outhistory.org Harry Hay: Founding the Mattachine Society, 1948-1953 "A call to me . . . more important than life" Reedited by Jonathan Ned Katz from Gay American History (1976). Henry Hay 1938 The man who conceived and was a principal figure in the founding of the first Mattachine society, Harry Hay, here for the first time details the early history of that homosexual emancipation organization. Because of Hay's eighteen-year Communist party membership and activity, his role as a founding father of the American homosexual liberation movement has not before been told. In an interview recorded by Jonathan Ned Katz on March 31, 1974, and in a long correspondence referring to original documents of the period, Henry Hay recounted his version of the conception and founding of the Los Angeles Mattachine. Early Life Hay was born on April 7, 1912, at Worthing, in Sussex, England. His father managed gold mines in West Africa, then worked for the Anaconda Copper Company in Chile. His parents returned with their children to their native America in 1917; Hay grew up in Los Angeles, graduating with honors from Los Angeles High School in the summer of 1929. He studied in a Los Angeles lawyer's office for a year, witnessing the stock market crash of October, which wiped out his father and many others. In February 1930, at age seventeen, Hay reports: I enticed an "older" gentleman (he must have been at least 33) to "bring me out" by finagling his picking me up in Los Angeles's notorious Pershing Square. Poor guy--he was appalled to discover, subsequently, that I was both a virgin and jailbait. Champ Simmons didn't really turn me on, but he was a very decent human being; he was gentle and kind and taught me a great deal.[1] A link of a kind perhaps peculiar to gay male history connects Harry Hay, the founder of the Mattachine Society, with the abortive Chicago Society for Human Rights (1924-25). Hay says that Champ, the guy I seduced into picking me up and bringing me out into the gay world, had himself been brought out by a guy who was a member of that Chicago group. So I first heard about that group only a few years after its sad end.[2] My impression was that the society was primarily a social thing. But just the idea of gay people getting together at all, in more than a daisy chain, was an eye-opener of an idea. Champ passed it on to me as if it were too dangerous; the failure of the Chicago group should be a direct warning to anybody trying to do anything like that again. J.K.: Do you think your knowledge of that 1920s organizing attempt played any role in your later conceiving and starting a gay organization? H.H.: Only indirectly. It was one of the things that sank into my memory. Stanford University In my own life, in the following year, in the fall of 1930, I went to Stanford University. In the fall of 1931, I decided, on the basis of not a great deal of information and not too much experience, that I didn't want to live the life of a lie, so I declared myself on campus to all the people that I knew: to the eating club I belonged to, to the fraternities who were rushing me-- J.K.: You declared yourself as gay? H.H.: Yes. I said I would understand perfectly if they all felt they had to stay away for their own security and position--and most of the people I knew did stay away, but the people 1 loved best said, "Okay, what else is new?" First Conception of a Gay Group I first conceived of a gay group in August 1948, in Los Angeles. What happened was this: I went to a beer bust at the University of Southern California, run by some gay guys I knew. Half the people there were students –- one or two were theology students, some legal students--and we got to talking about the Henry Wallace presidential campaign. Wallace was running on the Progressive party ticket. I came up with the idea that we should start a group called "Bachelors for Wallace." With the help of a couple of quarts of beer, we worked up quite a case for what the Bachelors for Wallace would do, what we would ask for constitutional amendments, etc. It sounded like a great idea. J.K.: This was to be an openly gay group? H.H.: Yes. We didn't have the words in those years, but that was what we were going to be. I went home and was all excited and sat up all night, writing out the original prospectus for the group. The next day 1 called up the guy who had given the party and asked for the addresses and telephone numbers of all the people there. I called up all these guys and said, "Look, we can get this whole thing going." They said, "What thing?" I found out that the only one who remembered anything except his hangover was me. Well, I thought it was too good an idea to drop, so I started putting it in some kind of order. I said, "Let's see, to get started I'll get in touch with all the other homosexuals I can." They said, "You're mad! You're out of your mind! We can't do anything like this!" Then I said, "Wait a minute. Supposing we got so

