A brief chronological history of
GLF New York
by John Knoebel
June 28, 1969: Stonewall Rebellion
A police raid at the mafia-run Stonewall bar on New York’s Christopher Street in Greenwich Village sparked spontaneous militant resistance and several nights of street violence. Although conflicts with police had occurred in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other US cities in prior years, none provoked this level of community outrage, media attention and political response.
Police push protestors back outside of the Stonewall Inn in the early hours of June 28, 1969. Sourced from Wikimedia Commons.
July, 1969: Community Response
Over the next few weeks, a series of open meetings were held to discuss community response to Stonewall. The first of these, organized by Dick Leitsch of the Mattachine Society, was held at Freedom House (in midtown Manhattan) with several hundred in attendance. Clear factions developed. Those representing the traditional Mattachine Society spoke of holding a quiet candlelight vigil, but they were immediately shouted down by more radical elements in the audience who proposed that a public street march should be held in the Village. This proposal won the support of the overwhelming majority of the audience. Over the following days, plans for the street march were solidified. Flyers were posted and distributed throughout the Village to create community awareness of the upcoming event scheduled for July 27, 1969.
July 24, 1969: GLF Is Born
At a small meeting to finalize logistics for the upcoming march, those in attendance proposed forming a new organization to provide a more radical approach to gay and lesbian activism. They also briefly discussed what to call the new group. Martha Shelley reported that at one point she overheard someone behind her quietly make a suggestion for the group’s name. Immediately feeling its rightness, she famously shouted out for all to hear, “That’s it! That’s it! We’re the Gay Liberation Front,” while slamming her hand on the table.
July 24, 1969: First Greenwich Village Lesbian and Gay March
An estimated 200-300 lesbian and gay activists assembled in Washington Square Park and marched to Sheridan Sq. to protest the police raid at Stonewall. There they were addressed by march organizers, Martha Shelley and Marty Robinson. Photographs show an early gay activist banner with joined double male and female symbols being carried by future GLF stalwarts Dan Smith and Earl Galvin with Mark Segal and Jerry Hoose nearby.
Activist Marty Robinson addresses hundreds at Wash Sq demo, photo courtesy of NBC News
July 31, 1969: Official Founding of the Gay Liberation Front
In a follow-up to the July 24th meeting, the core group of radical activists met again at Alternate U, a leftist meeting hall and lecture center on 6th Ave. at 14th Street. The meeting was attended by over 40 people including Martha Shelley, Marty Robinson, Bill Katzenberg, Lois Hart, Suzanne BeVier, Ron Ballard, Bob Kohler, Marty Stefan, Mark Giles, Charles Pitts, Pete Wilson, Michael Brown, John O’Brien, Earl Galvin, Dan Smith, Jim Fouratt, Billy Weaver, Jerry Hoose, Leo Martello and others. Space usage at Alternate U was arranged with AU staffer, Susan Silverman, who also attended the meeting.
Here, the decision was made to break away from existing gay and lesbian organizations and form the new group to be called the Gay Liberation Front, the name that Martha Shelley “officially” introduced at the meeting. All three words had powerful meanings. “Gay” implied the new radical, out-of-the-closet generation—no longer a quasi-apologetic “homophile group.” “Liberation” implied its broad and radical agenda, a word used at that time by the Women’s, Vietnamese, Black and other freedom movements. “Front” denoted an umbrella coalition uniting a diverse group of lesbian and gay people despite their differences in class, age, gender, race and ethnicity. The meeting then authorized Lois Hart, Michael Brown and Ron Ballard to compose a statement of purpose that appeared in the next issue of “Rat,” a prominent New York radical movement newspaper at that time. From the beginning, GLF stated its goals as confronting all forms of sexism and male supremacy which it held to be the source of LGBT oppression and to form coalitions with other radical groups working to create a world-wide social revolution.
Aug. 1969: First public Sunday night GLF meetings and Demo at Women’s House of Detention
Public meetings of the new GLF are held at the 2nd floor offices of Alternate U. Attendance initially included the 30-40 core founding members but because of growing attendance the group soon outgrew this meeting space. During this month, GLF members took part in demonstrations at the Women’s House of Detention and against the Vietnam War carrying a GLF banner.
"Gay Liberation Front House of Detention demonstration" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1969.
Sept. 12, 1969: Village Voice protest.
GLF held its first independent public street protest at the offices of the Village Voice. The rowdy demonstration protested the newspaper’s anti-gay editorial coverage and its refusal to publish GLF’s meeting and dance announcements in its classified section because the ads used the word “gay.” The Voice publisher responded to GLF pressure and changed the publication’s advertising policy allowing future use of “gay” and shortly evolved a positive editorial stance on gay and lesbian issues.
Oct. 1969: First GLF Dance
Held at Alternate U. Run by the Aquarius cell. With a $1.50 requested admission fee, dances were an important means of raising needed funds for the organization but also served the very real political purpose of providing a social alternative to the mafia-run bar scene. GLF dances attracted upwards of 600 people each and were held here on a mostly monthly basis for more than a year.
Oct. 1969: GLF members confront mayoral candidates
GLF members confronted conservative candidates for New York City mayor on gay and lesbian issues at public forums in Queens and Manhattan and received attention in newspapers and on local TV news stations.
Fall 1969: Membership growth
Due to growing attendance, GLF’s Sunday night public meetings moved to the community hall at the Church of the Holy Apostles, 9th Ave. at 28th St. at the invitation of its liberal pastor, Reverend Weeks. Over the coming months, 100-150 people were regularly in attendance. Meetings were led by a chairperson of the month on an open forum basis and were often raucous and filled with fiery debate. Actions were planned, political goals agreed upon and many people entered LGBT activism through attendance at these open meetings. The Sunday night GLF meetings continued here until the opening of the GLF Community Center on West 3rd Street.
Nov. 1, 1969: Proposal for First Gay Pride March.
GLF members, Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes joined Craig Rodwell, owner of New York’s Oscar Wilde Bookshop, and a dozen other GLF members in Philadelphia for the previously scheduled ERCHO (Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations) conference. Ellen Broidy presented their proposal to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion with a public protest march in New York City. Despite some dissent, this East Coast Regional umbrella organization of old line “homophile” groups accepted the proposal. Within a few months, ERCHO disbanded in an historic transfer of LGBT politics over to the new radicalism of gay liberation.
Nov. 12, 1969: Time Inc. Protest
GLF staged a street demonstration in front of the New York City offices of Time Magazine to protest Time’s extremely negative coverage of the emerging gay movement in its October 31st cover story, “The Homosexual: Newly Visible, Newly Understood.”
Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. "Diana Davies Collection" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1969.
Nov. 14, 1969: Launching of Come Out!
GLF published the first issue of its official newspaper, Come Out! Vol. 1 #1. Its front page editorial boldly declared: “Come Out for Freedom! Gay Power to Gay People!” This first issue carried Martha Shelley’s important article, “Stepin’ Fetchit Woman,” coverage of the Village Voice protest and a call for a needed GLF Community Center. As always, photos of out-and-proud GLF members were featured throughout—combatting the concept of a “closet” mentality. Come Out! had a print run of approximately 3,000 copies per issue and was sold for 25 cents at the Oscar Wilde and 8th Street bookstores, some Village newsstands and was proudly hawked by GLF members on Village street corners. Come Out! was initially edited by the Come Out collective.
Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. "Weinstein Hall Demonstration" Diana Davies collection, The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1970.
Nov. 15, 1969: Anti-War March on Washington DC
A large group of GLF members attended the major Anti-Vietnam War Moratorium in Washington, DC carrying GLF banners. GLF contingents regularly joined anti-war protest marches in New York City and Washington DC throughout the following months.
Nov. 1969: GLF & the Black Panthers
At a contentious Sunday night open meeting, GLF reached a consensus to donate $500 to the Black Panthers “Free the Panther 21 Defense Fund” from its small treasury in keeping with its policy of support for other radical civil rights organizations.
Dec. 1969: Division and a Split-Off Group
Division within the membership led to a group to leave and form a new gay rights organization. This disagreement centered on GLF’s intersectional approach, which worked not only to support gay rights but also supported feminist, anti-Vietnam war, black civil rights and other radical causes and groups as part of a creating a united effort to bring radical change in society. The members who left felt this approach was a distraction that took focus away from gay rights. The new, single-issue organization, to be called the Gay Activists Alliance, was founded in December 1969 and focused solely on gay rights, and created a new direction within the gay movement.
Late Winter and Spring 1970: Planning the First March
GLF members played a central role in planning meetings in New York to organize and promote the upcoming “Christopher Street Liberation Day March” to commemorate the first anniversary of Stonewall. Some leaflets and banners added the word, “Gay,” before “Liberation” in the name. GLF members held important positions on the parade planning committee and committed the GLF membership to participate.
Feb. 1970: The Founding of Gay Youth
A group of GLF members aged 18-22, that included Zazu Nova, and led by Stonewall veteran, Mark Segal, formed “Gay Youth” as a sub-group of GLF. Over the following months, the group held meetings, promoted outreach to gay youth, published a Gay Youth newsletter and attended GLF protests and marches with their Gay Youth banner.
March 8-10, 1970: Snake Pit Demonstrations
GLF protested a police raid at the Snake Pit bar in the West Village where 167 men were arrested and taken to the Charles Street police precinct station.
One undocumented gay man from Argentina named Diego Vinales, attempted to escape for fear of deportation. Jumping from a second-story window at the station, he was impaled on several spikes in the fence below. He had to be freed with an acetylene torch and was hospitalized in critical condition. Angry street protests against police raids and persecution of gays continued in front of the station for several days. Read an eyewitness account of these demonstrations.
GLF and GAA protesters confront NYPD at Charles & Greenwich Streets March 8, 1970. Source: New York Post Archives
April 3, 1970: Women’s Dance
The first (and very successful) All-Lesbian GLF Dance was held at Alternate U, run by a nucleus of GLF women many of whom had organized under the new name, Radicalesbians. When attempting to distribute advance promotional leaflets about the dance at the local lesbian bar, Kooky’s, women had been forcibly ejected by male bouncers. After the conclusion of the actual dance, women cleaning up at Alternate U were confronted by the unexpected arrival of three male Mafia thugs who threatened violence if the dances were repeated. An angry dispute broke out. One of the women, Karla Jay, slipped out a back door and down a rear staircase and phoned feminist attorney, Flo Kennedy, for help. Kennedy immediately called in the police and the intruders departed.
Leaflet for All Womens Dance at Alternate U
Spring/Summer 1970: Consciousness-Raising
GLF began to form its first CR groups, a practice adopted from women’s liberation and brought to GLF by its lesbian members. Within a small, closed and trusted group, meeting weekly, participants gave personal and often emotional testimony on topics such as coming-out, anti-gay harassment, gay relationships, parents, religion, sex-roles, gender, etc. in an effort to understand gay and lesbian oppression and transform personal experiences into political understanding.
In August of 1970 one men’s CR group authored a manual for the process in its widely-circulated pamphlet “On Our Own, Gay Men in Consciousness-Raising.” Throughout 1970 and 1971, this group ran ads in the Village Voice and facilitated formation of several dozen new GLF men’s CR groups which proved to be an important way for many men to come out and find their way into political involvement for the first time.
