Hugh McLeod
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199298259
- eISBN:
- 9780191711619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298259.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter discusses the sexual revolution, gay liberation movement, ‘second wave feminism’, and changes in family life that had a significant impact on religion. The 1960s and early 1970s were a ...
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This chapter discusses the sexual revolution, gay liberation movement, ‘second wave feminism’, and changes in family life that had a significant impact on religion. The 1960s and early 1970s were a time of crisis for the churches in most Western countries. Of the changes in this period in the field of sex, gender, and the family, those that had an impact on the largest numbers of people were the increasing focus of life on the home and the nuclear family, the influence of the ‘companionate marriage’ ideal, and the declining importance of the neighbourhood and of customs enforced by pressure from neighbours and extended families. The Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements exercised a powerful influence, but on much smaller numbers of people, revolutionizing the thinking of those who joined, becoming for many of them a complete way of life, and often placing attachments to religion or the churches under severe strain.Less
This chapter discusses the sexual revolution, gay liberation movement, ‘second wave feminism’, and changes in family life that had a significant impact on religion. The 1960s and early 1970s were a time of crisis for the churches in most Western countries. Of the changes in this period in the field of sex, gender, and the family, those that had an impact on the largest numbers of people were the increasing focus of life on the home and the nuclear family, the influence of the ‘companionate marriage’ ideal, and the declining importance of the neighbourhood and of customs enforced by pressure from neighbours and extended families. The Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements exercised a powerful influence, but on much smaller numbers of people, revolutionizing the thinking of those who joined, becoming for many of them a complete way of life, and often placing attachments to religion or the churches under severe strain.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804773997
- eISBN:
- 9780804777834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804773997.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter offers a detailed description on Anglo-American Gay Liberation. Gay Liberation was the third of the triad of militant late-1960s movements grounded in the retrieval and affirmation of ...
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This chapter offers a detailed description on Anglo-American Gay Liberation. Gay Liberation was the third of the triad of militant late-1960s movements grounded in the retrieval and affirmation of the self. The challenge to conventional psychological diagnosis and therapy by R. D. Laing was the Anglo-American counterculture's most explicit legacy to the gay movement. The Gay Liberation movement in the States and, recently, in Britain, has attached onto Black Power rhetoric while investigating a separatism that was motivated by the logic of identity politics and a defensive reaction to the prejudice. Gay Lib in London closely covered and replicated tactics and modes of the New York, L.A., and San Francisco movements. It is observed that the reconstruction of the gay self in the late twentieth century was as much a matter of “performance discourse” as manifesto argument and political lobbying.Less
This chapter offers a detailed description on Anglo-American Gay Liberation. Gay Liberation was the third of the triad of militant late-1960s movements grounded in the retrieval and affirmation of the self. The challenge to conventional psychological diagnosis and therapy by R. D. Laing was the Anglo-American counterculture's most explicit legacy to the gay movement. The Gay Liberation movement in the States and, recently, in Britain, has attached onto Black Power rhetoric while investigating a separatism that was motivated by the logic of identity politics and a defensive reaction to the prejudice. Gay Lib in London closely covered and replicated tactics and modes of the New York, L.A., and San Francisco movements. It is observed that the reconstruction of the gay self in the late twentieth century was as much a matter of “performance discourse” as manifesto argument and political lobbying.
Emily K. Hobson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520279056
- eISBN:
- 9780520965706
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520279056.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Between 1969 and 1973, gay liberationists began to define radical alliances as central to sexual liberation. Gay men drew on Black radicalism, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and other causes to ...
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Between 1969 and 1973, gay liberationists began to define radical alliances as central to sexual liberation. Gay men drew on Black radicalism, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and other causes to analyze anti-gay oppression and to draw analogies between sexuality and race. They pursued solidarity with the Black Panther Party and defined gayness as a means to resist U.S. militarism. They also distinguished leftist gay liberation from a different politics termed gay nationalism, as by opposing a gay nationalist scheme to colonize California's Alpine County — a project gay leftists argued would replicate capitalism, imperialism, and anti-gay oppression. In contrast to such proposals, Bay Area gay radicals organized gay solidarity with a multiracial and socialist left.Less
Between 1969 and 1973, gay liberationists began to define radical alliances as central to sexual liberation. Gay men drew on Black radicalism, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and other causes to analyze anti-gay oppression and to draw analogies between sexuality and race. They pursued solidarity with the Black Panther Party and defined gayness as a means to resist U.S. militarism. They also distinguished leftist gay liberation from a different politics termed gay nationalism, as by opposing a gay nationalist scheme to colonize California's Alpine County — a project gay leftists argued would replicate capitalism, imperialism, and anti-gay oppression. In contrast to such proposals, Bay Area gay radicals organized gay solidarity with a multiracial and socialist left.
