Gays and Lesbians Peacefully Protesting

As I set out to research this topic, I realized there is more out there about this subject than I ever realized. Quite frankly, I am surprised that I didn’t know about all of the gay and lesbian people who were involved in anti-war and peace movements until now. Because I found so much information on this topic, I am going to try to include a little bit about how members of the LGBT community impacted historical events from the 1920’s to one of the most recent wars in Iraq.

The article “Peace Activism and GLBT Rights” from the journal Gay & Lesbian Review talked about the involvement of gay and lesbian figures in anti-war demonstrations and protests. The War Resisters League, or WRL, was founded in 1923 by two lesbians named Tracy Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon. The main reason that these women formed this league is because they did not agree with the events that took place during World War I. These were together for over sixty years and were very involved in peace movements and social justice activism.

Bayard Rustin was a gay African-American peace activist who did not respond to a draft summons and ended up in prison for over two years because of it. He did not do this because he was afraid to go to war. He did this because he did not believe in the violence and the death that war brings. In 1953, he joined the WRL staff and ended up working there for over ten years. Rustin “helped launch the social justice magazine Liberation, which published works by queer pacifists such as Paul Goodman.” Queer pacifist were homosexuals who were opposed to war and tried to communicate their feelings to others through writing, which is obviously one of the least violent ways a person can express their feelings.

During the Vietnam War period a protest occurred at the Whitehall Street Induction Center in Manhattan. It happened in the year 1964 and was organized by homosexuals to show “their disgust and objection to the Vietnam War and their anger toward openly gay soldiers being given what was called a ‘blue discharge.’” (A blue discharge meant that they were dishonorably dismissed for homosexual acts or for being homosexuals). This was a situation that divided some of the “homophile groups” because some of them wanted to focus on protesting that homosexuals were being kicked out of the military, while others thought that protesting the war itself was the most important focus.

The article “Anti-War Movements” from the journal Parameters discusses the formation of a group in the 60’s called the Gay Liberation Front, or GLF.  According to the article: “In April 1971, gay liberation groups in fourteen states and more than fifty cities endorsed contingents for massive bicoastal antiwar protests in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. In what The Advocate called ‘one of the largest concentrations of gay power ever assembled’." Three thousand gay people were involved in some of the smaller anti-war protests carried out by this group, and one of their protests, which took place in Golden Gate Park, involved around 10,000 members of the LGBT community.

     In the year 2003, ten million people protested against the Bush administrations plan to attack Iraq. According to the article: On March 20, the day after the invasion of Iraq began, GLBT people were well represented among the thousands of activists who participated in direct action and civil disobedience in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and elsewhere. This showed me that, even though it may not be a highly-publicized aspect of peace protests, members of the LGBT community have been involved in them throughout history, and will probably continue to do so in the future. Many anti-war groups that involve members of the LGBT community still exist today, and will probably continue to exist in the future. Especially since there are so many people who are homosexual or transgender and are opposed to war and the way the military treats members of the LGBT community.

              -Crystal Feska-

                                 

                          Works Cited

Hailey, Elizabeth. "Peace, Activism, and GLBT Rights." Gay &

Lesbian Review 11.5 (2005): 2-30. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.

Neilsen, Robert. "Anti-War Movements." Parameters 12.8 (2012):

n. pag. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.