From The Congressional Record:

SPEECH OF
HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY
OF NEW YORK
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2006

* Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Mr. Lew Todd, an outstanding New Yorker who has devoted himself to his community, his city and his country throughout his life. Lew Todd is not just a leader, but a pioneering figure in the history of New York City's gay , lesbian, bisexual and transgender, GLBT, community, the largest of any city in our Nation. This month, his leadership is being honored by the Stonewall Democratic Club at a ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the passage into law of New York City's landmark gay rights bill.

* A proud veteran, Lew Todd served his Nation with honor in the United States Navy during the Korean war. Always dedicated to serving others, he made his home in New York City following his return stateside, and devoted his energies to his work and his community. He operated several small businesses, becoming a significant entrepreneur in the restaurant and nightlife industry in lower Manhattan in the 1970s and 1980s.

* Continuously involved in the struggle for lesbian and gay rights in the modern era that traces its origins to Greenwich Village, Lew Todd joined the Gay Activists Alliance in 1970, before the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Lew Todd quickly became a regular at the Firehouse, the Alliance's legendary headquarters in lower Manhattan's historic Soho neighborhood, which became New York's first GLBT community center.

* At the Gay Activists Alliance, Lew Todd emerged as a talented, determined and inspirational leader of a freshly budding branch of the civil rights movement. His political, organizational and business skills became an indispensable part of its planning and operations. In 1970 and 1971, he and his fellow activist and friend, the late Morty Manford, traveled the country as emissaries for the new gay rights movement, teaching other activists how to establish their own civil rights advocacy organizations.

* In its nascent phase, the gay and lesbian rights movement could only succeed in making its voice heard by engaging in civil disobedience and staging colorful, attention-getting and frequently disruptive demonstrations. Lew Todd's sheer courage, as well as his larger-than-life physical presence, served as an anchor of strength in many such actions. At one notable event in 1972, Lew Todd and a young activist named Allen Roskoff, dressed to the nines in suits and ties, took to the dance floor at the elegant Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center. This action provoked a vivid demonstration of the outdated and blatantly discriminatory nature of the city's public accommodation laws, garnering considerable media attention that helped effect their eventual demise. That same year, Lew Todd placed gay rights on the national agenda as an official gay rights lobbyist at the Democratic National Convention. Thanks to his efforts, for the first time in America history a major national political party was forced to consider the rights of gay and lesbian Americans and include their concerns in its platform.

* A visionary as well as a pioneer, Lew Todd possessed the ability to recognize and acknowledge the need for the growing and maturing civil rights movement to adopt new strategies and new tactics. As government, business and the news media began to take heed, Lew Todd saw that the gay rights movement would need to employ negotiation and painstaking political organizing in order to more effectively achieve its goals. Inspired to open this new front in the struggle despite the objections of less far-seeing radical activists, Lew Todd became one of the founders of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. It was the first truly Nation-wide gay rights organization to rely more on negotiation and organization than an confrontation. He went on to found many of New York City's most important GLBT political organizations, including Gay & Lesbian Independent Democrats and the influential citywide Stonewall Democratic Club, on whose executive board he has served since its founding 21 years ago. In its first years of operation, he served as a board member and treasurer for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which operates the Harvey Milk School for GLBT youths. In 1984 he played a key role in convincing New York City to sell the building that today houses New York City's Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center. In 1992, Lew Todd served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention as an early supporter of a promising candidate named Bill Clinton.

* Mr. Speaker, I ask that my distinguished colleagues join me in recognizing the enormous contributions to civic and political life made by Lew Todd, a true pioneer and civil rights activist in the finest traditions of our great republic.