#Gay Liberation Front

[groovyfags]

From Gay Flames, a series of pamphlets from members of the GLF, published Sept, 1970

[tea-ddie]

Drag Butch [2024]

This comic was first featured in Fruistslice Magazine's Gay Rights & Gay Wrongs issue.

[undergroundrockpress]

1970

[womenshistory]

Gay Liberation Front women, Diana Davies, c. 1969-1972

[autolenaphilia]

I think about the article "Don't Call Me Mister You Fucking Beast" from 1972 a lot. It was written by Transvestite, Transsexual and Drag Queen group of the Gay Liberation Front, the British organization. Among its authors was Roz Kaveney and Rachel Pollack. in fact I discovered the text by reading Kaveney's obituary about Pollack, where Kaveney says Pollack was the major mind behind their manifesto.

Now "Don't Call me mister" is a fascinating and important text in general, and a part of trans history. The Gay Liberation Front is often remembered as a cis gay organization, but the fact was that trans people were a part of it, especially transfems. As the article mentions, their group didn't have transmasc members at the time, it was all people we today would describe as transfem. Contrary to some claims in the transmisogynistic British press, transfems were a part of the modern UK queer liberation movement from its beginnings.

Also transvestites and transsexuals were organized together. There is no "medicalism", distinctions are made between those on hrt, those who want it but don't have it yet (in large part due to medical gatekeeping) and those who don't want it, but it isn't treated as important. The claim of "mere" transvestites to be women is treated as valid. The text openly speaks of "transvestite, transsexual and drag-queen women."

The writers also see their struggle as women as part of the broader feminist wave going on at the time. "Think how much more inspiring and beautiful the women's revolution will be when it joyously includes all women." The text in many ways anticipates the concept of intersectionality.

The discussion of passing too is complex, and defends wanting to pass from the young who are "quick to say be militant, don't hide." because the reality is "if you pass you're treated as a human being, if you don't you're treated as a pervert or a roadshow." But the text also notes "Yet there are also thrills to not passing, or more precisely, not caring if you pass." and defends that as well. And the text notes that not all of them conform to feminine stereotypes and that there are butch transfems among them.

I was most recently reminded of this article due to the recent f1nnster discourse, because the article discusses that question as well. "Why is Danny La Rue [a popular drag artist of the time] a West End institution, when we get kicked out of our flats for wearing a skirt? Apparently it's all right if you're doing it for money, but perverted if you do it for personal satisfaction." And that about sums up the divide between men who crossdress as part of a show, and ordinary transsexual women and transvestites even today. Crossdressing as a gag or part of a show has always been more accepted than crossdressing for personal reasons, or transitioning.

The values of the text holds up well overall, and reveals that the "old-school transsexuals" of the 70s often had similar views about medical gatekeeping and passing that young trans people today often have.

[actually-a-dyke]

Cover of Come Out! Magazine, Vol 1, Issue 3

[emma-dennehy-presents]

Celebrating Black Queer Icons:

Marsha "Pay It No Mind" Johnson

Johnson was born August 24, 1945. A drag queen and sex worker, after moving to New York City from Elizabeth, New Jersey, Johnson is probably best known for participation in Queer Liberation and AIDS activism from 1969 until her death in 1992. While often associated with transgender women, Johnson self identified as gay, a transvestite, and a queen and actively distinguished her identity from the contemporary transsexual community. As for Johnson's gender? Well, pay it no mind. Johnson's activism began in 1969 after being involved in the Stonewall Inn Riots. She is often attributed as being in the riot's vanguard, alongside Zazu Nova and Jackie Hormona. Johnson would later go on to deny this, and is quoted as saying she did not arrive until after the riots had already started. Johnson would later go on to join the Gay Liberation Front and co-found STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), with Silvia Rivera. STAR would open the STAR House in 1970, which acted as a home for gay and trans homeless youths. In 1973 Johnson and Rivera were both temporarily banned by a gay/lesbian committee, from participating in pride parades, because it was said queens were giving the movement "a bad name". This did not deter Johnson. Starting in 1980 Johnson began living with fellow activist, Randy Wicker, and his partner. Johnson, who was HIV positive, would later become Wicker's partner's caregiver as they became terminally ill due to AIDS. After visiting Wicker's partner in the hospital Johnson became dedicated to spending time with AIDS patients and engaged in street actions with groups like ACT UP. Johnson was a deeply religious person throughout her life. Primarily Catholic, Johnson was said to have a very direct and personal relationship with divinity. On July 6, 1992, Johnson's body was found in the Hudson River. Johnson was cremated and after a march down 7th Avenue her ashes were spread in the Hudson. While initially ruled a suicide by the NYPD, this is highly contested to this day, with good reason. In 2002 Johnson's death was reclassified as Undetermined, and efforts in 2012 and 2016 have seen moderate success in getting the case reopened and re-investigated.

In the wake of her death Marsha P Johnson has become a nigh universal icon in queer communities and seemed like a good starting point for Black History Month. Moving forward I hope to focus on people less known, at least in melanin deficient circles. In a perfect world this would be daily, but I sadly don't have the spoons for it. I will effort to post at least 2-3 of these each week and have a list sufficient enough to carry me through February, and a little beyond. I plan on doing Willmer Broadnax next and have a list going that should cover at least the month of February, and hopefully beyond. Corrections and suggestions are welcome and much desired.

[queersatanic]

via the Martha P. Johnson Institute

Happy birthday to our favorite Virgo Queen, Marsha P. Johnson! 💐 💖 Born on August 24, 1945, today would have been Marsha's 78th birthday. Marsha devoted her life to bettering the lives of trans, queer, and nonbinary people, from Stonewall to the Gay Liberation Front; to STAR. Her courage and determination sparked a movement. Mother Marsha continues to inspire us every day. We are honored to continue your legacy and the movement toward liberation in your honor.

h/t @em0-ghosts

[underbedvoidgoblin]

@tea-ddie

i self identify as a "swagever"

[commiepinkofag]

Thousands of Homosexuals Hold A Protest Rally in Central Park, New York Times

June 29, 1970

Thousands of young men and women homosexuals from all over the Northeast marched from Greenwich Village to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park yesterday, proclaiming “the new strength and pride of the gay people.” From Washington, Boston and Cleveland, from Ivy League colleges, from Harlem, the East Side and the suburbs, they gathered to protest laws that make homosexual acts between consenting adults illegal and social conditions that often make it impossible for them to display affection in public, maintain jobs or rent apartments. As the group gathered in Sheridan Square before marching up the Avenue of the Americas to hold what the participants described as a “gay-in” in the Sheep Meadow, one of the organizers said a new militancy was developing among homosexuals. “We're probably the most harassed, persecuted minority group in history, but we'll never have the freedom and civil rights we deserve as human beings unless we stop hiding in closets and in the shelter of anonymity,” said 29-year old Michael Brown. He is a founder of the Gay Liberation Front, an activist homosexual organization…

[wewerealwaysthere]

David Davenport and John Wilkinson, two of the founders of the Gay Liberation Front in Portland, Oregon, 1970.

[groovyfags]

From: Gay Flames no. 9, "A Gay Manifesto" by Carl Wittman, pub. Sept. 1970

[ashleyfableblack]

A heavy-hitting image of PRIDE art by Ahrimanraven. NEVER forget the victims. Never forget the sacrifices of those who came before. 💔😢💜

OC "Stonewall" by Ahriman 👍

Art ref by yakovlev-vad

[undergroundrockpress]

1970

[fuglyjeans]

"We are a revolutionary homosexual group of men and women formed with the realization that complete sexual liberation for all people cannot come about unless existing social institutions are abolished. We reject society’s attempt to impose sexual roles and definitions on our nature. We are stepping outside these roles and simplistic myths. We are going to be who we are. At the same time, we are creating new social forms and relations, that is, relations based upon brotherhood, cooperation, human love, and uninhibited sexuality.

Babylon has forced us to commit to one thing... revolution.

We've come to realize that all our frustrations and feelings of oppression are real. That society has fucked with us. In our families, on our jobs, in our education, on the street, in our bedrooms. In short, it has shit all over us. We, like everyone else, are treated as commodities. We're told what to feel, what to think. We identify ourselves with all the oppressed: the Vietnamese struggle, the third world, the blacks, the workers-- all those oppressed by this rotten, dirty, vile, fucked up capitalist conspiracy. The closet is a system of taboos and institutionalized repressions against sexual expression. Marriage is one of the most insidious and basic sustainers of the system, because by taking part in it, a male worker is given the illusion of participating in the power of the ruling class. Through economic control of his children, and through the relation he has with his wife as sexual object and household slave."

Gay Liberation Front, Statement of Purpose, 1969

[acervorevolucionario]

Marsha P. Johnson em uma manifestação da Gay Liberation Front no Hospital Bellevue em Nova York, ca. 1970. Foto por Richard C. Wandel.