The Committee for Homosexual Freedom was created in April 1969, out of a desire to form a new radical gay coaltion. Leo Laurence, one of the founding members, had previously worked as an editor for Vector, a gay publication from The Society for Individual Rights (SIR). Laurence rejected SIR’s single-issue mindset in an article titled “Homo Revolt ‘Don’t Hide It’” in the Berkeley Barb. He called for a radical alliance between the gay movement and Black Panther Party in Oakland, the anti-war movement, and women’s rights.
It’s the young militant gays who are going to be the leaders, according Laurence. He used much of the terminology of the Black Revolution as he rapped. “If the uptightness of the present leaders breaks the revolution,” he said, “then they must go.” Any means necessary must be used to gain gays their personal rights, he said. (1)
The group’s first major focus was on protesting businesses that practiced discriminatory hiring and firing practices, allowed police raids, and promoted anti-gay rhetoric. In April, 1969, the group protested The San Francisco Steamship Lines Company for firing Gale Whittington, Leo Laurence’s boyfriend, for being a homosexual.
![Out of the bars into the streets. John James. San Francisco’s police, courts, and jails have piled one injustice after another onto the area’s new movement of young homosexual militants, and the main result is that the Committee for Homosexual Freedom is growing faster than ever. Trouble began last Friday at a legal picket line in front of the San Francisco Examiner. After an hour without incident someone threw ink on the demonstrators from the Examiner building. Police made no effort to catch the inkthrower [sic]. But when the sixty picketers continued marching, causing the ink to track on the sidewalk, and when some of them made hand-prints with the ink on the walls and doors of the Examiner building, police moved into the line to make an arrest. A tug of war developed and then the Tactical Squad rushed in, kicking and clubbing demonstrators and singling out photographers and apparent leaders and spokesmen. Twelve were arrested, six with felony charges of battery on an officer. The rest of the picketers went to City Hall and a delegation of three went to the Mayor’s office, where Alioto’s chief assistant told them to take their complaint to the police. The three sat in, and were arrested five minutes after closing time on three misdemeanor charges each. The final arrest so far occurred Monday when Pat Brown of CHF was sentenced to two days for contempt when he shouted “power to the people” in court. Before the arrests CHF had no lawyers, defense funds, or bail information system because it had never had trouble with the police and planned no civil disobedience, and on Friday night many of its leaders were in jail. But the organization’s unusual decentralized structure had given it outstanding depth of leadership, and by Monday morning friendly contacts had been established with three candidates for Supervisor, top defense lawyers including Terence Hallinan who appeared in court Monday morning, several well-known clergymen, a friendly bondsman, and most of the straight and underground media in the Bay Area. Also over the weekend hundreds of dollars were raised and thousands of leaflets produced and distributed in gay bars in San Francisco and Oakland. All but three of the fifteen were out of jail by Monday morning and efforts were underway to get medical treatment for the two most seriously injured who were still confined and had been refused medical treatment in jail despite their repeated requests. One of them had been given four APC tablets by the jail doctor for two broken ribs, and told he would not be treated but must wait till he got out and then see his own doctor. During its several months of existence CHF has been a participant, member-centered organization, requiring for voting membership five hours of public work in its activities (jail time and streets counted), and electing a new chairman every three weeks; the ideal is that everyone should have leadership experience. CHF with at least 60 voting members is the largest of several new-trend homosexual organizations in the Bay Area, others being Gay Liberation, to explore cultural and life styles with special attention to communications media; Institute of Homosexual Liberation, or political activities; Gay Community. which is starting a scientific and literary journal, Gay Liberation Front, the Berkeley equivalent of CHF and of Gay Liberation, the San Francisco Free Press, a gay underground newspaper giving special attention and support to women’s liberation, and Gay Liberation Theatre, perhaps the most militant and active group, which has created and performed gay guerilla theatre and gay comedy before audiences totaling thousands. These organizations