• published: 28 Aug 2012
• views: 2081

outhistory.org Harry Hay: Founding the Mattachine Society, 1948-1953 "A call to me . . . more important than life" Reedited by Jonathan Ned Katz from Gay American History (1976). Henry Hay 1938 The man who conceived and was a principal figure in the founding of the first Mattachine society, Harry Hay, here for the first time details the early history of that homosexual emancipation organization. Because of Hay's eighteen-year Communist party membership and activity, his role as a founding father of the American homosexual liberation movement has not before been told. In an interview recorded by Jonathan Ned Katz on March 31, 1974, and in a long correspondence referring to original documents of the period, Henry Hay recounted his version of the conception and founding of the Los Angeles Mattachine. Early Life Hay was born on April 7, 1912, at Worthing, in Sussex, England. His father managed gold mines in West Africa, then worked for the Anaconda Copper Company in Chile. His parents returned with their children to their native America in 1917; Hay grew up in Los Angeles, graduating with honors from Los Angeles High School in the summer of 1929. He studied in a Los Angeles lawyer's office for a year, witnessing the stock market crash of October, which wiped out his father and many others. In February 1930, at age seventeen, Hay reports: I enticed an "older" gentleman (he must have been at least 33) to "bring me out" by finagling his picking me up in Los Angeles's notorious Pershing Square. Poor guy--he was appalled to discover, subsequently, that I was both a virgin and jailbait. Champ Simmons didn't really turn me on, but he was a very decent human being; he was gentle and kind and taught me a great deal.[1] A link of a kind perhaps peculiar to gay male history connects Harry Hay, the founder of the Mattachine Society, with the abortive Chicago Society for Human Rights (1924-25). Hay says that Champ, the guy I seduced into picking me up and bringing me out into the gay world, had himself been brought out by a guy who was a member of that Chicago group. So I first heard about that group only a few years after its sad end.[2] My impression was that the society was primarily a social thing. But just the idea of gay people getting together at all, in more than a daisy chain, was an eye-opener of an idea. Champ passed it on to me as if it were too dangerous; the failure of the Chicago group should be a direct warning to anybody trying to do anything like that again. J.K.: Do you think your knowledge of that 1920s organizing attempt played any role in your later conceiving and starting a gay organization? H.H.: Only indirectly. It was one of the things that sank into my memory. Stanford University In my own life, in the following year, in the fall of 1930, I went to Stanford University. In the fall of 1931, I decided, on the basis of not a great deal of information and not too much experience, that I didn't want to live the life of a lie, so I declared myself on campus to all the people that I knew: to the eating club I belonged to, to the fraternities who were rushing me-- J.K.: You declared yourself as gay? H.H.: Yes. I said I would understand perfectly if they all felt they had to stay away for their own security and position--and most of the people I knew did stay away, but the people 1 loved best said, "Okay, what else is new?" First Conception of a Gay Group I first conceived of a gay group in August 1948, in Los Angeles. What happened was this: I went to a beer bust at the University of Southern California, run by some gay guys I knew. Half the people there were students –- one or two were theology students, some legal students--and we got to talking about the Henry Wallace presidential campaign. Wallace was running on the Progressive party ticket. I came up with the idea that we should start a group called "Bachelors for Wallace." With the help of a couple of quarts of beer, we worked up quite a case for what the Bachelors for Wallace would do, what we would ask for constitutional amendments, etc. It sounded like a great idea. J.K.: This was to be an openly gay group? H.H.: Yes. We didn't have the words in those years, but that was what we were going to be. I went home and was all excited and sat up all night, writing out the original prospectus for the group. The next day 1 called up the guy who had given the party and asked for the addresses and telephone numbers of all the people there. I called up all these guys and said, "Look, we can get this whole thing going." They said, "What thing?" I found out that the only one who remembered anything except his hangover was me. Well, I thought it was too good an idea to drop, so I started putting it in some kind of order. I said, "Let's see, to get started I'll get in touch with all the other homosexuals I can." They said, "You're mad! You're out of your mind! We can't do anything like this!" Then I said, "Wait a minute. Supposing we got so

