06/08/2018
Are you familiar with the Mattachine Society, or the Daughters of Bilitis? No, well they are a useful period in gay history to understand as they stand in the immediate pre-Stonewall era as amongst the first queer advocacy groups to reform after the trauma of the Nazi period and the Second World War. This month, the Gay Times reports on the story of the Mattachine, founded in 1950 by gay visionary and iconoclast Harry Hay, who was kicked out of the Communist Party because of his homo-radicalism, but who then fused nineteenth century male romanticism with utopian socialism and pagan spirituality to found the post war period's largest American gay and bi men's support and political group. Without the quiet groundwork done by the Mattachine, there would have been no Gay Liberation Front or Gay Activists Alliance in the immediate wake of the Stonewall insurrection and therefore it enjoys a crucial role in queer history. Gay Times is available now from radical bookstores, WH Smiths and all good independent newsagents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattachine_Society
