{"id":44906,"date":"2025-11-05T11:49:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=44906"},"modified":"2025-11-05T11:49:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:49:26","slug":"75-years-ago-they-sparked-the-gay-rights-movement-with-exhilarating-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/11\/05\/75-years-ago-they-sparked-the-gay-rights-movement-with-exhilarating-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"75 years ago, they sparked the gay rights movement with \u2018exhilarating freedom\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Mattachine Christmas photo, 1950s, by John Gruber. Pictured: Harry Hay, Dale Jennings, Rudi Gerinreich, Stan Witt, Bob Hull, Chuck Rowland, Paul Bernard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Library event celebrates groundbreaking 1950 Mattachine Society, which helped shape modern queer identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joshua Rotter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

November 4, 2025 (48hills.prg)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Veterans Day 1950, a handful of gay men hiked up a hillside in Los Angeles, in a neighborhood then called Eden Dale. Meeting in secret was risky. Being discovered could mean arrest, entrapment, a lost job, or a beating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet these men\u2014led by the visionary activist Harry Hay\u2014came together with a radical idea: what if queer people could see themselves as a community with rights, dignity, and solidarity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From that quiet circle grew The Mattachine Society,<\/a> a groundbreaking group that helped launch the modern gay rights movement in the US. The spark they lit would ripple into generations of activism, law, culture, and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine Harvey Milk, the White Night Riots, the Castro, or the rainbow flags flying on Market Street without that first ignition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, 75 years later, San Francisco is marking the anniversary with They Lit the Fuse!<\/a>, a one-night program at the Main Library\u2019s Koret Auditorium on November 13. The evening dives into the Mattachine story with images, rare archival materials, and even a John Wayne film clip\u2014because, as the organizers point out, sometimes history is stranger than fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lineup is made up of queer history all-stars: Devlyn Camp, creator of the podcast \u201cQueer Serial\u201d; Will Roscoe, editor of Radically Gay; Jim Van Buskirk, founding program manager of SFPL\u2019s James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center; and Joey Cain, longtime curator and researcher. [In the late \u201890s, Van Buskirk and Cain worked to preserve the Harry Hay papers at the Hormel Center.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All together, they\u2019ll unpack how a hillside meeting in LA helped set the stage for what would later unfold in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1960 promotional poster for the Mattachine Society<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cain doesn\u2019t mince words about what Mattachine ignited. \u201cThe exhilaration of freedom,\u201d he says. \u201cFreedom to live authentically and not on the false terms of religion, government, or society.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That defiance was explosive in the days of McCarthyism and the Lavender Scare, when homosexuals were branded as threats and purged from public life. \u201cMattachine grew out of the possibilities of the New Deal and Socialist thought in the \u201940s,\u201d says Cain. \u201cAnd let\u2019s face it, we\u2019re experiencing a new McCarthyism now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the group\u2019s significant innovations was seeing queerness not as a shameful secret but as the basis of community. \u201cThey envisioned us as a unique community with constitutional rights,\u201d Cain adds. \u201cBefore that, gays and lesbians didn\u2019t necessarily see themselves as a minority with shared experiences.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their pledge was simple: no one crosses the \u201cmaelstrom of deviation\u201d alone. Van Buskirk hears that as a reminder for 2025. \u201cWith today\u2019s renewed homophobia and transphobia, Mattachine\u2019s message of community, knowing no one is alone, is unfortunately a timely and vital message,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mattachine story might have started in LA, but San Francisco quickly became its second home. Van Buskirk points out that five years later, in 1955, four lesbian couples here\u2014including Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon\u2014founded the Daughters of Bilitis<\/a>, the first lesbian organization in North America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their magazine, The Ladder, went nationwide, and by 1960, they were hosting the first national lesbian convention here. Meanwhile, after leadership battles tore through Mattachine in LA, Hal Call moved the organization north to San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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James Van Buskirk. Photo by Kent Taylor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Call may not have the name recognition of Hay or Martin and Lyon. Still, Van Buskirk calls him essential for appearing on Berkeley\u2019s KPFA radio in 1958 and in The Rejected<\/em>, the first documentary about gay men on American television. He would also open Adonis, the first gay bookshop in the US, and later the first gay adult theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCall is one of many important, if controversial, figures in our early history,\u201d Van Buskirk says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a city that would later give the world Folsom Street Fair<\/a> and the Castro Theatre marquee, it makes sense that even the movement\u2019s messy chapters are still rooted in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeping those stories alive has been a lifelong project for Van Buskirk. He points to one photo in particular\u2014the only known image of a Mattachine meeting, snapped secretly by John Gruber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt remains iconic,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ll also quote from his unpublished manuscript so that people can hear his motivations in his own words. The Harry Hay Papers are another essential source.