The Lavender Hill Mob was a militant gay rights activist group operating in the United States in the 1980s in response to the treatment of the

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

pandemic. It was founded and led by Marty Robinson. The Mob had a dozen members, four of them women, and in addition to Robinson included Henry Yaeger, Bill Bahlman,

Michael Petrelis Michael Anthony Petrelis (born January 26, 1959) is an American AIDS activist, LGBTQ rights activist, and blogger. He was diagnosed with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in 1985 in New York City, New York. As a member of the Lavender H ...

, Sara Belcher,Matthew Riemer & Leighton Brown, ''We are everywhere: Protest, Power and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation'', Ten Speed Press (2019); p.253 Jean Elizabeth Glass and Buddy Noro. Initially known as the Swift & Terrible Retribution Committee it began to take form in summer 1986 after founders broke away from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. A group of radical activists persuaded approximately 3,000 protesters at a July 1 rally against the US

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

's ruling on sodomy to block traffic in

Sheridan Square The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, West 14th Street to t ...

. Robinson and several friends then led a parade of 7,000 from Battery Park to Greenwich Village, and a demonstration by 2,500 at Lincoln Center. By fall they decided they would be more effective as a named independent group and called themselves after the British comedy film '' The Lavender Hill Mob''. Robinson often used political "zaps", chaotic and theatrical interventions intended to attract the attention of the press. In October 1986, the Mob disrupted the Alfred E Smith Dinner, a charity event attended by wealthy New York Roman Catholics and

Cardinal John O'Connor John Joseph O'Connor (January 15, 1920 – May 3, 2000) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of New York from 1984 until his death in 2000, and was made a cardinal in 1985. He previously served as a U.S ...

. They distributed leaflets and shouted, "Gays and lesbians will not be silenced!" To gain entry to the dinner Robinson wrote a check but stopped payment on it before it could be cashed. In November of that year, the group disrupted a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. Two members dressed as priests and another nine unfurled a banner as O'Connor gave his sermon. In February 1987, they interrupted a conference in Atlanta put on by the US federal government that included a number of other gay rights organizations, causing the event to shut down early. Some wearing gray uniform shirts with stenciled numbers and the pink triangle to evoke the internment of gays in concentration camps, the Mob accused the panelists, who were speaking on how to address the AIDS pandemic, of being

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

and perpetrating a genocide. They were particularly concerned that the discussion did not include black and Hispanic representatives. The group published a newsletter in 1987, ''Lavender Hill News''. Robinson died of AIDS in March 1992.

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Works cited

* * {{cite book , first=Arthur D. , last=Kahn , title=AIDS, The Winter War: A Testing of America , year=2005 , publisher=Temple University Press , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ-BPuvE4H8C&pg=PA5 , isbn=978-1-56639-018-7 1980s establishments in New York City Defunct LGBT organizations based in New York City LGBT political advocacy groups in the United States Organizations based in New York City Organizations established in the 1980s 1980s in LGBT history