Different fight, 'same goal': How the Black eedom movement spired early gay activists

Contents:

• THE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOO?
• (1970) HUEY P. NEWTON, “THE WOMEN’S LIBERATN AND GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENTS”
• THE INCREDIBLE TE ADVENTURE OF FIVE GAY ACTIVISTS SEARCH OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY
• THE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOOTHE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOOTHE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOOTHE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOOTHE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOO
• DIFFERENT FIGHT, 'SAME GOAL': HOW THE BLACK EEDOM MOVEMENT SPIRED EARLY GAY ACTIVISTS

THE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOO?

Few stanc the morn movement for gay and lbian equaly (what we now ll the LGBT movement) produced as much ntroversy — and turmoil — as the New York Gay Liberatn Front’s relatnship wh the Black Panthers, a late 1960s-early 1970s radil anizatn that stood for the plete overthrow of the palist Amerin ernment to achieve equaly for Ain-Amerins.

(1970) HUEY P. NEWTON, “THE WOMEN’S LIBERATN AND GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENTS”

The Gay Liberatn Front was the first and most radil anizatn to be formed after the Stonewall Rts (or Uprisg) June of 1969. It is difficult to image this time of social workg and, too often, smetics-ep “celebry” polics, any anizatn as dited to plete rebelln as the Panthers, or for that matter the Gay Liberatn Front.

The Gay Liberatn Front took most of s cu om femism and the femist movement.

THE INCREDIBLE TE ADVENTURE OF FIVE GAY ACTIVISTS SEARCH OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY

The money was raised by a weekly gay-muny dance at Alternate Universy, a large space on 14th Street and Sixth Avenue that was home to many radil anizatns and their activi.

THE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOOTHE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOOTHE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOOTHE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOOTHE BLACK PANTHERS AND THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: DID BLACK LIV MATTER THEN, TOO

There were young street queens sleepg on siwalks or out on the piers on the Hudson; olr gays and lbians stgglg to eat; and, also, an ia floatg around that we should start our own muny center. It was a turng pot this explosive perd of gay polics.

A lot of olr, old-school activists who had been Mattache Society members were self-righteoly sure this was gog to be the last nail the ff of the rambunctly youthful Gay Liberatn Front: The self-styled gay “radils” were only tryg to buy a polilly rrect versn of “righteons” — wrapped si a distorted mirror-image of tough street credibily — by fundg an anizatn that was om the outset unr nstant police surveillance.

DIFFERENT FIGHT, 'SAME GOAL': HOW THE BLACK EEDOM MOVEMENT SPIRED EARLY GAY ACTIVISTS

It fanned a smug reactn also wh the broar gay muny self, that still shared an attu that everythg to do wh blackns was outsi — and outsi most “normal” human feelgs as well. The gift also spurred a sh for some polilly active men to jo the Gay Activists Alliance, a newer petg group started by ex-GLFers who only wanted a sgle-issue, gay-foced anizatn that would appeal basilly to whe, middle-class men. He said about women and gays that, bee of the pth of their opprsn, they uld be as “revolutnary as anyone, maybe even more so, ” spe the fact that, for many black men, their first gut reactn wh women was “to tell them to shut up, ” and wh gays was, well, to — “punch them the face.