<strong>The long read</strong>: A police raid on a gay bar New York led to the birth of the Pri movement half a century ago – but the fight for LGBTQ+ rights go back much further than that
Contents:
- GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE
- THE GAY ACTIVIST ALLIANCE IS FOUND
- GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE FIREHOE
- HOW THE GAY ACTIVIST ALLIANCE MASTREAMED LGBTQ RIGHTS IN THE YEARS AFTER THE STONEWALL UPRISG
- GAY ACTIVIST ALLIANCE FIREHOE: A "SCHOOL FOR DEMOCRACY"
- PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
- TAG: GAY ACTIVIST ALLIANCE
GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE
Other articl where Gay Activists Alliance is discsed: Stonewall rts: The legacy of Stonewall: …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 meetgs to challenge and to change… * gay activist alliance *
The Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) was formed December 1969 by Jim Owl, Marty Robson, Arthur Evans, Arthur Bell, and others, who beme disaffected by the Gay Liberatn Front (GLF), the first LGBT group formed right after Stonewall. While the pickets and actns by earlier homophile groups the 1960s, like the Mattache Society’s Sip-In at Juli’, had been peaceful, the post-Stonewall groups, cludg GAA, GLF, and Radilbians, were more nontatnal.
This was the “zap, ” a direct, surprise public nontatn wh polil figur and rporate and ernmental enti regardg gay rights and discrimatn, signed to ga gay and straight media attentn. Learn about this topic the articl:fluence of Stonewall rts In Stonewall rts: The legacy of Stonewall…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 meetgs to challenge and to change…Read More. GLAA is an all-volunteer, non-partisan, non-prof polil anizatn that fends the civil rights of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people the Natn’s Capal.
THE GAY ACTIVIST ALLIANCE IS FOUND
On December 21, 1969, the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) was found. Almost exactly six months after the Stonewall Rts, the group was found by Marty Robson, Jim Owl, and Arthur Evans, as an offshoot of the Gay Liberatn Front. The GAA was tend to be a "sgle issue, polilly ntral [anizatn]", whose goal would be to * gay activist alliance *
The rerds (1970-83) reflect the activi of a homophile anizatn of New York Cy which was dited to the achievement of civil rights for gays through ant, non-vlent means and which beme a lear the gay liberatn movement durg s more ant phase followg the Stonewall Rts of 1969. Includ are rrponnce and llateral rerds of s prcipal mte cludg Ad Hoc Intro 2, Agprop, Executive, Fair Employment, Legal Actn, Municipal Government, Natnal Gay Movement, and News and Media Relatns Commtee.
The rerds document GAA's stggle to obta fair hog and employment legislatn for gays New York Cy and State, the repeal of legislatn rpectg sodomy and solicatn, the endg of police harassment and entrapment of gays, and s role as a lear promotg the velopment of gay rights groups other ci.
GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE FIREHOE
The Natnal Gay Movement Commtee worked to tablish ntact wh gay groups other ci and to enurage the formatn of sister anizatns wh a view to exertg prsure for gay rights at the natnal level. The rrponnce reveals the fluence of GAA on the velopment of the gay liberatn movement pecially California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, and New York. The News and Media Relatns Commtee acted as liaison wh the media and strove to publicize the work of GAA and to furnish rmatn on the gay muny and the gay liberatn movement.
Includ is rrponnce (maly out-gog) of Bce Ev, John Hammond, Jim Owl and David Thorstad wh reprentativ of the d-visual and prted media; and a file of prs releas which document the activi, methods and tactics employed by GAA s stggle to obta civil rights for gays. The Agprop Commtee sought to brg the msage of gay pri to high school and llege stunts and prepared wrten, oral and d-visual material for prentatn to stunts New York Cy and suburban areas.
Includ are outgog rrponnce of Jim Owl and Rich Amato to homophile and bs anizatns, labor unns, ernment agenci, and cy uncil members relative to employment discrimatn agast gays, support of a gay rights bill, and preparatn for heargs before the New York Cy Commissn on Human Rights. The Municipal Government Commtee acted as liaison between GAA and New York Cy ernmental agenci, lobbied for the passage of gay rights legislatn.
HOW THE GAY ACTIVIST ALLIANCE MASTREAMED LGBTQ RIGHTS IN THE YEARS AFTER THE STONEWALL UPRISG
Includ are rrponnce of Jim Owl, David Thorstad, and Richard Wanl wh labor unn officials, cy uncil members, and ngrsmen; and memoranda, reports, and pi of uncil bills ncerng gay rights. The topil file clus nstutn and by-laws, electn qutnnair, rerds relative to the Gay Activist, s gay studi rearch project, and mut of general meetgs of GAA. The electn qutnnair were sent by GAA to ndidat for public office om the metropolan area durg the 1970 and 1972 electoral mpaigns to ascerta the ndidat' views on issu ncerng gay rights.
