Harry Hay

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Harry Hay

Harry Hay was an american gay and labour rights activist. He is most known for pioneering gay activism with his creation of the Mattachine Society with his male friends. Later in life, he would co-found the Radical Faeries movement with Don Kilhefler. He's known to have shown consistent support for NAMBLA.

Membership in the Communist Party

Harry Hay would join the Communist Party of America in 1934 despite concerns over their views that homosexuality was a defect that came from bourgeois society. Though he would only attend fundraisers for years, he would finally become a committed member in late 1937. Hay would teach a variety of subjects during his membership from marxist theory to folk music.

Despite his work in the party, members who he admitted his sexuality to would encourage him to marry a woman. He followed this advice and married party member Anna Platky in 1938. This did not stop Harry from seeking men in local parks and feeling isolated, saying that his marriage was as if "living in an exile world."

Gay Rights Activism

Mattachine Society

Harry Hay would attend a beer bust meant to support Democratic presidential candidate Henry Wallace. There, he talked to other gay men about the creation of an organization to reform anti-gay law. He wrote a document for this theoretical organization, although no copy survived. He would show this document to his then-lover, Rudi Gernreich, who was excited by this. This would inspire the creation of the Mattachine Society.

The organization's name would be inspired by French masque groups at the suggestion of James Gruber. Ned Katz would ask Harry Hay of the origin of the name. Harry then would reply, "One masque group was known as the 'Société Mattachine.' These societies. . . were dedicated to going out into the countryside and conducting dances and rituals. . . Sometimes these dance rituals, or masques, were peasant protests against oppression. . . So we took the name Mattachine because we 1950s Gays were also a masked people. . . who might become engaged in morale building and helping ourselves and others, through struggle, to move toward total redress and change."

Harry and his lover would peruse gay beaches in Malibu and the Pacific Palisades to look for potential Mattachine Society members. They brought copies of a the Stockholm Peace petition, which called for a withdrawal of troops from Korea. They thought the radicalism of the petition would make the gay organization seem mild. They were exceptionally wrong as 500 signed the petition, but none signed up for Mattachine. Later, their efforts would finally prove justified as they gained members.

The Mattachine Society would eventually have several branches in other cities and by 1961 would form into regional groups. In 1965, the Mattachine Society would eventually be moved to organize protests at the United Nations and Whitehouse due to news of Cuban prison camps for gays. Frank Kameny and Jack Nichols would form the Washington, D.C., branch of the Mattachine Society. This chapter would eventually begin protests outside Independence Hall and the White House in demands of civil rights, such as the right to fair employment, to military service, and to teach. Later, inspired by the black civil rights movement, the Mattachine Society would organize a sip-in during 1966 at Greenwich Village.

Though most the founding members were communists, the radicalism of the organization would decline over time. As the organization grew, some became concerned over the leftism of the Society and wished to change its constitution to oppose "subversive elements" and present itself as loyal to the United States. Hay would state that he was kicked out because "I stood for us being a national minority. They didn't want that. All they wanted was to march up to Sacramento and change the law just a tiny bit."

Radical Faeries

The Radical Faeries are a network and countercultural movement without a definitive definition, perhaps due to it's anarchist inspirations. This movement was founded in 1769 by Hay in conjunction with Don Kilhefner and had its first "Spiritual Conference for Radical Fairies" in Arizona in September, 1979. The movement contains elements of anarchism, environmentalism, feminism, as well as Paganism. The movement is largely spiritual in nature.

The movement can be seen as a solution to the emptiness gay men saw both in heterosexual society and in assimilationist gay communities.

Support of NAMBLA

Though not a boylover or a member, Harry Hay was nevertheless a staunch supporter of NAMBLA. During a 1986 Los Angeles Pride, he wore a sign to protest the banning of NAMBLA from the march. He also boycotted the New York Pride in 1994 for their refusal to include NAMBLA. He spoke several times throughout the 80s and 90s at NAMBLA conferences.

At these NAMBLA conferences, he would sometimes speak on his experiences as a boy, such as on February 22, 1983. At this conference, he would recount his pursuit both of knowledge and of a man named Matt. At the 1983 conference he would dedicate his statements as being "in memory of that fourteen-year-old boy who was handled by Matt so long ago. And in memorial to Matt, I offer you my love." At a forum on October 7, 1984, in reference to his boyhood, he would be recorded as saying "I would like very much to contribute the experiences that I had at that time and give honor to the men who were there when I needed them so very desparately, and who reached out in love, and who reached out in trust, and who gave me the opportunity to learn love and trust at a very early age."

Harry Hay would be remembered by David Thorstad in his writing entitled "Harry Hay on Man/Boy Love," wherein he would state, "I considered him a friend. I was lucky to have spent more time with him than I could have hoped for, yet far less than I would have liked. . ." He would also write that "Harry stood for much more than the comments published here. But these views were also important to him, as his moving expressions of love for Matt, the man in his life as a boy, make clear. Wherever he is, I thank him for them, and offer them to posterity."

Death and Legacy

Harry Hay died at 90 years old of lung cancer on October 24th, 2002. He has been honored in several ways. He is included on the Rainbow Honor Walk in San Francisco's Castro district as well as the National LBGTQ Wall of Honor in New York City's Stonewall Inn. In 2012, the Cove Avenue Staircase was officially renamed the Mattachine Steps in honor of Harry Hay.