• published: 28 Aug 2012
• views: 1348

outhistory.org Harry Hay: Founding the Mattachine Society, 1948-1953 "A call to me . . . more important than life" Reedited by Jonathan Ned Katz from Gay American History (1976). Henry Hay 1938 The man who conceived and was a principal figure in the founding of the first Mattachine society, Harry Hay, here for the first time details the early history of that homosexual emancipation organization. Because of Hay's eighteen-year Communist party membership and activity, his role as a founding father of the American homosexual liberation movement has not before been told. In an interview recorded by Jonathan Ned Katz on March 31, 1974, and in a long correspondence referring to original documents of the period, Henry Hay recounted his version of the conception and founding of the Los Angeles Mattachine. Early Life Hay was born on April 7, 1912, at Worthing, in Sussex, England. His father managed gold mines in West Africa, then worked for the Anaconda Copper Company in Chile. His parents returned with their children to their native America in 1917; Hay grew up in Los Angeles, graduating with honors from Los Angeles High School in the summer of 1929. He studied in a Los Angeles lawyer's office for a year, witnessing the stock market crash of October, which wiped out his father and many others. In February 1930, at age seventeen, Hay reports: I enticed an "older" gentleman (he must have been at least 33) to "bring me out" by finagling his picking me up in Los Angeles's notorious Pershing Square. Poor guy--he was appalled to discover, subsequently, that I was both a virgin and jailbait. Champ Simmons didn't really turn me on, but he was a very decent human being; he was gentle and kind and taught me a great deal.[1] A link of a kind perhaps peculiar to gay male history connects Harry Hay, the founder of the Mattachine Society, with the abortive Chicago Society for Human Rights (1924-25). Hay says that Champ, the guy I seduced into picking me up and bringing me out into the gay world, had himself been brought out by a guy who was a member of that Chicago group. So I first heard about that group only a few years after its sad end.[2] My impression was that the society was primarily a social thing. But just the idea of gay people getting together at all, in more than a daisy chain, was an eye-opener of an idea. Champ passed it on to me as if it were too dangerous; the failure of the Chicago group should be a direct warning to anybody trying to do anything like that again. J.K.: Do you think your knowledge of that 1920s organizing attempt played any role in your later conceiving and starting a gay organization? H.H.: Only indirectly. It was one of the things that sank into my memory. Stanford University In my own life, in the following year, in the fall of 1930, I went to Stanford University. In the fall of 1931, I decided, on the basis of not a great deal of information and not too much experience, that I didn't want to live the life of a lie, so I declared myself on campus to all the people that I knew: to the eating club I belonged to, to the fraternities who were rushing me-- J.K.: You declared yourself as gay? H.H.: Yes. I said I would understand perfectly if they all felt they had to stay away for their own security and position--and most of the people I knew did stay away, but the people 1 loved best said, "Okay, what else is new?" First Conception of a Gay Group I first conceived of a gay group in August 1948, in Los Angeles. What happened was this: I went to a beer bust at the University of Southern California, run by some gay guys I knew. Half the people there were students –- one or two were theology students, some legal students--and we got to talking about the Henry Wallace presidential campaign. Wallace was running on the Progressive party ticket. I came up with the idea that we should start a group called "Bachelors for Wallace." With the help of a couple of quarts of beer, we worked up quite a case for what the Bachelors for Wallace would do, what we would ask for constitutional amendments, etc. It sounded like a great idea. J.K.: This was to be an openly gay group? H.H.: Yes. We didn't have the words in those years, but that was what we were going to be. I went home and was all excited and sat up all night, writing out the original prospectus for the group. The next day 1 called up the guy who had given the party and asked for the addresses and telephone numbers of all the people there. I called up all these guys and said, "Look, we can get this whole thing going." They said, "What thing?" I found out that the only one who remembered anything except his hangover was me. Well, I thought it was too good an idea to drop, so I started putting it in some kind of order. I said, "Let's see, to get started I'll get in touch with all the other homosexuals I can." They said, "You're mad! You're out of your mind! We can't do anything like this!" Then I said, "Wait a minute. Supposing we got so

