Harry Hay:

The Mattachine Society and

Radical Faeries

A presentation by Davis

Anderson

Harry

Hay

(191

2- 2

002)

“The assimilationist movement

is running us into the ground”.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/harry_hay.html#JPygBERb001r3CLG.99

Orig

ins o

f the

Ma

ttach

ine

Scoi

ety

Founded in 1950, L.A. Homophile/ homosexual

emancipation organization

Communist cells “I first conceived of a gay group in August

1948, in Los Angeles. What happened was this:

I went to a beer bust at the University of

Southern California, run by some gay guys I

knew. Half the people there were students –-

one or two were theology students, some legal

students--and we got to talking about the Henry

Wallace presidential campaign. Wallace was

running on the Progressive party ticket. I came

up with the idea that we should start a group

called "Bachelors for Wallace." With the help of

a couple of quarts of beer, we worked up quite

a case for what the Bachelors for Wallace would

do, what we would ask for constitutional

amendments, etc. It sounded like a great idea”.

http://outhistory.org/wiki/Harry_Hay:_Founding_the_Mattachine_Society,_1948-1953

What Has Becom

e

of the Society “They advocated with physicians, lawyers and therapists

that were gay friendly so that people did not need to hide

their sexual orientation in order to be helped.

Unfortunately, due to financial restraints and internal

conflict, the Mattachine Society closed its doors officially

in 1987”.

http://lgbtqmovementintheus.blogspot.com/2013/02/mattachine-society-paving-way-to.html

Birth of the

Radical Faeries We believe that, as a

people, we have unique and

necessary contributions to

make, ones that we must

make to help regain the lost

balance of the larger human

community. Being radically

(at the root) decentralist

and anti-authoritarian, we

have no leaders. Each

Faerie is divine and speaks

for itself”.

http://www.faeriecampdestiny.org/joomla/component/option,com_simplefaq/task,display/Itemid,113/catid,33/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19GsyVPypms

Continued Presence“Who are we? Where have we been? Where are we going?The gay movement has left these central questions unaddressed. In fact, some gay people would have us believe we're just the same as the straights, except for what we do between the sheets. But others of us hold to the gut feeling that we _are_ different-that we gay people are _a people_. As a people we have ways that are peculiar to us and a language that characterizes us. We have our own past and, even more importantly, our own future”.

http://eniac.yak.net/shaggy/faerieinf.html

Conc

lusio

n:

Lega

cy o

f Har

ry H

ay