Date: Monday, November 04, 2002 12:49 AM Two More Harry Hay Obits from Queer Mail

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Date: Monday, November 04, 2002 12:49 AM Two More Harry Hay Obits from Queer Mail Date: Monday, November 04, 2002 12:49 AM Two more Harry Hay obits from Queer Mail: The Life of Harry Hay in Boston Phoenix, 10-31-2002 By Michael Bronski Even in the glow of its conservatism, America - which was formed via revolution, after all - has always taken a certain pride in its radicals. Even so, America prefers to remember its history-makers in sanitized versions with none of the messy, often embarrassing flaws that are usually inscribed on the souls who take it upon themselves to change the world. Thus, we prefer to think of Thomas Jefferson as a revolutionary genius, rather than as slave owner who not only had sexual relations with his female slaves but consigned his own children to slavery. The fiery stances taken by anarchist and feminist Emma Goldman in the early part of this century are softened - or forgotten - in her incarnations as a grandmotherly figure in the film Reds and an innocuous witty commentator in the musical Ragtime. The popular image of Rosa Parks as a tired seamstress who just wanted a seat on the bus is far more comforting than the reality: she was a skilled political thinker and secretary of the NAACP chapter that planned the bus boycott long before she refused to sit down. Even the most serious biographers of Martin Luther King Jr. portray him in rosy hues, as an American saint, not as a deeply religious man whose promiscuity and adulterous behavior tore him apart. So it is with Harry Hay - founder of the gay movement in America - who died at the age of 90 on October 24. Obits in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press left the impression that Hay was a passionate activist and something of a romantic. The New York Times referred to him as "an ardent American Communist, a romantic homosexual," who was a "restless middle-aged man" by the time he formed the Mattachine Society, the first gay-rights group in the United States. The Los Angeles Times described Hay's penchant for wearing "the knit cap of a macho longshoreman, a pigtail and a strand of pearls" and also noted that he and John Burnside, his lover of 40 years, lived most recently in San Francisco in a pink Victorian house. The reality is that while Hay may have been a romantic, he was also notoriously promiscuous, and his communism was far more rabid than "ardent." And while he did wear pearls with his longshoreman's cap, it wasn't a form of charming "gender- bender" chic, as the Los Angeles Times put it, but a political statement Hay first donned back when it was still quite dangerous to do so. Hay, in fact, was fanatically - 1 - resistant to the grandfatherly image the modern gay movement not only tried to attribute to him but expected him to play out. The documentary Word Is Out, for instance, filmed in 1976, portrayed Hay and Burnside as paragons of gay domesticity. More recently, he was invited to address the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Creating Change Conference, in 1998, and was billed as a major speaker. But he was given no context in which to talk about his politics and found himself treated more as an artifact of gay history than as an activist with ideas. Hay had strong opinions and never pandered to popular opinion when he voiced them - whether he was attacking national gay organizations for what he saw as their increasingly conservative political positions ("The assimilationist movement is running us into the ground," he told the San Francisco Chronicle in July 2000) or when he condemned the national gay press - in particular, the Advocate - for its emphasis on consumerism. He was, at times, a serious political embarrassment, as when he consistently advocated the inclusion of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) in gay-pride parades. Hay's uneasy relationship with the gay movement - he reviled what he saw as the movement's propensity for selling out its fringe members for easy, and often illusory, respectability - didn't develop later in life. It was there from the start. In 1950, when Hay formed the Mattachine Society - technically a "homophile group," since the more aggressive idea of gay rights had yet to be conceived - his radical vision was captured in a manifesto he wrote stating boldly that gay people were not like heterosexuals. Indeed, Hay insisted, homosexuals formed a unique culture from which heterosexuals might learn a great deal. This notion was at decisive odds with the view put forth by many other Mattachine members: that homosexuals should not be discriminated against because gay people were just like straight people. By 1954, the group essentially ousted Hay. It wasn't the first time Hay had been booted out of a group he helped create. From the 1930s through the early 1950s, Hay had been an active member of the American Communist Party. In 1934, Hay and his lover Will Geer, who later played Grandpa on the long-running television series The Waltons, helped pull off an 83-day-long workers' strike of the port of San Francisco. Though marred by violence, it was an organizing triumph, one that became a model for future union strikes - such as the one currently under way (but stymied by the Bush administration) at West Coast ports. During the 1940s, Hay struggled unsuccessfully to be honest about his homosexuality - of which he'd been certain since adolescence - while maintaining his status as a member of the Communist Party, which banned homosexuals from