Randy Wicker, a pioneer in the movement for LGBTQ+ rights and who's serving as the grand marshal for New York City's Pride parade, sat down with Cheddar News to reflect on his years of activism and why he's doing it.

<div class="block">Randy Wicker, a pioneer in the movement for LGBTQ+ rights and who&#39;s serving as the grand marshal for New York City&#39;s Pride parade, sat down with Cheddar News to reflect on his years of activism and why he&#39;s doing it.</div>

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Celebrating Pride With Pioneering Activist Randy Wicker

Welcome back to Cheddar's Midday. Need to know news show. June is Pride Month and all month long. Cheddar news is shining a light on trail blazers in the LGBT Q community who are breaking ground in different ways. Our own Baker Machado sat down with Randy Wicker, a pioneer in the movement for LGBT Q rights who's serving as the grand marshal and New York City's pride parade. This Sunday. Randy was there at the first Pride March in history. He lived with Marsha P. Johnson, the legendary trans activist and way back in 1962 he organized the first ever radio broadcast in which LGBT Q people spoke for themselves. Now 85 Randy told Baker what life was like when he first became an activist. So in 1958 I joined the movement and on, we were at that time, criminals in every state except Illinois. Psychiatrists had homosexuality as a, as a diagnosis of illness, mental illness, that we were mentally ill. Well, like I said, we were, I don't think people even use the word homosexual. We were just perverts. Vivian were perverts, perverts, deviant. I that's a, that's a progression from perverts a group of very religious, devout people. I tried to have WBIS license revoked because of that interview. Yes, because I don't you rise WB, I put perverts on the air, the nerve perverts, you know what perverts are like? But then the, uh, American Broadcasting Commission, which is your license ruled homosexuality is a legitimate issue for public up to public discussion on radio and TV. So, by making that declaration, suddenly every TV, and radio station everywhere I flew to Chicago twice to be in the cups in it show because there wasn't another homosexual sex and ready to go on. And so that was, that was me. I was the spokesman of the gay movement from about 1962 to about 1965. I also was the first one to publicly demonstrate. I wanna talk about the person on your shirt because obviously Marsha is an incredibly significant person in the gay liberation movement. What do you think Marsha would say about what's happening now with all of these anti trans bills that are being passed all over the country right now? Just sort of where things are at right now in the country. I'm gonna tell you a story which may sound strange. I had a, I had an art deco shop and when Marshall was living with me, I started it in 1974 and closed it 2003. And I had an employee working in the back who was very bigoted. He, every Jew was a, every black was an n I was looking for sympathy. Come on, Marsha is black, right? So, when you, and what would you do, what would you think any black person, don't you think she'd give me some support in my living room privately? Right. What did she do? She said, well, Randy, this is what, this is why she's a saint. Well, well, there are a lot of people that way. So Marsha would never get violent with anyone. That's why she's a living saint. What do you say to so much of the LGBT Q youth right now who feels attacked and threatened in many ways? History is repeating itself in many ways. Yes. But don't make the mistake of being tricked into violent. I, I'm probably gonna have half the people hating me for this. But you were against the violence in Stonewall. Yes, I was. But I also think that it was bad behavior to do the dance show and their on the White House lawn recently. So that's the kind of thing you think I should get angry. You don't wanna let them trick you because that is all every, the issue of 2024 is gonna be misunderstandings and hysteria about trans people over the course of your whole life. I'm curious what has the, what is pride meant to you? I know it's sort of a complex. I was, I was at the very Pride March. When we started off, we thought, oh God, when we go north of 14th Street, we might get attacked. We were only a few 100 people all my life. We had dreamed if we just could have a mass movement, there's so many gay people people only knew. I look back at some point, I think going up Seventh Avenue, Fifth Avenue, I looked back and so far as I could see, there were people we had had thousands of people and they broke into the sheep's meadow and we had a party that is the way you have to make people enjoy. You make people love you, Randy as someone who is able to live openly, who is married, who gets to partake in all these beautiful things that people like you have fought and, and, and been activists for, for your entire life. I have so much profound. Thanks for everything that you have done. Wow. Well, thank you to both Beger Machado and trailblazing activist Randy Wicker.