Lucy Robinson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719074349
- eISBN:
- 9781781701591
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719074349.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
The history of homosexuality has often presented gay activism as spontaneously erupting in a fit of excitement at the Stonewall Riots in June 1969. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in New York City was ...
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The history of homosexuality has often presented gay activism as spontaneously erupting in a fit of excitement at the Stonewall Riots in June 1969. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in New York City was formed in reaction to the Stonewall Riots, but the Front took its political inspiration from the wider counter-culture, feminism, black power and anti-war, anti-psychiatry and free Speech movements. The GLF announced itself through three major campaigns; the defence of Louis Eakes which tackled the legal oppression experienced by lesbians and gay men, demonstrations against the evangelical National Festival of Light which challenged religious oppression and GLF's campaign against Dr Reuben's book Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Sex but Were to Afraid to Ask, which opposed oppression by medical institutions. It was when the GLF tried to act on the third liberational stage, to Change the World, that it came most directly into conflict with both the existing homosexual reform movement, particularly the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, and the Trotskyite Left.Less
The history of homosexuality has often presented gay activism as spontaneously erupting in a fit of excitement at the Stonewall Riots in June 1969. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in New York City was formed in reaction to the Stonewall Riots, but the Front took its political inspiration from the wider counter-culture, feminism, black power and anti-war, anti-psychiatry and free Speech movements. The GLF announced itself through three major campaigns; the defence of Louis Eakes which tackled the legal oppression experienced by lesbians and gay men, demonstrations against the evangelical National Festival of Light which challenged religious oppression and GLF's campaign against Dr Reuben's book Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Sex but Were to Afraid to Ask, which opposed oppression by medical institutions. It was when the GLF tried to act on the third liberational stage, to Change the World, that it came most directly into conflict with both the existing homosexual reform movement, particularly the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, and the Trotskyite Left.
Lucy Robinson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719074349
- eISBN:
- 9781781701591
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719074349.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
Punk and Rock Against Racism took on the liberation movements' emphasis on culture and lifestyle. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) had not helped to build a world-wide revolution. For all intents and ...
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Punk and Rock Against Racism took on the liberation movements' emphasis on culture and lifestyle. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) had not helped to build a world-wide revolution. For all intents and purposes, it appeared that many of the original aims of gay liberation ‘[could] be gained this side of socialism’. This chapter looks at what gay activists did instead of the third liberational stage. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, post-GLF organisations took on the self-conscious role of discerning ‘what went wrong?’ in the liberation years and what opportunities there were now for gay left politics. Groups such as the Gay Activist Alliance and the Gay Workers Movement continued to work to unite gay activism with the Left, alongside the Gay Left Collective's more theoretical stance. The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) explored the lessons learnt from lesbian and gay politics and tried to relate them to a different, more challenging, sexual identity. Meanwhile, other gay activists edged closer to the mainstream, for example by supporting the Greater London Council.Less
Punk and Rock Against Racism took on the liberation movements' emphasis on culture and lifestyle. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) had not helped to build a world-wide revolution. For all intents and purposes, it appeared that many of the original aims of gay liberation ‘[could] be gained this side of socialism’. This chapter looks at what gay activists did instead of the third liberational stage. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, post-GLF organisations took on the self-conscious role of discerning ‘what went wrong?’ in the liberation years and what opportunities there were now for gay left politics. Groups such as the Gay Activist Alliance and the Gay Workers Movement continued to work to unite gay activism with the Left, alongside the Gay Left Collective's more theoretical stance. The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) explored the lessons learnt from lesbian and gay politics and tried to relate them to a different, more challenging, sexual identity. Meanwhile, other gay activists edged closer to the mainstream, for example by supporting the Greater London Council.
