Page One · Gay Liberatn New York Cy, 1969-1973, by Ldsay Branson · OutHistory

Contents:

• GAY LIBERATN FRONT
• PHILALPHIA GAY NEWS
• GAYBORHOOD
• HISTORY HAS OVERLOOKED THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT’S ROLE STONEWALL … UNTIL NOW
• GAY LIBERATN NEW YORK CY, 1969-1973, BY LDSAY BRANSON
• REMEMBERG GAY LIBERATN FRONT’S NYU PROTT
• GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE, GAY LIBERATN FRONT, AND RADILBIANS DEMONSTRATN AGAST POLICE HARASSMENT AT TIM SQUARE
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT UK
• SAN SILVERMAN, RADILBIANS AND GAY LIBERATN FRONT MEMBER, 1949 – 2022
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT AT ALTERNATE U.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT

Learn about this topic the articl:impact of Stonewall rts In Stonewall rts: The legacy of Stonewall…radil groups such as the Gay Liberatn Front (GLF) and the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). In addn to lnchg numero public monstratns to prott the lack of civil rights for gay dividuals, the anizatns often rorted to such tactics as public nontatns wh polil officials and the disptn of public…Read More.

PHILALPHIA GAY NEWS

And today, Philly visors n easily explore s where LGBTQ+ history was ma and where queer life ntu to thrive, pecially the cy’s Gayborhood and durg annual events like Philly Pri 365. The center of Philalphia’s gay rintial life and culture sce World War II, the blocks between 11th and Broad streets and Pe and Chtnut streets earned their nickname — the “Gayborhood”— durg an October Outft event 1995. The group’s LGBTQ and Trans History tours reunt the stori of Gay Liberatn Front – Philalphia founr Kiyoshi Kuromiya, explore morn history and current social issu the neighborhood, and stop at important muny s like the Attic Youth Center, which supports LGBTQ+ youth experiencg homelsns.

In 1965, the Universy of Pennsylvania expelled Fryer om his psychiatric rincy program on the basis of his homosexualy, which was then classified as a mental illns by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA). In 1972, Fryer, a faculty member at the Temple Universy School of Medice, offered an electrifyg anonymo ttimony that rulted the APA’s 1973 classifitn of homosexualy as a mental illns. A pneer the LGBTQ+ rights movement, Gtgs, a Philalphia rint om age 18 and a lifetime activist, eded The Ladr, the natn’s first lbian magaze; -anized the Annual Remrs at Inpennce Hall (see above) and led charg both to promote posive LGBTQ+ lerature public librari and to change the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s classifitn of homosexualy as a mental illns.

It’s where radil gay llective Gazoo found Philalphia’s Gay Liberatn Front and where bisexual blu sger Bsie Smh performed at the Royal Theatre, an early 20th-century Black-owned cultural center.

GAYBORHOOD

Today, the street’s known for s Magic Garns, cheteak shops and hangouts, cludg dive bar extraordaire Bob & Barbara’s Lounge, home of one of Philly’s bt-loved drag shows; the punk art LGBTQ+ haven Tattooed Mom; and the eclectic, gay-owned boutique shop Workshop Unrground.

Postwar downtown Philalphia, or “Center Cy, ” as was begng to be lled, had the largt ncentratn of apartments and rental rooms the “Cy of Hom, ” providg gay men, lbians, and transgenred people wh the privacy and urban anonymy they sought. In an era when racism extend even to the LGBT muny, many Ain Amerin gay men and lbians socialized bars or through private parti north of Market Street, North Philalphia, or across the Schuylkill Wt Philalphia. Dpe s semi-sensatnalist subtle—“Philalphia’s homosexuals lead a strange twilight life outsi the law and outsi of society”— the story steered away om the lurid and foced stead on the problems of gay people Philalphia and the burgeong gay polil scene.

