left to right: Karla Jay, Allen Young, Steven Dansky, Ellen Shumsky, Jerry Hoose, Perry Brass, Jim Fouratt, Michela Griffo, and Fran Winant. Mark Segal participated via Skype. [click to enlarge]
Gay life wouldn't be any fun if it weren't complex, right? Reuniting on stage at the NYPL, ten original members of the Gay Liberation Front shared memories from forty years ago of the Stonewall Inn, the rebellion, and their bold if short-lived activist group. Many took issue with the way the bar "has been so romanticized, especially in David Carter's book," when in fact the place was "dreary, dreadful" or "the worst, a sewer."
The panel's early visions of equality and societal transformation were undeniably inspiring. "Rejection of conventional sex roles" and "GLF defied control and disrupted the patriarchy," were two points Steven Dansky made, and several people quoted the essay "Woman Identified Woman." Yet those ideals only served to depress anyone who contrasted them with the limited talking points of today's lgbt organizations. Perhaps not unrelated, many speakers discussed how the GLF's conflicts in 1969 and the early 70s were not only gay vs. straight but also gay vs. gay.
With a historian's perspective and balance, Karla Jay said they wouldn't be there without their predecessors, naming several earlier gay groups, civil rights leaders, feminists, and especially the anti-war movement. Yet she also recalled that after the first of what would be four nights of riots, it was the Mattachine Society that put up a poster outside Stonewall commanding people to "behave," which was "further infuriating." Jim Fouratt, while praising Harry Hay, said in the aftermath of the riots the dress-code obsessed Mattachine was planning a candlelight walk around the Village "to show what good people we are" whereas he, a Timothy Leary radical, wanted full on revolution. Fouratt said "Mattachine reported us to the FBI" and did not elaborate. Recalling the scary, exhilarating first Christopher Street Liberation Day March on the first anniversary of Stonewall, Michela Griffo said, "Gays turned their backs on us as we walked up Sixth Avenue. It was the straight people who clapped for us." Yet she also said, "We were never supported by any of the groups we supported, like SDS." And reminded the audience, "Don't vote gay friendly, vote gay."
Perry Brass said "for a long time, especially in the 80s, GLF was seen as an embarrassment," but "now they're coming around." Jim Fouratt said GLF had been left out of the library's huge gay rights exhibit in 1994. Jerry Hoose said he was "annoyed" by how much attention is given to Stonewall and how little to what came in the weeks and months after, drawing applause from the packed audience.
Ellen Shumsky spoke about the Radical Lesbians and about joining GLF because she "needed to heal my divided self" and also with the "self-chosen mission to document it in photography." Luckily for you, those inspired photos are now on display at the Center. Fran Winant read her moving poem, "Christopher Street Liberation Day, June 28, 1970" which she wrote the morning after.
Allen Young dedicated his remarks to Karla Jay and explained the intentional lack of structure in GLF. He also repeated the most important slogan of the last four decades, "Out of the closet and into the streets."
Congratulations to lgbt coordinator Jason Baumann for a great event.