Gay Liberation Front

ca. 1970

poster

sheet: 19 3/8 x 14 11/16 in.

Photographer Peter Hujar took this image, titled Children of Paradise, specifically for this poster to publicize a march commemorating the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots. The 1969 uprising pitted beleaguered patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a New York City bar favored by gays and lesbians, against the police who frequently raided the premises. Today, nearly 40 years later, this poster urging viewers to COME OUT!!! JOIN THE SISTERS & BROTHERS OF THE GAY LIBERATION FRONT perhaps seems tame. Yet in its time, it was a revolutionary call to arms heralding a new day in the liberation movement. Coming out. This now ubiquitous expression urging going public with one's sexual orientation originated after Stonewall and does not appear to have been used before 1969. And to the public at large, these self-assured, queer-identified individuals willing to be openly out represented a quantum leap from the more familiar depictions of beaten and bloodied fags in the back of paddy wagons or huddled queers being raided at their homes or hangouts.The militant Gay Liberation Front wanted power, social justice, and equal rights now and didn't care if their tactics offended the establishment. Being queer in 1970 was to be seen as mentally ill, morally deviant, socially degenerate, and a legal risk. Violence against queers was virtually condoned. And while being a homosexual was bad, practicing homosexuality was taboo. Most states had strict anti-sodomy laws prohibiting a whole range of same-sex acts. Offenders were sent to state (CHECK FILE FOR REMAINDER OF TEXT)

ca. 1970

United States

Gift of Gary H. Brown

1992.32