GAY ACTIVIST ALLIANCE FIREHOE: A "SCHOOL FOR DEMOCRACY"
Includ is a transcript of an terview (1976) nducted by David Thorstad wh John Damien, a horse-racg steward who was dismissed om his job by the Ontar Racg Commissn on the grounds that he was a homosexual, and who fought for restatement. The prs clippgs (1971-72) which are loose and arranged by state and cy, nta articl havg referenc to GAA, homosexualy, amnty legislatn, urt cisns, and gay liberatn movement. Almost exactly six months after the Stonewall Rts, the group was found by Marty Robson, Jim Owl, and Arthur Evans, as an offshoot of the Gay Liberatn Front.
The GAA was tend to be a “sgle issue, polilly ntral [anizatn]”, whose goal would be to “secure basic human rights, digny and eedom for all gay people. ” Active mostly jt om 1970 to 1974, they had a profound fluence not only on the liv of gay and lbian New Yorkers, but on the broar culture and on activism our cy and untry general.
GAA members were most famoly known for performg zaps — r public monstratns signed to embarrass a public figure or celebry while also llg the attentn of both gays and straights to issu of LGBT rights. GAA was formed December 1969 when a number of members, led by Jim Owl, Marty Robson, and Arthur Evans, broke away om the more radil Gay Liberatn Front. The exclive purpose of GAA, the leadg and largt Amerin gay liberatn polil activist anizatn of the early 1970s, was to advance LGBT civil and social rights.
PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
In Arnie Kantrowz‘s book Unr the Rabow: Growg Up Gay (1977), he scribed the spatial age of the buildg: the basement had space for mtee meetgs; general membership meetgs and danc were held on the first floor; the send floor had a snack bar and mtee meetgs space; and the third floor had offic and addnal mtee meetgs space. In June 2019, based on remendatns by the NYC LGBT Historic S Project, the NYC Landmarks Prervatn Commissn (LPC) signated the Gay Activists Alliance Firehoe a New York Cy Landmark. Every month the mid-1960s New York Cy, hundreds of nsentg adults would be arrted police entrapment stgs for a crime that thori had named “homosexual solicatn.
The arrts, signed to huiate, margalize, and stroy the liv of some of the cy’s most vulnerable rints, stemmed om a 1920s law that named homosexual acts “generate disorrly nduct. Afterward, for those that rried the gay liberatn movement to the next through relentls anizg, novative direct actn, and sometim lerally screamg for their liv, the fight would stop for nothg.
Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, two LGBTQ and civil rights activists who fought om the 1960s until their aths, would be mounted Ruth Wtenberg Triangle, jt blocks om the gay bar turned natnal monument. It seems that Rivera and Johnson, who were, rpectively, a teenager and a 24-year-old as they beme trsic to the gay liberatn movement’s story, weren’t actually at the Stonewall Inn when the fierce phback agast that bog police raid of the mafia-owned bar was igned.
TAG: GAY ACTIVIST ALLIANCE
A stnch activist who at that pot was a member of the Mattache Society, an early anizatn seekg rights for gay men, Robson may have ntributed to the makg of the Stonewall legends. But ’s really what he did the years after the uprisg that helped galvanize a mass movement by -foundg the Gay Activist Alliance six months later and then shockg the natn wh novel, attentn-seekg protts that ployed disptive tactics that beme known as “zaps. “Stonewall would mean nothg if had not led directly to the gay liberatn movement, for was that movement that broke the dam and set ee, ” historian David Carter, who wrote the book “Stonewall: The Rts that Sparked the Gay Revolutn, ” said 2004.
“In my view, was [the Gay Activist Alliance] more than any other anizatn that ma the gay liberatn movement spread — and Marty Robson was the primary geni behd that anizatn. Protts of bar raids began almost immediately, and wh a year the group was publishg the Gay Activist newspaper and aligng wh other groups to lnch the Christopher Street Liberatn Day Para, which grew to the massive Pri Para and events that New York now has annually on the last Sunday June. Sce he refed to meet wh gay rights lears or even acknowledge the growg movement, activists heckled him relentlsly and bombard his events wh lerature.
Private vtigatn firm Filifacts was zapped a stumed prott, wh activists drsed as ducks outsi their after the pany that was acced of targetg LGBTQ New Yorkers; the pany print had said that while zerog on gay folks, “if looks like a duck, walks like a duck, associat only wh ducks and quacks like a duck, he is probably a duck. In addn to his ditn to the GAA, the prolific Robson also found The Lavenr Hill Mob, an early AIDS activist anizatn; he was also a foundg member of The Natnal Gay Task Force and of The Gay and Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn. Johnson, an Ain Amerin self-intified drag queen and activist, was also battlg excln a movement for gay rights that did not embrace her genr exprsn.