Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several

gay liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoffman, 2007, pp.xi-xiii ...

groups, the first of which was formed in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK and Canada. The GLF provided a voice for the newly-out and newly-radicalized gay community, and a meeting place for a number of activists who would go on to form other groups, such as the Gay Activists Alliance and

Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) was a gay, gender non-conforming and transvestite street activist organization founded in 1970 by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, subculturally-famous New York City drag queens of color.Fei ...

(STAR) in the US. In the UK and Canada, activists also developed a platform for gay liberation and demonstrated for gay rights. Activists from both the US and UK groups would later go on to found or be active in groups including ACT UP, the

Lesbian Avengers The Lesbian Avengers were founded in 1992 in New York City, the direct action group was formed with the intent to create an organization that focuses on lesbian issues and visibility through humorous and untraditional activism. The group was foun ...

Queer Nation Queer Nation is an LGBTQ activist organization founded in March 1990 in New York City, by HIV/AIDS activists from ACT UP. The four founders were outraged at the escalation of anti-gay violence on the streets and prejudice in the arts and media ...

, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and Stonewall.

United States

The United States Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was formed in the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots. The riots are considered by many to be the prime catalyst for the

movement and the modern fight for

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

rights in the United States. On June 28, 1969 in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, New York, the New York City police raided the

Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the sin ...

, a well known

gay bar A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term '' gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities. Gay bars once serv ...

, located on Christopher Street. Police raids of the Stonewall, and other lesbian and gay bars, were a routine practice at the time, with regular payoffs to

dirty cop Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which law enforcement officers end up breaking their political contract and Abuse of power, abuse their power for personal gain. This type of corruption may involve one or a group of officers. I ...

s and

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

figures an expected part of staying in business.Shepard, Benjamin Heim and Ronald Hayduk (2002) ''From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization''. Verso. pp.156-160 The Stonewall Inn was made up of two former horse stables which had been renovated into one building in 1930. Like all gay bars of the era, it was subject to countless police raids, as

activities and fraternization were still largely illegal. But this time, when the police began arresting patrons, the customers began pelting them with coins, and later, bottles and rocks. The lesbian and gay crowd also freed staff members who had been put into police vans, and the outnumbered officers retreated inside the bar. Soon, the Tactical Patrol Force (TPF), originally trained to deal with war protests, were called in to control the mob, which was now using a parking meter as a battering ram. As the patrol force advanced, the crowd did not disperse, but instead doubled back and re-formed behind the riot police, throwing rocks, shouting "Gay Power!", dancing, and taunting their opposition. For the next several nights, the crowd would return in ever increasing numbers, handing out leaflets and rallying themselves. Soon the word "Stonewall" came to represent fighting for equality in the gay community. And in commemoration,

Gay Pride LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to s ...

marches are held every year on the anniversary of the riots. In early July 1969, due in large part to the Stonewall riots in June of that year, discussions in the gay community led to the formation of the Gay Liberation Front. According to scholar

Henry Abelove Henry D. Abelove is an American historian and literary critic, most of whose writings focus on the history of sex during the modern era. He is widely considered to be an important figure in the development of gay and lesbian studies and queer th ...

, it was named GLF "in a provocative allusion to the

Algerian National Liberation Front The National Liberation Front ( ar, جبهة التحرير الوطني ''Jabhatu l-Taḥrīri l-Waṭanī''; french: Front de libération nationale, FLN) is a nationalist political party in Algeria. It was the principal nationalist movement du ...

and the Vietnamese National Liberation Front." On August 2, 1969, the group held a protest at the Women's House of Detention in

and would go on to hold weekly protests there. One of GLF's early acts included organizing a march protesting coverage of gay people by ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

'', which took place on September 12, 1969. The GLF had a broad political platform, denouncing

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...

and declaring support for various

Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

struggles and the Black Panther Party. They took an anti-capitalist stance and attacked the nuclear family and traditional

gender role A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...

s. On October 31, 1969, sixty members of the GLF, the Committee for Homosexual Freedom (CHF), and the Gay Guerilla Theatre group staged a protest outside the offices of the '' San Francisco Examiner'' in response to a series of news articles disparaging people in San Francisco's

s and clubs. The peaceful protest against the ''Examiner'' turned tumultuous and was later called "Friday of the Purple Hand" and "Bloody Friday of the Purple Hand". (courtesy: the Gay Lesbian Historical Society. Examiner employees "dumped a barrel of printers' ink on the crowd from the roof of the newspaper building", according to glbtq.com. Some reports state that it was a barrel of ink poured from the roof of the building. The protesters "used the ink to scrawl slogans on the building walls" and slap purple hand prints "throughout downtown an Francisco resulting in "one of the most visible demonstrations of gay power" according to the ''

Bay Area Reporter The ''Bay Area Reporter'' is a free weekly newspaper serving the LGBT communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the largest-circulation LGBT newspapers in the United States, and the country's oldest continuously published newspaper ...