Emily K. Hobson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520279056
- eISBN:
- 9780520965706
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520279056.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
By the mid 1970s radical gay men were building a gay left and forging alliances with lesbians. They sharpened their politics through socialist feminism and Chilean solidarity, confronted police ...
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By the mid 1970s radical gay men were building a gay left and forging alliances with lesbians. They sharpened their politics through socialist feminism and Chilean solidarity, confronted police brutality, and challenged racism in gay men's life. The organization Bay Area Gay Liberation built grassroots power while the Third World Gay Caucus networked gay and lesbian people of color. While gay and lesbian leftists pursued anti-imperialism over liberal reform, by the late 1970s they also joined strategic left-liberal coalitions against the New Right. Radicals played key roles in defeating the Briggs Initiative's attack on gay and lesbian teachers, and though unable to stop a death penalty measure, evidenced resistance to state violence in the White Night Riots.Less
By the mid 1970s radical gay men were building a gay left and forging alliances with lesbians. They sharpened their politics through socialist feminism and Chilean solidarity, confronted police brutality, and challenged racism in gay men's life. The organization Bay Area Gay Liberation built grassroots power while the Third World Gay Caucus networked gay and lesbian people of color. While gay and lesbian leftists pursued anti-imperialism over liberal reform, by the late 1970s they also joined strategic left-liberal coalitions against the New Right. Radicals played key roles in defeating the Briggs Initiative's attack on gay and lesbian teachers, and though unable to stop a death penalty measure, evidenced resistance to state violence in the White Night Riots.
Lucy Robinson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719074349
- eISBN:
- 9781781701591
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719074349.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
This book demonstrates how the personal became political in post-war Britain, and argues that attention to gay activism can help us to rethink fundamentally the nature of post-war politics. While the ...
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This book demonstrates how the personal became political in post-war Britain, and argues that attention to gay activism can help us to rethink fundamentally the nature of post-war politics. While the Left were fighting among themselves and the reformists were struggling with the limits of law reform, gay men started organising for themselves, first individually within existing organisations and later rejecting formal political structures altogether. Gay activists intersected with Trotskyism, Stalinism, the New Left, feminism and youth movements. As the slogan of the Gay Liberation Front proclaimed, ‘Come out, come together and change the world’. Culture, performance and identity took over from economics and class struggle, as gay men worked to change the world through the politics of sexuality. Throughout the post-war years, the new cult of the teenager in the 1950s, CND and the counter-culture of the 1960s, gay liberation, feminism, the Punk movement and the miners' strike of 1984 all helped to build a politics of identity. When AIDS and Thatcherism impacted on gay men's lives in the 1980s, gay politics came into its own. There is an assumption among many of today's politicians that young people are apathetic and disengaged. This book argues that these politicians are looking in the wrong place. People now feel that they can impact the world through the way in which they live, shop, have sex and organise their private lives. The book shows that gay men and their politics have been central to this change in the post-war world.Less
This book demonstrates how the personal became political in post-war Britain, and argues that attention to gay activism can help us to rethink fundamentally the nature of post-war politics. While the Left were fighting among themselves and the reformists were struggling with the limits of law reform, gay men started organising for themselves, first individually within existing organisations and later rejecting formal political structures altogether. Gay activists intersected with Trotskyism, Stalinism, the New Left, feminism and youth movements. As the slogan of the Gay Liberation Front proclaimed, ‘Come out, come together and change the world’. Culture, performance and identity took over from economics and class struggle, as gay men worked to change the world through the politics of sexuality. Throughout the post-war years, the new cult of the teenager in the 1950s, CND and the counter-culture of the 1960s, gay liberation, feminism, the Punk movement and the miners' strike of 1984 all helped to build a politics of identity. When AIDS and Thatcherism impacted on gay men's lives in the 1980s, gay politics came into its own. There is an assumption among many of today's politicians that young people are apathetic and disengaged. This book argues that these politicians are looking in the wrong place. People now feel that they can impact the world through the way in which they live, shop, have sex and organise their private lives. The book shows that gay men and their politics have been central to this change in the post-war world.
Simon Hall
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748698936
- eISBN:
- 9781474445160
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748698936.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter considers the historical significance of 1968 for the gay rights movement in the context of the Stonewall Riots of June 1969. The gay rights movement of the 1970s embodied the animating ...
