A brief history of the Gay Liberatn Front, 1970-73 |

Contents:

• GAY LIBERATN
• HISTORY HAS OVERLOOKED THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT’S ROLE STONEWALL … UNTIL NOW
• THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT
• UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT
• GAY LIBERATN ONT STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT AT ALTERNATE U.
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO
• 162 GAY_LIBERATN_ONT STOCK PHOTOS & HIGH-R PICTUR
• 221 GAY LIBERATN STOCK VECTOR ART AND GRAPHICS
• HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
• THIS IS WHAT GAY LIBERATN LOOKED LIKE IN THE '70S

GAY LIBERATN

On the 27th June, 1969 as part of s policy of raidg and closg Gay Bars, the New York Police arrived at the Stonewall Inn to rough up the ctomers and make a few arrts.

HISTORY HAS OVERLOOKED THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT’S ROLE STONEWALL … UNTIL NOW

On the 4th July Lbians and Gay Men om the Matache Society New York, rponse to the rts, staged a walk-out and moved to the Alternative Universy Greenwich Village where they found what beme the Gay Liberatn Front.

“Not only did liberatnists go to Philalphia to show solidary wh the black movement, but was there that Huey Newton as lear of the Panthers, first gave clear support of the Gay Cse, sayg that homosexuals were maybe the most opprsed people of Amerin society, and uld well be the most revolutnary. On 13th November, GLF ma the first ever, public monstratn the UK by lbians and gay men at Highbury Fields, Islgton, to prott the e of “pretty policemen” agent provotrs ed by the police to entrap gay men to attemptg acts of gross cency, a standard police practice and an easy way for them to crease the figur for crime tectn and prosecutn. An Anti-Psychiatry Group foced on analysg and attackg the Psychiatric Establishments wholale acceptance of Juo Christian prejudice, Biblil thory, and the e of electric shock/emetic dg programm on gays and lbians who did not f , or who were found guilty of breakg the law.

THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT

An Actn Group anisg public GLF danc held lol town halls, and later the Gay Days the parks, an Office Collective, and the Steerg Group, later the Co-ordatg Commtee to n the Wednday night General Meetgs. But gay men don’t need to opprs women orr to fulfil their own psycho-sexual needs, and gay women don’t have to relate sexually to the male opprsor, so that at this moment time, the et and most equal relatnships are most likely to be between homosexuals.

In all about a hundred gay men and lbians were active the var GLF Groups, while by mid-January, ’71 there were up to five hundred people a week attendg the General Meetg, which suggts that many thoands of gay men and lbians passed through the doors.

David Rben’s book, “Everythg you wanted to know about sex – but were aaid to ask”, which claimed to tell ndid facts whilst avoidg moral judgement and the sectns on gays and lbians ntaed referenc to light bulbs, cucumbers, and the e of wire at hangers for abortns. In July ’72 the first Gay Pri march left Trafalgar Square and marched to Hy Park for the Gay Pri Party, wh over a thoand attendance, and acpanied by two thoand police. Consistent monstratns agast the psychiatric tablishment and raids on their nferenc where GLF took over the agenda eventually lead to the overthrow of the ia that homosexualy was a medil ndn.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT

At the end of ’71 ser spls were occurrg between the men who saw ‘g out’ as only the first step the transformatn of gay men and the send the nontatn wh the social ials of masculy, and sexism, whilst followg the Manifto aim of movg toward munal livg. Opposg them were the men who ignored the Manifto, refed to acknowledge their heterosexist quali, were learng to mpaign on sgle issu, but need, as straight men do, an anised stcture which to operate, one that gay lib was liberately signed not to provi. In June me the first issue of ‘Gay News’ published by a group ntag many 'straight gays' om the GLF Actn Group, and immediately laid down a format for savg the natn om the screamg red queens and faggots of gay lib.

The Office Collective had been neglected and had turned to an Admistratn by supporters of ‘Gay News’ and those who liked to be near the exchang of rmatn and money. There was Gay Swchboard, Bethnal Rouge, The Brixton Faeri, Gay Men’s Prs om the Media Group, and the world-renowned theatre troupe ‘Bloolips’ om the Street Theatre Group.

