In 1974, the restaurant hired its first male waiter, Mano, and the restaurant continued to support the local gay community as the gay rights movement grew following the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, and during the AIDS crisis. A 1981 Washington Post column by Michael Kernan described Annie's as a place where "many of the gay guys who live in the neighborhood (and elsewhere) swarm in, mixing peacefully with straight couples."