Gay Rights - Movement, Marriage & Flag | HISTORY

Contents:

• INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT UK
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT ACTIVISTS ON THE FIRST UK PRI
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT (GLF) 2022 LNCH GATHERG - ABSOLUTE FREEDOM FOR ALL!
• IT BEGAN WH ! / GAY LIBERATN FRONT 50TH PRI 50TH PLANNG
• THE VETERANS OF THE UK’S GAY LIBERATN FRONT AND ALLI WILL HOLD A PROTT MARCH TO MEMORATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF UK’S FIRST PRI MARCH
• GAY RIGHTS
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT (GLF) 2022 LNCH GATHERG - 50 YEARS OF PRI
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT
• A PROCLAMATN ON LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, AND QUEER PRI MONTH, 2021
• A TRANS HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN NEW ZEALAND
• REMEMBERG GAY LIBERATN FRONT’S NYU PROTT
• HISTORY HAS OVERLOOKED THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT’S ROLE STONEWALL … UNTIL NOW
• THE POLICS OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT

INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN

Image source, Alamy/MirrorpixImage ptn, Stuart Feather (left), drag, is bundled to a police r durg a gay-rights prott, 1971It's 1972 - the swgg '60s are over, the mers' strike has turned off the lights and Donny Osmond is toppg the charts wh Puppy Love. Frh om protts llg for the age of nsent to be lowered, the year before, members of the Gay Liberatn Front are planng a new march - not only mandg change and equaly but celebratg who they, although they do not yet know , the ripple effects will still be felt s UK's first Pri prott is about to be born.

"'It was brilliant - the eedom, the abily to be yourself' - Bce's storyImage ptn, Bce Bayley first realised he was gay when he began studyg the GLF for his thisFor Bce Bayley, the ncept of a gay-pri march was different om that of prev polil march.

'There was a sense of nghts' - Shân's story Image source, BBC JOSH PARRYImage ptn, Shân Veillard-Thomas joed the Gay Liberatn Front after meetg her first girliend and nng away om homeWhen Shân Veillard-Thomas joed the GLF, she had jt met her first girliend and n away om home.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT UK

"'The gay manifto' - Roz's storyImage source, BBC NEWSImage ptn, Roz Kaveney was volved wrg the first GLF maniftoIn the tumn of 1971, when she met the GLF, Roz Kaveney was 22 and had already e out as transgenr, what she scribed as a "ighteng time". Image source, BBC newsImage ptn, The Gay Liberatn Front manifto mand legal and societal chang for LGBT people"It was for everyone whether they are black, whe, trans, cis - not that that language was available to at the time - straight and gay, marchg together to the 'glor liberated future', " Roz says. "And parts of rema valid many of the GLF, Roz ntued mpaigng, marchg agast Sectn 28 of the Lol Government Act 1988, which effectively banned homosexualy beg tght schools and was repealed 2003, and for 2004's Genr Regnn Act, which enabled trans people to legally change the genr on their birth source, Jamie GarderImage ptn, Human-rights mpaigner Peter Tatchell (ont centre) joed the GLF aged 19 and attend the first UK pri MarchThe GLF will re-create that first Pri prott, on Friday, settg off om St Mart's the Fields, near Trafalgar Square, at on this story.

” The same day, a small group of San Francisns marched down Polk Street, then had a “gay-” piic that was broken up by equtrian and other New York groups had spent months planng the Manhattan event wh the help of anizers like Brenda Howard, a bisexual activist who had cut her anizg teeth durg the anti-Vietnam movement of the late 1960s.

