Harry Hay:

The Mattachine Society and

Radical Faeries

A presentation by Davis

Anderson

Harr

y H

ay

(1912-

2002)

“The assimilationist movement

is running us into the ground”.

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

Ori

gin

s of

the

Matt

ach

ine S

coie

ty

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 H

as B

eco

me

of th

e S

ocie

ty

“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 th

e

Radica

l Faerie

s 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

Concl

usi

on:

Legacy

of

Harr

y H

ay