joining. He married a follow Communist Party member and adopted two daughters - - 2 - even as he worked to form the Mattachine Society. But homophobia eventually won out. After the Mattachine Society gained notoriety in the early 1950s, Hay was unceremoniously kicked out of the Communist Party. The story of Harry Hay's life was that he was always just a little too radical - and since he was also a bit of an egotist, too disinclined to demure - for the groups with which he was involved. He was also too idealistic. Hay took the name Mattachine from a secret medieval French society of unmarried men who wore masks during their rituals as forms of social protest. They, in turn, took their names from the Italian mattaccino, a court jester who was able to tell the truth to the king while wearing a mask. As an old-time socialist, he was drawn to communism because of its egalitarian vision and, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, its stand against fascism. But he was also an actor and a musician drawn to a brand of scholarship that romanticized popular culture as intrinsically progressive and revolutionary. Despite, or perhaps because of, Hay's difficulty getting along with others, his vision of gay liberation was decades ahead of its time. His monumentally important contribution to the gay movement was his ability to communicate the notion that homosexuals made up a cultural minority with its own history, political concerns, and organizational strengths. An often-told story about Hay (retold in the New York Times' obituary) recounts how he came up with a political strategy in 1948 that no one had ever voiced before: giving votes in exchange for ideological support. To wit: identity politics for homosexuals - on the same model African-Americans had begun to use in organizations like the NAACP. Hay wondered - out loud, the most basic form of political organizing – if Vice-President Henry Wallace, who was the Progressive Party's candidate for president, would back a sexual-privacy law if he could be assured that a majority of homosexuals would vote for him. The politics of quid pro quo was revolutionary for its time. Remember, at that time it was dangerous to publicly identify as a "homosexual" - you could be arrested merely on the suspicion that you might be looking for sex; many states legally forbade serving drinks to homosexuals, much less allowing homosexuals to gather together in public. Indeed, the American Psychological Association's lifting of the definition of homosexuality as a mental illness was a good 20 years away. That said, Hay's vision was not completely original. It drew partially on the work of late-19th/early-20th-century gay British socialist Edward Carpenter and, to a lesser extent, the political work of Magus Hirschfeld. Carpenter pushed the idea that people with homosexual desires were a distinct group with a well-defined identity, - 3 - and thus could have a distinctive consciousness about their place in society. Hay, who was born in England in 1912 and moved to the US with his parents almost 10 years later, would have had easy access to Carpenter's ideas, which were popular through the 1920s. But even though Hay's notions had roots in European intellectual circles, they were truly radical in American political thought. Political genius that he was, Hay never would have achieved what he did without his training as an organizer for the American Communist Party. He used the party's own "cell" organization to build and propagate the ever-growing Mattachine. Even the group's recruitment tactic - it was as dangerous to walk up to someone and say, "Hey, are you a homosexual? Want to join our club?" as it was for someone to drum up membership for a seditious political group - was modeled on the Communist Party's strategy of getting names of potential members from current members. The homophile movement of the 1950s and 1960s gave way after the 1969 Stonewall riots to the Gay Liberation movement.
Recommended publications
  • Meet Pioneer of Gay Rights, Harry Hay
    Meet Pioneer of Gay Rights, Harry Hay His should be a household name. by Anne-Marie Cusac August 9, 2016 Harry Hay is the founder of gay liberation. This lovely interview with Hay by Anne-Marie Cusac was published in the September 1998 issue of The Progressive magazine. Then-editor Matt Rothschild called Hay "a hero of ours," writing that he should be a household name. He wrote: "This courageous and visionary man launched the modern gay-rights movement even in the teeth of McCarthyism." In 1950 Hay started the first modern gay-rights organization, the underground Mattachine Society, which took its name from a dance performed by masked, unmarried peasant men in Renaissance France, often to protest oppressive landlords. According to Hay's 1996 book, Radically Gay, the performances of these fraternities satirized religious and political power. Harry Hay was one of the first to insist that lesbians and gay men deserve equality. And he placed their fight in the context of a wider political movement. "In order to earn for ourselves any place in the sun, we must with perseverance and self-discipline work collectively . for the first-class citizenship of Minorities everywhere, including ourselves," he wrote in 1950. At first, Hay could not find anyone who would join him in forming a political organization for homosexuals. He spent two years searching among the gay men he knew in Los Angeles. Although some expressed interest in a group, all were too fearful to join a gay organization that had only one member. But drawing on his years as a labor organizer, Hay persisted.
