The Gay Liberation Front’s Impact on LGBTQ+ History

In June 1969, a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village was met with a resistance that launched the modern Gay Liberation Movement. Following decades of mostly discreet and targeted gay rights activism led by the Mattachine Society, the events set forth at Stonewall launched the movement into the popular consciousness. There was no turning back from Stonewall, but how the movement would proceed was a huge unknown.

In the days following Stonewall, there was division within the movement. The Mattachine Society, which was one of the first gay rights groups (founded secretly in 1950), wanted to “retain the favor of the Establishment” and continue to challenge government, religion, and psychiatry as major agents of oppression. The newly formed Mattachine Action Society (MAC) took a more radical approach, wanting to overthrow the establishment rather than arguing for change from within. They immediately announced a public forum on the topic of “Gay Power” at which they enthusiastically voted to stage a protest of police harassment. At a second forum on July 16th, 1969 at St. John’s in the Village Episcopal Church on West 11th Street and Waverly Place (destroyed by fire, 1971), an argument between Mattachine’s leadership and MAC constituents broke out.

The MAC broke away from Mattachine and established their own organization during a series of meetings on July 24 and July 31 at Alternate U at 530 Sixth Avenue aka 69 West 14th Street, just north of 14th Street (demolished). The core group of activists included Michael Brown, Martha Shelley, Lois Hart, Bob Martin, Marty Robinson, Karla Jay, Bob Kohler, and others. This new group called themselves the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). They took this name from other “National Liberation Front ” movements of the time such as the National Liberation Front in Algeria, which was formed in 1954 as an anti-colonial and pro-Algerian political party, and the Vietnamese National Liberation Front which was formed in 1960 to overthrow the South Vietnamese government and reunify North and South Vietnam under communism. 

The GLF demanded liberation in the spirit of these national-liberation and anti-capitalist struggles around the world. They viewed Stonewall as an opportunity to revolutionize society. They organized marches on Time magazine and The Village Voice, and published their own newspaper, Come Out! They reclaimed the word “Gay,” which had been avoided by the previous generation of activists in favor of cryptic names such as Mattachine, Bilitis, and Janus. The GLF helped create the first Pride, which took place on June 28, 1970 in New York City.

While the GLF was relatively short-lived, it was highly influential. GLF meetings were run by consensus, which created an opportunity for dialogue that helped its members become more effective activists but also contributed to the group’s fracturing within one year of its founding. The GLF eventually became a network of semi-autonomous cells. Groups such as the Red Butterfly Cell, the 28th of June Cell, the Planned Non-Parenthood Cell, the Gay Commandoes, and the Aquarius Cell each pursued a specialized agenda. Many of these cells would grow into the groups that would lead the next generation of LGBTQ+ activism. For example, the Lavender Menace (later officially organized as Radicalesbians) and the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), founded by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. Other groups that grew out of GFL also included the Parents of Gays (later renamed Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG), and the National Gay Task Force (later the National LGBTQ+ Task Force), the first national gay liberation organization.

Perhaps the most influential of the organizations created out of GLF was the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). Unlike the GLF, which aligned itself with a host of New Left causes, the GAA dedicated itself exclusively to advancing LGBT civil and social rights. The GAA was headquartered at 99 Wooster Street rom April 1971 until October 1974. This location served as an important community center. On June 18, 2019, Village Preservation scored a big victory — following a five-year campaign, NYC landmarked both the LGBT Community Center at 208 W. 13th Street and the former Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) Firehouse at 99 Wooster Street. Read more about the GAA Firehouse here.

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