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This chapter considers the historical significance of 1968 for the gay rights movement in the context of the Stonewall Riots of June 1969. The gay rights movement of the 1970s embodied the animating spirit of late 1960s activism, with its emphasis on the revolutionary potential of personal politics; embrace of direct action and street theatre; commitment to building alternative institutions; and idealistic faith that a more equal world was possible. For a time, gay liberationists echoed the activists of 1968 by denouncing American imperialism and calling for revolution. Yet, within months of the Stonewall riots, such militancy was already on the wane, as groups like the Gay Activists Alliance emerged to lead the fight for full equality and first-class citizenship rights. This more liberal, integrationist stance has, in many ways, come to define the gay rights movement in the years since Stonewall, and helped deliver some of its signature triumphs. As well as charting this post-1968 moment, the chapter also considers those who still hold true to the revolutionary values of 1968.Less
This chapter considers the historical significance of 1968 for the gay rights movement in the context of the Stonewall Riots of June 1969. The gay rights movement of the 1970s embodied the animating spirit of late 1960s activism, with its emphasis on the revolutionary potential of personal politics; embrace of direct action and street theatre; commitment to building alternative institutions; and idealistic faith that a more equal world was possible. For a time, gay liberationists echoed the activists of 1968 by denouncing American imperialism and calling for revolution. Yet, within months of the Stonewall riots, such militancy was already on the wane, as groups like the Gay Activists Alliance emerged to lead the fight for full equality and first-class citizenship rights. This more liberal, integrationist stance has, in many ways, come to define the gay rights movement in the years since Stonewall, and helped deliver some of its signature triumphs. As well as charting this post-1968 moment, the chapter also considers those who still hold true to the revolutionary values of 1968.
Lucy Robinson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719074349
- eISBN:
- 9781781701591
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719074349.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
When the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 partially decriminalised homosexuality, it also exposed the limits of reform. Of all Labour Party's reforms, the decriminalisation of homosexuality was most ...
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When the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 partially decriminalised homosexuality, it also exposed the limits of reform. Of all Labour Party's reforms, the decriminalisation of homosexuality was most clearly not a simple party issue. This chapter focuses on the choices made by homosexual men as new arenas of political and cultural activism instead. It looks through the eyes of a variety of key participants, some of whom experienced at first hand the limits of traditional law reform and party politics: Anthony Grey, Allan Horsfall, George Melly, Colin MacInnes and Ray Gosling. In different ways, all these characters had a lasting impact on gay politics and each is emblematic of the different strands that fed into the gay liberation movement. Through these men's experiences, we can see the pull of single issue identity politics in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the emergence of a counter-culture around events such as the Wholly Communion in 1965 and the Dialectics of Liberation conference in 1967. The counter-culture offered a place for gay men to move away from reformism's apologies and the Left's silences.Less
When the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 partially decriminalised homosexuality, it also exposed the limits of reform. Of all Labour Party's reforms, the decriminalisation of homosexuality was most clearly not a simple party issue. This chapter focuses on the choices made by homosexual men as new arenas of political and cultural activism instead. It looks through the eyes of a variety of key participants, some of whom experienced at first hand the limits of traditional law reform and party politics: Anthony Grey, Allan Horsfall, George Melly, Colin MacInnes and Ray Gosling. In different ways, all these characters had a lasting impact on gay politics and each is emblematic of the different strands that fed into the gay liberation movement. Through these men's experiences, we can see the pull of single issue identity politics in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the emergence of a counter-culture around events such as the Wholly Communion in 1965 and the Dialectics of Liberation conference in 1967. The counter-culture offered a place for gay men to move away from reformism's apologies and the Left's silences.
Daniel Rivers
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469636269
- eISBN:
- 9781469636276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469636269.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This essay looks at the worldview of gay male communalists across the United States in the mid-1970s as seen in the rural gay magazine Rural Free Delivery (RFD) in the critical years from 1973 to ...
