1968 Bucks County Community College protest

On May 9, 1968, a group of up to 200 students at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, protested the cancelation by the college president of a planned speech by gay rights activist Dick Leitsch scheduled at the campus later that day. The protest, which was largely peaceful and lasted several hours on the campus, is considered one of only about 30 known gay rights protests in the United States prior to the 1969 Stonewall riots.

In 1968, Ralph Sassi Jr., the president of the college's student government, approved a request from a cultural affairs committee on campus to host a presentation by Leitsch, who was the president of the Mattachine Society chapter in New York City and had received some media attention for challenging that city's ban on bars serving gay patrons. The presentation would focus on the way that gay people were treated by the criminal justice and law enforcement systems. Sassi, likely as with most of the student body, was unfamiliar with Leitsch, but saw no reason to not approve the presentation and felt the students would be interested in a discussion on the topic. He approved the committee's request and allocated $450 (equivalent to $4,069 in 2024) collected from student activity fees to cover Leitsch's speaking fee. After news of the planned speech became public, the college president received about 100 complaints, and anti-gay protestors picketed outside the college. On May 9, just three hours before the planned speech, College President Charles Rollins canceled the event.

Following the cancelation, about 200 students conducted a walkout and began protesting. Sassi was present, criticizing the cancelation as a violation of free speech while urging the protestors to remain peaceful. Rollins, accompanied by security, spoke to the crowd, telling them that outside pressure had led to his decision to cancel the event, as he did not want to damage the college's relationship with the surrounding community. As a replacement, Rollins organized a panel discussion on the topic of homosexuality with several faculty members, which attracted about 50 students. The main protesting lasted a few hours and was followed by some smaller protesting later that day off campus. Plans were made to have Leitsch deliver his lecture at an off-campus site, but these ultimately did not come to fruition, and the controversy soon died down.

Despite extensive coverage in local media, the event was largely forgotten until 2020 when LGBTQ historian Marc Stein discovered a 1968 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer mentioning it. It was considered significant to historians as one of only a few gay rights protests prior to Stonewall, and only one of two that occurred on a college campus. Additionally, unlike other protests from the time, this one was largely organized by protestors who would have likely been straight. As part of his research, Stein published an extensive article in OutHistory and hosted a forum at the college on the 54th anniversary of the event. Today, the college and county are considered more amicable to LGBTQ individuals than during the protest, with the college having a gay–straight alliance and the county hosting a sizable LGBTQ community.