    [Show full text]
  • C O a S T O Ut
    C o v e OOm r i n g U U a t h e TT S ON g p a THE c e a a n CC d T z r O e O a s u i r AA e C n o S n a S s t s e Issue #071, October 2008 TT 4060 W. New Haven Out on the Coast magazine INSIDE Melbourne, FL published by OOTC Publishing, Inc. PO Box 155, Roseland, FL 32957 (321) 724-1510 Horoscope .......................................... 772.913.3008 Jacqueline www.myspace.com/coldkegnightclub [email protected] publisher/editor Tea Time ..............................................10 Miss T www.coldkegnightclub.com Lee A. Newell II [email protected] Spiritually Speaking .......................12 Rev. Dr. Jerry Seay contributing writers Rev. Dr. Jerry L. Seay In My Words ......................................18 Lexi Wright Rev. Gregory L. Denton. Oct 31 & Nov 1 Miss T Member Maps ...............................................1 - 17 photographers In the New s ...................................22 Ghouls Curse of Richard Cases Directory ..............................28 - 29 account executives Dan Hall 772-626-1682 Subscription information: $24 for 12 issues. Gone Wild The Keg Subscribe on-line at: OOTCmag.com or send [email protected] your check or money order to: Out on the Coast Shane Combs 321-557-2193 magazine, PO Box 155, Roseland, FL 32957-0155 with with [email protected] Issues mailed First Class in plain envelope. Wesley Strickland 321-626-5308 Tasha Scott Velvet LeNore [email protected] Charles Sullivan 321-914-4021 & Roz Russell & Company [email protected] national advertising representative st Rivendell Media Company Costume contest both nights with 1 & 1248 Rt.
    [Show full text]
  • Hay, Harry (1912-2002) by Linda Rapp
    Hay, Harry (1912-2002) by Linda Rapp Encyclopedia Copyright © 2015, glbtq, Inc. A portrait of Harry Hay by Entry Copyright © 2004, glbtq, inc. Stathis Orphanos. Reprinted from http://www.glbtq.com Courtesy Stathis Orphanos.Image Activist Harry Hay is recognized as one of the principal founders of the gay liberation copyright © Stathis movement in the United States. An original member of both the Mattachine Society Orphanos.All Rights Reserved. and the Radical Faeries, he devoted his life to the cause of equality and dignity for glbtq people. Early Life and Education Hay's parents, both American, met and married in South Africa, where his father Henry Hay, known as Big Harry, was a manager in Cecil Rhodes' mining company. When the birth of their first child was impending, Margaret Neall Hay sailed for England, where their son Henry, Jr., called Little Harry, was born on April 7, 1912 in Worthington, Sussex. The senior Hay saw little of his family for the next two years, but when World War I broke out, he sent for them to join him in Chile, where he had another mining job. After suffering a serious injury on a work site, Hay resettled the family in California. "Big Harry" Hay was harsh, opinionated, demanding, and quick to criticize anything that he perceived as less than perfect in his elder son, from insufficient "manliness" to his grades in school. In later years Hay spoke of his determination to live a life completely different from his father's because of his "personal hatred" for the man. Hay stated that he was aware--however indistinctly at first--of his sexual orientation at a very early age.