May 1, 1970: Lavender Menace Action
Radicalesbians staged their famous “Lavender Menace” protest at the National Organization for Women’s “2nd Congress to Unite Women.” Some week’s prior, NOW president, Betty Friedan, had disparaged lesbian presence in NOW by calling them the “lavender menace,” and attempted to exclude all lesbian participation in NOW. In response, Radicalesbians disrupted the proceedings of this major conference by unexpectedly turning off all lights in the meeting hall and then emerging with pro-lesbian signs and “Lavender Menace” t-shirts. Winning approval of most attendees, the lesbian protestors turned the event into a lengthy discussion forum about NOW’s homophobia and the need to be inclusive of lesbians. The Radicalesbians’ foundational, collectively-written document of lesbian identity, “The Woman-Identified Woman,” was first distributed at this event.
Lavender Menace Action May 1 1970, Diana Davies Collection, NYPL Manuscript and Archives Division
May 1, 1970: May Day Protest
Dozens of NY GLF members joined the major May Day protest demonstration in New Haven, Connecticut that had been called to support imprisoned Black Panther leaders, Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins, and a member of GLF, Jim Fouratt, addressed the crowd, challenging them with these words, as reported in Come Out, June-July 1970:
“The proud, strong homosexual brothers and sisters who are in New Haven to show support for the Black Panther Party and its struggle, and to identify with Bobby Seale and all the prisoners that are being held bring you greetings.
The homosexual sisters and brothers who are in this crowd have a complaint to make. The very oppression that makes us identify with the Black Panther Party and all oppressed people, which makes us revolutionaries, which makes us work for a society and vision, which is far beyond what we live in today, we find that oppressiveness pervading this so-called liberated zone. It is that very oppressiveness that is stopping us from organizing our community, which is stopping us from making a revolution, and we call upon every radical here today to Off the word faggot, to Off the sexism which pervades this place and to begin to deal with their own feelings about the homosexual brothers and sisters.
We demand that you treat us as revolutionaries. We demand that you no longer look at us as sex objects, that you judge us in the total integration of our humanity. We are on the barricades. We are submitting ourselves to the discipline that we see in the vanguard leadership here and there will only be a revolution when all oppressed people work together.
No elitism. No sexism. All power to Gay people. All power to the people.”
May 10, 1970: Central Park “Gay-In”
GLF held its first organized “Gay-In” in Central Park’s Sheep’s Meadow under the shadow of the murders of students at Kent State that week. Gay-Ins were events that combined social conviviality with the take-over of large public spaces. Additional Gay-Ins were held in Central Park both that summer and the next with many hundreds of out-and-proud gays and lesbians in attendance.
May 10 1970 “Gay-In” Diana Davies Collection, NYPL Manuscript and Archives Division
June 1970: GLF Living Collectives
Four male GLF members formed the first gay men’s living collective at an apartment on West 95th Street. This was quickly followed by the formation of other gay men’s living collectives on West 17th Street, West 23rd Street, East 9th Street, and Baltic Street in Brooklyn. In addition to providing communal housing for their members, over time these living collectives became important energy centers in themselves, organizing demonstrations, promoting consciousness-raising, taking on numerous tasks and projects for GLF and hosting many gay activists from around the U.S. who visited New York to learn about the new politics.
June 1, 1970: Come Out! Vol 1 #4, Ground-Breaking Political Statements
Containing the ground-breaking political statements: Radicalesbians’ “The Woman-Identified Woman” and Steven F. Dansky’s “Hey, Man!”
Source to come
June 28, 1970: The First Gay Pride March
Following months of meetings and negotiations with New York City officials and police in which GLF members took a major role, the first “Christopher Street Liberation Day March” was held on June 28, 1970. Symbolizing “resistance turned into activism,” the March started near the site of the closed Stonewall Bar in Greenwich Village, then headed up the 50 blocks of 6th Avenue into Central Park followed by a spontaneous Gay-In in Sheep’s Meadow.
Police allotted only one lane of 6th Avenue to the marchers who set a fast pace walking between parked cars on one side and the rushing uptown traffic on the other. The marchers held protest signs high and shouts of “Gay Power,” and “Out of the Closets and into the Streets” rang in the air. Onlookers along 6th Ave. were stunned. None of the feared violence was reported. Because activists were so spread out during the march, it was difficult to gauge the full size of the crowd until the march entered Central Park. Mounting a small hill at the far end of Sheep’s Meadow, marchers turned in amazement and applauded to see a crowd estimated at 3,000 to 5,000—probably the largest gathering of lesbian and gay people in history up to that time.
