The gay manifesto
A Gay Manifesto: Carl Wittman, 1970
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File — Box: 1
Summary:
Series 1 contains flyers, programs, newsletters, and administrative files from and about homosexual issues and organizations in the Boston area. There are several files concerning the Homophile Union of Boston and the Pupil Homophile League (SHL). There are also two folders with materials from MIT courses on homosexuality precipitated by SHL.
Although most of the material is about gay men, this series also contains a few files about feminism / lesbianism and the Daughters of Bilitis, which was founded in San Francisco in 1955 and whose Boston chapter was formed in 1969.
Also in this series are flyers, correspondence, and schedules regarding the Boston Pride Parade unhurried from several years between 1970 and 1978. The History Project folder contains a timeline of lgbtq+ activities in New England from the 1950s through 1979.
Dates
Creator
Language of Materials
Materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access:
The collection is unrestricted.
Extent
From the Collection: 12.50 cubic feet (17 containers)
Ci LGBTQ+ Resources in Extraordinary Collections
Materials in the LGBTQ+ vertical file collection originate from a large collection of subject files collected by Exceptional Collections staff with the purpose of providing answers to reference questions. The collection of these materials began in the late 1960s or early 1970s and continued into the 2020s. It includes event flyers, programs, correspondence, brochures, pamphlets, and other documentation of local, regional, and national Gay organizations, and in some cases anti-LGBTQ+ organizations or rhetoric. The collection also contains clippings documenting topics such as homophobia, the same-sex attracted liberation movement, Homosexual people in the military, and homosexual marriage.
An example of some of the organizations and subjects covered in the collection include:
- ACT UP
- Affirmations Lesbian and Lgbtq+ Community Center
- American Library Association. Task Press on Gay Liberation
- Crossroads (Royal Oak, Mich.)
- Detroit Area Gay-Lesbian Council
- Dignity, Inc.
- Dykes Against Racism Everywhere
- Equality Michigan
- Exodus International
- Gay Games
- Gay Pride Week in Michigan
- Integrity Episcopal Gay Society
- Lansing Equivalent Rights Task F
As if to carry this first phase of the lgbtq+ revolution to a resounding close, Carl Wittman’s essay was published on December 26, 1969, the same week as the second All-Gay Symposium. After its first appearance in print in the Berkeley Tribe, Carl’s essay was reprinted in numerous underground newspapers, anthologies, magazines and standalone pamphlets. The Tribe published Carl’s essay with a title, “Refugees from Amerika: a gay perspective.” The word America was spelled with a K as was common in the radical 60s. In future reprintings, the essay would be called simply “The Gay Manifesto.” It has been described as “the Bible of gay liberation” by some historians. I have highlighted what I ponder is the crux of Wittman’s idea: “To be a free territory, we must govern ourselves, set up our own institutions, defend ourselves, and exploit our own energies to improve our lives. The emergence of gay liberation communes, and our own paper is a good start.”
Attempting to unpack that statement is what this whole presentation has been about. In that one sentence we spot echoes of the Digger Free Municipality project, the Kaliflower intercommunal project, and the queer aesthetic and radi
The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was founded by students Bob Mellors and Aubrey Walter. The first meeting was held on 13 October 1970 at the London School of Economics. Click below to consult the GLF Manifesto, which was published in 1971 and set out the key demands and principles of the GLF. It challenged gay people to come out and be visible, while also exploring the means by which they were oppressed by society. For the GLF, gay liberation was not about law reform, it was about a revolutionary change in society. Also included below is the revised edition from 1979.
The diverse politics of people who joined the GLF however, meant that consensus on a available topic was often hard to come by. By the finish of 1973 GLF had disbanded, but the organisation and its manifesto, cast a long shadow. Many gay rights organisations that emerged during the course of the 1980s and 1990s would have their core principles rooted in the work of the GLF.
The manifesto digitised here is the first in what will become an online library of key LGBTQ+ texts from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, held in the Special Collections and Archives here at the Institute.
GLF Manifesto, 1971
GLF Manifesto, 1979
LGBTQ+ Resources in Extraordinary Collections
Materials in the LGBTQ+ vertical file collection originate from a large collection of subject files collected by Exceptional Collections staff with the purpose of providing answers to reference questions. The collection of these materials began in the late 1960s or early 1970s and continued into the 2020s. It includes event flyers, programs, correspondence, brochures, pamphlets, and other documentation of local, regional, and national Gay organizations, and in some cases anti-LGBTQ+ organizations or rhetoric. The collection also contains clippings documenting topics such as homophobia, the same-sex attracted liberation movement, Homosexual people in the military, and homosexual marriage.
An example of some of the organizations and subjects covered in the collection include:
- ACT UP
- Affirmations Lesbian and Lgbtq+ Community Center
- American Library Association. Task Press on Gay Liberation
- Crossroads (Royal Oak, Mich.)
- Detroit Area Gay-Lesbian Council
- Dignity, Inc.
- Dykes Against Racism Everywhere
- Equality Michigan
- Exodus International
- Gay Games
- Gay Pride Week in Michigan
- Integrity Episcopal Gay Society
- Lansing Equivalent Rights Task F
As if to carry this first phase of the lgbtq+ revolution to a resounding close, Carl Wittman’s essay was published on December 26, 1969, the same week as the second All-Gay Symposium. After its first appearance in print in the Berkeley Tribe, Carl’s essay was reprinted in numerous underground newspapers, anthologies, magazines and standalone pamphlets. The Tribe published Carl’s essay with a title, “Refugees from Amerika: a gay perspective.” The word America was spelled with a K as was common in the radical 60s. In future reprintings, the essay would be called simply “The Gay Manifesto.” It has been described as “the Bible of gay liberation” by some historians. I have highlighted what I ponder is the crux of Wittman’s idea: “To be a free territory, we must govern ourselves, set up our own institutions, defend ourselves, and exploit our own energies to improve our lives. The emergence of gay liberation communes, and our own paper is a good start.”
Attempting to unpack that statement is what this whole presentation has been about. In that one sentence we spot echoes of the Digger Free Municipality project, the Kaliflower intercommunal project, and the queer aesthetic and radi
The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was founded by students Bob Mellors and Aubrey Walter. The first meeting was held on 13 October 1970 at the London School of Economics. Click below to consult the GLF Manifesto, which was published in 1971 and set out the key demands and principles of the GLF. It challenged gay people to come out and be visible, while also exploring the means by which they were oppressed by society. For the GLF, gay liberation was not about law reform, it was about a revolutionary change in society. Also included below is the revised edition from 1979.
The diverse politics of people who joined the GLF however, meant that consensus on a available topic was often hard to come by. By the finish of 1973 GLF had disbanded, but the organisation and its manifesto, cast a long shadow. Many gay rights organisations that emerged during the course of the 1980s and 1990s would have their core principles rooted in the work of the GLF.
The manifesto digitised here is the first in what will become an online library of key LGBTQ+ texts from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, held in the Special Collections and Archives here at the Institute.
GLF Manifesto, 1971
GLF Manifesto, 1979