have developed in the last several months and represent a new style in the younger homosexual community. Their members are openly and publicly homosexual and identify with revolutionary liberation movements. Within the organizations are strong factions supporting Marxian socialism, armed self-defense, and nonviolence. The issue of nonviolence vs. self-defense is an emotional one which could split CHF. By contrast, the older homosexual organizations, such as Society for Individual Rights (SIR), Mattachine Society, Tavern Guild, and Daughters of Bilitis, are non-political associations including conservatives, liberals, and many nonpolitical as well as radicals. They seldom if ever take part as organizations in demonstrations and they maintain a style of middle-class respectability, often calling themselves “homophile” instead of “homosexual” organizations (“homophile,” meaning working for equal rights for homosexuals, is avoided by CHF as not direct and open enough). A conflict developed between SIR and the new organizations over SIR’s tactical refusal to give organizational support to CIIF’s drive to place on next June’s ballot a proposition which if passed would officially commit the city of San Francisco to oppose discrimination against homosexuals. CHF also sent colorful picketers to oppose the annual Halloween Beau Arts drag ball sponsored by the Tavern Guild. In the festive spirit of that occasion everyone was friendly, even the police. And there is little doubt that the old and new organizations can cooperate concerning what happened in the last week, despite all previous disagreements. Although members of CHF have called gay bars “walk-in closets,” referring to “closet queens” or homosexuals who hide their homosexuality, the picketing of the Examiner was protesting an article attacking gay bars and breakfast clubs in such language as “types who undulate and wiggle,” “sick, sad revels,” “queer street,” and “semimales with flexible wrists and hips.” It was not the first CHF picket line. Last May there were smaller lines daily at noon against States Steamship Company, and a boycott and Saturday picketing of Tower Records, both of. which had fired an employee after learning that he was homosexual. CHF demands dignity for homosexuals as for other minority groups and is seeing to it that homosexuals cannot be attacked without penalty. “The possibilities are fantastic,” an early leaflet said. “The force of all homosexuals acting together means power which no institution can ignore. Only then will we gain our true freedom, not just closet privileges. In other words, the homosexual fight for freedom needs you. Come, join us.”](http://revolution.berkeley.edu/assets/Screen-Shot-2020-05-11-at-3.10.58-PM-192x71.png){kind=small}
The Committee for Homosexual Freedom’s organizational structure was decentralized and member-run. In order to vote, members had to do five hours of participation in its events, including “jail time and streets [protests]” Additionally, the leadership structure they did have was fluid, as leaders were elected every three weeks, designed to offer leadership opportunity to all members
“CHF with at least 60 voting members is the largest of several new-trend homosexual organizations in the Bay Area, others being Gay Liberation, to explore cultural and life styles with special attention to communications media; Institute of Homosexual Liberation, for political activities; Gay. Community. which is starting a scientific and literary journal, Gay Liberation Front, the Berkeley equivalent of CHF and of Gay Liberation, the San Francisco Free Press, a gay underground newspaper giving special attention and support to women’s liberation, and Gay Liberation Theatre, perhaps the most militant and active group, which has created and performed gay guerrilla theatre and gay comedy before audiences totaling thousands.” (2)
After the Stonewall riots on June 28, 1969, and the subsequent formation of first Gay Liberation Front in New York, GLF groups around the country were created. As the Committee for Homosexual Freedom was already organized, the group voted to change their name to the Gay Liberation Front in August of that year. By October, they were involved with the Purple Hand Protests on October 31, 1969 at the offices of The San Francisco Examiner. They were also involved with organizing for legal aid for the individuals arrested during those protests.
Alongside the Commitee for Homosexual Freedom, Leo Laurence and Gale Whittington formed the Institute for Homosexual Liberation, a group aimed at creating a network of gay liberation organizations across the country, and aligning itself with other revolutionary groups. In October 1969, the group set out to write a “Gay Manifesto,” a document that would outline the goals of the Gay Liberation movement.
Call for a Gay Manifesto