speaker, Dick Leitsch, who was then president of the New York chapter of the Mattachine Society, an early gay rights organization. Leitsch was slated to speak at an event about problems gay people faced in 1960s America.
Ralph Sassi Jr., then a 20-year-old president of the community college’s Student Government Association, had approved funding for Leitsch’s visit, which cost a few hundred dollars.
“I felt that my job was to represent all of the needs of the students, from whatever was needed to learn and to broaden the educational experience,” said Sassi, now 74 and living in Southern California. “I didn’t think anything of having this speaker come.”
Despite Leitsch’s visit being set, college administration, which was led by President Charles E. Rollins, received dozens of complaints from community members and cancelled the event just hours before it was to begin.
The cancellation sparked outrage among students and led to an estimated 200 gathered in protest outside Tyler Hall.
Sassi, a Levittown native who said he was not gay and wasn’t political, spoke against the administration’s decision.
“I really thought it was a matter of free speech, the First Amendment,” Sassi said, noting the event should have been held despite complaints.
Students were angered by the perceived censorship and the administration’s insinuation that they were not mature enough to handle the topic.
After students spoke out, Rollins came outside and talked to the upset students. He answered questions about the cancellation.
Professor Martin Sutton, who joined the faculty when the community college opened in 1965, recalled the demonstration and the students calling out Rollins’ decision.
Advertisements
Stein noted the Bucks County protest is particularly significant because it happened in Bucks County, which was largely a white, middle-class area with a small gay population.
Stein said the protest was organized by students that were likely more motivated by principles of free speech and anti-censorship than by direct involvement in the gay rights movement.
In the wake of the demonstration, there were some regional news headlines and the Delaware Valley Advance newspaper chided the community college for failing to let students hear an invited speaker.
As the country moved forward, the community college event was all but forgotten until Stein surfaced the old newspaper article in 2020.
“This is an important episode in pre-Stonewall LGBT history, as well as an important episode in the history of higher education and student activism,” Stein said. “It shows us evidence of changing and conflicting attitudes about homosexuality in the 1960s, especially among young people.”
The importance of that protest was the topic of a forum held virtually and in-person by the community college last month.
“What’s particularly important to note about this event is the power of our students,” said Associate Provost Kelly Kelleway. “It was our student body who stood up and showed us this way forward. It was our student body who led us down the path to where we are today.”
The forum also featured Professor Max Probst, who advises the Open Door Club for LGBTQ+ students and allies; and Monica Kuna, the community college’s library director who played a key role in helping Stein find out more on the event.
The research complied by Stein is part of the digital exhibit in “’Where Perversion is Taught:’ The Untold History of a Gay Rights Demonstration at Bucks County Community College in 1968” on OutHistory.org.
