Fellow Gay people : why are we picketing the Lost and Found?

Flyer describing the reasons that the Gay Liberation Front believed that the Lost and Found Club was racist, misogynist, and discriminatory towards the drag community.

application/pdf

English

Washington (D.C.)

typed document

10/17/1971

FELLOW GAY PEOPLE:
WHY ARE WE PICKETING THE LOST AND FOUND?

Here are the reasons:
The collective leadership of the Washington Gay Community
vigorously protests and condemns the blatant racist policies of the Lost and Found management.

Those racist policies were clearly affirmed by a principal
Lost and Found manager in a meeting with a GAA representative on Friday, Oct. 15. Mr. Bill Perry of the Lost and Found said the following: "If possible, we would prefer to exclude all black people from the Lost and Found." Mr. Perry freely acknowledged that the primary reason for I.D. requirements was not age restriction, but an effort to exclude as many black people as possible.

Perry said that the Lost and Found was requiring two pieces of "legal" identification. He defined these two pieces of I.D. as
(1) driver's license and (2) "a passport or a birth certificate."
Since the Tuesday opening of the Lost and Found, gay
organizations have received numerous reports that these "requirements"
have been generally restricted to blacks.
What is the Lost and Found's justification for their racist
policies? Perry says that the economic factor is the reason:
"Black people are generally poor and, besides, most of our patrons are bigots."

Furthermore, Perry declared that the Lost and Found cannot
afford to cater to either black—or white--gays "who spend only $2.25 a night in our bar."

And what is the obligation of the Lost and Found to gay
people (who make such ownership rich), aside from serving good drinks? Bill Perry says "none."

The following Washington gay organizations request that the
Lost and Found end their racist, sexist, immoral, and illegal
policies and implement the list of our 10 demands necessary to resolve this conflict:
The Mattachine Society of Washington
Evangelical Catholic Community
Gay Activists Alliance
The Black Caucus
Skyline Faggots
The Breadbox
Student Homophile Assn. of the Univ. of Maryland
Gay Men's Open House
1971 Kameny for Congress Campaign Committee
Gay Women's Open House
Campus Ministry of the University of Maryland
Participating members of Metropolitan Comm. Church
Gay Liberation Front
"Our House" Collective
Applecore Collective