One of the great legaci of GLF was that when HIV/Aids was intified there already existed groups, and works of dividuals who had been part of, or been touched by, the forever ongog sexual revolutn begun by the Gay Liberatn Front. By the example of GLF the new activists HIV/Aids were able to immediately challenge the attus towards gays of the medil orthodoxy and quickly took over the entire culture surroundg the panmic.

UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT

Then ’69 she beme part of this anizatn lled the Gay Liberatn Front and began documentg gay, lbian, and transgenr activists New York Cy and around the was photography weaponized as a tool for LGBT activism? The rts happened at the end of June 1969, when the bar was raid one eveng as part of a state crackdown on drkg tablishments that did not have their liquor license — as well as the fact that the bar was servg gay and transgenr people, who were nsired crimal clientele at the the raid a lot of the clientele began to fight back, but what most overlook is that a lot of those who were fightg back were the people on the streets at the time: disenanchised queer youths who were livg on the streets of New York Cy and the Village, many of whom had been kicked out by their fai, had difficulty fdg jobs bee they were genr nonnformg, and this really beme the re of the people who fought back agast the police that night. Leonard Fk Photographs, The LGBT Communy Center Natnal History ArchiveMark SegalEarly member of the Gay Liberatn Front and marshal of the first Pri marchThe Christopher Street Gay Liberatn Day March was as revolutnary and chaotic as everythg we did that first year after the Stonewall rts.

” Today, my origal marshal’s badge is on display the JayEarly member of the Gay Liberatn Front and Radilbians and -anizer of the first march New York and Los AngelIt was a near miracle that the first Christopher Street Wt Para Los Angel kicked off at all on June 28, 1970. For one day, we were victor agast the Ed Davis of the world, and no one seemed “dismod” the FkelsteJohn KyperEarly member of Boston’s Gay Liberatn Front and an anizer of Boston’s first Pri ParaWe held our first march Boston 1971 — a year after New York.

GAY LIBERATN ONT STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

Jam GreenProfsor of morn Lat Amerin history at Brown Universy and -anizer of Brazil’s first Gay Pri marchI lived São Plo durg the dictatorship of the late 1970s. Groups hosted the 17th ternatnal nference of ILGA (The Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn), and the energy of the ternatnal legat who attend and the excement of hostg the gatherg only add to the drama of the untry’s first actual succsful para.

The most famo of them were the march every July 4th at Inpennce Hall Philalphia om 1965 to 1969, which some historians mistakenly nnect to Stonewall and the first Gay Pri March 1970.

Those of om Stonewall and Gay Liberatn Front were rebellg not only agast mastream society but agast those people who marched Philalphia bee we felt they had all lost touch wh our muny. While the old learship wanted to portray the muny as women drs and men sus and ti, those at Stonewall and the founrs of Gay Liberatn Front drsed jeans and t-shirts and drag or what soon would be nsired “genrf*ck. While those at the Philalphia march wanted to f wh middle class Ameri, those the Gay Liberatn Front wanted to work alongsi other margalized groups fightg for social jtice.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT AT ALTERNATE U.

To be very clear, historians have attempted to group those Philalphia march wh Stonewall and the first Gay Pri, and that’s an absolute misreprentatn of history. The first Gay Youth anizatn, GYNY; the first trans anizatn, STAR (Street Transvte Actn Revolutnari); the first LGBT Communy Center on Wt 3rd Street; the first monstratns agast media and police; and a ntual public prence as we took back our streets. The people who wrote on the streets and walls that first night, the people who created the send, third and fourth nights, were the founrs of Gay Liberatn Front.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO

There were people at Stonewall who passed by, people who crang their necks om around the rner watchg, people who tossed a stone and ran sce the police chased people up and down the street, but the spir of ristance that gave birth to the new movement was all the Gay Liberatn ont. They created a staable anizatn where there had been none before, the worlds first trans anizatn, Street Transvte Actn Revolutnari, which was a mtee of the Gay Liberatn Front, formed durg the GLF occupatn of NYU’s Weste Hall. It was Gay Liberatn Front’s LGBT Communy Center that beme STAR’S first home for homels trans people, and Marsha and Sylvia did whout public funds, trag or programs.

