The Stonewall Reader
A study guide of the New York Public Library’s 2019 book ‘The Stonewall Reader.’
Summary, part 7
“From Philadelphia LGBT History Project Interview with Marc Stein” By Kiyoshi Kuromiya
Kuromiya was born in the Japanese-American internment camps. He is also an activist in the homophile movement.
Intersectionality and movements of the time: East Coast Homophile Organization (ECHO), GLF, and the Women’s Movement
There were issues in the homophile movement in terms of how women were treated. There were rules that women could not hold hands in the picket line and could not wear slacks. There was no clear racial diversity in ECHO.
I don’t think I saw any ‘people of color’ in the early days at all. I’m trying to think. They may have been at the ECHO conferences, but they certainly weren’t in a prominent place there (420).
Kuromiya delved into some of the differences between the movements at the time. He explained that the Gay Liberation Front in 1969 had more Black and Brown people which, in comparison to ECHO, made it stand out as a racial movement as well as an LGBTQ+ movement. He also explained that the women’s movement and gay movement were very separate. In terms of the gay liberation movement, there was a general assumption that it focused on raising men’s consciousness (p. 420).
Because there’s a level of life and death camaraderie that’s got to be in there. Because we’re talking about affinity groups, O.K. An affinity group, I think you have to share certain kinds of perspectives. And it’s easier to deal with that, I think, if you share on all levels, including gender. (p. 420)
Kuromiya talks about the sexism in the GLF and gay movement. Kuromiya proposed a retreat for People with AIDS (PWA). The retreat would address this issue: “Unity and Diversity: Mutually Exclusive?”.
Similar kinds of consciousness-raising took place in RYM I—that’s Revolutionary Youth Movement—the Weather people, and also Black Panther Party, particularly Huey Newton. So there were aspects in other movements that were also dealing with similar kinds of issues on the level of consciousness-raising, where you would confront people. Or in a closed session, you would confront particular issues within yourself and in front of a group of people. And so there were tears and emotions and catharsis. (p. 424)
“Growing Up Black and Gay” By Joel Hall
In this essay, Hall discusses growing up as a young queer person. When Hall was twelve, he ran away from home to live with an older man. His father listed Hall as missing and when he was found, he was brought before a judge. Hall was sent to the Galesburg Mental Institution to “correct his homosexuality” (p. 284).
Galesburg Mental Institution and Sheridan Maximum Security Institution
Hall got kicked out of the Reception Center in Joliet, Illinois for getting into a fight with his cottage mother and stealing cigarettes. He was moved to the Sheridan Maximum Security Institution.
Homosexuality in Prison
Gay men and straight men were separated in prison which Hall believes was, at best, mismanagement of the system, and at worst, the reason why many people in the system committed suicide or were left with lasting trauma. The men in the gay “tiers” were treated poorly by the guards, and many spent most of their time in solitary confinement. In the straight tiers, the sexual assault occurred frequently (p. 433). Heterosexuality has always been associated with masculinity, so heterosexual men took on the masculine male role in this dynamic, and thus could lead to more violent assaults against someone who was found out as gay in the straight tier.
Rejection of Systems
Hall thought of himself as a revolutionary because being in the jail itself was “rejecting the system” (p. 433): “If there was a movement to restore capitalism in this country and they offed every revolutionary, they’d have to off me too. If they restore black capitalism in this country they’d have to off me too. That’s going to be oppressing me as a black, gay person.” (p. 434)
Gay Consciousness
Every individual has to develop their consciousness and it is a process. Hall was developing his own, centered around what it meant to be gay. Part of this process is interacting with consciousness-raising issues.
Revolutionary Dynamics for The Gay Liberation Movement
Hall discusses how he has the most difficulty understanding straight white people, particularly straight white men. Since learning about the women’s movement, he is more compassionate towards white women and their oppression (and sees it as a parallel to the gay movement in many respects) and believes that “gay black men and gay white men have an awful lot of consciousness-raising to do before they can understand women’s oppression” (435).
“Brushes With Lily Law” By Tommi Avicolli Mecca
Tommi Avicolli Mecca was the editor of Smash the Church, Smash the State: the Early Years of Gay Liberation.
Mecca recalls that police would raid gay bars if owners didn’t pay them off or if elections were occurring to appease political images. Payoffs kept those businesses safe from police harassment usually.
Tearooms
Public bathrooms were a place gay men could go for sexual interactions. Although the idea of tearooms -- a place where gay men could indulge in their hidden desires away from society -- was the antithesis of the free-loving sexual revolution, they offered a function for married and closeted men (p. 440).
Radical drag/genderfuck
Radical drag/genderfuck is a form of political dress that mocked traditional gender roles. It went against arbitrary gender-specific dress and behavior and allowed for individual freedom in expression.
