Jim Andris, Facebook

Hundreds hear gay lib speakers

By Gary Suhl

Alestle Staff Writer, 5/3/74

The crowd started to build up a little before noon Wednesday.

Within 15 minutes there were about 200 people standing and sitting around the Goshen Lounge, where a few minutes earlier only a couple of dozen people were relaxing.

It was the second gay dialouge in three days. The previous one, held Monday afternoon, was generally a scene of caustic remarks and put-downs directed to the gay speakers by hostile members of the audience.

This discussion was a little different.

Two people prominent in the gay rights movement, Dr. Franklin Kameny and Ms. Barbara Gittings, each gave a short speech and then fielded questions from an overall receptive audience.

After a short introduction by Larry Whitsell, president of, Students for Gay Liberation (SGL), Ms. Gittings, coordinator of the American Library Association's task force on gay liberation, began her talk.

First she related an "untrue story" to the audience, a story of a world where a lesbian would be welcome wherever she went, as an accepted member of society.

“But obviously this is not the way life is,” she said. “Positive reinforcement in society is only for heterosexuals, not gays.”

She then talked about the history of the gay liberation movement.

"The movement started 23 years ago in a small apartment in Los Angeles," she said. "A small group of gays met with all the apartment blinds closed and with lookouts watching for any police. The Matashene (sic) Foundation was later formed and a gay publication, "One" began.

"In 1954 the postmaster banned the magazine because of a lesbian poem in it, and four years later we won a decision in the Supreme Court guaranteeing the right for gay periodicals to travel through the mail.

She said the 1960s marked a change in the tempo and the temper of the gay movement, sparked by the blacks' fight for civil rights. In June of that year police raided a gay bar in Greenwich Village and were met with physical resistance by the gays. This precipitated three nights of riots and cast the gay rights issue out for all to see.

In 1968 there were only three dozen gay organizations in this country but by the, end of 1969 there were over 300.

Ms. Gittings said that only a few thousand of the estimated 20 million gays are active in the 800 or 900 organizations present today.

She said that she has received much mail from gays who are afraid to come out in the open and ask for help. She read from some of these letters.

Some of the actions now occurring within the movement include legislation to include gays into the civil rights laws, gay counseling services, gay churches.

“We want to be judged as individuals on our own merits, not by our sexual preference. Gay liberation is good for straight society. It reminds us that we have far to go before we reach human equality.” said Ms. Gittings.

“It makes us more aware of the diversity and variety of human kind.”

Dr. Kameny, a gay civil rights leader since the 1950s, spoke after the applause for Ms. Gittings died down.

"You have to realize that this is our society, just as much as yours. This is our country, just as much as yours. I put my life on the line at war in defending those rights. And this is our universe, just as much as yours.

“And we are going to take what is ours,” he said. “We're going into politics, the traditional way for power.”

"I ran for a congressional seat in Washington, D. C., in May, 1971. This was the first instance of a gay running openly as a gay for an office," he said.

"And this accomplished three things. It had an impact on the government political structure, it was a consciousness-raising device for the community and it opened the way for other gays to run for office."

He said the laws discriminate against both the heterosexual and the homosexual. “If a heterosexual couple follows some of the instructions of some manuals they could be breaking the law. If you engage in oral sex you could be sentenced to life in prison in Michigan and Nevada. There are only two countries with these types of laws: Russia and the United States. Everyone else has gotten rid of them or never had them."

“I suspect that these laws will be struck down soon, and people will be able to do what they want in the privacy of their own homes.”

He also said gay rights have been put into the laws in many places and will continue to be. “We're everywhere and you'll See us come forward,” he said in ending his speech.

Practically all of the audience had listened carefully to what the two speakers had said and had responded with a longer, louder round of applause.

In the question period, the speakers were asked how they had gotten the 10 per cent gays in total Population figures.

Ms. Gittings said the figure is concept of statistical probability based on the Kinsey studies and that all suiveys indicate a similar number.

Then someone asked, "Isn't homosexuality degrading the fiber of all we have been taught?" and cited the Bible as a reference.

“There is an excellent book coming out soon that will explain the interpretations so often used to condemn homosexuality,” Dr. Gittings said.

“The American Pychiatric Association (AMA) has taken homosexuality off the books as a mental disorder. Ms. Gittings and I are attending a meeting in Detroit of the AMA, and among other things, Will ask them to place homophobia, sexism, racism and bigotry on the list of mental disorders and have them look for cures for these.”

After the 30-minute question period, the discussion ended. Unlike Monday, the audience had responded very favorably to the speakers after listening to what they had to say. The 300 people present showed their appreciation at the end of the dialogue by the longest applause of the afternoon and many came up at the end to personally talk with the speakers.

Dr. Kameny said he had been told what had happened on Monday and came well prepared.

"After lecturing as long as I have on this subject, you don't get too many questions you can’t answer. I thought the crowd reaction was fine."

Ms. Gittings said she had also been warned of the hostile reactions.

A certain amount of hostility can be good, though, she said. "It shows the bigotry and hostilities we have to put up with every day."