Leonard Fk Photographs, The LGBT Communy Center Natnal History ArchiveMark SegalEarly member of the Gay Liberatn Front and marshal of the first Pri marchThe Christopher Street Gay Liberatn Day March was as revolutnary and chaotic as everythg we did that first year after the Stonewall rts. ” Today, my origal marshal’s badge is on display the JayEarly member of the Gay Liberatn Front and Radilbians and -anizer of the first march New York and Los AngelIt was a near miracle that the first Christopher Street Wt Para Los Angel kicked off at all on June 28, 1970.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT ACTIVISTS ON THE FIRST UK PRI

For one day, we were victor agast the Ed Davis of the world, and no one seemed “dismod” the FkelsteJohn KyperEarly member of Boston’s Gay Liberatn Front and an anizer of Boston’s first Pri ParaWe held our first march Boston 1971 — a year after New York.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT (GLF) 2022 LNCH GATHERG - ABSOLUTE FREEDOM FOR ALL!

Groups hosted the 17th ternatnal nference of ILGA (The Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn), and the energy of the ternatnal legat who attend and the excement of hostg the gatherg only add to the drama of the untry’s first actual succsful para. 21 – Lnch of ‘Revolutnary People’s Constutnal Conventn’ LIVE-STREAMED FROM SPITALFIELDS ON Saturday/Sunday 15/16 May 2021 at The Bishopsgate Instute, a ticketed ee event arranged by the GAY LIBERATION FRONT““We are the Gay Liberatn Front, …. Amazg archivg work by the one and only Stef Dickers, Rachel Smh and all at the Bishopsgate Instute see all on the Bishopsgate Instute webse here Come Together: Gay Liberatn Front About this Archive The newspaper of the Gay Liberatn Front, Come Together, was formed by the GLF’s Media Workshop 1970.

The bate around police at Pri has been ragg for years, wh ltle sign of nsens emergg, but Tatchell believ allowg uniformed officers to march Pri when their forc have issu wh “racism, misogyny and homophobia” is a problem. “Que a few Pris around the world have taken a cisn to ban the police for a range of different reasons, but here Bra we do have a rerd of police racism, vlence, misogyny and homophobia and I thk that there are very strong, ser ncerns that the police – the Metropolan Police – are stutnally homophobic, ” Tatchell says.

He ntu: “By all means, I would wele officers marchg pla cloth, sual wear – that is fe, they are wele, but as an stutn, the Met Police stands acced of not only stutnal homophobia, biphobia and transphobia but [also] racism, vlence and misogyny. 2020 was the 50th anniversary of the start of Gay Liberatn London, the moment everythg changed Bra by givg Comg Out, Gay Pri and the first Gay Pri March 1972, makg 2022 the 50th anniversary of that polil monstratn and stands for liberatn: the choice is always there – liberatn or gatherg is a space for all Gay Liberatn Front (GLF) Activists and new iends to nnect, celebrate and plot our ongog eedom - there are some excg ias to pay tribute to you / / everyone who started Pri and ntu the stggle for Absolute Freedom for All! Please brg tsted iends, iends om allied movements - UK Black Pri, London Trans Pri etc - to our next GLF 'Thk In' ntext om origal and current GLF activist 'Andrew Lumsn' - Stonewall Uprisg and the foundatn of the Gay Liberatn Front New York, the orig of the fight back that spired brought hope to LGBTQI+ of every untry the world.

IT BEGAN WH ! / GAY LIBERATN FRONT 50TH PRI 50TH PLANNG

2020 brought the 50th anniversary of the start of Gay Liberatn London, the moment everythg changed Bra by givg Comg Out, Gay Pri and the first Gay Pri March 1972, makg 2022 the 50th anniversary of that polil monstratn and stands for liberatn: the choice is always there – liberatn or slavery.

2020 was the 50th anniversary of the start of Gay Liberatn London, the moment everythg changed Bra by givg Comg Out, Gay Pri and the first Gay Pri March 1972, makg 2022 the 50th anniversary of that polil monstratn and celebratn. This gatherg is a space for all Gay Liberatn Front (GLF) Activists and new iends to nnect, celebrate and plot our ongog eedom – there are some excg ias to pay tribute to you / / everyone who started Pri and ntu the stggle for Absolute Freedom for All! The Gay Liberatn Front (1970-1973) was an outpourg of rage by lbians, trans people, bi’s and gay men the USA and here the UK and Ireland, and eventually across much of the world, agast centuri of abe by police, workplac, and legislators.

“We love all the people gay or straight or bravely refg to take a cisn eher way who take part Pri events, and affectnately wish everyone who go on the mayor’s march on 2 July, and the volunteers who make possible, and the people who e to London to watch , every good fortune.

THE VETERANS OF THE UK’S GAY LIBERATN FRONT AND ALLI WILL HOLD A PROTT MARCH TO MEMORATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF UK’S FIRST PRI MARCH

Army service World War I, Gerber was spired to create his anizatn by the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee, a “homosexual emancipatn” group ’s small group published a few issu of s newsletter “Friendship and Freedom, ” the untry’s first gay-tert newsletter.

Ernment signated Gerber’s Chigo hoe a Natnal Historic Pk TriangleCorbis/Getty ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, gay rights movement stagnated for the next few s, though LGBT dividuals around the world did e to the spotlight a few example, English poet and thor Radclyffe Hall stirred up ntroversy 1928 when she published her lbian-themed novel, The Well of Lonels. Addnally, 1948, his book Sexual Behavr the Human Male, Aled Ksey proposed that male sexual orientatn li on a ntuum between exclively homosexual to exclively Homophile Years In 1950, Harry Hay found the Mattache Foundatn, one of the natn’s first gay rights group. ”Though started off small, the foundatn, which sought to improve the liv of gay men through discsn groups and related activi, expand after foundg member Dale Jenngs was arrted 1952 for solicatn and then later set ee due to a adlocked the end of the year, Jenngs formed another anizatn lled One, Inc., which weled women and published ONE, the untry’s first pro-gay magaze.

Post Office, which 1954 clared the magaze “obscene” and refed to liver Mattache Society Mattache Foundatn members rtctured the anizatn to form the Mattache Society, which had lol chapters other parts of the untry and 1955 began publishg the untry’s send gay publitn, The Mattache Review. That same year, four lbian upl San Francis found an anizatn lled the Dghters of Bilis, which soon began publishg a newsletter lled The Ladr, the first lbian publitn of any early years of the movement also faced some notable setbacks: the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn listed homosexualy as a form of mental disorr followg year, Print Dwight D.

GAY RIGHTS

”In fear of beg shut down by thori, bartenrs would ny drks to patrons spected of beg gay or kick them out altogether; others would serve them drks but force them to s facg away om other ctomers to prevent them om 1966, members of the Mattache Society New York Cy staged a “sip-”—a twist on the “s-” protts of the 1960s— which they vised taverns, clared themselv gay, and waed to be turned away so they uld sue. They were nied service at the Greenwich Village tavern Juli, rultg much publicy and the quick reversal of the anti-gay liquor Stonewall Inn A few years later, 1969, a now-famo event talyzed the gay rights movement: The Stonewall clanste gay club Stonewall Inn was an stutn Greenwich Village bee was large, cheap, allowed dancg and weled drag queens and homels the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn.

" This sign was wrten by the Mattache Society–an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay reportg the events, The New York Daily News rorted to homophobic slurs s tailed verage, nng the headle: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad. 1 / 12: NY Daily News Archive/Getty ImagChristopher Street Liberatn Day Shortly after the Stonewall uprisg, members of the Mattache Society spl off to form the Gay Liberatn Front, a radil group that lnched public monstratns, protts and nontatns wh polil officials. Siar groups followed, cludg the Gay Activists Alliance, Radilbians, and Street Transvt Actn Revolutnari (STAR) 1970, at the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, New York Cy muny members marched through lol streets memoratn of the event.

Addnally, several openly LGBTQ dividuals secured public office posns: Kathy Kozachenko won a seat to the Ann Harbor, Michigan, Cy Council 1974, beg the first out Amerin to be elected to public Milk, who mpaigned on a pro-gay rights platform, beme the San Francis cy supervisor 1978, beg the first openly gay man elected to a polil office asked Gilbert Baker, an artist and gay rights activist, to create an emblem that reprents the movement and would be seen as a symbol of pri.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT (GLF) 2022 LNCH GATHERG - 50 YEARS OF PRI

In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn published a report about five prevly healthy homosexual men beg fected wh a rare type of 1984, rearchers had intified the e of AIDS—the human immunoficiency vis, or HIV—and the Food and Dg Admistratn licensed the first mercial blood tt for HIV 1985.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT

But after failg to garner enough support for such an open policy, Print Clton 1993 passed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, which allowed gay men and women to serve the ary as long as they kept their sexualy a rights advot cried the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, as did ltle to stop people om beg discharged on the grounds of their 2011, Print Obama fulfilled a mpaign promise to repeal DADT; by that time, more than 12, 000 officers had been discharged om the ary unr DADT for refg to hi their sexualy. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was officially repealed on September 20, Marriage and Beyond In 1992, the District of Columbia passed a law that allowed gay and lbian upl to register as domtic partners, grantg them some of the rights of marriage (the cy of San Francis passed a siar ordance three years prr and California would later extend those rights to the entire state 1999) 1993, the hight urt  Hawaii led that a ban on gay marriage may go agast the state’s nstutn. In 1994, a new anti-hate-crime law allowed judg to impose harsher sentenc if a crime was motivated by a victim’s sexual Matthew Shepard ActCourty of the Matthew Shepard FoundatnMatthew Shepard, who was btally killed a hate crime 2003, gay rights proponents had another b of happy news: the U.

Gay rights proponents mt also ntent wh an creasg number of “relig liberty” state laws, which allow bs to ny service to LGBTQ dividuals due to relig beliefs, as well as “bathroom laws” that prevent transgenr dividuals om g public bathrooms that don’t rrpond to their sex at birth. Gay Marriage Legalized Massachetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage, and the first legal same-sex marriage was performed on May 17, 2004—a day when seventy-seven other upl across the state also tied the knot. Event endFollow this aniser to stay rmed on future eventsBy London LGBTQ+ Communy CentreEvents you might likeQueer Peace and Secury: a visn for liberatnTue, Aug 29, 13:00The Common Prs Bookshop • LondonFreeBig Gay GathergSat, Sep 30, 13:00Hy Park • London£13.

In a top-down approach, om the Rsian Mistry of Foreign affairs nflatg ternatnal journalism and beg queer, to the head of the Rsian Orthodox suggtg a “gay para” was reason enough for the vasn, a major enemy of Rsia is the ia and ials of Ukrae’s LGBTQ muny and the Ukraian ernment’s ever-creasg embrace of them. The year 2020 brgs the 50th anniversary of the start of Gay Liberatn London, the moment when everythg changed Bra by settg off the first Gay Pri March 1972, makg 2022 the 50th anniversary of that polil monstratn and celebratn.

A PROCLAMATN ON LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, AND QUEER PRI MONTH, 2021

GLF’s aim is ‘Absolute Freedom for All’ and they empower the queer muny to achieve this through artistic and activist procs to nont a variety of forms of stutnalised homophobia cludg workshops, events, exhibns, street actns and muny anisg. ‘Out of the Closet and to the Streets’ is a polil tn and activism programme, that bats the rise homophobia and is part of velopg wir stggl for jtice agast domator culture and the rise of the far right and this is the programme that GLF will be nng wh Guerrilla backg. 2020 – 2022 – GLF tergeneratnal mentorg programme – Wh foundg members of ‘Pri’ om the ‘Gay Liberatn Front’ they have been meetg regularly aga sce the begng of 2019 to reclaim Pri back om the rporatns and are preparg to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the GLF 2020.

