Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries
Gay Liberation
Founded in New York City in 1970 as a caucus within the Gay Liberation Front, the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR, was an activist organization established by legendary civil rights activists and drag queens of color, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha Johnson, to advocate for homeless drag queens and young gay runaways. Both Rivera and Johnson were veterans of the Stonewall rebellion and the intense period of radical political organizing the proceeded it. STAR addressed the intersectionality of race and class with sexuality by emphasizing poverty and homelessness within the transgender community.
Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. 1970
Button
Physical Object
The Griffin: News of Gay Liberation
Gay Liberation Movement
Based in Hartford, Connecticut, the October and November 1971 issue of the Kalos Society’s publication The Griffin reports events pertaining to Gay Liberation organizations, pride festivals, the picketing of municipal ordinances against public gatherings in local parks, city elections, and communal resources on venereal diseases and sex education. This newsletter discusses themes such as public health, sexual health, and political action as organized by the locally-based Kalos Society.
The Kalos Society – Gay Liberation Front
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1971
underground press
Gay Activist
Gay Liberation Movement
The Gay Activist Alliance was founded in 1969 in New York City by gay rights activists who broke away from the Gay Liberation Front, which had allied itself with the Black Panther Party, was active in the movement against the war in Vietnam, and preached a radical political agenda, including the overthrow of capitalism. Founding members of the GAA included, Jim Owles (the group’s first president), Marty Robinson, Tom Doerr, Kay Lahusen, Arthur Bell, Arthur Evans, Bill Bahlman, Vito Russo, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Jim Coles, Brenda Howard, David Thorstad, Michael Giammetta and Morty Manford. The GAA, which was formed about 6 months after the Stonewall revolt, was most active from 1970-1974, though it remained in existence through 1981. Organizers of the group aimed to create a single-issue, “politically neutral” organization that worked through the political system to "secure basic human rights, dignity and freedom for all gay people." The GAA sought to abolish discriminatory sex laws, promoting gay and lesbian civil rights, and challenging politicians and candidates to state their views on gay rights issues. The political tactics of the GAA included "zaps"--public confrontations with officials that sought to draw media attention.
The GAA published the Gay Activist newsletter until 1980. In this October 1971 edition of the GAA newsletter, the organization addresses the Intro 475 Bill, which would end discrimination against homosexuals in housing, employment, and public accommodations in New York City. The GAA had been trying to get access to a public hearing of the bill for nine months. Throughout the newsletter there is a narrative given explaining how activists had been met with discrimination and no action. The newsletter also offers membership guidelines for the GAA and a list of other gay organizations in New York City, as well as articles regarding the National Organization of Women.
Gay Activists Alliance
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
October 1971
underground press
Spectre, no. 4
Women's Liberation
This publication was created by a group of "revolutionary separatist white women" and explores a variety of intersectional dynamics of the women's liberation movement, including race, class and sexuality.
revolutionary separatist white women, published by Know, Inc.
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
September/October, 1971
underground press
RAT Subterranean News, February 6-23, 1970
New Left
RAT Subterranean News was published in New York, starting in March of 1968 and was edited by Jeff Shero, Alice Embree and Gary Thiher, who had come North from Austin, Texas, where they worked on The Rag, another important underground paper. Whereas the East Village Other represented the counterculture point of view, RAT had a left political orientation. In early 1970, women’s liberation activists took over RAT and turned it into a women-only periodical to challenge sexism within the New Left. This issue is the first after the take-over of RAT and covers a wide range of topics, including Afeni Shakur and the Panther 21; letters to the editor; women’s take-over of RAT; feminist critique of the New Left; the ambush of New York police in Harlem; the emergence of strong women leadership in the Weather Underground; Kathleen Cleaver in Algeria; sabotage; theft and activism; Boston students protesting a lecture by S.I. Hayakawa; Berkeley women take-over of karate class; a Gay Liberation Front protest at a San Francisco radio station; gas masks; women challenging doctors on abortion; sex and sexism; “Are Men Really the Enemy?” exam; John Sinclair release from prison; Palestinian women and armed struggle in Jordan; obscenity trial against Che; women in China; a Stockton, California, housewives strike; poetry; film review of “Prologue…”
R.A.T. Publications, Inc
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
February 6-23, 1970
underground press