The Rainbow History Project
Preserving Our Community's Memories

The Insider

Newsletter of the Mattachine Society of Washington

The Mattachine Society of Washington (MSW) published The Insider, a newsletter for members that covered aspects of life in Washington DC before the Gay Blade first appeared in October 1969.  In the late 1960s, Eva Freund and Richard Schaeffers wrote and edited the newsletter.

The Insider gives readers a look into the monthly activities of The Mattachine Society during the Sixties as well as an overview of media views and MSW's support of other homophile groups of the period.  The issues from 1966 and 1967 focus on internal Mattachine operations and meetings, with some attention to media interest in homosexuals.  The issues from 1969 and 1970 chronicle internal operations, training sessions, and events.  Readers will also find a distinct change in tone between the February 1969 and the January 1970 issues, as the editors note and support the dawning "Homosexual Revolt".  Late issues of The Insider show MSW's support of the new Gay Blade and new organizations such as the Gay Liberation Front in New York.

The following issues of The Insider are the kind donations of Eva Freund and Paul Kuntzler, The issues are used with the permission of Dr Franklin E Kameny and the Mattachine Society of Washington.  MSW retains copyright.
 

January 1966    meeting schedule, address at Unitarian church, help wanted

February 1966    committee meetings, new office at 1319 F St NW,

April 1966    pledge campaign, office needs, meeting schedule

November 1966    committee meetings, MSW handout distribution, radio interviews

April 1967    Kameny and Nichols on TV, panel discussion at UMD in College ParkFebruary 1969 issue:  MSW training workshop, DC vagrancy law unconstitutional, MSW's new Gay is Good buttons arrive, MSW matchbooks, "governmental concerns", blackmail in DC.

March 1969   Upcoming lectures/programs, guerilla theater, grant seeking for studies on homosexuals, events in the movement, new MSW brochure, project to find counselors for homosexual couples, Harvard Law project on homosexuals and security clearances, recent events "in the bullpit of homophile reform".

May 1969  MSW and NACHO file suit against IRS over employee regulations, John Karr speaking on 'Homosexuals and the Law' at GWU, NACHO questionnaire to presidential candidates, events in the movement, bar owners respond to Gay is Good buttons, minutes of March meeting, new study of lesbians.

August 1969  The Stonewall resistance, straight vigilantes in Queens, the "last peaceful" July 4th demonstration in Philadelphia, court ruling that homosexuality is not a bar to federal employment, Maryland sodomy statutes, Martin Hoffman's article on homosexuality in Psychology Today, and an encounter with the police at Jo-Anna's on 8th St. SE.

September 1969  SIR files suit against Oakland and Berkeley entrapment, review of Harvard Law article "Government-Created Employment Disabilities of  the Homosexual", movement news, Gay Is ...

October 1969  new Community Service Committee projects--blood drive and distributing the Gay Blade to the bars, discussion of DC 'solicitation' statute, "How is the Old Establishment Doing", media issues, review of The Same Sex by Ralph Weltge.

November 1969  Gay Blade distribution and the blood drive, blackmail attempt, "How's the Old Establishment Doing?", news of NY's Gay Liberation Front, military courts cannot process civil issues,  report on NIMH's "Final Report of the Task Force on Homosexuality".

January 1970  upcoming talks/programs, meeting protocols, Gay Blade distribution, Homosexuals Are Denied ...",  editorial welcoming the Homosexual Revolt.

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