The Gay Liberation Front-DC

"Every night, we didn't want to go to sleep because we were afraid we'd miss something."
-- Warren Blumenfeld
"GLF was more concerned with creating a culture ... we were the whole sex, drug, rock and roll, the hippy thing ...
we were the advance guard, the grandparents of ACT UP and Queer Nation."
--Bruce Pennington

 

GLF at Christopher Street Liberation Day 1971

Washington DC's Gay Liberation Front (GLF) followed the creation of New York's group in the summer of 1970.  The first call to form GLF-DC appeared in the Quicksilver Times (a local 'underground' free paper identifying with left wing anti-war causes), in a letter by Mike Yarr to the editor.  Yarr's letter (June 9 - 19, 1970 edition) protested the newspaper's use of "sucks" in a denigratory headline.  At the end of the letter, Yarr wrote, "All gay movement people interested in forming a Gay Liberation Front here contact me at 234-2000.  All Power to the People.  Gay Power to to Gay People."  David Aiken, one of the founders of GLF-DC, wrote an article (June23 - July 3, Quicksilver Times) celebrating the first Gay Pride week and calling on gay men and lesbians in DC to get together:

"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-onstraights) and fight rpression in all forms.  If you want to rap with somebody about the idea of gay lib, call Mike Yarr during the day at 234-2000, or at night phone Dave Aiken at 2344287 or Miles Gritz at 965-2734.  Power to the People! Gay Power to gay people!"

A month later a follow-up article by a 'radical lesbian' on "Gay Liberation" invited "those brothers and sisters who are ready to 'come out and live'." to attend weekly meetings at 8 pm at Grace Episcopal Church in Georgetown. The first meeting, called for by Yarr's letter, at Grace Church reportedly drew nearly 70 people.  Thereafter, the Gay Liberation Front met regularly at Grace Church in Georgetown.  The church also provided an overnight staging ground for gay activists participating in the Gay Mayday protests.

As a radical leftist organization, many of whose members had antiwar and counter-culture credentials, GLF was anti-organization, with no officers, no dues, and no rules except those that emerged as people lived together.  Discussions were often heated and loud.  People became "members" by attending events or associating, though no one joined the house without the residents' approval.

Gay Liberation Front DC- Collectives:  Over Labor Day weekend 1970, a group of GLF members (Mike Yarr, Jose Ramos, Joan Carmody, Bil Taylor, Michael Ferri, Bruce Pennington, David Aiken) moved into a 3 story rowhouose at 1620 S St NW, which quickly became known as GLF House or Collective.  David Aiken had made arrangements to get the house, in a neighborhood of antiwar and counter-culture collectives; reportedly, the house had been previously occupied by the antiwar Berrigan brothers.  This first collective lasted until 1974.

In 1971, a group of GLFers left the 1620 S St. house and set up a neighboring collective at 1624 S St. NW.  The second collective was known as the Skyline Collective (named for a meeting on Skyline drive in Virginia at which the group decided to start a separate house).  It was also called the Skyline Faggots (advertised by a banner hung over the front door).  Skyline Collective lasted until 1976, though it moved in 1974 to 1733 Q St NW. The separate collectives both represented Gay Liberation Front thought but favored differing tactics.  Like many collectives of the period, the group devoted time to consciousness raising raps, self-criticism, and ideological and tactical discussions.

The GLF House was an organizing center for gay and lesbian activists where plans were laid for zaps at Catholic University, the Georgetown Grill, the Plus One, and other sites around the city.  One memorable zapoccured at Catholic University during a discussion of homosexuality.
 
 

1971: Party at GLF House, 1620 S St NW

Gay Liberation Front, the Black Panthers' Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention, and the Zephyr Riot:
In 1970, DC's Gay Liberation Front helped organize the Black Panthers' Revolutionary Peoples Consitutional Convention and sponsored a series of gay liberation workshops, many of them at American University.  Members of GLF-DC found housing for gay men and lesbians coming to Washington for the convention.  Tim Tomasi, a doctor, provided medical care for members of the Panthers.

During the Thanksgiving weekend convention, four GLF members were refused service at the Zephyr restaurant near AU's campus, and led a return zap at the restaurant that became a major disturbance.  It was the closest Washington has seen to an equivalent of Stonewall.  Twelve of the group were arrested and were known for a time as the DC Twelve. The charges were ultimately dismissed.  GLF's flyer is a call to support the DC 12.