June 28 1970 Pride March, Diana Davies Collection, NYPL Manuscript and Archives Division
No speeches were made at the conclusion of the march, but most participants stayed for an hour or more of shared excitement before heading off home. From this small but significant start, LGBT Pride days are now celebrated on the last Sunday in June in cities around the world attracting millions of participants annually.
Summer 1970: Building a Movement
Continual meetings, protests and discussions marked this entire summer. Core membership of GLF reached its highest numbers: several hundred who participated in meetings, organizing, consciousness-raising groups, action cells and living collectives and who were regular faces at every protest and march. Especially this summer, many lesbian and gay activists from all over the United States and Canada came to New York to meet GLF members, attend meetings and participate in protest actions, then headed home to found dozens of their own gay liberation organizations. Among these were Aubrey Walter, Bob Mellors and other gay activists from London who spent several weeks with GLF in New York, then returned to England to form the London Gay Liberation Front. Before the end of the year, more than 100 "new era” LGBT groups formed in cities and college towns across the nation, many using the name “gay liberation front."
Summer 1970: Gay Flames
Allen Young and other 17th Street Collective members began to publish the weekly “Gay Flames” newsletter which was widely distributed in NYC at no charge. Later, Young issued the “Gay Flames Packet,” a set of separate pamphlets reprinting many prominent gay and lesbian rights articles for the first time in one place.
Summer 1970: Third World Gay Revolution Founding
African-American, Hispanic, and Asian members of GLF formed a new group called “Third World Gay Revolution” to combat racist attitudes among white homosexuals and to struggle against anti-gay attitudes within the black and Hispanic civil rights movements.
July 16, 1970: GLF at the first “United Nations World Youth Assembly”
The meeting at the Hotel Diplomat in midtown Manhattan was organized by the UN to acquaint attendees from other countries with “leftist and revolutionary” movements in the U.S. Speakers included Abbie Hoffman, William Kunstler, and representatives from the Black Panthers, Young Lords, Women’s Liberation and other groups. While all other speakers received respectful attention, GLF’s speaker, Tom Finley, was interrupted by homophobic attacks from the floor by African attendees and the GLF contingent walked out, but returned shortly for a lengthy discussion with attendees. Report appeared in New York Times.
July, 1970: Picketing the American Psychiatric Association
GLF picketed the American Psychiatric Association conference at Downstate Medical College in Brooklyn to protest the organization’s classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder.
August 22, 1970: GLF meets with the Black Panthers
At his invitation, three GLF members (Nikos Diaman, Angela Douglas and John Knoebel) met with Huey Newton in New York City following his release of a positive letter to the Black Panthers supporting the Women’s and Gay Liberation movements. At this meeting with the GLF members—held at Jane Fonda’s NYC apartment where he had held a press conference for New York media—Newton again stated his support for Gay Liberation and discussed the possibility of future joint demonstrations between GLF and The Panthers. Newton and Panther spokeswoman, Afeni Shakur, repeated the Panthers’ invitation for GLF to participate with other civil rights groups in the upcoming sessions of the Panther-sponsored “Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention.”
August 28, 1970: The First Demonstration at NYU’s Weinstein Hall
GLF joined Gay Student Liberation-NYU (GSL) to protest the refusal of New York University officials to allow the gay and lesbian student group to hold a planned dance in the lower level of Weinstein Hall, a student dormitory on University Place near the NYU Washington Square Campus. Officials had said permission for the dance was pending a decision by the administration on “whether or not homosexuality was morally acceptable.“ Following a noisy street demonstration held in front of Weinstein Hall and a failed discussion with campus officials, some GSL students broke into the space and held a small impromptu dance.
