GLF presents program despite RPCC chaos

Article about a program presentation given by the Gay Liberation Front despite the disorganization of the rest of the Revolutionary Peoples' Constitutional Convention.

Quicksilver Times, December 8-18, 1970, p. 15.

Bruce Pennington Papers, 1947-2003

application/pdf

English

Washington (D.C.)

newspaper

GLF presents program despite RPCC chaos
While the rest of the Revolutionary
People's Constitutional Convention
was looking for a place to
happen j gay "men and women from arouid
the country were meeting, arguing,
dancing, shouting, even occasionally
sleeping...together.
Starting on Thanksgiving Day,
almost 300 gay people met in an effort
to define their relations with
each other, the rest of the movement,
and the "straight" world.
The effort was not easy. There
are many divisions separating gay
people, even revolutionary gay people,
from one another. The gay men
who identify themselves as "femmes"
don't want to feel put down by the
"butch" anymore. The transvestites
and transexuals effectively raised
the consciousness of their brothers
and s i s t e r s who had ignored or even
mocked t h e i r situation. Most gay
women met separately from the gay
men. Third world gay men also held
several separate caucuses.
Internal divisions disappeared
when gay people got together in the
Friday evening r a l l y at Malcolm X
Park, however. Joining the almost
7000 revolutionaries in the park,
the gay contingent gathered and
marched toward the front of the
r a l l y . Forming a tight circle,
they chanted, "Gay power to the gay
people," "Go l e f t , go gay, now
pick up the gun." The cry of "Out
of the closets and into the streets'
reportedly led at least one Panther
member to fear that the chant would
make people do just that - but his
fear proved unfounded, and his effort
to hush the gay people was unsuccessful
.
Divisions were also minimized -
at a mass Thanksgiving dinner at
St. Stephen's Church, in the collec
tive effort during the convention
t o feed hundreds of hungry mouths
- including those of Yippies and
others meeting nearby at American
University - and in supporting the
brothers busted after a brawl in a
bar which would not serve gay people.
On Saturday, the gay men decided
to accept as their basic position
a 16-point platform developed
by a t h i rd world caucus of New
York GLF. This was an extension
and elaboration of the platform
written by the male homosexual workshop
at the plenary session of the
RPCC in Philadelphia. The statement
in i t s present form will be discussed
by local GLF groups in the
coming months, and a final document
will be prepared-at another national
meeting t o be held sometime next
spring, to be organized under third
world leadership.
Some of the points apply generally
to all people in this society,
such as the desire for "the
abolition of the institution of the
bourgeois nuclear family," and for
"a free, n on-compulsory education
system t h a t . . . p r e s e n t s the entire
range of human sexuality without
advocating any one form or s t y l e ."
There is also a call for "the l i b eration
of a l l women."
Others are more specific to
the oppression of gay people, and
especially third world gay people,
such as exemption for third world
and gay people from the present
military.
Included in the demands is
t h i s aimed at the larger movement:
"We demand immediate non-discriminatory
open admission/membership for
radical homosexuals into all leftwing
revolutionary groups and organizations,
with the right to caucus.
"We believe that so-called comrades
who call themselves revolutionaries
have failed to deal with
t h e i r sexist attitudes-. Instead,
they cling to male supremacy and
therefore t o the conditioned role
of oppressors..."
Forms of sexism within the
gay movement were dealt with, as
well. One form, brought to the
attention of some of the gay men
for the f i r s t time, was the attitude
toward transvest.ites - persons of
one sex who dress in clothes of the
other - and transsexuals - persons
with characteristics of both sexes,
some of whom undergo operations to
physically become one sex.
Representatives were present"
from several transvestite-transexual
groups, who presented demands
for an end to discrimination within
the gay world as well as outside.