Influential LGBT+ People from History: Harry Hay

“I knew that I was gay in every bone of my body. So I did the only thing I could do. I started the movement.”

A radical thinker and pioneer, Harry Hay started one of the first gay rights organisations in America and was one of the first to argue homosexuals were a cultural minority and not just individuals. Hay began his life as an activist in the 1930s fighting for worker’s rights in the labour movement, becoming a staunch Marxist thinker and leader. He fought for workman’s comp, job security, medical care and social security, “all things we have now,” fellow activist Frank Pestana said.

The Communist Party eventually kicked him out, believing his homosexuality made him a “security risk”.

In 1950 Hay started the Mattachine Society, one of the first modern organisations for gay men. The group sought to protect and improve the rights of gay men. He modelled the organisation off the Communist Party, with different levels of membership which required greater levels of involvement. The group gained notoriety when in 1952 fellow founder Dale Jennings was arrested for “lewd behaviour” with another man. The group publically fought the case and the issue of police entrapment. The publicity drew in financial support and lead to a growth in volunteers.

The group set about fulfilling its four goals:

1. "Unify homosexuals isolated from their own kind";
2. "Educate homosexuals and heterosexuals toward an ethical homosexual culture paralleling the cultures of the Negro, Mexican and Jewish peoples";
3. "Lead the more socially conscious homosexual to provide leadership to the whole mass of social variants"; and
4. “Assist gays who are victimized daily as a result of oppression".

The organisation eventually spread to several cities and was key in laying the foundation for gay rights and gay equality under the law.

In 1953 Hay was removed from the group, ironically, because of his Communist views. He remained an LGBT+ activist, returning to open the LA chapter of the Gay Liberation Front.

Hay died in 2002 with his partner, John Burnside, by his side.

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