    [Show full text]
  • LGBTQ Timeline
    Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Re-Learning Consent from Our ForeQueers Timeline 1917: Individuals considered to be “psychopathically inferior,” including LGBT people, are banned from entering the US. 1921: US Naval report on entrapment of “perverts” within its ranks. In 1943, the US military officially bans gays and lesbians from serving in the Armed Forces. 1924: The Society for Human Rights, an American homosexual rights organization founded by Henry Gerber, is established in Chicago. It is the first recognized gay rights organization in the US. A few months after being chartered, the group ceased to exist in the wake of the arrest of several of the Society's members. 1935: “Successful” electric shock therapy treatment of homosexuality is reported at American Psychological Association meeting. 1950: The Mattachine Society, founded by Harry Hay and a group of Los Angeles male friends, is formed to protect and improve the rights of homosexuals. 1955: The Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the first lesbian rights organization in the US, forms in San Francisco. It is conceived as a social alternative to lesbian bars, which were considered illegal and thus subject to raids and police harassment. It lasted for fourteen years and became a tool of education for lesbians, gay men, researchers, and mental health professionals. As the DOB gained members, their focus shifted to providing support to women who were afraid to come out, by educating them about their rights and gay history. 1963: Gay man, African-American civil rights and nonviolent movement leader Bayard Rustin is the chief organizer of the March on Washington.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum & Action Guide
    DVD TITLE VISIONARIESVISIONARIESFacilitating a Discussion &Finding aVICTORIES Facilitator IdentifyEARLY LEADERSyour own. WhenIN THE the LGBT 90’s MOVEMENT hit, all the Identify your own. When the 90’s hit, all the new communication technologies offered new communication technologies offered people a new way to communicate that was people a new way to communicate that was &easier and more.VICTORIESeasier and more. Be knowledgeable. When the 90’s hit, all the Be knowledgeable. When the 90’s hit, all the new communication technologies offered new communication technologies offered people a new way to communicate that was people a new way to communicate that was easier and more. easier and more. Be clear about your role. When the 90’s hit, Be clear about your role. When the 90’s hit, all the new communication technologies all the new communication technologies offered people a new way to communicate offered people a new way to communicate VISIONARIESthat was easier and more. that was easier and more. Know your group. When the 90’s hit, all the Know your group. When the 90’s hit, all the new communication technologies offered new communication technologies offered people a new way to communicate that was people a new way to communicate that was easier and more. easier and more. NO SECRET ANYMORE: THE TIMES HOPE ALONG THE WIND: THE LIFE OF DEL MARTIN & PHYLLIS LYON OF HARRY HAY & VICTORIESa film by JEB (Joan E. Biren) a film by Eric Slade Curriculum Guide VISIONARIESwww.frameline.org/distribution 1 TABLE OF CONT VISIONARIES & VICTORIES Table of Contents FILM SYNOPSES : : : : : : : : : : 3 HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE : : : 5 CLASSROOM CURRICULUM : : : 8 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS : : : 11 RESOURCES : : : : : : : : 12 VOCABULARY : : : : : : : 14 TIMELINE : : : : : : : : 16 photo credits: WORKSHEETS : : : : : : : 20 Lyon & Martin: unknown; Hay: Mark Thompson ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS : : : : 22 Youth In Motion is funded in part through the generous support of the James Irvine Foundation and the Bob Ross Foundation.
    [Show full text]
  • Peter Adair Papers, 1973-1986GLC 70
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8z60rc9 No online items Finding Aid to the Peter Adair Papers, 1973-1986GLC 70 Finding aid prepared by Tim Wilson James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library 100 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA, 94102 (415) 557-4400 [email protected] February 2010 Finding Aid to the Peter Adair GLC 70 1 Papers, 1973-1986GLC 70 Title: Peter Adair Papers, Date (inclusive): 1973-1986 Date (bulk): 1974-1979 Collection Identifier: GLC 70 Creator: Adair, Peter, 1944-1996 Physical Description: 79 cubic foot boxes, 31 boxes of various sizes (max. 16-inches x 16-inches x 3-inches)(110.0 cubic feet) Contributing Institution: James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library 100 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA, 94102 (415) 557-4400 [email protected] Abstract: The bulk of the collection centers on the documentary film Word Is Out: stories of some of our lives (1977), a ground-breaking exploration of the lives of 26 gay men and women. A small portion of the collection concerns The AIDS Show: artists involved with death and survival (1986), a production of Peter Adair and Rob Epstein's with Theatre Rhinoceros. Physical Location: The majority of the collection is stored onsite. Boxes 23, 27, 29/1, 29/2, 40, and 45-54 are stored at UCLA. Language of Materials: Collection materials are in English. Access The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours, with photographs available during Photo Desk hours. Significant portions of the original film and sound footage found in Series 3 were restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archives, and are still maintained there.