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

As the character of the area changed, a few of the “mil bars” on the hidn, smaller streets like Camac and Quce began attractg a gay clientele and a few venu beme predomantly gay. Police actns on area strip clubs led by then-Police Commissner Frank Rizzo (1920-1991) ually clud raids on gay bars, lumpg prostut, dg alers, and homosexuals all together as “unsirabl. In 1972, Philalphians held their first Gay Pri monstratn, wh an timated 10, 000 people marchg om Rtenhoe Square to Inpennce Mall, signalg the end of a “furtive aterny” and the begng of a new, highly visible prence.

Participants Philalphia’s first Gay Pri Para June 1972 marched along Chtnut Street towards Inpennce Hall, extravagantly exprsg themselv through signs, mic, and chants as they marched. Center Cy’s gay neighborhood gaed s name 1995 at Outft, a memoratn of Natnal Comg Out Day, when David Warner playfully paraphrased the Mister Rogers children’s song and clared, “It’s a betiful day the Gayborhood!

GAY LIBERATN NEW YORK CY, 1969-1973, BY LDSAY BRANSON

In the 1950s and 1960s, the square was known as a place where gay men and lbians g to the cy uld meet others who would troduce them to the extensive urban homosexual "unrground. The Philalphia cy police, unr Commissner Frank Rizzo, regularly patrolled this area at night and arrted dividuals who looked lbian, gay, or transgenr, regardls of the dividuals’ volvement wh the clubs that led this street. Throughout the summer of 1982 Philalphia activists fought for the passage of a “gay rights law, ” an amendment to the cy’s Fair Practic Ordance to prohib discrimatn hog, employment, and public acmodatns on the basis of sexual preference.

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.

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. 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.

REMEMBERG GAY LIBERATN FRONT’S NYU PROTT

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. 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.

GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE, GAY LIBERATN FRONT, AND RADILBIANS DEMONSTRATN AGAST POLICE HARASSMENT AT TIM SQUARE

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. 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.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT UK

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. 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. 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.

SAN SILVERMAN, RADILBIANS AND GAY LIBERATN FRONT MEMBER, 1949 – 2022

GLF tapped to the radil sentiments brewg among young, untercultural, and polil gays and lbians New York Cy—and mobilized the energy and eagerns for polil actn that many felt the days followg Stonewall. Although some buddg gay liberatnists attempted to work wh Mattache through s recently formed Actn Commtee, they found themselv creasgly at odds wh the anizatn’s reformist prri.

Where MSNY had attempted to tegrate gays and lbians to existg stctur, GLFers would work to brg about the velopment of an entirely new society; and where homophile activists had sought to project an image of rpectabily, the new gay liberatnists would fight agast mastream attus and valu. They objected to the “lookism, ” role-playg, and objectifitn they saw the tradnal gay subculture—sometim “liberatg” gay bars by dancg multi-genred groups rather that same-sex pairs. Lol queer and trans anizers wrote a petn that gaed nearly 400 supporter’s signatur, to oppose the vatn, statg “honorg [the Gay Officers Actn League] is anthetil to the spir and history of Pri.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT AT ALTERNATE U.

When several dozen lol activists met 1960 to discs formg a gay rights anizatn, they tentnally met outsi of the cy Radnor, PA bee they believed themselv saft away om the long arm of Rizzo’s precct. The publitns were diligent reportg on numero police transgrsns: Black men murred by the police, raids on gay bars, harassment of low-e youth, and stutnalized reprsn of polil dissent. Her discharge om the ary over her homosexualy had turned her to an Tob/The New York Public LibraryPublished July 19, 2023Updated July 23, 2023Lilli Vcenz, who beme a gay rights activist the hhed, reprsive era before the Stonewall rebelln of 1969, when such a ncept srcely existed, makg a mark as a newspaper edor, documentary filmmaker and psychotherapist voted to L.

She was ath, at a re facily, was nfirmed by a niece, Julia Bo, who did not specify a Vcenz’s journey to promence the nascent gay rights movement of the mid-1960s began after a personal llisn wh tolerance. In 1963, she was servg the Women’s Army Corps when a roommate outed her as gay, leadg to her discharge after only ne months took that rejectn as an opportuny to beg a fight agast jtice that would gui her for s.