Danny Garvin and David Carter on the set of Stonewall Uprising. Picture (c) David Carter. One of the few remaining "Stonewall Veterans" who helped preserve the history of the momentous action has died in New York. Danny Garvin died earlier this week. He had been among only around 20 people still living to tell the tales of the June 28, 1969, action at New York’s Stonewall Inn which birthed the gay rights movement. His memories are part of David Carter’s book Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, and the author has been asked by his family to inform the media of his death. “Danny Garvin and [artist and Stonewall Veteran] Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt proved to be the two most knowledgeable persons about the Stonewall Inn club for the history I wrote of the Stonewall Riots,” Carter says. He explains Garvin was at the bar from the day it opened, on his birthday in 1967, “became an habitué of the Stonewall Inn, met his first love there by dancing with him, dated the doorman (Blonde Frankie), and was friends with one of the persons who worked in the coat check,” Carter writes. “Danny was also one of the more valuable witnesses to (as well as a participant in) the Stonewall Uprising. His gentle and sensitive nature brought a great deal of warm humanity to the history of this watershed event in the LGBT civil rights movement as well as endearing him to his friends.” Carter says in addition to sharing his life story with him, Garvin became a friend. “He was always a selfless person. Like most authentic Stonewall witnesses, he did not seek the limelight or recognition. Of all the persons I met working on the book, he was the sweetest. I will always miss him and consider myself blessed and honoured to have been his friend.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 13th December 2014 - 9:50am