Sources on the Gay Left in the 1970s: DC

For many 1970s era gay activists, there was a deeply felt inclusion in the politics and organizations of the counterculture and radical politics.  Gay activists of the time felt themselves to be one of the oppressed groups, among many others, that the American left supported and worked for.  Many members of early gay liberation groups, particularly amongst members of the Gay Liberation Front, had previously been involved in late 1960s and early 1970s new left organizations, in civil rights organizing, and anti-Vietnam War protests.

TIES TO THE AMERICAN LEFT.
In the 1960s, the Mattachine Society of Washington (MSW) borrowed tactics and found inspiration in the US civil rights movement.  Indeed, Dr Kameny's creation of the slogan "Gay is Good" in 1968 was inspired by the Black Panther's declaration "Black is Beautiful" during the late 1960s.  Several members of MSW had participated in civil rights activities.  In 1963, Dr. Kameny, Paul Kuntzler, and other MSW members participated in Dr. King's March on Washington.

Where some sought inspiration and learned tactics in the civil rights movement, others found the same in the antiwar movement and radical counterculture protests.  Many founders of DC's early activist groups, such as David Aiken and Bruce Pennington, had radical 'credentials' in other movements before gay liberation.  This heritage of shared aspirations and tactics with the left created a strong desire to be recognized and accepted in the left.  As Michael Ferri, a founding member of Washington DC's Gay Liberation Front recalls

“We wanted to establish that we were part of the people’s movement, that we were oppressed people, too.”  [interview with Rainbow History, 02/05/06]

THE LOCAL GAY LEFT AND THE BLACK PANTHERS.
Unfortunately, much of the American left was not welcoming of the gay liberation movement.  Early gay liberationists reached out to all leftist groups, finding shared concerns in combatting racism, sexism, classism, and capitalism.  Gay liberationists were particularly heartened by Black Panther Huey Newton's August 15, 1970 speech that recognized both gay liberation and women's liberation as part of the revolutionary movement:

"But there is nothing to say that a homosexual cannot also be a revolutionary. And maybe I'm now injecting some of my prejudice by saying that "even a homosexual can be a revolutionary." Quite the contrary, maybe a homosexual could be the most revolutionary.
When we have revolutionary conferences, rallies, and demonstrations, there should be full participation of the gay liberation movement and the women's liberation movement."

GAY LIBERATION FRONT - DC
In announcing the formation of DC's Gay Liberation Front in the underground newspaper Quicksilver Times, Dave Aiken, a founding member of the local Gay Liberation Front wrote (June 23, 1970)

"Gay people are perhaps the last oppressed group to get themselves together ... It's time for gays to surface, join with their comrades (both gays and right straights) and fight repression in all forms... Power to the People! Gay Power to gay people!"

The Gay Liberation Front - DC  (GLF) provided support to the local Black Panthers Defense Committee as well as establishing ties of support to other local radical organizations.  According to Michael Ferri, GLF member Tim Tomassi provided medical support to the Panthers in DC.  DC's GLF participated with other gay liberationists in the planning for the November 1970 RevolutionaryPeople's Constitutional Convention (PRCC), held in DC.  In planning sessions in Philadelphia, gay liberationists drafted a platform and during the RPCC rallied in Malcom X Park and held a number of workshops.  A national gay liberation conference in Austin TX in March 1970 endorsed the RPCC and began organizing support.  Members of GLF from across the country came to DC for the RPCC, many of them staying at American University.  The local GLF provided logistical support to those attending the convention.

Two issues of the local GLF newsletters provides documentation of local preparations for the PRCC: Volume 1 Number 12 provides the initial call for support while  Volume 1 Number 14 addresses practical logistics.

OTHER LOCAL INVOLVEMENTS: GAY MAY DAY
DC's gay leftists and liberationists also were heavily involved in antiwar activities.  During the MayDay demonstrations against the Vietnam War gay liberationists caucused as a group and planned their own Gay MayDay events.  GLF members from across the country descended on DC for the first weekend of May 1971 to help disrupt the national capital.  Many felt that their participation was as much an evidence of membership of the radical left as an antiwar protest.  Other antiwar leftists were, however, not welcoming and much of the gay liberationists participation occured separately from the other affinity groups participating in MayDay.

GLFers Jose Ramos and Bruce Pennington carry GLF-DC's banner in Peace Park before the MayDay protests

GLF, from its collectives (it split in spring 1971 into two collectives at 1614 and 1620 S St NW) , organized and hosted groups supporting prisoners, street youth, and the poor, as well as creating a religious group.

LESBIANS AND THE LEFT
By 1971, lesbians in the Washington, DC area were disabused of the inclusiveness of gay liberation groups, feeling that the male leadership and domination of such groups inevitably sidelined women and relegated them to inferior roles.  Nancy Tucker, creator of The Gay Blade, the city's first publicly and widely distributed periodical for the gay and lesbian community, had been briefly a member of the Gay Liberation Front and left the group following a personal denunciation of the group's patriarchal attitudes.  Eva Freund, a member of the Mattachine Society of Washington and editor of its The Insider newsletter, similarly became disabused of gay male liberationists (see her account of being a woman in the gay liberation movement).  Her remarks on  the patriarchal attitudes of gay male activism speak for many lesbian leftists of the period.

Just as the gay liberationists had found the US left unwelcoming, lesbians found American leftist groups patriarchal and ill-suited to speak to and represent their goals and needs.  Washington, DC had a strong feminist community independent of radical leftist organizations and issues.  Though the left sought to embrace feminism and even lesbianism, most women were unconvinced.   As a consequence of the straight women's liberation movement's discomfort with lesbians, lesbian women caucused amongst themselves and began living self-reliant and independent lives.

The Furies, a short-lived but highly influential lesbian separatist collective in Washington, DC, epitomized much of the self-reliant, independent, analysis of class, economic and social issues.
 
 

HOME