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

Contents:

• MAKINGGAYHISTORY—THE PODCAST
• UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT
• HISTORY HAS OVERLOOKED THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT’S ROLE STONEWALL … UNTIL NOW
• GAY RIGHTS

MAKINGGAYHISTORY—THE PODCAST

Aligns self polilly and crilly wh the femist/women's/lbian movements occurrg ntemporaneoly, movg away om specifilly male- and female- oriented gay serials that preced (The Ladr for women, the newsletters of the var rnatns of the Mattache Society, among others). Article about the passage of New York State’s gay rights bill, 31 years later (New York Tim, December 17, 2002) Newton on gay liberatn:1970 manifto which Newton lls for an alliance between the Black Panthers and the women’s liberatn and gay liberatn movements (open letter the Black Panther Party newspaper, Augt 21, 1970, page 5). ———Prottors: Gay Activists Alliance, don’t [overlappg voic]…Jim Owl, print of the Gay Activists Alliance, seated at the cy clerk’s sk wh same-sex weddg ke, durg the GAA’s marriage bure zap at the New York Cy Municipal Buildg, June 4, 1971.

UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT

———EM Narratn: The Gay Activists Alliance was jt one of the hundreds of new anizatns takg root: Lbians Risg, the Queens Liberatn Front, Lbian Femist Liberatn, and…———Ernie Ray: Let’s hear now om the Street Transvte Actn Revolutnari. ———Huey Newton: The homosexual group, uh, have been, uh, opprsed so, uh, much and so badly until, uh, was hard to nvce them that, uh, the Black Panther Party, uh, uh, is relatg to, uh, we see, uh, that, uh, uh, homosexuals are human begs and, uh, they’re opprsed bee of the bourgeois mentaly and the bourgeois treachery, uh, that, uh, exists this untry, uh, that, uh, tri to legislate, uh, sexual activy.

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

Glf newsletterFront and back of a 1970 Gay Liberatn Front newsletter announcg the gural Christopher Street Liberatn Day March and Gay-In and var GLF gathergs, cludg nscns-raisg workshops and a “mixed dance” at Alternate U.

———Cabaret Host: Now to start the show, I’d like to troduce a very good iend of me…———EM Narratn: The beloved Mama Jean Devante not only served as grand marshal at a number of early Pri March; she was a key member of the Gay Activists Alliance and Lbian Femist Liberatn. ———EM Narratn: Unr “Analysis, ” Kathy go on:———KB Voice-over: ”Who wants to go to a gay bar when you n get six hundred dancg partners, a light show, and ee at check, all for a ntributn of a dollar fifty, wh drks only a quarter! Here was Jim Owl om Gay Activists Alliance, there was beat poet Allen Gsberg, and on the ma stage, Male, strint and clear:———MD: Our fears that people will know for who we are, that they will shun and revile , fire om our jobs, reject om our fai, evict om our hom, beat and jail .

Of New York the summer of 1969 enuragg a quiet and rpectful “hang-out” of homosexuals Greenwich Village—an illtratn of the more “poky” homophile approach to prottg, which stood ntrast to the more disptive tactics of nascent gay liberatnist groups.

GAY RIGHTS

So wasn’t merely that we removed them om the tegory of illns; we stated that there was no reason why a gay man and woman uldn’t be jt as healthy, jt as effective, jt as law-abidg, and pable of functng as any heterosexual.

Many thanks to our hard-workg crew at Makg Gay History, cludg puty director Inge De Taeye, stud engeer Michael Bognar, photo edor Michael Green, and our social media producers, Cristiana Peña and Nick Porter.

Sound om the Gay Activists Alliance’s marriage bure zap om the imable Randy Wicker’s extraordary personal archive, some of which n be found on Newton’s Augt 1971 terview was wh San Francis Bay Area rad statn KPFA, thanks to the Pacifi archive. Carl Wtman’s “Gay Manifto” was voiced by the parable Devlyn Camp, producer, wrer, and host of Queer Serial, a three-season podst chroniclg LGBTQ+ liberatn Ameri om the begng to the Stonewall uprisg and s aftermath.