Aug. 29, 1970: The Haven Riot
GLF members joined with other gay activist groups in a large, organized march on 42nd Street called to protest an ongoing, anti-gay police crackdown in Times Square. During the weeks prior, scores of gay men, many POC, some in drag, had been detained and arrested in the Times Square area on trumped-up charges. The march, held at 9pm on a busy Saturday night, was peaceful despite some jostling and name calling from the otherwise largely neutral pedestrian crowds. Protestors carried many signs and banners announcing “Gay Power” and protesting the police crackdown. Police officers looking on took no action to stop the protest march.
After an hour of spirited chanting and marching, the group headed south away from the crowds in Times Square and into the deserted, dark streets to the south, intending to conclude with a demonstration at the local police precinct station on West 35th Street. However, when confronted there by a line of threatening police officers in riot gear, wearing helmets and with clubs in hand and with no bystanders around, parade marshals from GLF successfully urged the protest crowd to head downtown “To the Village!”
Upon arrival in Sheridan Square, the crowd discovered that a hostile police raid was in progress against a gay club there called The Haven. An immediate uproar from the marchers filling the area in front of the Haven led to another major Village Riot, as hundreds of gay men quickly spilled out of Village bars and apartments over the next hours to join the protest. As more police officers arrived, the riot filled Sheridan Square, then quickly extended up Christopher Street past 6th Avenue and onto 8th Street where shop windows were broken, trash bins burned and cars overturned. Police squads and bottle-throwing protesters struggled for hours which resulted in multiple arrests and injuries during that night and for three nights of further street violence. On succeeding mornings, GLF members attended court hearings with funds from GLF dance proceeds to provide needed bail money for many of those arrested.
Sept. 1970: Venceremos Brigade
Openly-gay GLF members traveled to Cuba to cut sugar cane as part of the socialist, pro-Cuba Venceremos Brigade and received mixed reception from largely homophobic socialist comrades and Cuban officials. Prior support for the Cuban Revolution from leftist GLF members waned as news of Cuban anti-LGBT policies spread.
Sept. 1, 1970: Come Out! Vol. 1 #5 Sept/Oct 1970
Reprinted Huey Newton’s ground-breaking, supportive “Letter on Gay Liberation and Women’s Liberation” that he had written to Black Panther members earlier that summer after his release from prison.
Sept. 4-7, 1970: Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
A large contingent of GLF members attended the first session of the Black Panther-sponsored Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Panthers had specifically invited gay and lesbian activists along with other civil rights and antiwar groups to help write with them a planned new constitution for the United States based on equal rights, economic parity, and other radical goals. An estimated 10,000 delegates from across the nation were in attendance. New York’s lesbian contingent left on the second day of the four-day conference following hostile attitudes and the cancellation of a promised woman’s workshop. Gay men remained to work on a proposal from its Third World Gay Revolution Caucus which was successfully presented at an official conference session on the final evening. Meanwhile, downtime from the convention provided hours of group discussion among GLF activists attending from cities across the nation, proving to be a first true national conference of male gay liberation groups.
Sept. 20-24, 1970: Protest Occupation at NYU
GLF joined members of NYU’s gay and lesbian student group, GSL, and other lesbian and gay activists to occupy the basement of the Weinstein Hall dormitory at NYU’s Washington Square campus for five days to protest NYU’s continued ban on proposed gay student dances. The approximately 70 protesters in the Weinstein basement took the opportunity of the sit-in for long discussions of politics and tactics. Despite ongoing discussions between GSL and NYU authorities, the protest was ended on the evening of the fifth day after the NYU administration called in a large police tactical squad who forcibly removed the 29 remaining occupiers. More large demonstrations were held on subsequent days confronting NYU’s actions and protests continued well into October. In following years, NYU recognized the GSL group, provided space for an office, allowed dances, and established a gay studies program.
