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Gay Liberation and the Left

I'm interested in the relationship between the "left" of the post-Stonewall era and the gay movement. I know that Huey Newton gave a speech, which you can read online here, supportive of the GLF and gay liberation (directed to listeners with a chauvinistic attitude). My guess is that Workers World also had something to say, although I can't find anything.


International Socialists Gay Caucus Bulletin.
(click for full size image)
A comrade in Atlanta, Ara Dostourian, was the first openly gay teacher in our state. During the 1970s, he participated in the local chapter of the Gay Liberation Front and was faculty adviser to a gay and lesbian student group at the University of West Georgia. His organization at the time, the International Socialists, had a Gay Caucus. Other groups - from all "currents" of the socialist tradition - were silent and often hostile to openly gay and lesbian members (a sign of "bourgeois decadence," of course!) and these comrades had to conceal their participation in the GLF and other groups. Ara is without internet access... I should really interview him at some point to collect this history. There is also an veteran lesbian activist involved in Queer Progressive Agenda, an Atlanta collective, that probably remembers the other half of the gender divide.

This summer I had the chance to talk with Peter Drucker, another veteran gay activist although several decades younger than Ara. He told me about some of the often militant gay activism in late 1970s New York City. Many were about access to public space, in a sense similar to the the fight FIERCE! is leading to defend queer youth access to Christopher Street pier. The extent to which queer identities have formed through access public space adds another dimension to struggles against gentrification and privatization.

Finally, I highly recommend this resolution on lesbian/gay liberation adopted by the Fourth International in 2003. A great, global perspective!

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