The Drag Strip
Drag queens and transgender folks had an area to themselves because they were often not welcomed to gay bars. It was nicknamed the “drag strip.” Philadelphia police often harassed drag queens around the “drag strip.”
Certain laws enabled police harassment and assault. Cops specifically targeted transgender women for sex work. They did this by referencing “a state law that prohibited ‘impersonating the opposite sex,’ which meant that if you weren’t wearing two articles of clothing of your ‘appropriate’ gender, you could be hauled off to prison” (p. 444). Police were referred to as “Lily Law” and “Alice.” Alice refers to the drag queen, Alice Bluegown, who used her name as a verbal signal for other queens to stop what they were doing, as the police were around the corner.
From “Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!” By Penny Arcade
This piece is a monologue from Arcade’s performance piece about the conservatism and assimilationists tendencies in the LGBTQ movement.
Arcade explained how more people were coming out in the late ‘70s than ever before, “and immediately formed committees telling the rest of us what we could say and what we could do” (p. 302). Language policing became central to gay liberation groups. Assimilation occurred in parts of the movement where some people conformed for acceptance.
“The queer backlash wasn’t against heterosexuals. It was against those control freaks in the gay community who wanted to be accepted by the white middle class. They wanted to be officially Gay” (p. 454).
Defining Queer: “Queer means you have suffered a period of exclusion, isolation, and rejection so profound that it marks you as an outsider forever ” (454).
Recognition of the drag queens who came before:
“Jackie Curtis, Holly Woodlawn, Candy Darling, Alexis Del Lago, International Chrysis, Francis Francine, Margo Howard-Howard, Flawless Mother Sabrina, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson” (455).
“Lesbain Nation” By Jill Johnston
“Lesbian is a label invented by anybody to throw at any woman who dares to be a man’s equal” (p. 465).
On a Clear Day, You Can See Your Mother
Radical feminist and cultural critic who wrote for the Village Voice, Jill Johnston believes that all women describe what it means to be a lesbian woman loving herself in the most natural way, and if she loves herself then she loves other women (p. 457).
Sense of Self and Sexuality
In this strain of consciousness, Johnston challenges the notion that someone has to present femininity or masculinity based on societal expectations. She identifies a sense of self that comes from her sexuality.
A sense of self in women and recollection of their womanhood will be at the foundation of a revolution. It will be the end of the heterosexual institutions that place women in specific positions of oppression.
“John E. Fryer, MD, and the Dr. H Anonymous Episode” By John E. Fryer MD
Fryer was a gay psychiatrist who talked often about the treatment of homosexuality in the psychiatric profession. To be successful, Fryer had to hide a part of himself:
“I had been thrown out of a residency because I was gay; I had lost a job because I was gay. That perspective needed to be heard from a gay psychiatrist by an audience that perhaps might be more inclined to listen to a psychiatrist” (p. 471).
Queer In The Workplace
As Fryer explains in his own experience, being gay and working in a professional world that only accepts heterosexuality is very difficult. There was a whole cohort of gay psychiatrists having to hide who they really were. Among this cohort, those who spoke up were people who didn't have much of anything to lose. There were certainly consequences for challenging this institution.
“We must make certain that no one in a position of power is aware of our sexual orientation or gender identity. Much like the black man with the light skin who chooses to live as a white man, we cannot be seen with our real friends—our real homosexual family—lest our secret be known and our dooms sealed.” (p. 473)
Psychiatrist and the Gay Liberation Movement
Psychiatrists can help the gay liberation movement using their influence to change how people in and outside the gay community view homosexuality. Homosexuality was often viewed as a medical affliction that could be combated with procedures. The long-term purpose is to allow people to live fully in their humanity. Acceptance of sexuality, specifically homosexuality, would help society in accepting evreyone’s fluidity.
From “Gay American History” By Jonathan Ned Katz
Jonathan Ned Katz is a historian of LGBTQ+ politics and culture. This study paved the way for other historians and has tangible historical contexts.
History of the Gay Liberation Movement
The history of the gay movement and gay Americans’ presence in the US has been understated. He recalled how gay people were seen as being socially unsituated, without history, and almost mutant (p. 479).
Organized action against an Oppressive Society
“In recent years the liberation movements of Lesbians and Gay men have politicized, given historical dimension to, and radically altered the traditional concept of homosexuality, as well as the social situation, relations, ideas, and emotions of some homosexuals.” (p. 479)
Secular revelation
“From hiding our sexual and affectional natures, we moved to publicly affirm a deep and good part of our being ” (p. 480).
From “Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture” By Arthur Evans
“Magic is one of our most powerful allies in the struggle against patriarchal industrialism.” (p. 484)
Evans was the co-founder of the Gay Activists Alliance. This excerpt from his book looks at the connection between magic and radical LGBTQ+ politics.
