Gay Liberation Front

And then the rest of the world started to follow suit after that.

The Gay Liberation Front really stood up then and then different pockets across the world, like the Netherlands and the UK, they would protest.

cause a ripple effect

yeah which was it kind of makes sense and why what happened in that bar was so important but going back to stormy not long after stonewall unfortunately her partner of 26 years diana died so stormy left performing and began working as the security at new york lesbian bars including cubby hole and henrietta hudson into those both

So yeah, it's called Tranny Central.

It's the History of Gay Liberation Front's, uh, Transsexual, Trans, Transvestite, and Drag Queen group that ran from 1971 to 1973.

Um, and it's kind of like the, uh, origin point of trans feminine community organizing.

In the UK it would be the equivalent of STAR, which Marsha and Sylvia founded in the States, which is, uh, very well known.

I mean, it's lovely to feel things, isn't it?

Yeah, exactly.

And it was kind of, you know, the Gay Liberation Front, they produced zines.

They produced Coming Out quite prolifically.

That's not gay rights related, but it just made me think of that.

Anyway, the early Mattachine Society asked members to dress conservatively and blend in, and then after Stonewall, the Gay Liberation Front totally rejected that.

So decades later, the fight over marriage equality repeated this split, with critics saying that marriage was a mainstream goal that left the most vulnerable behind.

Couple more.

And actually, I lay out the history in the book, that if you look at the gay rights movement, um, it starts out pretty radical.

The Gay Liberation Front has changed everything.

You know, gay rights are just a subset of, uh, tr- overthrowing all the norms.

But that's 'cause if you think about it, in the early '70s, if you came out, you were a really rebellious person.

Gay News, Britain's first gay newspaper, it launched that same year as well.

The Gay Liberation Front was marching in the streets and Graham Chapman? He was already one of the most famous comedians in the country.

So saying, I'm gay, what of it? Incredible.

And in that, he became one of the first mainstream celebrities in Britain to come out publicly.

And it was – Rita Mae Brown was a activist in like the student – Homophile? I'm getting the name wrong.

But one of the first student organizations and then Gay Liberation Front, the Radical Lesbians, all these groups that we kind of like uplift and celebrate.

And she had a horrible experience in every single one.

She was like, I left the women's movement because they didn't give a fuck about lesbians.

She's like, I left the gay liberation front because they didn't give a fuck about women at all.

This group didn't like women.

This group didn't like lesbians.

Here's why we did this.

Not only had gay people publicly demonstrated peacefully, but the number of demonstrators was bigger than anyone had hoped for.

By August of 1969, Martha Shelley would help form the Gay Liberation Front, or GLF, the first LGBTQ rights group not affiliated with Mattachine or the Daughters of Bilitis.

Their slogan, openly gay twenty-four hours a day, inspired a radical shift of thought.

They took ideas and strategies from the Black Panthers, as well as other anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist movements.

Coverage of the snake pit arrests and Vinales' gruesome injury echoed throughout the LGBTQ community.

But the headlines also generated widespread attention in the straight community as well.

To build on the public attention, the Gay Liberation Front was able to help coordinate a demonstration in Christopher Park.

And with less than 12 hours' notice, over 500 people joined a protest march to the Sixth Street station house and then to the hospital where Vinales had been taken.

At home, decimalisation was approaching and bringing fears about rising prices.

The Tenchily note was withdrawn from circulation that week and on the Friday, Britain's Gay Liberation Front organised its first march in London.

Saturday night television offered just three channels, and many households were still watching in black and white.

On BBC One there was Dixon of Doc Green, The Rolf Harris Show, followed later by Match of the Day.