Julius' Sip-In at Sixty

Sixty years ago, on April 21, 1966, one of the earliest acts of gay right civil disobedience occurred in the United States. The Julius “Sip-In” was inspired by the Greensboro and other Civil Rights sit-ins that took place in the first half of the 1960s. Following the end of prohibition in the 1930s, the NY State Liquor Authority had strict regulations and would revoke licenses of bars for “disorderly” conduct on the premises. Queer people were considered de facto to be “disorderly” and many bars would refuse service if they suspected someone of being queer. Bars were one of the few social spaces where queer people could gather and these regulations led to the closure of many of New York City’s gay bars in the mid 20th century.

Hoping to fight this ruling, members of the Mattachine Society (a homophile group) organized a “Sip-In.” Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, and John Timmons went to several bars in the hopes of being turned away. The three were dressed in suits and ties, emblematic of the Mattachine’s assimilationist politics. The point was to show they were no different than straight customers, except that they were gay. They brought newspaper reporters and photographers, hoping that the attention garnered would help to change the regulations.

The first bar they tried to enter, chosen because of a sign over the bar reading “if you are gay, please stay away”, was closed because they had been warned in advance about the action. Their next two attempts also didn’t have the desired results. At the Howard Johnson’s and a bar called Waikiki, they announced they were homosexuals and were still served.

Julius'

Julius’ was their fourth stop. While Julius’ was not exclusively a gay bar, many gay men patronized the bar. But the bar was currently in the process of contesting a possible suspension of their liquor license, so the organizers of the action felt pretty confident they would be denied service. And that is exactly what happened.

“…when we walked in, the bartender put glasses in front of us, and we told him that we were gay and we intended to remain orderly, we just wanted service. And he said, hey, you’re gay, I can’t serve you, and he put his hands over the top of the glass.” - Dick Leitsch

Village Voice photographer, Fred W. McDarrah, snapped a picture of this moment and within a few days there were articles in the Village Voice, New York Times, and New York Post about the action. In response, the State Liquor Authority claimed that the “disorderly” conduct did not automatically apply to queer people and that it was up to the bartender’s discretion. But the Mattachine Society had their court case and in 1967, New York passed legislation differentiating between homosexual “status” and “conduct”. So you could drink if you were queer - as long as you didn’t do anything queer - including kissing, dancing, or trying to pick someone up at a bar. While this change in legislation didn’t actually prevent police violence against queer people in bars, it did lay the ground work for the Stonewall Inn to be a gathering place for queer people.

The Astrology of the Sip-In

Let’s take a look at the chart. I want to take a look at the chart of the moment as an electional chart.

What is electional astrology?

Electional astrology is the process of selecting a time to begin an action. It is based on the idea that every thing has a birth chart and that birth chart will speak to all aspects of how an endeavor goes. Using electional astrology, we can choose to align our endeavors with the cosmos and set ourselves up for success. If you’d like to learn more about electional astrology, check out this episode I did with Kira Ryberg all about it. If you’d like to align your own endeavors with the cosmos - I offer electional services!

I don’t believe that the Julius Sip In was elected but I want to assess it as an election to see if we can understand what worked and what didn’t for the Julius Sip-In.

For an election, we have many factors to look at but the 2 most important things are:

1. The Ascendant and it’s Ruler
2. The Moon

This chart is timed approximately to when they first met at the original restaurant. While we don’t have an exact time for when they arrived at Julius’ it very likely would have been while Leo was still rising.

The Ascendant and it’s Ruler

Leo Rising

The Ascendant for this action was Leo. Being a fixed sign indicates that the action will have a longer lasting impact. There are no planets in the 1st house. Leo is an appropriate ascendant sign because Leo is the sign of the Sun, the center of solar system, associated with sovereignty and rulership -marking the action as one that had the capacity to pull things into it’s orbit, to make the rules, to “demand” to be served.

With Leo rising ruled the Sun in Taurus, the action was bound to grab attention. The Ascendant ruler (the Sun), in the 10th whole sign house is very visible and agential. In general with electional astrology, we want the ascendant ruler to be in a good house, best of all in the 1st or 10th houses. The Sun has sight to the Ascendant and is in the most visible house, the 10th. This speaks to the Mattachine Society member’s capacity to take their intended action and to be seen doing it.
Because this is the Sun, the intended action is one that speaks to sovereignty and rulership, i.e. “I should be able to order a drink.” Because the Sun is in Taurus, a Venus ruled sign, the action is around a leisure activity (drinking and social gathering) and the action is not a fight but a performance/demand.

The Sun is not alone in Taurus. Mars, the Moon, and the North Node are all co-present and the Sun is applying within 2° to Mars, in the sign of it’s detriment.