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This essay looks at the worldview of gay male communalists across the United States in the mid-1970s as seen in the rural gay magazine Rural Free Delivery (RFD) in the critical years from 1973 to 1976 as well as in other extant archival sources related to gay communalism. As a clearinghouse for gay men involved in radical, back-to-the-land ventures, RFD provides a complex view of the creation of a largely white, gay male counterculture spirituality that fused the sexual politics of early gay liberationists with ecofeminist, animist, New Age understandings of sexuality, the natural world, and spirit. Gay men who were or who wanted to live in communal spaces nationwide sent letters and stories into RFD, which was published in a variety of gay male communal spaces during these years.Less
This essay looks at the worldview of gay male communalists across the United States in the mid-1970s as seen in the rural gay magazine Rural Free Delivery (RFD) in the critical years from 1973 to 1976 as well as in other extant archival sources related to gay communalism. As a clearinghouse for gay men involved in radical, back-to-the-land ventures, RFD provides a complex view of the creation of a largely white, gay male counterculture spirituality that fused the sexual politics of early gay liberationists with ecofeminist, animist, New Age understandings of sexuality, the natural world, and spirit. Gay men who were or who wanted to live in communal spaces nationwide sent letters and stories into RFD, which was published in a variety of gay male communal spaces during these years.
Phil Tiemeyer
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520274761
- eISBN:
- 9780520955301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520274761.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Chapter 5 examines the flight attendant corps of the 1970s, when the profession became more attuned to both women’s liberation and gay liberation. This chapter examines how women and gays ...
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Chapter 5 examines the flight attendant corps of the 1970s, when the profession became more attuned to both women’s liberation and gay liberation. This chapter examines how women and gays cooperated—and sometimes fought—in both the workplace and the union hall to find common ground that respected all employees. I link these developments with the backlash against a feminist, pro-gay ethic, whether that backlash came from airline executives or larger conservative social movements. These increasingly severe skirmishes in the culture wars also influenced the legal legacy of Diaz v. Pan Am, as conservatives continued to portray women’s rights initiatives like the Equal Rights Amendment as backdoor pathways for queers to gain equal rights.Less
Chapter 5 examines the flight attendant corps of the 1970s, when the profession became more attuned to both women’s liberation and gay liberation. This chapter examines how women and gays cooperated—and sometimes fought—in both the workplace and the union hall to find common ground that respected all employees. I link these developments with the backlash against a feminist, pro-gay ethic, whether that backlash came from airline executives or larger conservative social movements. These increasingly severe skirmishes in the culture wars also influenced the legal legacy of Diaz v. Pan Am, as conservatives continued to portray women’s rights initiatives like the Equal Rights Amendment as backdoor pathways for queers to gain equal rights.
Todd Shepard
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226493275
- eISBN:
- 9780226493305
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226493305.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter explores how gay male discussions outside of the FHAR, most of which took place after the sharp rise and quick fade of radical gay liberation in France, continued to include a lot of ...
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This chapter explores how gay male discussions outside of the FHAR, most of which took place after the sharp rise and quick fade of radical gay liberation in France, continued to include a lot of Arab men and why this sex talk mattered. Other perspectives also appear, offered by individuals who kept the issue of homosexuality alive while declining to identify as gay. Maghrebi (male) commentators and authors were the most significant. Their interest in “gay male” sex talk about Arab men challenged claims from gay observers even as it also suggested the importance of the topic. By the late 1970s, such tensions between explicitly “gay” and “Arab” depictions and explanations provoked a sharp division between some of the most audible gay voices, including celebrations and critiques of the emerging gay world and its relationship to the larger “hetero” world.Less
This chapter explores how gay male discussions outside of the FHAR, most of which took place after the sharp rise and quick fade of radical gay liberation in France, continued to include a lot of Arab men and why this sex talk mattered. Other perspectives also appear, offered by individuals who kept the issue of homosexuality alive while declining to identify as gay. Maghrebi (male) commentators and authors were the most significant. Their interest in “gay male” sex talk about Arab men challenged claims from gay observers even as it also suggested the importance of the topic. By the late 1970s, such tensions between explicitly “gay” and “Arab” depictions and explanations provoked a sharp division between some of the most audible gay voices, including celebrations and critiques of the emerging gay world and its relationship to the larger “hetero” world.
Scott Herring
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677252
- eISBN:
- 9781452947440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677252.003.0015
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
RFD quarterly (once referred to as “Rural Fairy Digest”) was one of the first queer journals to extend the non-normative intersectional politics of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) to nonmetropolitan ...
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RFD quarterly (once referred to as “Rural Fairy Digest”) was one of the first queer journals to extend the non-normative intersectional politics of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) to nonmetropolitan U.S. audiences. This chapter extends recent historical scholarship on 1970s lesbian and gay US print cultures to analyze the anti-urban politics of RFD’s early stylistics. It offers an aesthetic archaeology of what one initial contributor, Donald Engstrom, later termed RFD’s “separatist fag community,” and what one historian of regional US cultures, James T. Sears, sees as the quarterly’s “anarcho-effeminism.” Extending their findings, the chapter explores how a particular version of gay male urbanity began to reprint itself as a normalizing print style in 1970s glossy magazines, and how RFD, alongside rural feminist journal Country Women, responded to this historical packaging with oppositional stylistics of its own.Less
RFD quarterly (once referred to as “Rural Fairy Digest”) was one of the first queer journals to extend the non-normative intersectional politics of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) to nonmetropolitan U.S. audiences. This chapter extends recent historical scholarship on 1970s lesbian and gay US print cultures to analyze the anti-urban politics of RFD’s early stylistics. It offers an aesthetic archaeology of what one initial contributor, Donald Engstrom, later termed RFD’s “separatist fag community,” and what one historian of regional US cultures, James T. Sears, sees as the quarterly’s “anarcho-effeminism.” Extending their findings, the chapter explores how a particular version of gay male urbanity began to reprint itself as a normalizing print style in 1970s glossy magazines, and how RFD, alongside rural feminist journal Country Women, responded to this historical packaging with oppositional stylistics of its own.
Kevin J. Mumford
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469626840
- eISBN:
- 9781469628073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469626840.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
In the era of black and gay liberation, activists attempted to forge coalitions that only temporarily provided space for black gay men. The Black Panthers fleetingly supported gay causes while ...
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In the era of black and gay liberation, activists attempted to forge coalitions that only temporarily provided space for black gay men. The Black Panthers fleetingly supported gay causes while relatively few black men joined gay liberation fronts. But the beginnings of a new black gay activism were visible.Less
In the era of black and gay liberation, activists attempted to forge coalitions that only temporarily provided space for black gay men. The Black Panthers fleetingly supported gay causes while relatively few black men joined gay liberation fronts. But the beginnings of a new black gay activism were visible.
Kevin J. Mumford
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469626840
- eISBN:
- 9781469628073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469626840.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
At the intersection of liberation movements of the 1970s, Brother Grant-Michael Fitzgerald emerged to speak out for gay rights and religious freedom. A member of a Catholic order based in Milwaukee, ...
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At the intersection of liberation movements of the 1970s, Brother Grant-Michael Fitzgerald emerged to speak out for gay rights and religious freedom. A member of a Catholic order based in Milwaukee, Fitzgerald developed a new literature on sexual minorities for presentation to a leading organization of priests. He also advanced one of the first platforms from which to espouse black gay liberation.Less
At the intersection of liberation movements of the 1970s, Brother Grant-Michael Fitzgerald emerged to speak out for gay rights and religious freedom. A member of a Catholic order based in Milwaukee, Fitzgerald developed a new literature on sexual minorities for presentation to a leading organization of priests. He also advanced one of the first platforms from which to espouse black gay liberation.
Lucy Robinson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719074349
- eISBN:
- 9781781701591
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719074349.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
This book brings together and cross-references Left history and gay histories that have previously been separate. The relationship between gay men and the Left is significant in itself, after all the ...