Workshops at American University drew up lists of demands for gay men and for lesbians.  The lists indicate the issues on the minds of gay liberationists and lesbians at the beginning of the 70s.

Gay Liberation Front-DC and Celebrations:
GLF carried out much of the planning and launched the call for the city's first Gay Pride celebration celebration (albeit an unofficial and unauthorized event) the first week of May 1972.  The Gay Liberation Front worked with the Community Bookshop, Henry Street of the Washington Academy, the Gay People's Alliance at George Washington University, the Gay Activists Alliance, Metropolitan Community Church, and others to mount Washington DC's first Pride event.  The event ran from May 2nd through May 7th, and featured a dance at the GAA community center, a program in Lafayette Park, discussion and rap groups, an outdoor religious celebration, and a drag show at George Washington University.

The group also co-sponsored same sex dances with the Homophile Social League and the Mattachine Society of Washington.  GLF House offered meeting space, fundraising parties, gay youth support groups, gay religious ceremonies, support for the homeless, and published Breadbox, a shortlived gay liberation newspaper.

Church at the GLF House

 

Members and Associates:
Among those involved with the Gay Liberation Front - DC and its two collectives were:

David Aiken, Will Balk, Steve Behrens, Warren Blumenfeld, Donald Button, Joan Carmody, Lou Chibbaro, Tim Corbett, "Chris Douglass", David Duty, Howard Grayson, Chuck Hall, Michael Ferri, Miles Gritz, Chuck Hicks, Kent Jarratt, Stephen Jarratt [the Jarratts were the only brothers in GLF], Theodore Kirkland, Jim Lawrence, Terry Leigh, Brian Miller, Bruce Pennington, Jose Ramos, Tim Tomasi, Cade Ware, and Mike Yarr.

Among local activists briefly involved with GLD-DC were

Dr. Franklin E Kameny, Eva Freund, Nancy Tucker, and Deacon Maccubbin.

After the 1972 split into two houses, Will Balk, Tim Corbett, Kent Jarret, David Duty, Michael Ferri, Theodore Kirkland, Jim Lawrence, and Tim Tomasi moved into the Skyline Faggots Collective and became the core members of that gay collective.  Both collectives frequently served as "crash pads" for people needing a place to live who were residents but not members of the collective.

Many members of the Gay Liberation Front - DC went on to lead or found other community organizations:

David Aiken:  became a founder of Stonewall Nation Media Collective (Friends Radio), president of Washington Area Gay Community Council, writer and editor of the 1975 Just Us guide to the gay community, and Washington correspondent of The Advocate.

Warren Blumenfeld: became involved in writing and leading workshops on homophobia and outreach to GLBT students

Lou Chibbaro: became the longest serving journalist on the staff of The Washington Blade.

Tim Corbett: became one of the founders of the Gay Men's VD Clinic which became a central part of the Whitman-Walker Clinic

Theodore Kirkland: became one of the founders of Best Friends and of DC Black Gay Pride

Bruce Pennington: became a founder of Gay People's Alliance at GWU and of Stonewall Nation Media Collective, the first gay foster parent in DC, a founder and president of Black and White Men Together - DC, and a founder and vice-chair of Rainbow History Project

Cade Ware: became a member and president of Gay Activists Alliance and was prominently involved in local Democratic politics, wrote for The Blade, and was involved in Black and White Men Together.

GLF-DC published its own newsletter, as well as Breadbox.  The three issues in our collection are online. Volume 1, number 14, of 1970 deals with preparations for the Black Panther's People's Revolutionary Constitutional Convention.

Volume 1 No. 9
 

Volume 1 No. 12
 

Volume 1 No. 14
 

Online resources for the Gay Liberation Front:
 

Gay Liberaton Front pages at PaganPress Books: links to first issues of Come Out and reminiscences of John Lauritsen

GLBTQ entry on the Gay Liberation Front

Gay Liberation Front site maintained by Nikos Diaman, including in memoriam of members who haae died, list of current known members of GLF and essays on the organization.

         40th anniversary reunion of Gay Liberation Front

GLF Pictures