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to the ONE Archives Cataloging Project: Founders and Pioneers
    Guide to the ONE Archives Cataloging Project: Founders and Pioneers Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities Guide to the ONE Archives Cataloging Project: Founders and Pioneers Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities Grant #PW-50526-10 2010-2012 Project Guide by Greg Williams ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries 909 West Adams Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90007 213.821.2771 [email protected] one.usc.edu © July 2012 ONE Archives at the USC Libraries Director’s Note In October 1952, a small group began meeting to discuss the possible publication and distribution of a magazine by and for the “homophile” community. The group met in secret, and the members knew each other by pseudonyms or first names only. An unidentified lawyer was consulted by the members to provide legal advice on creating such a publication. By January 1953, they created ONE Magazine with the tagline “a homosexual viewpoint.” It was the first national LGBTQ magazine to openly discuss sexual and gender diversity, and it was a flashpoint for all those LGBTQ individuals who didn’t have a community to call their own. ONE has survived a number of major changes in the 60 years since those first meetings. It was a publisher, a social service organization, and a research and educational institute; it was the target of major thefts, FBI investigations, and U.S. Postal Service confiscations; it was on the losing side of a real estate battle and on the winning side of a Supreme Court case; and on a number of occasions, it was on the verge of shuttering… only to begin anew.
    [Show full text]
  • Container Listing
    Harry Hay Papers GLC 44 1 San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library CONTAINER LISTING Series I. Personal & Biographical Materials, 1911-1991 Container Folder Folder Title Date Box 1 1 Hay Genealogy 1911-1987 2 Vital/Baptismal Records 1912 3 School Notebook (Los Angeles High thru Stanford) 1928-1932 4 Los Angeles High School Yearbook, 1929 1929 5 Materials related to Stanford 1929-1931 6 Linoleum Block prints, 1934-1937 1934-1937 7 Linoleum Block, 1937 (n.b.: REALIA?) 1937 8 Materials related to Communist Party affiliation 1945-1947 9 Materials related to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) 1955-1991 10 Biographical Materials n.d. 11 Archival Sources n.d. 12 Awards 1981-1999 13 Memorials 1982-1998 14 RFC: An Oral History (1 of 2) 1986 15 RFC: An Oral History (2 of 2) 1986 16 RFC: Oral History Correspondence 1989 17 Harry Hay’s edits of RFC 1989 18 Book Review: The Trouble With Harry Hay 1990 19 Harry Hay’s FBI file (1 of 2) 1991 20 Harry Hay’s FBI file (2 of 2) 1991 21 Transcript: Interview with Lance Bowling & Catherine Smith 1992 22 Personal Reminiscences 1993-1998 23 Transcript: Interview with Randy Wicker & Jim Kepner 1996 Box 2 1 Radically Gay Book Signing Tour 1996 Series II. Materials Related to the Mattachine Society, 1948-1964 Container Folder Folder Title Date Box 2 2 Articles: Les Mattachines n.d. 3 Mattachine Questionnaires n.d. 4 [Administrative Chart] 1950 5 Int’l Bachelors Fraternal Orders for Peace & Social Dignity (Bachelor’s Anonymous) 1950 6 Discussion Group Topics (typed) 1951 7 Membership Pledge 1951 8 Mission Statements 1951 9 Citizens Committee to Outlaw Entrapment 1952 10 Rudi Gernreich’s Mattachine Notebook, 1952 1952 11 Mattachine Foundation 1952-1956 Harry Hay Papers GLC 44 2 San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library Series II.