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This book brings together and cross-references Left history and gay histories that have previously been separate. The relationship between gay men and the Left is significant in itself, after all the decline of the conventional Left offered particular new possibilities for gay political organisation. But more than that, the relationship between class and identity politics also brings social and political change in post-war Britain into clearer focus, allowing us to trace changes in both political culture and the politics of culture. Across the various forms of the Left under discussion here—both revisionist and traditional Labour, Stalinism, Marxist/Leninism and Trotskyism, a shared assumption exists; that there is little relation between the politics of homosexuality and the politics of class. The book examines the Left's attitude to homosexuality and homosexuals in post-war Britain, the variety of transgressive political identities adopted by homosexual men outside of the Left, the Gay Liberation Front in London and the ways in which New Labour has negotiated the politics of sexuality.Less
This book brings together and cross-references Left history and gay histories that have previously been separate. The relationship between gay men and the Left is significant in itself, after all the decline of the conventional Left offered particular new possibilities for gay political organisation. But more than that, the relationship between class and identity politics also brings social and political change in post-war Britain into clearer focus, allowing us to trace changes in both political culture and the politics of culture. Across the various forms of the Left under discussion here—both revisionist and traditional Labour, Stalinism, Marxist/Leninism and Trotskyism, a shared assumption exists; that there is little relation between the politics of homosexuality and the politics of class. The book examines the Left's attitude to homosexuality and homosexuals in post-war Britain, the variety of transgressive political identities adopted by homosexual men outside of the Left, the Gay Liberation Front in London and the ways in which New Labour has negotiated the politics of sexuality.
Kevin J. Mumford
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469626840
- eISBN:
- 9781469628073
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469626840.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
A historical study of black gay activism and identities from the 1950s to the present based on research in printed and archival sources. It examines both the construction of racism and homophobia and ...
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A historical study of black gay activism and identities from the 1950s to the present based on research in printed and archival sources. It examines both the construction of racism and homophobia and the gradual mobilization by black gay men against oppression. To do so it surveys shifting representations in magazines, newspapers, film, pornography, and analyses the ways in which black gay men succumbed to and resisted negative stereotypes. In the era of civil rights, James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin spoke out for social justice, as well as critiqued some tenets of the new black power ideology. But the stigma surrounding black gay identities undermined their place in the movement. In the 1950s, black periodicals ran frank discussions of black homosexuality—often associated with deviance and crime--but this trend slowed by the 1960s, giving way to respectable images. But in 1967 a white filmmaker directed a film about the life of a black gay hustler, while the increase in gay pulp fiction presented yet another image of black gayness. After Stonewall, black gay activists organized for sexual liberation, gay rights, and religious freedom in their own right. Some joined coalitions between black and gay liberation, while others created black queer identities. Brother Grant-Michael Fitzgerald, a member of a Catholic order, worked to bridge black and gay liberation, while seeking full inclusion in the church. By the 1980s, a new generation settled in predominantly white gay communities, and sought recognition through writing, performing, and speaking out. Joseph Beam organized readings at the local gay bookstore, wrote for the local press, and edited the first black gay anthology. The Howard University professor, James Tinney, struggled against black homophobia but also founded the first black gay and lesbian church. By the 1980s, the AIDS crisis disproportionately hit black gay men, but new organizations, such as Black and White Men Together also formed to combat prejudice and overcome social isolation. By the 2000s, social media, legal change, and further acceptance created a veritable revolution in gay black history, even as racism and homophobia continued to impact the lives of black men who have sex with men.Less
A historical study of black gay activism and identities from the 1950s to the present based on research in printed and archival sources. It examines both the construction of racism and homophobia and the gradual mobilization by black gay men against oppression. To do so it surveys shifting representations in magazines, newspapers, film, pornography, and analyses the ways in which black gay men succumbed to and resisted negative stereotypes. In the era of civil rights, James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin spoke out for social justice, as well as critiqued some tenets of the new black power ideology. But the stigma surrounding black gay identities undermined their place in the movement. In the 1950s, black periodicals ran frank discussions of black homosexuality—often associated with deviance and crime--but this trend slowed by the 1960s, giving way to respectable images. But in 1967 a white filmmaker directed a film about the life of a black gay hustler, while the increase in gay pulp fiction presented yet another image of black gayness. After Stonewall, black gay activists organized for sexual liberation, gay rights, and religious freedom in their own right. Some joined coalitions between black and gay liberation, while others created black queer identities. Brother Grant-Michael Fitzgerald, a member of a Catholic order, worked to bridge black and gay liberation, while seeking full inclusion in the church. By the 1980s, a new generation settled in predominantly white gay communities, and sought recognition through writing, performing, and speaking out. Joseph Beam organized readings at the local gay bookstore, wrote for the local press, and edited the first black gay anthology. The Howard University professor, James Tinney, struggled against black homophobia but also founded the first black gay and lesbian church. By the 1980s, the AIDS crisis disproportionately hit black gay men, but new organizations, such as Black and White Men Together also formed to combat prejudice and overcome social isolation. By the 2000s, social media, legal change, and further acceptance created a veritable revolution in gay black history, even as racism and homophobia continued to impact the lives of black men who have sex with men.
