How the Gay Liberatn Front Manifto helped to shape me | Peter Tatchell | The Guardian

Contents:

• LONDON GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO 1971
• HOW THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO HELPED TO SHAPE ME
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN
• UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT
• HISTORY HAS OVERLOOKED THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT’S ROLE STONEWALL … UNTIL NOW
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO: STILL REVOLUTNARY 30 YEARS LATER
• THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT
• GAY RIGHTS
• BORIS, DAVE, GAY LIBERATN AND THE ABOLN OF THE FAY

LONDON GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO 1971

It n easily be seen that homosexuals don’t f to the stereotyp of mascule and feme and this is one of the ma reasons why we bee the object of spicn, sce everyone is tght that the and only the two rol are appropriate…. 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.

HOW THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO HELPED TO SHAPE ME

Although cril of the misogyny and homophobia of the "straight left", posned the LGBT stggle as part of the broar anti-palist, anti-imperialist movement, strivg for the emancipatn of all importantly, argued that LGBT people need to embrace and ally wh femism: "As we nnot rry out this revolutnary change alone … we will work to form a strategic alliance wh the women's liberatn movement … In orr to build this alliance, the brothers gay liberatn will have to be prepared to sacrifice that gree of male chvism and male privilege that they still all posss. It criqu homophobia, sexism, marriage, the nuclear fay, monogamy, the cults of youth and bety, patriarchy, the gay ghetto and rigid male and female genr well as opposg the way thgs are, outl an alternative visn, cludg livg munally, genr-subversive radil drag and non-posssive multi-partner open relatnships.

In echo of Franz Fanon and Mallm X, stated that the prendn for this social revolutn is transformg our own nscns and liv: "The startg pot of our liberatn mt be to rid ourselv of the opprsn which li the head of every one of … we mt root out the ia that homosexualy is bad, sick or immoral, and velop a gay pri. Subvertg the supremacy of heterosexual masculy was the key to genue manifto argu that much LGBT opprsn rults om the way we queers viate om the socially prcribed, orthodox genr rol of mascule and feme: "By our very existence as gay people, we challenge the rol. This failure to meet tradnal genr expectatns is profoundly threateng to straight male supremacism: "The long-term goal of gay liberatn, which evably brgs to nflict wh the stutnalised sexism of this society, is to rid society of the genr-role system which is at the root of our opprsn.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The poal of "radil drag" and "genr-benr" polics is a ll to opt out of male privilege – an attempt to subvert the opprsivens of heterosexual masculy bee we unrstood that staed both the subordatn of women and same-sex manifto posed that LGBT people were often the foreont of this important stggle: "Gay shows the way.

E., for lbians, gays [homosexual mal], bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons); seeks to elimate sodomy laws; and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life.

THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN

) Gay rights prr to the 20th century Relig admonns agast sexual relatns between dividuals of the same sex (particularly men) long stigmatized such behavur, but most legal s Europe were silent on the subject of homosexualy and bisexualy. Dpe Paragraph 175 and the failure of the WhK to w s repeal, homosexual and bisexual men and women experienced a certa amount of eedom Germany, particularly durg the Weimar perd, between the end of World War I and the Nazi seizure of power.

In the Uned Stat this greater visibily brought some backlash, particularly om the ernment and the police: the ernment often fired gay civil servants, the ary attempted to purge s ranks of gay soldiers (a policy enacted durg World War II), and police vice squads equently raid gay bars and arrted their patrons. In the Uned Stat the first major male anizatn, found 1950–51 by Harry Hay Los Angel, was the Mattache Society (s name reputedly rived om a medieval French society of masked players, the Société Mattache, to reprent the public “maskg” of homosexualy), while the Dghters of Bilis (named after the Sapphic love poems of Pierre Louÿs, Chansons Bilis), found 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart San Francis, was a leadg group for women. In Bra 1957 a missn chaired by Sir John Wolfenn issued a groundbreakg report (see Wolfenn Report) remendg that private homosexual liaisons between nsentg adults be removed om the doma of crimal law; a later the remendatn was implemented by Parliament the Sexual Offenc Act.

UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT

In the 1970s and ’80s, gay polil anizatns proliferated, particularly the Uned Stat and Europe, and spread to other parts of the globe, though their relative size, strength, and succs—and toleratn by thori—varied signifintly. Now headquartered Geneva and renamed the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA World), plays a signifint role ordatg ternatnal efforts to promote human rights and fight discrimatn agast LGBTQ and tersex persons. This support, along wh mpaigns by gay activists urgg gay men and women to “e out of the closet” (ed, the late 1980s, Natnal Comg Out Day was tablished, and is now celebrated on October 11 most untri), enuraged gay men and women to enter the polil arena as ndidat.

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

At the lol and natnal levels, the number of openly gay policians creased dramatilly durg the 1990s and 2000s, and 2009 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir beme prime mister of Iceland, which ma her the world’s first openly gay head of ernment. In Ai, Asia, and Lat Ameri, openly gay policians have had only limed succs wng office; notable electns to natnal legislatur clud Patria Jiménez Flor Mexi (1997), Mike Waters South Ai (1999), and Clodovil Hernans Brazil (2006).

GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO: STILL REVOLUTNARY 30 YEARS LATER

Other issu of primary importance for the gay rights movement sce the 1970s clud batg the HIV/AIDS epimic and promotg disease preventn and fundg for rearch; lobbyg ernment for nondiscrimatory polici employment, hog, and other aspects of civil society; endg the ban on ary service for gay and lbian dividuals; expandg hate crim legislatn to clu protectns for gays, cludg transgenr dividuals; and securg marriage rights for same-sex upl (see same-sex marriage). Ary’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (1993–2011), which had permted gay and lbian dividuals to serve the ary if they did not disclose their sexual orientatn or engage homosexual activy; the repeal effectively end the ban on homosexuals the ary.

THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT

Meanwhile, the World Health Organizatn Geneva only removed homosexualy om s Internatnal Classifitn of Diseas (ICD) wh the publitn of ICD-10 1992, although ICD-10 still rried the nstct of "ego-dystonic sexual orientatn.

Today, the standard of psychotherapy the US and Europe is gay affirmative psychotherapy, which enurag gay people to accept their sexual orientatn—although some licensed profsnals still nduct so-lled "nversn therapy. 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. 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.

GAY RIGHTS

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. 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.

Although members of the gay muny were divid their opns about the rt, hundreds of people returned to the scene for the next several nights, some to ntue vlent opposn to the police and others to exprs their sexualy public for the first time. After Stonewall, however, a more radil polil nscns veloped that rulted om the formatn of many new groups, cludg the Gay Liberatn Front and Radilbians, whose members rejected the strategi and lled for a more ant rponse to homophobia.

BORIS, DAVE, GAY LIBERATN AND THE ABOLN OF THE FAY

The papers clud sectns voted to muny updat, cultural events, and personal ads, but they also highlighted new polil ncerns, namely efforts to raise awarens about the problems of gay people prisons and ncerns about gay health. Public health thori, journalists, doctors, and even many the gay muny blamed gay liberatn and the looseng of sexual rtrictns for the epimic, but no one the medil or scientific muny actually unrstood the behavr of the vis.