Sept 20-24 1970 NYU Protest
Diana Davies Collection, NYPL Manuscript and Archives Division
Sept. 20-24, 1970: Founding of S.T.A.R.
While participating in the occupation of Weinstein Hall at NYU, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson led others in the founding of a new cell within GLF, “Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries”
NYU Weinstein Protest, Sept 20-24 Founding of Star, Photo of STAR members by Ellen Shumsky
Fall 1970: GLF in the Phone Book
The 95th Street Collective arranged to set-up and staff a phone number for the “Gay Liberation Front” after fighting New York Telephone’s initial refusal to print the listing. They were told this marked the first listing in the New York telephone book using the word “gay.” The collective staffed the GLF phone for several months until the opening of the new GLF Community Center in December 1970.
Fall 1970: GLF Speaker’s Bureau Formed
The GLF Speaker’s Bureau sent many GLF speakers to colleges, high school groups and other organizations in the New York area.
Oct. 1970: Upper West Side Coffee House
GLF opened a weekly drop-in coffee house for the Upper West Side gay community on Sundays at the “Gay People’s Coffee Grounds” at 210 West 82nd St. The Coffee Grounds operated until Fall of 1971 and provided an alternate to the bars for upwards of 60-70 men each week.
Nov. 1970: Leftist Media Hostility
GLF men met with members of the radical leftist film collective, Newsreel, in an attempt to start a positive dialog. Despite much exchange of opinions, Newsreel’s male members in attendance remained fairly hostile to gay rights and no proposed film projects developed.
Nov. 1970: St. Patrick’s Cathedral Demo
A large GLF contingent picketed St. Patrick’s Cathedral to protest the Catholic Church’s long-standing opposition to LGBT rights. Photographed by GLF lesbian photographer, Diana Davies, whose many hundreds of photos of the whole GLF experience now reside in the collection of the New York Public Library.
Nov. 27-29, 1970: Second Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention
GLF attended the equally large second session of the Black Panther-sponsored Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in Washington, D.C. A further written proposal for inclusion in the constitution from GLF’s Third World Revolution caucus was completed for submission. Hours of group discussion among gay activist men from across the U.S. about politics and tactics again solidified the reality of a national gay liberation movement.
Dec. 1, 1970: Come Out! Vol 1 #7 Dec/Jan 1971
With this issue, long-time staff member and contributor, Perry Brass, moved up to become the second editor of Come Out! (Note: numbering error. #6 was accidentally skipped.)
Dec. 4, 1970: GLF’s Community Center Opens
GLF opened its long-planned Community Center in a 4,500 sq. ft. 2nd-floor loft space at 132 West 3rd Street in the West Village. The Center—funded by donations from GLF members and dance ticket sales—became both the GLF offices and the location for GLF dances and meetings. The Center functioned successfully for many months providing a central focus for GLF as well as providing temporary housing for homeless gay street kids.
March 1971: GLF picketed the Brown & Delhi Bookstore
After they fired two GLF male employees for coming out as gay, GLF picketed the store, calling for a boycott.
March 14, 1971: Albany March
GLF joined 3,000 marchers in Albany, New York for the first statewide march for LGBT rights. As a sign of movement growth, over two dozen gay activist organizations were represented from college campuses and cities across the state including New York, Buffalo, Syracuse, Ithaca, Rochester, Niagara Falls, Binghamton, Plattsburgh, Watertown and Albany-Troy-Schenectady. Some participants walked the 150 miles from New York City to Albany to call attention to the event.
April 1971: Come Out! Vol. 2 #7B Spring/Summer 1971
June 27, 1971: Second Pride March
GLF participated in the 2nd Gay Pride March. Marches were also held this year in Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, Bridgeport CT, London, Paris, Stockholm and many other cities.
Dec. 1971: Come Out! Vol 2 #8 Winter 1972 (final issue)
Spring 1972: Disbanding of GLF
After giving birth to many successor organizations and the resultant loss of many core members, the Gay Liberation Front ceased weekly Sunday meetings and effectively disbanded.