http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2010/08/16/fighting-new-world
16 August, 2010
Katherine McMahon
"No Revolution without us! An army of lovers cannot lose! All power
to the people!" (Statement from the Male Homosexual Workshop at the
Black Panthers' Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention)
--
The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) is forty years old this year. For a
group that lasted only three years in Britain, it is remembered with
an impressive amount of respect and admiration. It happened almost
twenty years before I was born, and it is still inspiring and
important to LGBT and Queer activists today, who still deal with many
of the same issues around assimilation, liberation and revolution
within LGBTQ activism.
The first GLF was formed after the Stonewall Riots, which happened in
late June, 1969, in New York. It is curious that a single event in a
single city is cited so often as the beginning of the movement for
gay liberation both in the US and the UK, and one must not forget the
incredibly important work done before Stonewall by groups such as the
Mattachine Society in the US and the Committee for Homosexual
Equality in the UK. Male homosexuality was in fact made legal in the
UK two years before Stonewall happened, and the Mattachine Society
made a valuable start in creating an environment in which lesbians
and gay men could begin to fight for their rights. However, the key
word in understanding Stonewall's importance is liberation:
previously, the homophile movements (as they were often known, in an
attempt to take the focus off sex) had argued that gay people were
just like straight people; that they were good citizens, ordinary
people, and deserved to be treated as such. Stonewall was so
important because it insistently and in fact, violently refused
these assumptions. It was lead by those who did not look like, or did
not want to be, "good citizens", or "just like straight people".
After Stonewall, it seemed more possible to fight for liberation, not
assimilation to fight for freedom on our own terms.
The bare bones of the story of the Stonewall Riots are that the
Stonewall Inn a gay bar popular with the kind of gays who did not
seem "respectable" - queens, homeless people, sex workers was
raided by the police. At that time, anyone found to be wearing less
that three items of 'gender appropriate' clothing was liable to be
arrested, and the police began to bundle people into their vans.
There are various speculations about why a relatively common
occurrence, as raids were, turned into a riot, but something snapped,
and people began fighting back against the police. Three nights of
rioting followed. Those who had been involved in various other
movements particularly the feminist and anti-Vietnam war movements
who were sick of hiding their sexuality in their other political
activities and sick of hiding their other political affiliations if
they were involved in any gay activism, began to organise. The
Mattachine Society showed their colours by putting up posters on the
boarded up front of the Stonewall Inn exhorting their fellow
homosexuals to stop being disruptive; alongside these posters were
calls for meetings to begin to fight more concretely for liberation.
Thus the GLF was born. It was explicitly and determinedly about
fighting for liberation, for linking up the struggles of different
oppressed groups, and refusing to be assimilated into oppressive,
capitalist, patriarchal and racist society. It was allied with the
Black Panthers and the GLF's solidarity and refusal to accept the
homophobia rife in the movement led to Huey Newton's eventual
statement of support for gay liberation. They were also allied, in
various ways, with the feminist movement, and various local
working-class struggles, along with the New Left and anti-war movement.
The London GLF began after two London activists visited the US,
attended some GLF meetings, and decided to call one in London. The
meetings began at London School of Economics and grew spectacularly,
moving home several times to accommodate everyone and proliferating
into numerous working groups. It did a whole variety of actions,
showing a particular fondness for impressive theatrical direct
action, as well as more traditional forms of protest. One
particularly memorable protest saw them link up with a variety of
other left groups to protest the "Festival of Light", a Christian
effort to turn back perceived moral degeneration. The GLF infiltrated
the Festival of Light office, forged tickets to the opening gala, and
snuck in about 150 people with a whole variety of exciting tricks up
their sleeves. A group dressed as nuns releasing mice into the hall;
one person (who the stewards took a long time to notice) dressed as a
bishop telling people "don't worry sister, keep on sinning"; a
same-sex kiss-in on the balcony; a banner drop proclaiming "Cliff
Richard for Queen!" (Cliff Richard being one of the festival's
patrons); copious heckling. These actions were brilliant for their
sustained disruption, their humour and their inventiveness, but they
would not have meant nearly as much had the activists not spent the
aftermath talking to people outside, holding impromptu discussions
with people who were attending.
The GLF often worked with other groups marching against the Tory
government's Industrial Relations Bill in 1971, joining feminist
groups in protests against the Miss World competition. They were
usually relegated to the back of marches, but march they did. People
came from all sorts of different activist backgrounds, which had the
huge advantage of meaning that the actions that came out of it were
eclectic and incredibly creative, but had the disadvantage of meaning
that, after a while, cracks began to appear. Rifts over gender issues
and the role of lifestyle politics meant that the GLF as a cohesive
organisation pulled itself apart after only three years. In that
three years, however, it laid the groundwork for liberationist LGBTQ
activism that still has a legacy today; many of its working groups
turned into other groups that did valuable work as well. Its legacy
was seen in the Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners groups during
the miners' strike which was reciprocated three years later by
miners' support for the campaign against Section 28. Today, the
various events which protest the commercialisation and
depoliticisation of Pride are the continuation of the start that the GLF made.
It is striking that, 40 years later, the GLF's demands are still
relevant. While it is undeniable that huge gains have been made,
LGBTQ activists who see the links between capitalism, sexism and
heterosexism still face a struggle. Pride marches are expensive,
commercial and sponsored by big business, and have lost
organisational connection with communities; the big issues of the day
revolve around assimilationist demands like gay marriage. When the
largest and most conservative LGB (they explicitly leave out the T
and Q) organisation takes the name of Stonewall and holds training
sessions on why employing gay people is good for business, it is
increasingly important to remember that Stonewall was a riot, and
that it lead to a radical movement of people who refused to try to
assimilate, and who desired to create a new world in alliance with
all other oppressed groups.
--
For the Workers' Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class
Politics, which discusses these issues and others, see here.
http://www.workersliberty.org/publications/workers-liberty-pamphlets/radical-chains
Reclaim the Scene is a free and political alternative to the
commercial, pay-to-enter Manchester Pride (weekend of 28 August). The
basic demands are: an accessible, friendly and welcoming 'scene';
Pride to be free (are we too poor to be gay?); LGBTQ rights to top
the Pride and the scene's agenda. We will be forming a political bloc
on the parade, and there will be a free post-parade picnic with
political speakers, music, kids' entertainment, LGBTQ films, art, and
stalls at UMIST Campus on Sackville Street in Manchester, from 2-9pm
on 28 August. All welcome!
--
More information at www.reclaimthescene.com
.
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