Gay Liberatn Front at Alternate U. – NYC LGBT Historic S Project

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT
• DIFFERENT FIGHT, 'SAME GOAL': HOW THE BLACK EEDOM MOVEMENT SPIRED EARLY GAY ACTIVISTS
• HISTORY HAS OVERLOOKED THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT’S ROLE STONEWALL … UNTIL NOW
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT
• UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT AT ALTERNATE U.
• LAWRENCE GAY LIBERATN FRONT
• THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT'S SOCIAL REVOLUTN
• GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT
• THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN
• LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: EARLY PNEERS OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• FIGHTG FOR LIBERATN FOR 50 YEARS: MAHER AHMAD REMEMBERS HIS TIME WH THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

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 GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT

) 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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. 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).

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).

GAY LIBERATN FRONT

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. On April 25, 1965, three teenagers refed to leave Dewey’s Rtrant Philalphia after employe repeatedly nied service to “homosexuals and persons wearg nonnformist clothg, ” acrdg to Dm magaze, which was created by the Jan Society, an early gay rights teens were arrted and charged wh disorrly nduct, and Jan Society members protted outsi of the rtrant for the next five days, acrdg to Marc Ste, a history profsor at San Francis State Universy.

UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT

"Eric Cervi, LGBTQ Historian“Unlike so many other episos, kd of bed issu of homosexualy and trans issu, ” Ste, thor of “Rethkg the Gay and Lbian Movement, ” told NBC May 2, three more people staged a send s- at Dewey’s.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT AT ALTERNATE U.

Specifilly, s-s anized by gay activists the ‘60s appear to be directly spired by protts held 1960 by Black llege stunts at Woolworth’s lunch unter Greensboro, North Carola, agast racial stunts wa va for food service at this F. C., one of the first homophile groups ("homophile" beg the adjective of choice at the time), and he drew strategi directly om the Black civil rights movement, acrdg to Eric Cervi, a historian and thor of “The Deviant’s War, ” which foc on Kameny and the early gay rights movement.

(In fact, 1979, activists would anize a Natnal March on Washgton for Gay and Lbian Rights, which drew an timated 200, 000 protters, acrdg to the Natnal LGBT Chamber of Commerce) hold signs as they participate the Natnal March on Washgton for Lbian & Gay Rights Washgton, DC, on Oct. A aln of gay and lbian anizatns held a yearly peaceful prott at Inpennce Hall lled the Annual Remr om 1965 to 1969, which Ste said were fluenced by the early civil rights monstratns which monstrators were stcted to drs rpectably, wh women drs and men sus. ”Crowd attempts to impe police arrts outsi the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street New York's Greenwich Village York Daily News via Getty ImagCervi said FBI reports explicly nnect the Black Freedom Movement and the early homophile movement.

”“This ia of a aln between the two anizatns — that the Black Freedom Movement might be spirg this other group of Amerin cizens who are also margalized, and the fact that they may both be takg to the streets, perhaps ordatn — that is what sred them the most, ” Cervi said of the FBI and Southern racist Kameny and Mattache Society of Washgton members marchg New York, June Tob Lahen / NYPLHowever, the homophile movement, at least New York and Washgton, never ma that aln a realy, Cervi said he the word “plagiarism” to scribe how Kameny ed civil rights tactics whout workg wh or credg the activists whose tactics he ed. Kuromiya -found the Gay Liberatn Front’s Philalphia chapter and beme a spokperson for a homosexual workshop at the Black Panther’s Revolutnary People's Constutnal Conventn September 1970, acrdg to gave a prentatn “to the huge dience of the nventn to applse, ” Ste said of Kuromiya, cg this as one of many exampl showg that the movements weren’t agmented or divid at the time some ci. Marshall’s legal strategy, which volved g the due procs and equal protectn cls of the 14th Amendment, served as a mol that the LGBTQ movement ed to challenge the crimalizatn of homosexualy and the nial of marriage rights.

LAWRENCE GAY LIBERATN FRONT

Outlg the group’s posn on the two emergg movements, Newton wrote: “Whatever your personal opns and your securi about homosexualy and the var liberatn movements among homosexuals and women (and I speak of the homosexuals and women as opprsed groups), we should try to une wh them a revolutnary fashn. 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.

THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT'S SOCIAL REVOLUTN

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.

GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT

McDarrah/Getty ImagAfter pourg their drks, a bartenr Juli's Bar ref to serve John Timms, Dick Lesch, Craig Rodwell, and Randy Wicker, members of the Mattache Society who were prottg New York liquor laws that prevented servg gay ctomers, 1966, three members of the Mattache Society, an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay rights, staged a “sip-”—a twist on the “s-” protts of the 1960s.

THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN

But between New York’s LGBTQ muny the 1960s beg forced to live on the outskirts of society and the Mafia’s disregard for the law, the two beme a profable, if uneasy, State Liquor Authory and the New York Police Department regularly raid bars that tered to gay patrons.

LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: EARLY PNEERS OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

“Fat Tony, ” purchased the Stonewall Inn 1966 and transformed to a gay bar and operate the Stonewall and s other gay bars, the Mafia bribed the NYPD to turn a bld eye to the “cent nduct” occurrg behd closed doors.

" 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.

FIGHTG FOR LIBERATN FOR 50 YEARS: MAHER AHMAD REMEMBERS HIS TIME WH THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT

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.