Death of a gay rights pioneer

Washington Post editorial:

EVERY MOVEMENT for equal rights has its pioneers. Some are well known: Rosa Parks, César Chávez, Betty Friedan. Then there are those who display unparalleled courage but never get the recognition they deserve. Gay rights activist Barbara Gittings was one of those people. She died of breast cancer at her home in Pennsylvania on Feb. 18; she was 75.

The Austrian-born daughter of a U.S. diplomat, Ms. Gittings came out in the 1950s, a time when few homosexuals were seen or heard openly. In May 1965, four years before the Stonewall Riots in New York City that ushered in the modern gay rights movement, Ms. Gittings and 25 other homosexuals picketed the White House to protest employment discrimination in the federal government.

The sign she carried -- "Sexual preference is irrelevant to federal employment" -- is now at the Smithsonian....