Leo Martello: Wiccan Priest and Gay Rights Activist

Leo Martello was born in 1930 in central Massachusetts, the son of a Sicilian immigrant family. He is widely recognized as one of the pioneers of the Wiccan and Neopagan movements in the United States in the mid-twentieth century. Inspired by his Italian heritage and family connection to an ancient Italian witchcraft religion he called La Vecchia or “The Old Religion,” Martello founded a number of Wiccan organizations and covens beginning in the 1960s. He was also a well-known psychic, hypnotist, and handwriting analyst. Following the Stonewall riots in 1969, Martello became active in the Gay Liberation Front and was an early member of the Gay Activist Alliance, writing a regular column called “The Gay Witch” that was published in the Alliance’s newsletter. Inspired by the first Christopher Street day parade in honor of the Stonewall riots, Martello organized the “Witch-In” on October 31, 1970 in New York City’s Central Park, one of the earliest and largest public gatherings organized by Witches in American history. Martello was a passionate advocate for gay and Pagan rights throughout his life, famously writing a “Witches Manifesto” that called for greater civil rights for Witches, 500 million dollars in reparations from the Catholic Church for their persecution of Witches during the Inquisition, and 100 million dollars compensation from the city of Salem, Massachusetts for its role in the Salem Witch Trials.  Martello is one of the most important figures in both the Wiccan religious movement and the gay rights movement of the 20th century. He was a bold and tireless advocate for human rights and religious freedom, blending the language and tactics of queer liberation with the effort to establish greater religious freedom for minority religions like Wicca and Paganism in the United States. Known for his humor and wit, Martello coined the phrase “out of your broom closets and on to your brooms!” – a popular Wiccan slogan that is still commonly heard to this day, borrowing the gay activist metaphor of “coming out the closet” to reference the struggle to combat religious stigma against Wicca and Paganism. Martello passed away in the year 2000 but his legacy still lives on in the ongoing fights for queer liberation and free expression of religion in the United States.  Image Credit: Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. "Leo Louis Martello, Martha Shelley, and Sandy DeWine at Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1969. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/6f3b3030-2189-0137-061a-00eb8234cd0b References: Adler, Margot. Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America. New York, Penguin Books, 2006. Bruno, Lori. “Trinacrian Rose - Memorial Pages - Dr. Leo Louis Martello.” Our Lord & Lady of the Trinacrian Rose, 2002, trinacrianrose.weebly.com/dr-leo-louis-martello.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2023. Guiley, Rosemary. The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca. New York, Checkmark Books, 2008. “Leo Martello.” Wikipedia, 26 Sept. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Martello. Accessed 9 Oct. 2023. Martello, Leo Louis. Weird Ways of Witchcraft. Weiser Books, 1 Oct. 2011. ---. Witchcraft : The Old Religion. New York, N.J., Carol Pub. Group, 1991. Lloyd, Michael G. Bull of Heaven:The Mythic Life of Eddie Buczynski and the Rise of the New York Pagan. Asphodel Press, 1 July 2012.