Mars

Because this is a day chart, Mars is the malefic contrary to sect, making it the most challenging planet in the chart. Having the Ascendant ruler applying to conjoin the malefic contrary to sect generally would be considered a no-go in electional astrology. Mars cuts and severs things, starts fights, and heats things up. But these activists were attempting to provoke a response - so while I still wouldn’t recommend Mars conjunct the Ascendant Ruler for any election - let’s take a look at what our astrologer friends say about Mars when you are attempting to start a dispute. Sahl Bin Bishr tells us that “you should not go to war unless Mars is in an aspect of friendship to the lord of the Ascendant, like if he himself is the lord of the Ascendant and he is strong and in a good place, and not impeded, nor burnt up, and he is in signs of straight ascension.” (Sahl Bin Bisher: On Elections, tr. Dykes, pg 119)

Mars in the Julius chart is in a good place (the 10th house), but is not the lord of the ascendant, is burned up by the rays of the Sun, is not powerful by sign, is not in a sign of straight ascension, and is not in an aspect of friendship to the lord of the Ascendant.

And we can see how this attempt to start a dispute did not really go their way at first. These activists are symbolized by the Sun, not by Mars. And rather than a relationship of friendship between them, the Sun is harmed by it’s application to Mars and Mars is hidden by being too close to the Sun. Mars in the sign of it’s detriment here is also very interesting. Rather than this civil disobedience action turning into a fight, which we might expect if Mars were in Aries for example, this Mars is making it more challenging to actually prove their point. The New York Times article published the following day begins with the quote

“Three homosexuals, intent upon challenging State Liquor Authority regulations cited by some bartenders in refusing to sell liquor to sexual deviates, met with some difficulty yesterday in finding a bar that would deny them service.”

Mars in detriment struggled to provide an adequate foe for the activists. The manager of the Howard Johnson’s was quoted as saying  “I drink and who's to say whether I'm a homosexual or not.” So Mars blocks the action from occurring rather than igniting it.

The Moon

The Moon is also in Taurus, exalted and in the 10th house. This is a wonderful place for the Moon by sign and house but our Moon’s condition is still impacted by the co-presence of Mars.

The Moon’s last aspect was a conjunction to Mars, which would have harmed the Moon significantly. The Moon’s next aspect is a sextile to Venus, exalted in Pisces, which is lovely! With Venus and the Moon both exalted and the Moon in Venus’s domicile, this applying aspect is probably the nicest thing about this chart. In general we read the Moon’s separating aspect as what we are coming from, and applying aspect as what we are moving towards so this general motion from conjuction to a detriment malefic to sextile an exalted benefic is a move from an inflamed and irritated experience to a supportive, connective one.

The activists were able to draw the media attention they desired to the issue and got the State Liquor Authority’s attention. They were able to do it without being arrested or otherwise harassed. The “now iconic” photograph that McDarrah took of the Sip-In is probably best described by this sextile between the exalted Moon and Venus. The visual, of the three activists in full suit and tie being denied service, was part of their message.Exalted planets are respected and honored guests and so these activists were dressed in a very “respectable” way in order to prove that it was unjust that their request to be served was denied.
These were “up-standing individuals”, they were not being “disorderly” - and the photo served as proof for that. (Obviously, creating this image relies on their whiteness, a particular relationship to class, and a desire to assimilate into straight culture, which Mattachine was known for and which is not how I think about queer liberation.)

With the Moon’s application to Venus, Mattachine helped change the laws so that the “mere congregation of homosexuals” was not enough to revoke a liquor license. What’s interesting is that because exalted planets are respected, they got their wish, but only for gay people who were willing to act straight, that is act in a “respectable” way. (Again - obviously not how I think about this)

Where the Sip-In and subsequent legislation changes failed was in creating actual spaces for queer people to congregate and be queer. It failed to ignite a real pushback against anti-queer legislation and policing. Why? Well - along with the Sun’s application to Mars, the Moon’s separation from Mars, and Venus’s co-presence with Saturn, I believe this is in large part because the Moon didn’t have enough light. Just one day prior there was a New Moon in Taurus. With the Moon only 10° ahead of the Sun, the Moon had barely any light at all. In general, we need the Moon to have some (ideally a good amount) of light in order to bring things to fruition. While it is better that this Moon is waxing than waning, this Moon just simply doesn’t have enough juice to get the job done. Compare this Moon to the Moon in the Stonewall chart - where the Moon was almost full.

The Moon is the closest body to us and so in order for something to manifest, the Moon must be involved and the more light the Moon has, the more capacity it has to make things happen.

I hope you enjoyed this slightly different approach to looking at the chart of a moment in queer history. As always, if you appreciate the work of Star Gays and want to see it continue into the future, consider becoming a supporting member and you'll get access to bonus content and more!

Sources:

Sahl quote from Choices & Inceptions: Traditional Electional Astrology. Translated and edited by Benjamin Dykes.
https://reason.com/2015/06/28/how-liquor-licenses-sparked-stonewall/
https://daily.jstor.org/gay-bars-and-gay-rights/
https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/julius/
https://www.nytimes.com/1966/04/22/archives/3-deviates-invite-exclusion-by-bars-but-they-visit-four-before.html