    [Show full text]
  • Osmond-Williams, Philippa (2019) Changing Scotland: a Social History of Love in the Life and Work of Edwin Morgan
    Osmond-Williams, Philippa (2019) Changing Scotland: A social history of love in the life and work of Edwin Morgan. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/75142/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Changing Scotland: A Social History of Love in the Life and Work of Edwin Morgan Philippa Osmond-Williams M.A. (Hons), M.Phil. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Arts) Department of Scottish Literature School of Critical Studies College of Arts University of Glasgow June 2019 Abstract Examining love in the life and work of Edwin Morgan (1920-2010), this thesis argues that Morgan’s literary and artistic demonstrations of love inherently respond to the legal, political, and social changes of Scotland in the twentieth and twenty-first century. By mapping Morgan’s biographical contexts within Scotland’s wider social history and culture, the impact of the nation and its shifting attitudes on Morgan’s collected works is delineated. An examination of material only available to researchers, including Morgan’s correspondence and scrapbooks held in Archives and Special Collections at Glasgow University Library, supplements this comprehensive exploration of the significance of love in Morgan’s life and work.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of Queer New Mexico, 1920S-1980S Jordan Biro
    University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 9-1-2015 Uncommon Knowledge: A History of Queer New Mexico, 1920s-1980s Jordan Biro Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Biro, Jordan. "Uncommon Knowledge: A History of Queer New Mexico, 1920s-1980s." (2015). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ hist_etds/8 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Jordan Biro Walters Candidate HISTORY Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Virginia Scharff, Chairperson Cathleen Cahill Andrew K. Sandoval-Strausz Peter Boag UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE: A HISTORY OF QUEER NEW MEXICO, 1920S-1980S BY JORDAN BIRO WALTERS B.A., History, California State University Sacramento, 2004 M.A., Public History, California State University, 2009 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2015 ©2015, Jordan Biro Walters iii DEDICATION For my husband, David. May we always share the quest for knowledge together. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I thank all of the oral history participants from whom I’ve learned. Their narratives have given clarity of purpose to this project. The participants whom I interviewed include, Ginger Chapman, Vangie Chavez, Therese Councilor, Ronald Dongahe, Jean Effron, Zonnie Gorman, Bennett A.
    [Show full text]
  • History of the Faeries (Including: Murray Edelman, Joey Cain, and Agnes De Garron) January 15Th 2012
    1 History of the Faeries (including: Murray Edelman, Joey Cain, and Agnes de Garron) January 15th 2012 http://vimeo.com/35171786 Recorded by: Peter "speck" Lien ([email protected]) Transcribed by: Husk (Michael James Lecker) ([email protected]) Summary: Joey Cain, Murray Edelman and Agnes de Garron pass down their understanding of early faerie beginnings – personally and generally. Before the Sirst gathering, The “First Gathering” and discussed the role Harry Hay played in the formation of the Radical Faeries as well as feedback and discussion from many faeries present at this circle – held at the William Way LGBT Center on January 15th 2012 during the Philadelphia Faerie MLK Gatherette. Body: Joey Cain: “My name is Joey Cain and I live in San Francisco. I have been involved with the faeries since about 1980 and was very involved with Harry Hay and John Burnside in their care in San Francisco. I was part of the group that moved them up from LA and took care of them in the last ten years of their lives. I have been researching not just Radical Faerie history, but what I call the roots of the Radical Faeries, which implies that there is a set of values that we share as Radical Faeries and there is an actual historical precedent for those values as gay men have come from. So part of my larger project is starting with Walt Whitman, who I do see as the sort of inventor of not just modern gay male consciousness, but I think of a particular way of men viewing themselves.
    [Show full text]
  • The Influence of the United Daughters of the Confederacy on Southern United States History and Memorialization
    Of Plantations and Monuments: The Influence of the United Daughters of the Confederacy on Southern United States History and Memorialization By Amanda Chrestensen A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY-MUSEUM STUDIES University of Central Oklahoma Fall 2018 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank the Chair of my Committee Heidi Vaughn. I have never met a person with so much patience and kindness. Thank you for all the emails you sent me with new resources and mental health information. I am not sure I would have been as successful with any other advisor. I am beyond grateful for the years we have worked together. My parents are my biggest supporters. I would not be here today turning this thesis in without all their love and support. Thank you to my boss and friend Lisa Hopper for understanding school is my priority and for consistently letting me take time off work for the last two years to “finish” my thesis. Shout out to my thesis buddy Matt Berry. Congratulations on successfully defending your dissertation and earning your Ph.D. Thank you to the people who read draft of my work and responded with helpful insight, Joshua Stone, Carrie Atkins, and Dr. Huneke. Thank you to my fellow peers and my friends for always providing me with words of encouragement when I faced self-doubt. I must admit, I was not sure I would make it to this point. So thank you to everyone! I Abstract This thesis evaluates the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s (UDC) interpretation of Southern history through the mediums of textbooks, youth groups, and Confederate monuments in public spaces and how this interpretation affects the way historical plantations present antebellum history today in Louisiana.
    [Show full text]