''. According to Larry LittleJohn, then president of Society for Individual Rights, "At that point, the tactical squad arrived – not to get the employees who dumped the ink, but to arrest the demonstrators. Somebody could have been hurt if that ink had gotten into their eyes, but the police were knocking people to the ground." The accounts of police brutality include women being thrown to the ground and protesters' teeth being knocked out. Inspired by

Black Hand Black Hand or The Black Hand may refer to: Extortionists and underground groups * Black Hand (anarchism) (''La Mano Negra''), a presumed secret, anarchist organization based in the Andalusian region of Spain during the early 1880s * Black Hand (e ...

extortion methods of Camorra

gangster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

s and

the Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

, some gay and lesbian activists attempted to institute "purple hand" as a warning to stop anti-gay attacks, but with little success. In Turkey, the LGBT rights organization MorEl Eskişehir LGBTT Oluşumu (Purple Hand Eskişehir LGBT Formation), also bears the name of this symbol. ''Come Out!'', the first periodical published by the GLF, came out it November 1969. In 1970, several GLF women, such as

Martha Shelley Martha Shelley (born December 27, 1943) is an American activist, writer, and poet best known for her involvement in lesbian feminist activism. Life and early work Martha Altman was born on December 27, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents of ...

, Lois Hart, Karla Jay, and Michela Griffo went on to form the

Lavender Menace The Lavender Menace or revolution was an informal group of lesbian radical feminists formed to protest the exclusion of lesbians and their issues from the feminist movement at the Second Congress to Unite Women in New York City on May 1, 1970. Me ...

, a lesbian activist organization. In 1970, the

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part of ...

caucus of the GLF, including

Marsha P. Johnson Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992) also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an American gay liberation''I've been involved in gay liberation ever since it first started in 1969'', 15:20 into the interview, Johnson is quoted as ...

and

Sylvia Rivera Sylvia Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002) was an American gay liberation and transgender activism, transgender rights activist September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015. who was also a noted community worker in LGBT history in New Yor ...

, formed the group

(STAR), which focused on providing support for gay prisoners, housing for homeless gay youth and street people, especially other young "street queens". In 1970, the GLF, led by Gary Alinder, protested the American Psychiatric Association’s classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder. In 1970 "The U.S. Mission" had a permit to use a campground in the Sequoia National Forest. Once it was learned that the group was sponsored by the GLF, the Sequoia National Forest supervisor cancelled the permit, and the campground was closed for the period.

United Kingdom

The UK Gay Liberation Front existed between 1970–1973. Its first meeting was held in the basement of the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

on 13 October 1970. Bob Mellors and Aubrey Walter had seen the effect of the GLF in the United States and created a parallel movement based on revolutionary politics. ''Come Together'', the organisation's newspaper, came out of its Media Workshop the same year. By 1971, the UK GLF was recognized as a political movement in the national press, holding weekly meetings of 200 to 300 people. The GLF Manifesto was published, and a series of high-profile direct actions, were carried out, such as the disruption of the launch of the Church-based morality campaign, Festival of Light. The disruption of the opening of the 1971 Festival of Light was one of the most well-organised GLF actions. The first meeting of the Festival of Light was organised by Mary Whitehouse at

Methodist Central Hall The Methodist Central Hall (also known as Central Hall Westminster) is a multi-purpose venue in the City of Westminster, London, serving primarily as a Methodist church and a conference centre. The building, which is a tourist attraction, also ho ...

. Amongst GLF members taking part in this protest were the "Radical Feminists", a group of

gender non-conforming Gender variance or gender nonconformity is behavior or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. A gender-nonconforming person may be variant in their gender identity, being transgender or non-bi ...

males in drag, who invaded and spontaneously kissed each other; others released mice, sounded horns, and unveiled banners, and a contingent dressed as workmen obtained access to the basement and shut off the lights. Easter 1972 saw the Gay Lib annual conference held in the Guild of Students building at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

By 1974, internal disagreements had led to the movement's splintering. Organizations that spun off from the movement included the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, '' Gay News'', and Icebreakers. The GLF Information Service continued for a few further years providing gay related resources. GLF branches had been set up in some provincial British towns (e.g., Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Leeds, and Leicester) and some survived for a few years longer. The

Leicester Gay Liberation Front Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK and Canada. The GLF provided a ...

founded by Jeff Martin was noted for its involvement in the setting up of the local "Gayline", which is still active today and has received funding from the National Lottery. They also carried out a high-profile campaign against the local paper, the ''

Leicester Mercury The ''Leicester Mercury'' is a British regional newspaper for the city of Leicester and the neighbouring counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The paper began in the 19th century as the ''Leicester Daily Mercury'' and later changed to its ...

'', which refused to advertise Gayline's services at the time. The papers of the GLF are among the Hall-Carpenter Archives at the

. Several members of the GLF, including

Peter Tatchell Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements. Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey ...

, continued campaigning beyond the 1970s under the organisation of

OutRage! OutRage! was a British political group focused on lesbian and gay rights. Founded in 1990, the organisation ran for 21 years until 2011. It described itself as "a broad based group of queers committed to radical, non-violent direct action and ...

