This early gay rights action and the attendant publicity helped to raise awareness of widespread anti-LGBT discrimination and harassment. On April 21, 1966, members of the Mattachine Society, a pioneering gay rights organization, challenged a regulation that prohibited bars from serving LGBT people by staging a 'Sip-In' at Julius', a bar with a large gay clientele., With reporters and a photographer in tow, the activists announced that they were homosexuals, asked to be served, and were refused.
