Beginning with the "ghetto riot" at the Stonewall Bar in Greenwich Village in 1969, an open gay rights movement emerged and had been a significant force in the larger people's movement. Before the Stonewall uprising, however, an instrumental figure in the movement for lesbian and gay rights was Harry Hay, a one-time member of the Communist Party USA, a trade unionist and cultural activist. Hay helped found the first gay liberation group in the US, laid a theoretical basis for gay rights, and helped pave the way for the rebellions of the 1960s and beyond.
Harry Hay was born in England in 1912 on the day the Titanic sunk, he liked to remember. Eventually his family settled in southern California, where Harry, who became aware of his sexual orientation at an early age, began to work in Los Angeles theater and movie projects in the early 1930s.
To read the rest of this article you must subscribe to Political Affairs. Ask to start with the April issue.
