Pre-Stonewall Gay Rights!
Happy Pride Month! This weekend, we took Simon to his first Pride parade here in Boston. It was a bit rough for a three year old; we only made it 1/3 of the way before he was done, but it was still adorable. We marched with Keshet, an organization which supports LGBTQIA+ Jewish individuals and communities. Below is a photo of the three of us before the parade!
To celebrate Pride month, I want to look at organizations which have been important towards LGBTQIA+ communities. Last week, we looked at the Sisterβs of Perpetual Indulgence. This week, I want to explore the two organizations of the homophile movement: The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis. This quick introduction to these two organizations reminds us of the roots of the US gay rights movement. If you want learn more about the history of the gay rights movement this month, subscribe below.
The Homophile Movement:
Starting around the 1950s, LGBTQIA+ groups started organizing across the United States. They were called homophile because the groups wanted to emphasize the community aspect and de-emphasize the sexual aspect of sexual orientation. These organizations expanded across the US, with estimates of 60-140 homophile groups working across the US pre-Stonewall. While working independently, they did come together for the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO), an annual conference held between 1966 and 1970. These meetings, while helping create agendas, also showed the deep division between the conservative and radical factions of the movement, a division still present.
The Mattachine Society
One of the first gay rights organizations in the United States, the Mattachine Society was founded in 1950. Started as a secret organization in LA by Harry Hays and his compatriots who left the Communist Party due to homophobia. Originally created in a similar fashion to the Communist Party, it grew to an important national organization with chapters in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York.
Over time, the society advocated for gay rights. When the police in LA would arrest men for sodomy and try to destroy the lives of gay men, the society helped fight charges. In New York, they had lectures on how to fight arrests. In New York, they also did sip-ins where they would order drinks and say they were gay to protest regulations from the Liquor Board against serving homosexuals. They also led protests across the country.
The society started to see their downfall in the late 60s, early 70s as they were seen as too conservative. With the growth of the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance in 1969, there was more of a focus on radical politics. The lack of racial diversity within the Mattachine Society (and the homophile movement in general) was another issue which came to the forefront in the 70s.
The Daughters of Bilitis
Started in 1955, the Daughters of Bilitis was a lesbian-focused organization that was focused on being political. This organization was more racially diverse than the Mattachine Society. In 1960, they had their first national convention, where they had to show the police that women were not wearing menβs clothing. Although they did not have the numbers as The Mattachine Society, they had chapters across the country.
There were debates about the direction of the Daughters of Bilitis, such as how radical the organization should be as well as how much they should be connected to the Feminist movement. Infighting between the higher-ups and a changing young lesbian movement led to the organizations downfall. But the Daughters helped lay the groundwork for future lesbian-focused organizations.
Newsletters.
There were several newsletters that were queer-focused during this time period. The Mattachine Society of New York, for example, talked about the Stonewall Riots in their newsletter (though they call it the first gay riots, which it was not). Together with the Daughters of Bitilis, and another subgroup (or according to others, a separate organization) they also started the first LGBTQIA+ magazine in the United States: One. This magazine was seized by the Los Angelos Postmaster in 1954 because it was deemed lewd. After a long court case, in 1958, the Supreme Court decided that writing about homosexuality was not considered obscenity (One v. Olesen), which upheld the constitutional right for pro-homosexual speech. The Daughters of Bilitis published The Ladder (digitized versions of which can be found here), which focused on the interests of lesbians. Both The Ladder and One ceased publication in 1972 (Bronski, 2011).
Conclusion.
The Stonewall Riots are often seen as the beginning of the modern gay rights movement (it was not the first of the riots, but probably the most famous one). One year later, in 1970, we have what really was the first gay pride march, remembering the Stonewall Riot of the previous year (now, in memory of the Stonewall Riot, the pride march in New York is on the last Sunday in June). It is important to remember that there were queer nonprofits and even queer nightlife and social groups before Stonewall and they influenced the way in which we organize today.
Other References:
Bronski, M. (2011) A Queer History of the United States. Beacon Press.