, which was founded in 1990 and dissolved in 2011, using similar tactics to the GLF (such as " zaps" and performance protest) to attract a significant level of media interest and controversy. It was at this point that a divide emerged within the gay activist movement, mainly due to a difference in ideologies, after which a number of groups including Organization for Lesbian and Gay Alliance (OLGA), the

, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Dykes And Faggots Together (DAFT),

, Stonewall (which focused on

lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

tactics) and

co-existed. These groups were very influential following the

HIV/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 ...

pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s and the violence against lesbians and gay men that followed.

Canada

The first gay liberation groups identifying with the Gay Liberation Front movement in Canada were in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. The ''Front de Libération Homosexual'' (FLH) was formed in November 1970, in response to a call for organised activist groups in the city by the publication '' Mainmise.'''' ''Another factor in the group's formation was the response from police against gay establishments in the city after the suspension of civil liberties by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Pierre Trudeau in the fall of 1970. This group was short-lived; they were disbanded after over forty members were charged for failure to procure a liquor license at one of the group's events in 1972. A

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

group calling itself the Vancouver Gay Liberation Front emerged in 1971, mostly out of meetings from a local commune, called Pink Cheeks. The group gained support from ''

The Georgia Straight ''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools, ...

'', a left-leaning newspaper, and opened a drop-in centre and published a newsletter. The group struggled to maintain a core group of members, and competition from other local groups, such as the Canadian Gay Activists Alliance (CGAA) and the

Gay Alliance Toward Equality The Gay Alliance Toward Equality, or GATE, was one of the first Canadian gay liberation groups.Ed Jackson and Stan Persky, ''Flaunting It! 1964-1982: A Decade of Gay Journalism from The Body Politic''. Pink Triangle Press, 1982. Formed in sp ...

(GATE), soon led to its demise.

Denmark

(BBF; lit. ''The Gays' Liberation Front'') was founded in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in 1971, the name inspired by the American Gay Liberation Front. BBF was opposed to the already-established gay rights group " Forbundet af 1948" for being too formal. BBF's activities included going to schools to educate about how it was like being gay, and civil disobedience against the law that prohibited men from publicly dancing together, which was eventually repealed in 1973. The group regularly met at "Bøssehuset" (lit. ''The gay house'') in Christiania.

New Zealand

Women's Liberation and Māori activist Ngahuia Te Awekotuku initiated the foundation of the

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

Gay Liberation Front in March 1972, alongside fellow

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

students Nigel Baumber, Ray Waru, and others. In the following months Gay Liberation Fronts established in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

and

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

, with further groups founded in

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...

, and other places between 1973 and 1977. Gay Liberation groups carried out numerous

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

protests, including

guerilla theatre Guerrilla theatre, generally rendered "guerrilla theater" in the US, is a form of guerrilla communication originated in 1965 by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, who, in spirit of the Che Guevara writings from which the term '' guerrilla'' is taken, e ...

performances, zaps, disrupting meetings of anti-gay groups like the

Society for the Promotion of Community Standards The Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc. ("SPCS") is a conservative lobby group in New Zealand. A registered charity and incorporated society, the Society has taken a strong pro-censorship stance and clashed many times with the Office ...

, and pickets. Supporting the wellbeing of gays and helping them to come out was an early concern of the movement, leading to the formation of counselling services such as Gay-Aid in Wellington and Gays-An in Christchurch. A "Gay Week" was held from 29 May to 3 June 1972, featuring guerrilla theatre, a forum, dance, and teach-in. Gay Liberation organizations were not always successful in these aims; sexism and transphobia in the movement also led to the establishment of separate lesbian-feminist and trans organizations, such as SHE -

Sisters for Homophile Equality Sisters for Homophile Equality (SHE) was the first national lesbian organisation in New Zealand. They published ''Lesbian Feminist Circle, The Circle'', the first national lesbian magazine. Through this they were able to circulate overseas magazine ...

- founded in Christchurch in September 1973. Gay Liberation chapters also worked alongside groups such as Hedesthia, a social and political organization for transvestites and transsexuals.

Footnotes

References

* * * * * * * *

External links

Gay Liberation Front - first newspaper, photos

Gay Liberation Front - DC, 1970-1972
*
Come Together
': British GLF's newspaper, archived at the

Bishopsgate Institute Bishopsgate Institute is a cultural institute in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London, located near Liverpool Street station and Spitalfields market. The institute was established in 1895. It offers a cultural events programme, c ...

Leicester Gay Liberation Front

Photographs of New York GLF meetings, actions and members
by Diana Davies at the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

Digital Collections
Resources on the Politics of Homosexuality in the UK from a socialist perspective

Then and now
{{LGBT topics in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1969 1969 establishments in New York City LGBT political advocacy groups in the United States History of LGBT civil rights in the United States Defunct LGBT organizations based in New York City LGBT history in the United Kingdom LGBT history in Canada 1969 in LGBT history Far-left politics in the United States Articles containing video clips LGBT political advocacy groups in Canada LGBT political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom