The Gay Csars. Interview nducted by Kay Tob Lahen for her book. Ruth Simpson, 1971 January 10 | ArchivSpace Public Interface

Contents:

• THE GAY CSARS
• WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.
• THE GAY CSARS
• THE GAY CSAR (16 RULTS)
• LBIAN UPLE W IVF ‘GAY TAX’ BATTLE
• THE GAY CSARS. INTERVIEW NDUCTED BY KAY TOB LAHEN FOR HER BOOK. RUTH SIMPSON, 1971 JANUARY 10

THE GAY CSARS

Gay liberatn movement -- Uned Stat -- History, Gays -- Uned Stat -- Bgraphy, Lbians -- Uned Stat -- Bgraphy. urn:lcp:gaycsars0000tobi:lcpdf:0d3aaada-e50c-4731-bf9c-7a985e7d3b61. Ary for beg gay, she beme an early fighter for gay rights and a proment figure the nascent L.

WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.

Rights Vcenz rryg a plard prottg the ary’s ban on gay people while picketg the Pentagon July 1965. 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. “After leavg the WAC, ” she said an terview wh the se Gay Today, “I actually felt ee to be me. Vicenz beme, by most acunts, the first lbian to picket the Whe Hoe support of equal rights for gay people as a member of the Mattache Society of Washgton, an early gay rights prott — the first of s kd, acrdg to the Library of Congrs — and others that followed were small but brought visibily to a movement s fancy.

” she told Gay Today about her early efforts wh the society. “Be wh gay people, help the movement, help unmask the li beg told about , rrect the notn of homosexualy as a sickns and prent as is, a betiful way to love. Vcenz beme the edor of the Mattache Society’s monthly newsletter, The Homosexual Cizen.

THE GAY CSARS

In 1969, she and another activist, Nancy Tucker, spun off a newspaper of their own, The Gay Bla, which beme the Washgton Bla, the untry’s olst L. Vcenz beme the first out lbian to appear on the ver of a natnal gay magaze, The Ladr, a publitn produced by the untry’s first lbian-rights group, the Dghters of Bilis, acrdg to a retrospective on her life and reer by Lillian Farman, a historian of lbian and gay her scbbed, all-Amerin looks, Dr. Vcenz looked like “every mother’s dream dghter, ” as Barbara Gtgs, The Ladr’s edor, put Vcenz also ntributed to the e on the other si of a mera, makg two 16-limeter films that were later hailed as signifint artifacts of the early gay rights first, tled “The Send-Largt Mory, ” documents a Mattache Society prott ont of Inpennce Hall Philalphia on July 4, morn ey, the black-and-whe film, roughly seven mut, seems anythg but seismic.

THE GAY CSAR (16 RULTS)

“The whole notn of gay people publicly exprsg their sentiments that fashn was beyond nceptualizatn until we started dog , ” the Mattache Society’s -founr, Frankl E. ”Her send film, “Gay and Proud, ” documented the Christopher Street Liberatn Day Para 1970, a memoratn of the first anniversary of the Stonewall uprisg Manhattan. The uprisg, after a police raid at Stonewall Inn, a gay bar Greenwich Village, was a turng pot the gay rights movement.

“Gay and Proud” shows a much larger, and shaggier, gatherg of protters takg a more ant stance the para, chantg fiantly and wavg plards wh msag like “I am a lbian and I am betiful. ”In addn to providg a “val piece of gay history, ” Ms. Vcenz’s films “gave visual documentatn of the astonishg distance that the gay movement had traveled between 1968 and 1970.

“I fd a privilege to work wh gay people, ” she PrsLilli Marie Vcenz was born Hamburg, Germany, on Sept.

LBIAN UPLE W IVF ‘GAY TAX’ BATTLE

J., Vcenz regnized her sexualy early on, she said a 2008 terview, and “ beme paful after a while to realize that I was gay and I didn’t know anyone else who was gay. But after a stt as an edor the book publishg dtry, she cid to jo the Army, part bee she had heard was “a hotbed of gay people, ” acrdg to Ms. Farman’s putative hotbed, however, had a policy banng gay people om service, and she was thrown out while trag as a nropsychiatric technician at the Walter Reed ary hospal the 1970s, Dr.

Vcenz ran a weekly discsn ssn lled the Gay Women’s Open Hoe, which functned as a marketplace of ias and sanctuary of sorts for lbians the Washgton area. Vcenz cid to take a more timate approach to helpg gay people their stggl. “I fd a privilege to work wh gay people who are, general, so much more urageo, novative and open to new ias than the average straight person, ” she told Gay Today.

It was Washgton — not Bethda, Md., where is we handle rrectnsA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 20 of the New York edn wh the headle: Lilli Vcenz, a Trailblazer the Gay Rights Movement, Di at 85. “You know, Mike, I ed to be gay, ” I said. Mike had explaed to me how he felt he uld never go to church bee he was gay.

THE GAY CSARS. INTERVIEW NDUCTED BY KAY TOB LAHEN FOR HER BOOK. RUTH SIMPSON, 1971 JANUARY 10

Lookg back on this enunter, I n see that had all the trappgs of what beme known as the ex-gay movement, of which I was once an eager proponent. Most notable is my e of the ex-gay script: “I ed to be gay.

” The phrase implied that I wasn’t gay anymore. I had a ttimony, a story to tell about leavg homosexualy behd. What ma me ex-gay was that I ed the ex-gay script.

I was tryg to nvce myself that I was a straight man wh a disease—a curable one—lled homosexualy. Alan Medger, the first executive director of Exod Internatnal, scribed as “a change self-perceptn which the dividual no longer intifi him- or herself as homosexual. And, wh my ex-gay amework, I wasn’t lyg; I was claimg my new realy.