Mattachine Society Draws 500 to Gay Rights Convention in LA
The Mattachine Society, the first national gay men’s organizations in the U.S., was founded by activist Harry Hay on November 11, 1950. Its convention at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Los Angeles on this day drew five hundred people.
The attendance was particularly remarkable, given the national homophobic scare that had erupted in the early 1950s. It was also a sign of a greater willingness of gay men to appear publicly and acknowledge their sexual orientation.
The first gay rights group in the U.S. was the Society for Human Rights, founded on November 10, 1924.
Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, meanwhile, helped found The Daughters of Bilitis, the first national lesbian rights organization on September 21, 1955.
Watch an interview with Harry Hay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSO5Y8fGac4
Read: James T. Sears, Behind the Mask of the Mattachine: The Hall Call Chronicles and the Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation (2006)
Learn more: Stuart Timmons, The Trouble with Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement (1990)
Learn more about the Mattachine Society of Washington, DC here.
Read about the history of the GLBT revolution: Lillian Faderman, The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle (2015)
Read the FBI file on the Mattachine Society: http://vault.fbi.gov/mattachine-society
Learn more: Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (1999)