• published: 28 Aug 2012
• views: 385

outhistory.org Harry Hay: Founding the Mattachine Society, 1948-1953 "A call to me . . . more important than life" Reedited by Jonathan Ned Katz from Gay American History (1976). Henry Hay 1938 The man who conceived and was a principal figure in the founding of the first Mattachine society, Harry Hay, here for the first time details the early history of that homosexual emancipation organization. Because of Hay's eighteen-year Communist party membership and activity, his role as a founding father of the American homosexual liberation movement has not before been told. In an interview recorded by Jonathan Ned Katz on March 31, 1974, and in a long correspondence referring to original documents of the period, Henry Hay recounted his version of the conception and founding of the Los Angeles Mattachine. Early Life Hay was born on April 7, 1912, at Worthing, in Sussex, England. His father managed gold mines in West Africa, then worked for the Anaconda Copper Company in Chile. His parents returned with their children to their native America in 1917; Hay grew up in Los Angeles, graduating with honors from Los Angeles High School in the summer of 1929. He studied in a Los Angeles lawyer's office for a year, witnessing the stock market crash of October, which wiped out his father and many others. In February 1930, at age seventeen, Hay reports: I enticed an "older" gentleman (he must have been at least 33) to "bring me out" by finagling his picking me up in Los Angeles's notorious Pershing Square. Poor guy--he was appalled to discover, subsequently, that I was both a virgin and jailbait. Champ Simmons didn't really turn me on, but he was a very decent human being; he was gentle and kind and taught me a great deal.[1] A link of a kind perhaps peculiar to gay male history connects Harry Hay, the founder of the Mattachine Society, with the abortive Chicago Society for Human Rights (1924-25). Hay says that Champ, the guy I seduced into picking me up and bringing me out into the gay world, had himself been brought out by a guy who was a member of that Chicago group. So I first heard about that group only a few years after its sad end.[2] My impression was that the society was primarily a social thing. But just the idea of gay people getting together at all, in more than a daisy chain, was an eye-opener of an idea. Champ passed it on to me as if it were too dangerous; the failure of the Chicago group should be a direct warning to anybody trying to do anything like that again. J.K.: Do you think your knowledge of that 1920s organizing attempt played any role in your later conceiving and starting a gay organization? H.H.: Only indirectly. It was one of the things that sank into my memory. Stanford University In my own life, in the following year, in the fall of 1930, I went to Stanford University. In the fall of 1931, I decided, on the basis of not a great deal of information and not too much experience, that I didn't want to live the life of a lie, so I declared myself on campus to all the people that I knew: to the eating club I belonged to, to the fraternities who were rushing me-- J.K.: You declared yourself as gay? H.H.: Yes. I said I would understand perfectly if they all felt they had to stay away for their own security and position--and most of the people I knew did stay away, but the people 1 loved best said, "Okay, what else is new?" First Conception of a Gay Group I first conceived of a gay group in August 1948, in Los Angeles. What happened was this: I went to a beer bust at the University of Southern California, run by some gay guys I knew. Half the people there were students –- one or two were theology students, some legal students--and we got to talking about the Henry Wallace presidential campaign. Wallace was running on the Progressive party ticket. I came up with the idea that we should start a group called "Bachelors for Wallace." With the help of a couple of quarts of beer, we worked up quite a case for what the Bachelors for Wallace would do, what we would ask for constitutional amendments, etc. It sounded like a great idea. J.K.: This was to be an openly gay group? H.H.: Yes. We didn't have the words in those years, but that was what we were going to be. I went home and was all excited and sat up all night, writing out the original prospectus for the group. The next day 1 called up the guy who had given the party and asked for the addresses and telephone numbers of all the people there. I called up all these guys and said, "Look, we can get this whole thing going." They said, "What thing?" I found out that the only one who remembered anything except his hangover was me. Well, I thought it was too good an idea to drop, so I started putting it in some kind of order. I said, "Let's see, to get started I'll get in touch with all the other homosexuals I can." They said, "You're mad! You're out of your mind! We can't do anything like this!" Then I said, "Wait a minute. Supposing we got so

• published: 28 Aug 2012
• views: 614

outhistory.org Harry Hay: Founding the Mattachine Society, 1948-1953 "A call to me . . . more important than life" Reedited by Jonathan Ned Katz from Gay American History (1976). Henry Hay 1938 The man who conceived and was a principal figure in the founding of the first Mattachine society, Harry Hay, here for the first time details the early history of that homosexual emancipation organization. Because of Hay's eighteen-year Communist party membership and activity, his role as a founding father of the American homosexual liberation movement has not before been told. In an interview recorded by Jonathan Ned Katz on March 31, 1974, and in a long correspondence referring to original documents of the period, Henry Hay recounted his version of the conception and founding of the Los Angeles Mattachine. Early Life Hay was born on April 7, 1912, at Worthing, in Sussex, England. His father managed gold mines in West Africa, then worked for the Anaconda Copper Company in Chile. His parents returned with their children to their native America in 1917; Hay grew up in Los Angeles, graduating with honors from Los Angeles High School in the summer of 1929. He studied in a Los Angeles lawyer's office for a year, witnessing the stock market crash of October, which wiped out his father and many others. In February 1930, at age seventeen, Hay reports: I enticed an "older" gentleman (he must have been at least 33) to "bring me out" by finagling his picking me up in Los Angeles's notorious Pershing Square. Poor guy--he was appalled to discover, subsequently, that I was both a virgin and jailbait. Champ Simmons didn't really turn me on, but he was a very decent human being; he was gentle and kind and taught me a great deal.[1] A link of a kind perhaps peculiar to gay male history connects Harry Hay, the founder of the Mattachine Society, with the abortive Chicago Society for Human Rights (1924-25). Hay says that Champ, the guy I seduced into picking me up and bringing me out into the gay world, had himself been brought out by a guy who was a member of that Chicago group. So I first heard about that group only a few years after its sad end.[2] My impression was that the society was primarily a social thing. But just the idea of gay people getting together at all, in more than a daisy chain, was an eye-opener of an idea. Champ passed it on to me as if it were too dangerous; the failure of the Chicago group should be a direct warning to anybody trying to do anything like that again. J.K.: Do you think your knowledge of that 1920s organizing attempt played any role in your later conceiving and starting a gay organization? H.H.: Only indirectly. It was one of the things that sank into my memory. Stanford University In my own life, in the following year, in the fall of 1930, I went to Stanford University. In the fall of 1931, I decided, on the basis of not a great deal of information and not too much experience, that I didn't want to live the life of a lie, so I declared myself on campus to all the people that I knew: to the eating club I belonged to, to the fraternities who were rushing me-- J.K.: You declared yourself as gay? H.H.: Yes. I said I would understand perfectly if they all felt they had to stay away for their own security and position--and most of the people I knew did stay away, but the people 1 loved best said, "Okay, what else is new?" First Conception of a Gay Group I first conceived of a gay group in August 1948, in Los Angeles. What happened was this: I went to a beer bust at the University of Southern California, run by some gay guys I knew. Half the people there were students –- one or two were theology students, some legal students--and we got to talking about the Henry Wallace presidential campaign. Wallace was running on the Progressive party ticket. I came up with the idea that we should start a group called "Bachelors for Wallace." With the help of a couple of quarts of beer, we worked up quite a case for what the Bachelors for Wallace would do, what we would ask for constitutional amendments, etc. It sounded like a great idea. J.K.: This was to be an openly gay group? H.H.: Yes. We didn't have the words in those years, but that was what we were going to be. I went home and was all excited and sat up all night, writing out the original prospectus for the group. The next day 1 called up the guy who had given the party and asked for the addresses and telephone numbers of all the people there. I called up all these guys and said, "Look, we can get this whole thing going." They said, "What thing?" I found out that the only one who remembered anything except his hangover was me. Well, I thought it was too good an idea to drop, so I started putting it in some kind of order. I said, "Let's see, to get started I'll get in touch with all the other homosexuals I can." They said, "You're mad! You're out of your mind! We can't do anything like this!" Then I said, "Wait a minute. Supposing we got so

• published: 28 Aug 2012
• views: 1012