July 4th Annual Reminders at Independence Hall.

“Equality for Homosexuals”

Annual reminders at Independence Hall in Philadelphia began on July 4, 1965 and continued for 5 years until 1969 when the call went up to bring the demonstrations to New York the “Birthplace of Gay Liberation.” The Reminders were conceive by Craig Rodwell a member of the NY Mattachine Society after a series of demonstrations at the Pentagon, the Civil Services Commission, the State Department, and the White House. These small picket lines were set up to protest the exclusion of homosexuals from Federal employment and the Armed Services. A strict dress code was enforced at all picket lines at the time and men had to wear ties and jackets and women dresses or skirts and heels. Frank Kameny ever the enforcer of “taste” and a leader in the Washington D.C. Mattachine argued, “If we want to be employed by the Federal Government we have to look employable to the Federal Government.”  Dressing any other way, holding hands or any type of display that drew attention to one’s self threatened the strategy of hetero-social respectability. The activists of this period were trying to convey to the general public that they were patriotic Americans and sexual respectables as they reminded the nation that not all of its citizens had equal rights under the law.  Barbara Gittings was among a group of pioneering gay and lesbian picketers who held the first Reminder Day, which according to Gittings was meant to “remind the public that there was still a sizable segment of the American people that were not benefiting from the promises in our founding fathers’ document.” (1) Gittings later recalled “we all tried to swallow our own discomfort at not knowing what the consequences would be, whether our names would be printed in the newspaper and our jobs lost or whether we might even be arrested.” (2)

By the second Reminder in 1966 agents from the Bureau of Special Services were present.  According to  Martin Duberman their reports quoted from Craig Rodwell’s advertisement for the picket and agents began to sit in on NY Mattachine meetings. The last Reminder was held on July 4, 1969. Out there in 95 degrees were 150 people the men in suits and ties and the women in dresses and heels. They walked in a circle silently proclaiming their homonormativity and showing no outward signs of anger. What a contrast to Stonewall that happened a few days before. But something was different this time. A young gay couple began holding hands followed by a lesbian couple. Of course Mr. Frank Kameny the arbitrator of good public taste  started screaming, “None of that, None of that.” and broke their hands apart. Craig Rodwell declared that gays were entitled to do whatever straights did in public and then realized that the old guard of the movement was bankrupt. (6) And that it was.

Another step. 

 Rodwell , Hartford’s Foster Gunnison with others formed the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee to bring the marches to New York the birth place of the East coast fight back at the Stonewall Inn. From a silent plea for our rights to an outright demand for them leaving out no one. Stressing to me that one didn’t even need to own a suit and tie to join in the fight for Liberation. Soft, sweet, candle light vigils would soon be re-placed by a revolutionary people out, proud and ready to rumble.

The fall of the Mattachine and Nice and Sweet. 

By 1969 The Eastern Regional Conference on Homophile Organizations is taken over by the GLF and other radicals. The radicals convene a “Radical Caucus” to pass resolutions in support of the Black Panthers, striking grape pickers, the Chicago Eight, the anti-war movement and other social issues of the day. This was the first time a homophile organization was forced to take on non-homosexual issues. To prevent prevent further take overs by the radicals the liberals vote to disband the organization. The organization was formed by the New York Mattachine, Daughters of Bilitis, Janus Society and the Mattachine of Washington D.C. By 1970 The National American Conference of Homophile Organizations is also taken over by radicals. A second conference planned for 1971 fails to materialize and by 1972 NACHO ceases to exist.

The Rise of We’re Okay —Again! 

In 1973 the reformist liberals were able to capture the movement from the radical GAA when a group under the leadership of Bruce Voeller left the organization and formed the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.  According to Neil Miller the new NGLTF was to be a gay NAACP or ACLU which would establish gays as a political force and synthesizing, “the old homophile and reformist gay and lesbian liberationists approaches into a new hybrid with broader appeal.” (3) Many who had felt and been left out of the radical politics of the GLF and GAA joined the Task Force. (Kameny, Gittings) Both the NGLTF and David Goodstein the owner of the gay male tabloid, The Advocate began to sell people on the idea of a new gay respectability. This more conservative establishment approach harked back to the days of the homophile organizations. (4) By 1974 Jean O’Leary, (remember Miss Nasty and her treatment of Sylvia Rivera and drag queens) became co-executive director.  It always seems that a layer of professional liberal establishment accommodationist known as the respectables creep out from somewhere and very quickly rise to the movement and public prominence. Their first task is to discredit all radicals and put the movement on the path to reformist policies. These divisions between radical and reformist continue to divide the LGBT movement. That same old crap that we suffer from during this period that gay rights groups must focus on gay rights to the exclusion of all other issues and that we must be a band of well behaved, well dressed homosexuals so to appear to straights that we are just the same as them, are not a threat, and are a people who are no different than they. We at QWB fight that the best we can. 

Notes:

1. Philadelphia Freedom: the city of brotherly love celebrates on of the first U.S. gay rights demonstrations. July 5, 2005, Darren Frei Advocate.

2. Stonewall,Martin Duberman, The Mid-sixties, page 113.

3. Out of the Past, The Birth of Gay Liberation, Neil Miller pages 382.

4. Gay Resistance: The Hidden History,Sam Deaderick & Tamara Turner, Liberal Camp Followers, page 42.

For some wonderful interviews see: Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945-1990, Eric Marcus, Harper Collins, 1992.

1. In Her Own Words, the Ex-Nun, Jean O’Leary, pages 261-273

2. The Very Mad Scientist, Frank Kameny, pages 93-103

3. For an interesting take on the old guard responds to the new guard see: In Their Own Words: Barbara Gittings and Kay Lahusen pages 213-227.

4. The Radical Activist: Martha Shelley pages 175-186.

5. One Angry Nurse: Shirley Willer, pages 127-135

6. Of course where would we be without Martin Duberman’s Stonewall, Penguin Group, NY, NY 1993.

In 1999 I had the opportunity to go through Foster Gunnison’s archives that had not been touched since the day they arrived at the University of Connecticut.  As many of us in the Hartford area know Foster had an apartment in Bushnell Towers crammed full of archives relating to the movement. He saved everything. In 1966 Gunnison wrote ”The Agony of The Mask.” In this essay he makes a strong plea for ending the secrecy and to openly avow one’s homosexuality. “This is the only way homosexuals can repair the damage done to them.” He also stated: “To win support of institutions, there must be the emergence of a legion of well behaved, well dressed homosexuals that would contradict the view that all homosexuals are the far out type.” In the same year Gunnison was appointed the chairman of the Credential Committee of the North America Conference of Homophile Organizations. His job was to decide who should, or should not, be invited to attend the conferences. (all of the information on this committee, and the paperwork is alive and well in the archives) Gunnison’s Institute of Social Ethics in Hartford, Ct. maintained historical records and archives of the American Homophile Movement.  Martin Duberman in his book Stonewall did some amazing work in interviewing Gunnison. When we did the 1999 exhibition here in Hartford we had the good fortune of several people who were close friends with Gunnison to help guide us in the section pertaining to him. We also were given a wonderful picture of Foster sitting amongst his collection of archives.