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Van Buskirk, archives aren\u2019t just dusty files; they\u2019re lifelines. \u201c[Spanish philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist] George Santayana said, \u2018Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,\u2019\u201d he reads. \u201cPreserving papers not just of famous people like Hay but also of a \u2018regular Joe\u2019 like Gruber lets us understand context from original documents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even the best archives have gaps. The early record still underrepresents women, people of color, and other marginalized voices. Van Buskirk credits the women who succeeded him at the Hormel Center for pushing to fill those lacunae. In a city that has always prided itself on intersectionality, that work is far from done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what does progress look like, three-quarters of a century later? Cain sees a world transformed but unfinished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cultural, social, and legal acceptance of LGBTQ people, the existence of identifiable communities, is a world we live in, at least in the US,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the oppression, imprisonment, and murder of our people in many parts of the world is unfinished business.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Joey Cain. Photo by Gloria Mundi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

His words point to the paradox of progress: for every rainbow flag on Market Street, there are countless stories of queer lives still threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Younger activists tend to encounter this history through podcasts, films, and social media, rather than leafing through old newsletters or court transcripts. That\u2019s why Camp\u2019s \u201cQueer Serial<\/a>\u201d podcast has been so influential, layering archival audio with storytelling to make the past feel urgent. Van Buskirk says that\u2019s the point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEngaging each generation via their preferred formats is essential,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember asking in 2008 why there needed to be a Harvey Milk biopic when there was already a powerful documentary. My partner said, \u2018People don\u2019t watch documentaries.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent film Fairyland<\/em>, based on Alysia Abbott\u2019s memoir about growing up with her gay father, poet Steve Abbott, shows how San Francisco\u2019s queer history continues to ripple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHopefully, some viewers will want to read her memoir, Steve\u2019s poetry, and explore his archives,\u201d says Van Buskirk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For him, it\u2019s all part of the same lineage: Mattachine in the \u201950s, Daughters of Bilitis in the \u201960s, Milk in the \u201970s, ACT UP in the \u201980s, marriage equality in the 2000s, and Fairyland in the 2020s. The through-line is memory, courage, and the refusal to disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As They Lit the Fuse! unfolds in the Koret Auditorium, just blocks from the Tenderloin where Compton\u2019s Cafeteria riot<\/a> took place, and not far from the Castro rainbow crosswalks, the resonance will be impossible to miss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope attendees leave impressed by the courage of these pioneers, who paved the way for my generation\u2014I came out in the early \u201970s\u2014and for everyone since,\u201d says Van Buskirk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pledge the Mattachine founders wrote in 1950\u2014that no one should cross the darkness alone\u2014remains urgent in a time of anti-trans laws, book bans, and rising hate crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seventy-five years after a secret hillside meeting, San Francisco will honor that spark not as nostalgia but as fuel for the battles ahead. In this city, history comes out from behind glass\u2014it marches down Market Street every June<\/a>, it dances in leather at Folsom<\/a>, it\u2019s whispered in the stacks of the Hormel Center, and shouted from drag stages in the Tenderloin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They Lit the Fuse! isn\u2019t just about what happened on a hillside in Los Angeles. It\u2019s about what continues to happen here\u2014in the city that took that spark, fanned it into a flame, and still refuses to let it go out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THEY LIT THE FUSE! <\/strong>November 13. Koret Auditorium, SF. More info <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Joshua Rotter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua Rotter is a contributing writer for 48 Hills. He\u2019s also written for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, SF Examiner, SF Chronicle, and CNET.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Library event celebrates groundbreaking 1950 Mattachine Society, which helped shape modern queer identity. By Joshua Rotter November 4, 2025 (48hills.prg) On Veterans Day 1950, a handful of gay men hiked up a hillside in Los Angeles, in a neighborhood then called Eden Dale. Meeting in secret was risky. Being discovered could… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44906"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44907,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44906\/revisions\/44907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}