Stacy Braukman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813039824
- eISBN:
- 9780813043166
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813039824.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines Anita Bryant's 1977 Save Our Children crusade, showing how many of the ideas about the corrupting influence of homosexual teachers articulated by members of the Johns Committee ...
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This chapter examines Anita Bryant's 1977 Save Our Children crusade, showing how many of the ideas about the corrupting influence of homosexual teachers articulated by members of the Johns Committee echoed in Bryant's campaign to overturn a Dade County gay rights ordinance, this time through an evangelical narrative of morality.Less
This chapter examines Anita Bryant's 1977 Save Our Children crusade, showing how many of the ideas about the corrupting influence of homosexual teachers articulated by members of the Johns Committee echoed in Bryant's campaign to overturn a Dade County gay rights ordinance, this time through an evangelical narrative of morality.
Charles Nero
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781846319389
- eISBN:
- 9781781380901
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846319389.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Melvin Dixon’s 1991 novel Vanishing Rooms is widely regarded as a gay novel, but it intersects in specific ways with African American liberation struggles. First, it uses the queer doubling ...
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Melvin Dixon’s 1991 novel Vanishing Rooms is widely regarded as a gay novel, but it intersects in specific ways with African American liberation struggles. First, it uses the queer doubling convention that W. E. B. Du Bois proposed in The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and earlier works to represent homoerotic desire between a feminized African American male and a reckless, masculine white male as the basis for interracial nation-building. Women, in this convention, cement the bonds of men with men that feminist and queer theorists contend are the basis of patriarchy. Second, the novel bears the unequivocal stamp of the Black Arts Movement through its use of two icons, Nina Simone and the Nation of Islam. While ending patriarchy remains a challenge, the novel brilliantly calls into question an exclusive focus on gay liberation that does not address the specificity of black experience.Less
Melvin Dixon’s 1991 novel Vanishing Rooms is widely regarded as a gay novel, but it intersects in specific ways with African American liberation struggles. First, it uses the queer doubling convention that W. E. B. Du Bois proposed in The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and earlier works to represent homoerotic desire between a feminized African American male and a reckless, masculine white male as the basis for interracial nation-building. Women, in this convention, cement the bonds of men with men that feminist and queer theorists contend are the basis of patriarchy. Second, the novel bears the unequivocal stamp of the Black Arts Movement through its use of two icons, Nina Simone and the Nation of Islam. While ending patriarchy remains a challenge, the novel brilliantly calls into question an exclusive focus on gay liberation that does not address the specificity of black experience.
Emily K. Hobson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520279056
- eISBN:
- 9780520965706
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520279056.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Between 1969 and 1975, lesbian feminists developed a politics of collective defense, which linked self-protection and community building to armed resistance and the radical underground. Collective ...
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Between 1969 and 1975, lesbian feminists developed a politics of collective defense, which linked self-protection and community building to armed resistance and the radical underground. Collective defense first emerged through alliances between the group Gay Women's Liberation and the Black Panther Party. It expanded through lesbian feminists' support for armed radical groups, their opposition to state repression, and their involvement in political and self-defense trials. The cases of the Symbionese Liberation Army, of white lesbian radical Susan Saxe, and of women of color Inez Garcia and Joan Little proved central to activists' politics. Yet as the experiences of the organization Gente showed, collective defense simultaneously mobilized anti-racism and constructed barriers between lesbians of color and white lesbian feminists.Less
Between 1969 and 1975, lesbian feminists developed a politics of collective defense, which linked self-protection and community building to armed resistance and the radical underground. Collective defense first emerged through alliances between the group Gay Women's Liberation and the Black Panther Party. It expanded through lesbian feminists' support for armed radical groups, their opposition to state repression, and their involvement in political and self-defense trials. The cases of the Symbionese Liberation Army, of white lesbian radical Susan Saxe, and of women of color Inez Garcia and Joan Little proved central to activists' politics. Yet as the experiences of the organization Gente showed, collective defense simultaneously mobilized anti-racism and constructed barriers between lesbians of color and white lesbian feminists.
