Gay Activists Alliance

THE FIRST YEARS

GAA letterhead circa 1974

DC's new Gay Activists Alliance plunged right in.  Two weeks after its formation, GAA with Mattachine Society of Washington and the Gay Liberation Front participated in a zap or take-over of the plenary stage at the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) annual meeting at the Shoreham Hotel.  The protesters confronted the APA over its definition of homosexuality as a disease.  GAA founder Cliff Witt led protesters through fire doors into the hall as Dr. Kameny took the microphone to denounce the APA.

The autumn of 1971 saw GAA-DC take its first stands on two issues that would continue to be its concern over the next three and a half decades: accountability of those seeking elected office to the city's gay community and opposition to any form of discrimination against members of that community.  GAA's first forum for candidates for the school board was preceded by questionnaires submitted to the candidates.  At the forum, candidates who attended were quizzed about their stance on issues significant to the community. [Listen to Cade Ware and Craig Howell discussing the ratings of 1974 candidates on Friends Radio.]

In October 1971, GAA joined a coalition of community groups protesting the new 'superdisco' Lost and Found's policy of asking for multiple IDs from African Americans, women, and drag queens that it wanted to exclude from the club.  The coalition, named the Committee for Open Gay Bars, was the first effort at 'policing' our own community and established standards that were later applied to Grand Central and the Georgetown Grill when they also discriminated against patrons.

The following year, 1972, GAA, which had sought to dialogue with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the Mayor's office about police harassment and entrapment, made the protests public with a torchlight demonstration against Park Police entrapment at the Iwo Jima memorial.  That same year saw the first fruits of GAA's growing influence and the straight community's awareness of gay political power when the school board passed a resolution, the first in the nation, banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

From its early days, GAA participated with the Mattachine Society, Gay Liberation Front, and the Homophile Social League in staging same-sex dances.  In March of 1972, GAA rented a warehouse adjacent to Doggit's parking lot at 1213-1219 13th St and opened the city's first gay community center.  The center provided meeting space for GAA and other organizations and a site for dances and social activities.  Though it closed in July 1973, the center established a felt need in the community for future centers.

The community center and other events severely strained GAA's finances in its early years.  Nonetheless, GAA made significant strides in 1973 in being a key player in the enactment of DC's first human rights law, Title 34, to ban discrimination city-wide on the basis of sexual orientation.  The law made policies such as the Lost and Found's carding policy illegal and was used in 1974 against the Grand Central, another gay club which similarly discriminated.

Having sought, without success, meetings with the Metropolitan Police and the Mayor to discuss gay and lesbian rights issues and to press the case against harassment and entrapment, GAA members participated in a sit-in at Police Chief Wilson's office in 1973.  Eight people sat in; Cade Ware, Bill Bricker, and Deacon Maccubbin, all of them GAA members, were arrested. [Listen to Cade Ware talking about police harassment on Friends Radio in 1976]

GAA finally achieved a meeting with Mayor Washington in 1974 and presented a list of demands.  It wasn't until the following year, though, that the police department's harassment and entrapment activities were undermined:  GAA and its allies on the DC Council managed to eliminate funding for MPD's Prostitution, Perversion and Obscenity squad.  It was also in 1975 that Mayor Washington named Dr. Kameny to the city's Human Rights Commission.  One of GAA's key demands a year earlier had been the appointment of gay men and lesbians to city offices.

A testimony to the reversal of GAA's earlier financial plight, due in part to the leadership of Cade Ware and Bob Carpenter (later to be organizer of DC's first official Gay Prides), was its sponsorship of a national conference in 1975 on Gays and the Federal Government.
 
 
 

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