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Harry Hay

For the Australian Olympic swimmer, see Harry Hay (swimmer). For the Australian cricketer, see Harry Hay (cricketer).
Harry Hay
Harry Hay, April 1996, Anza-Borrego Desert, Radical Faeries Campout
Born
Henry Hay Jr.

(1912-04-07)April 7, 1912
Worthing, Sussex, England
DiedOctober 24, 2002(2002-10-24) (aged 90)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Movement
  • LGBT rights
  • socialism
  • communism[1]
Spouse
Anita Platky
​
​
(m. 1938; div. 1951)​
Partner(s)Will Geer (1932-1934)[2]
Rudi Gernreich (1950–1952)
Jorn Kamgren (1952–1962)
John Burnside (1963–2002)
Children2

Henry Hay Jr. (April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) was an American gay rights activist, communist, and labor advocate. He cofounded the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States, as well as the Radical Faeries, a loosely affiliated gay spiritual movement. Hay has been described as "the Founder of the Modern Gay Movement"[3] and "the father of gay liberation".[4]

Acknowledging both his same-sex sexual attraction and an interest in Marxism from an early age, Hay eventually worked as a professional actor in Los Angeles, where he joined the Communist Party USA, becoming a committed labor activist. He ended his 1938 marriage to a Party activist after recognizing he remained homosexual, establishing the Mattachine Society in 1950.

Hay increasingly stood against the assimilationism advocated by the majority of gay rights campaigners. Organizing to subvert the social and political marginalization of gay people, he cofounded the Los Angeles chapter of the Gay Liberation Front in 1969. After moving to New Mexico in 1970 with his longtime partner John Burnside, Native American religions influenced the couple to cofound the Radical Faeries in 1979 with Don Kilhefner and Mitchell L. Walker.

After returning to Los Angeles, Hay remained involved in an array of activist causes throughout his life, and became a well-known, albeit controversial, elder statesman within the country's gay community. In his later years, Hay was an active supporter of the pedophile advocacy organization North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA),[5][6][7] speaking on panels and sessions at several of the group's annual meetings.[8][9] Hay protested the group being expelled from Pride parades,[10] including his boycott of the 1994 New York Pride March.[11]

  1. ^ NORMAN MARKOWITZ (August 6, 2013). "The Communist movement and gay rights: The hidden history". politicalaffairs.net. PA Political Affairs. Archived from the original on August 16, 2013.
  2. ^ Kathleen Kennedy; Sharon Rena Ullman (2003). Sexual Borderlands: Constructing an American Sexual Past. Ohio State University Press. pp. 289–90. ISBN 978-0-8142-0927-1.
  3. ^ Timmons 1990, p. 295.
  4. ^ Haggerty, George E.; Beynon, John; Eisner, Douglas (2000). Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures, Vol. 2. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 9781135578718. Archived from the original on September 13, 2017.
  5. ^ Weir, John (August 23, 1994). "Mad About the Boys". The Advocate. p. 37. ISSN 0001-8996.
  6. ^ Simon LeVay; Elisabeth Nonas (1997). City of Friends: A Portrait of the Gay and Lesbian Community in America. MIT Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0262621137. Although some prominent gay leaders such as Harry Hay have supported NAMBLA's right to participate in gay rights marches, the link between NAMBLA and the mainstream gay rights movement has always been tenuous.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bullough was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference LGAUfullspeech was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Lord, Jeffrey (October 5, 2006). "When Nancy Met Harry". The American Spectator. Archived from the original on March 29, 2009. Said Harry: "Because if the parents and friends of gays are truly friends of gays, they would know from their gay kids that the relationship with an older man is precisely what thirteen-, fourteen-, and fifteen-year-old kids need more than anything else in the world."
  10. ^ Timmons 1990
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference rhh was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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