Gay Liberation Front (New York, N.Y.)

Administrative History

The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was a loosely structured group of gay rights activists who were interested in the radical sexual liberation for all people. In the summer of 1969, independent GLF chapters were founded in several cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. Members in Los Angeles offered draft counseling, and organized "Gay-ins," dances, protests, and other demonstrations. Founded soon after the Stonewall Riots in New York, New York, the GLF's counterculture philosophy and lack of organizational hierarchy contrasted sharply existing homophile gay rights groups like the Mattachine Society. The GLF represents a break with the more conservative homophile movement, which sought to integrate gays and lesbians into society, and a movement toward the radical liberation of all oppressed people. The lack of organizational structure, and the alignment of some members with radical groups like the Black Panther Party contributed to an increasing fragmentation of GLF membership, and local groups eventually dissolved in 1972.

Sources:

"Gay Liberation Front." Outhistory.org http://www.outhistory.org/wiki/Gay_Liberation_Front

"Early Liberation: Los Angeles and the First Gay Pride." Get Out LB . (http://getoutlb.com/wp/2011/10/early-liberation-los-angeles-and-the-first-gay-pride/)

Kissack, Terence. "Freaking Fag Revolutionaries: New York's Gay Liberation Front, 1969-1971." Radical History Review, Spring 1995 (62); 105-134.

From the guide to the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), Los Angeles Records, Bulk, 1969-1973, 1969-1995, (ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives)