Craig Rodwell

1940-1993

Craig L. Rodwell was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors, and as the prime mover for the creation of the New York City pride demonstration. Rodwell is considered to be one of the leading gay rights activists in the early homophile movement of the 1960s.

Rodwell was born in Chicago, Illinois. As a young man, Rodwell first experienced same-sex relationships and also came to internalize the Christian Scientist notion that “truth is power and that truth is the greatest good.” In Chicago, Rodwell had an affair with Harvey Milk. Rodwell’s relationship with Milk ended in part due to Milk’s conflicted reaction to Rodwell’s early activism. When Rodwell opened the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in 1967, Milk dropped by frequently, and after moving to San Francisco, Milk expressed his intention to Rodwell of opening a similar store as
a way of getting involved in community work. Milk eventually opened a camera store that also functioned as a community center, much like Rodwell’s bookshop had as a community gathering place.

Rodwell was one of the conceivers of the first yearly gay rights protest, the Annual Reminder picketing of Independence Hall held from 1965–1969. Rodwell was also present at the Stonewall riots in 1969. He was active in the Mattachine Society and in several other early homophile rights organizations. At the Mattachine Society, where most members chose pseudonyms to protect themselves from law enforcement surveillance, Rodwell did not.

In November 1969, Rodwell proposed the first gay pride parade to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations meeting in Philadelphia, along with his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes. The first march was organized from Rodwell’s apartment on Bleecker Street. “We propose that a demonstration be held annually on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street and this demonstration be called CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY,” the proposal read.

In June 2019, Rodwell was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in New York City’s Stonewall Inn.