I wasn’t trying to make the point that he or the Mattachine Society didn’t matter. I merely find it very amusing that after a long and meticulously crafted campaign to make gay people as inoffensive and nonthreatening as possible, the thing that accelerated gay acceptance was when the exact opposite happened and people started showing that they didn’t have to be nonthreatening.

The combination of a quiet composed voice and a loud angry one was more effective than either would’ve been on their own.