S clu Harley Street private medil practice, who prevly promoted beg gay as a disease, the Ho of Parliament where the legendary abseilg lbians protted agast the troductn of ‘Sectn 28’, a heavily-policed cisg spot the early 20th Century on the Strand known hilarly as the ‘Notor Ural’, the 1980’s ‘dyk and faggots rints scheme’ to hoe sgle people hard-to-let flats led by a muny of punk femist lbians, the Deptford Dyk and Picdilly Circ to tip our hats to the ‘Dilly Boys’ and sex workers who have kept the wheels of sexual London greased for centuri. June 2020 – ‘Queer Freedom’ showse at Rich Mix – weekend of films, trags, workshops and events wh tersectnal grassroots LGBTQI+ movements buildg ntug the tersectnal legacy of ‘Gay Liberatn Fronts’ goal of ‘Absolute Freedom for All’. Pri is a time to rell the trials the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer (LGBTQ+) muny has endured and to rejoice the triumphs of trailblazg dividuals who have bravely fought — and ntue to fight — for full equaly.

While the Gay Liberatn Front self may not have been found by trans people, trans women were the “ial impet” behd the gay movement: for was trans women – whakawāhe (Māori trans women) specifilly – who were the backbone of the muni om which the movement grew. In an early issue of the Auckland Gay Liberatn Front’s newspaper, Gay Lib News, activists plored the “suffotg tightns of the nuclear fay, ” which had rulted “anyone who don’t act acrdg to the male or female rol fed by society” as beg emed “unnatural, and subjected to discrimatn and sufferg”. Meanwhile, Victoria Universy of Wellgton’s Gay Liberatn Front branch clared s manifto that “those wh the movement who face addnal opprsn”, cludg “women, Maoris [sic], Pacific Islanrs, transvt and trans-sexuals and blatant gays, ” should be given “every enuragement to form special uc or sub-groups to prent their e to the movement”.

A TRANS HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN NEW ZEALAND

Hesthia, a trans advocy group found Lower Hutt 1972, was an early supporter of gay liberatn, and turn members were equently asked to speak at nferenc, ved to gay liberatn danc, and gave tnal panels alongsi gay activists at hospals and schools. One anonymo Hesthia member, who marched the Auckland Gay Liberatn Front’s first prott down Queen Street, remembered beg heckled by “butch lbian separatists” durg a workshop Hesthia gave on trans issu at a Gay Liberatn Conference.

REMEMBERG GAY LIBERATN FRONT’S NYU PROTT

But the whe, middle-class members of Hesthia ntued to be ved to nferenc; was the trans sex workers, mostly Māori and Pasefika, who really faced the bnt of discrimatn wh the gay liberatn movement, and society more generally. Ngāhuia Te Awekotu, the very spark of Gay Liberatn Aotearoa, specifilly named three whakawāhe – Māori trans women – as the lears an hered “Polynian tradn” of queerns: om “the Mahu of Hawaii, Tahi, the Cook Islands, the Marquas, of the Fa’afafe of Samoa, of the Fakalei of Tonga, of the Carmens, and Shirell and Natashas of Aotearoa. New Zealand Prostut Collective muny liaison Chanel Hati has scribed how credible was for her young trans self to see someone like Carmen beg so unapologetic: “this trans woman got out there, wh her big tti out, not shy…she broke down the barriers of nservative ials about what beg trans, or beg gay, or beg anythg other than the norm is…we stand on her shoulrs.

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

Chrissy Woko’s venu, most notably the Evergreen Wellgton, were renowned as safe spac for queer people, and the Evergreen was even ed as an anisg space for gay and lbian activists as well as a sex worker drop- centre. For their place on the ontl, trans sex workers were reward wh srn; emed the “bottom of the gay heap, even though we were the face of ” as many cisgenr lbians and gays strove to distance themselv om this muny that was so monised. 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. The overlap of this velopment wh right-wg attempts to rollback hard-won rights to bodily tonomy and sexual and reproductive rights, and to enforce the rigid heterosexist genr rol unrpng patriarchal opprsn, has been viewed wh mountg horror by many om the Gay Liberatn Front and Women’s Liberatn Movement who fought for those rights.

THE POLICS OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT