WaPo profiles Paul Kuntzler, co-founder of GLAA and Stein Democrats


Paul Kuntzler
Paul Kuntzler
Paul Kuntzler, a gay activist in the District since the 1960s, at his apartment in Washington. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)

Perry Stein reports in The Washington Post about GLAA co-founder Paul Kuntzler:

He has remained involved in activism and D.C. politics for 40 years, regularly attending city meetings and protests in support of liberal causes while volunteering for political campaigns in the District and Virginia. The groups he helped establish decades ago, the D.C. Gertrude Stein Democratic Club and the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, are still players in the local political scene….

In 1965, Kuntzler, Kameny and a handful of other activists participated in what Kuntzler says was the first gay rights demonstration in front of the White House. He made a poster that read, “Fifteen Million Homosexuals Protest Federal Treatment.” …

Kuntzler, who is white, said leadership in the city’s black community played an early role in paving the way for advancements in Washington’s gay and lesbian movement. When the District got home rule in 1973, the reins of local government were passed from generally conservative white congressmen to longtime black leaders in the city.

Paul’s D.C. activism actually goes back 55 years to 1962, as the article mentions. He still attends meetings of GLAA and the Stein Club, and still offers his insights and guidance to the younger activists now leading these groups. Congrats to him.

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