162 GAY_LIBERATN_ONT STOCK PHOTOS & HIGH-R PICTUR

Infightg the anizatn ed a spl and created the Gay Activists Alliance, which beme popular wh historians sce went back to those rpectable lookg homosexuals that they preferred reprent our muny and which were overwhelmgly whe men.

From s earlit achievements om creatg the natn’s first gay youth anizatn, trans anizatns, and the first Gay Pri, GLF members went on to bee the founrs of PFLAG and Lambda Legal. We showed the world that LGBT people get to tell our own story, and this year the members of Gay Liberatn Front claimed their rightful place the story of our muny.

Their publitns created the sense of natnal muny that beme realized after Stonewall, and many homophile activists ntributed to the formatn of gay liberatn anizatns.

221 GAY LIBERATN STOCK VECTOR ART AND GRAPHICS

Gay rights, send-wave femism, technologil velopments, and cultural transformatns nvced many that society was on the verge of a paradigm shift, where the old ways would be swept asi and fundamental change was genuely possible.

” It then listed ten ways which gay people were opprsed – cludg through fay, school, church, media, even self-opprsn – and argued that revolutnary change was the only way to fix . In the early 1970s, however, Pri was about changg a mdset so graed society that the majory of people believed beg gay was wrong, shameful, and while no longer a crimal offence, certaly still a moral one. If you scribe yourself as gay, if you joed an LGBTQ society at universy, if you lled the London Lbian and Gay Swchboard, if you have been to a Pri para, or if you ever read Gay News or the magaz that followed , then you have the GLF to thank for.

HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS

They wanted revolutn, not evolutn, and would likely have disapproved of their own legacy, which has many s served to tegrate homosexualy to mastream culture, rather than fundamentally alter . Beg open about your sexualy, and havg a public disurse and culture to help fe who you are, may not seem particularly remarkable 2018, but that is bee gay liberatn ma unremarkable. The Gay Liberatn Front is a ant aln of radil and revolutnary homosexual men and women mted to fight the opprsn of the homosexual as a mory group and to mand the right to the self-termatn of our own bodi.

Gay Flam (issue 4, 1970), a GLF newsletter, observed that “Gay Liberatn is tryg to build an alternative to the bars/baths/cisg scene which has bee a way of life for so many homosexuals, particularly homosexual mal. ” Friday night class listed the publitn clud medil, legal, monstratn, gay squatters, racism, gay history and lerature, sexism, exploratn of rol and inty, and Marxism and polil workshop. Protts were anized here agast policians and The Village Voice (which refed to prt the word “gay” ads), and meetgs were held here the aftermath of the Snake P raid March 1970.

THIS IS WHAT GAY LIBERATN LOOKED LIKE IN THE '70S

Mattache Society 'Sip-In, ' 1966After pourg their drks, a bartenr Juli's Bar ref to serve John Timms, Dick Lesch, Craig Rodwell, and Randy Wicker, all members of the Mattache Society, an early Amerin gay rights group, bee they announced they were gay to prott New York’s liquor laws that prevented servg gay ctomers. Mark Segal Crash a Nixon Fundraiser, 1972Mark Segal, founr of a radil gay activism group known as Gay Rairs, holds a sign that reads “GAY POWER” while crashg a Nixon Fundraiser to ga attentn and to crease the visibily of gay people.

This sort of public disptn was mon for Segal who also crashed a CBS primetime news show that was watched by 60 ln people 1973 wh a sign that read “Gays prott CBS prejudice. Frank Kameny, Randy Wicker, and Jim Owl at Gay Liberatn Conference, 1971Frank Kameny, Randy Wicker, and Jim Owl attend the Rutgers Stunt Homophile League (SHL) sponsored Gay Liberatn Conference that took place on the ground floor of the Rutgers Stunt Center.