Evans begins by introducing us to a span of cultural ideas throughout history that see trees, stars, rocks, the sun, and the moon not as dead objects or simply resources, but as alive and communicating with us. The same way people have been told to deny any connections to nature and communicate with spirits, sexuality has been denied and repressed.
Magic, A Collective Activity
Evans explains that magic is inherently collective, as it is practiced through group song, dances, sex, and more: “It is through the magic that so-called primitive societies are able to hold themselves together and function in perfect order without prisons, mental hospitals, universities, or the institution of the state” (p. 484).
Closing Call
“Let us invoke our friends, the banished and forbidden spirits of nature and self, as well as the ghosts of Indian, wise-woman, faggot, Black sorcerer, and witch. They will hear our deepest call and come. Through us the spirits will speak again.” (p. 485)
From “The Fa**ots and Their Friends Between Revolutions” By Larry Mitchell
Mitchell was a poet, novelist, playwright, and sociologist. This is an excerpt from his book The Fa**ots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, which talks about the erotic history of LGBTQ+ movements for liberation.
Women Wisdom
The two important things to know about the coming revolution: “The first is that we will get our asses kicked. The second is that we will win” (p. 487). Winning a revolution was like surviving. Part of a revolution is getting beat and being able to withstand it.
Disruption: Tactics
“The fa**ots never tire of fucking with the men’s minds. Once all the fa**ots let their hair grow long, wore necklaces made of silver and shells and clothes of colorful, elaborate fabrics. They looked so stunning that the men overlooked their principles and began to look stunning also” (p. 489).
Mitchell continued by saying that once the men had all mimicked the gay community, the gay community then cut their hair, put on leather, and looked the way heterosexual masculine men used to look. They were always open with their style, and their style never stayed the same -- feather boas and work boots, drinking beer in velvet robes and furs, and more. They blurred the lines of masculinity and femininity, and according to Mitchell, heterosexual men reacted with confusion and unpleasantness, which only served to please the gay community.
Action: Fierce Against The Men
Mitchell accounts for the start of the Stonewall uprising. Having been trained for survival, the gay men ran for the windows and into the alleys. The queens, however, couldn’t run partly because of their heels, and partly because of being tired of just surviving. They stated: “They waited until boldness and fear made them resourceful. Then, armed with their handbags and their high heels, they let out a collective shriek heard round the world and charged the men” (p. 490).
After the queens showed their strength and moved their cause to the streets, the gay men rejoined, and “the queens and their friends told men, in every way they knew how to fuck off” (p. 491).
“I Am a Lesbian” By Chirlane McCray
She was the First Lady of New York and also a writer, editor, and advocate. In this piece for Essence, McCray talks about self-expression and personal freedom in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Being lesbian for McCray meant living in fear of being discovered. There was a lot of isolation and self-hatred for loving women. Accepting your sexuality is very difficult and can be especially hard for those who don't present in heteronormative ways. This, for some like McCray, allows them to hide their sexuality from society by presenting in a way digestible to norms.
She spoke about the difficulties of coming out, her worries of losing her job, her still-closeted friends, and writing opportunities. With this in mind, McCray wrote this article for her fellow “gay sisters.” It was her way of reassuring them and validating others’ experiences as queer women.
My Story
McCray’s experience with her sexuality started in college with her first partner. Both were discovering their sexuality together. They kept their relationship a secret to protect themselves. They had both always been relatively accepted and loved, so they were afraid of the ridicule they would receive if they came out together.
Although her sexuality was “not the most important aspect of [her] identity,” McCray still wanted people in her life to know about the love that brought her so much happiness (p. 497). She resulted in telling a few friends about her relationship which was accepted by some and rejected by others. McCray noticed the change in how she was perceived and treated. The rejection by her community at college deteriorated her relationship with her partner, resulting in a split.
Authors Sidney Abbott and Barbara Love in Sappho Was a Right-On Woman, define a lesbian as “a woman whose primary psychological, emotional, erotic and social interest is in members of her own sex even though that interest may not be expressed. Lesbianism is a state of mind rather than a sexual act.” (p. 500)
When she went home, McCray came out to her parents, who unenthusiastically tolerated their daughter's sexuality: “Finally my father sighed. ‘You’re Black and you’re a woman,’ he declared. ‘I don’t see why you want to be involved in something like this.” (p. 502).
McCray found a community of queer Black women at the Sappho’s Retreat, an all-women’s bar. She knew very few Black queer women and the community was essentially underground due to the high visibility of white queer women.
Salsa Soul
Salsa Soul was an organization for gay feminists in New York. Many Black queer women would enter the organization’s space to teach, share, and learn from each other.
Conclusion
When writing this article, McCray was two years into her relationship with her partner Candice. She talks about there still being questions around her sexuality from her parents. It is something they were still truly accepting instead of a period of experimentation. McCray had a relentless acceptance for herself and was determined to live her life fully.