NEW YORK CITY: Stonewall Rebellion Participant Danny Garvin Dies At 65

Stonewall Rebellion participant Danny Garvin has died at the age of 65. Via press release from Stonewall historian David Carter:

“Danny was there the night it opened (on his birthday in 1967) and became a regular customer of the Stonewall Inn,” Carter said. “He met his first love there by dancing with him, dated the main doorman (Blonde Frankie), and was roommates with one of the men who worked in the coat check. Danny’s knowledge of the club has contributed a lot to a better understanding of the Stonewall Inn. Fortunately, Danny also happened to walk up the street soon after the June 1969 raid began, and his detailed memories of that night significantly add to our knowledge about the Uprising,” Carter added.

“Danny’s life story is all the more remarkable and historically relevant because his experiences mirrored those of his generation as if he were a gay Zelig,” Carter said. “Danny was in a gay hippie commune before Stonewall and he was roommates with gay activist Morty Manford after Stonewall. Morty Manford’s introduction of Danny Garvin and another gay friend to Manford’s parents precipitated Manford’s coming out to his parents. Morty’s mother Jeanne Manford later founded what became Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, now PFLAG. He hung out with Andy Warhol’s crowd, and he founded the recovery contingent of LGBT marchers in the LGBT Pride March each June.”

Friends and family honored Garvin with a memorial this weekend. I had the honor of being seated next to Garvin at an Ali Forney Center event two years ago and I'm afraid I asked him far, far too many questions. The AFC remembers Danny Garvin:

The Ali Forney Center honors the memory of our friend and dedicated volunteer Danny Garvin, who passed away last night. Danny was one of the heroic homeless LGBT youths who fought during the Stonewall Uprising. At that time he was living out of a locker in the Port Authority, and struggling to survive on the streets. 45 years later LGBT people live much better than in 1969, but we still need to do so much more for our homeless youths. Today there are over 200,000 homeless LGBT youths suffering on the streets of our nation, as he did then. Please remember them in honor of Danny and the heroic street kids whose resistance gave us so much.