On this day in 1969, the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations compiles : "A RADICAL MANIFESTO : THE HOMOPHILE MOVEMENT MUST BE RADICALIZED!"
l) We see the persecution of homosexuality as part of a general attempt to oppress all minorities and keep them powerless. Our fate is linked with these minorities; if the detention camps are filled tomorrow with blacks, hippies and other radicals, we will not escape that fate, all our attempts to dissociate our- selves from them notwithstanding. A common struggle, however, will bring common triumph.
2) Therefore we declare our support as homosexuals or bisexuals for the struggles of the black, the feminist, the Spanish-American, the Indian, the Hippie, the Young, the Student, and other victims of oppression and prejudice.
3) We call upon these groups to lend us their support and encourage their presence with NACHO and the homophile movement at large.
4) Our enemies, an implacable, repressive governmental system; much of organized religion, business and medicine, will not be moved by appeasement or appeals to reason and justice, but only by power and force.
5) We regard established heterosexual standards of morality as immoral and refuse to condone them by demanding an equality which is merely the common yoke of sexual repression.
6) We declare that homosexuals, as individuals and members of the greater community, must develop homosexual ethics and aesthetics independent of, and without reference to, the mores imposed upon heterosexuality.
7) We demand the removal of all restriction on sex between consenting persons of any sex, of any orientation, of any age, anywhere, whether for money or not, and for the removal of all censorship.
8) We call upon the churches to sanction homosexual liaisons when called upon to do so by the parties concerned.
9) We call upon the homophile movement to be more honestly concerned with youth rather than trying to promote a mythical, non-existent "good public image."
10) The homophile movement must totally reject the insane war in Vietnam and refuse to encourage complicity in the war and support of the war machine, which may well be turned against us. We oppose any attempts by the movement to obtain security clearances for homosexuals, since these contribute to the war machine.
11) The homophile movement must engage in continuous political struggle on all fronts.
12) We must open the eyes of homosexuals on this continent to the increasingly repressive nature of our society and to the realizations that Chicago may await us tomorrow.
BIRTHGAYS (and the occasional straights)
* 1749 - German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
* 1825 - German activist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs -- He was one of the first to attempt to repeal Germany's sodomy laws.
* 1828 - Straight novelist Leo Tolstoy, claimed to be gay by his jealous wife when estates were settled
* 1916 - Actor Van Johnson
* 1921 - "The Beverly Hillbillies' Ms. Jane Hathaway" Nancy Kulp
* 1940 - Porn publisher Gloria Leonard
Q.UOTE
"(The Roman Catholic Church) defines Gay people by a sexual act in a way it never defines heterosexual people, and in this, the church is in weird agreement with extreme Gay activists who also want to define homosexuality in terms of its purely sexual content. Whereas being Gay is not about sex as such. Fundamentally, it's about one's core emotional identity. It's about whom one loves, ultimately, and how that can make one whole as a human being ... a single person's moral equilibrium in a whole range of areas can improve with marriage ... because there is a kind of stability and security and rock upon which to build one's moral and emotional life.
To deny this to Gay people is not merely incoherent and wrong, from the Christian point of view. It is incredibly destructive of the moral quality of their lives in general ... You can't ask someone to suppress what makes them whole as a human being and then to lead blameless lives. We are human beings, and we need love in our lives in order to love others, in order to be good Christians! What the church is asking Gay people to do is not to be Holy, but actually to be warped ... no wonder people's lives, many Gay lives, are unhappy or distraught or in dysfunction, because there is no guidance at all. Here is a population within the church, and outside the church, desperately seeking spiritual health and values, and the church refuses to come to our aid, refuses to listen to this call."
-- Andrew Sullivan
THE BEDSIDE TABLE
"Gay Power: An American Revolution" by David Eisenbach
"Gay Power" explains how the gay rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s used the media to transform American politics and society. The American Library Association awarded "Gay Power" the 2007 Stonewall Honor Book award and the Lambda Literary Association has named "Gay Power" a finalist for the LGBT Studies category to be announced in May 2007. He is currently working on a book about Ronald Reagan and the media.
ON THIS DAY