The Effeminists was a political and social advocacy group composed primarily of gay men in the 1970s who concerned themselves with allying the gay liberation movement with women and the feminist movement at the time. The group was borne out of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), when some members expressed disagreement with the ways in which women were being treated by the gay liberation movement. [1] [2] [3] [4]
In the 1970s, groups such as the Lavender Menace arose out of many queer women's discomfort with the treatment of lesbian and bisexual women within the gay liberation front. Some men began to be more outspoken about this, such as those who formed the Effeminists. [2] [4]
The Effeminists was a consciousness-raising group born out of the Gay Liberation Front in 1969, by GLF members Kenneth Pitchford, John Knoebel, and Steven Dansky. They established themselves with a radical manifesto written in prose by Pitchford, titled "The Flaming Faggots" [sic]. [5] [6] They formed a more autonomous group, separate to the GLF, in response to the misogynistic views they alleged were present within the GLF. [5] [3]
In the manifesto, Pitchford expressed his views that many leftist groups, including gay liberation groups, had pervasive misogyny embedded within them. He particularly pointed out his belief that many male leftists were misogynistic towards women within their organizations. [6]
The Effeminists raised the need for a group of radical, anti-heteropatriarchy gay men within the gay liberation movement, as they alleged that the GLF was having issues with sexism. [3] [4] Female members of the Gay Liberation Front were increasingly pulling back their involvement, due to the alleged misogyny. The Effeminists pointed out that poor treatment and sexual harassment towards women in the movement was occurring in many New Left organizing spaces, and that without addressing it, liberation could not be achieved. [4] [7] [8]
The group focused on communication and increasing visibility of the issues they concerned themselves with, rather than recruiting. In the summer of 1970, effeminist literature was distributed by GLF activist Allen Young; then in 1973 another manifesto was published in an effeminists-specific magazine, called "Double-F: A Magazine of Effiminism". [2] Two years prior, in 1971, University of California, Berkeley students Jim Rankin and Nick Benton launched a newspaper entitled, "The Effeminist". [9] As a small group, literature distribution was important to the Effeminists, as it enabled them to increase their reach to others within the gay liberation movement and the New Left through magazines or essays. [2] [9] [10]
Steven F. Dansky shared that, in hindsight, the group seemed to have focused far more on this literature distribution rather than recruitment; while this contributed to the group's short span of existence, it allowed for their viewpoint to be spread more broadly across the area. [2] [9]
The Effeminists expressed critiques of straight male leftists who embraced hyper-masculine or machismo identities. They centralized their concerns around the issues of misogyny and homophobia, but also remained explicitly anti-imperialist, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist. In addition to being anti-sexist, this was in line with the broader views and political interests of the New Left. [2] [6] [9] [11]
The Effeminists also expressed concerns and critiques of the ways in which gay men experience masculinities and identity, such as the difficulties gay men face to achieve hegemonic masculinity. [2] They also acknowledged the struggles heterosexual men faced, too, for not being able to express affection towards other men. [6]
Kenneth Pitchford and other members of the Effeminist movement then became involved across the United States. Kenneth Pitchford, for example, traveled across the US for a short period of time to spread the word of the Effeminists. [6] [11] One such example of this is his involvement in the Flaming Faggots Collective's activism at The New College of Florida in fall of 1971. [11] This particular satellite group staged a protest at a speaking engagement at the college with Dr. Benjamin DeMott. [12] Members of the The Flaming Faggots Collective[ sic ] alleged his political opinions of feminist and gay topics to be homophobic and misogynistic. [13] After being shut out of a board of trustees meeting, students walked along the seawall to attend. [10] [11] [12] This is one of a few demonstrations conducted by Effeminist groups.
The Effeminist movement as a whole expressed views (particularly within their written literature) that were anti-camp, anti-transvestism[ sic ], and anti-sado-masochism. Their later analysis of gender expression, gender identity, and sex led them to conclude that the issue at hand is much more complex than they originally interpreted it. [3] [6] [14]
Many years later, leaders such as Pitchford and Dansky expressed that those views were incorrect; particularly, that transgender people have an expanded, rather than a reduced, understanding of gender. [2] [14] In an essay reflecting on the Effeminists, Steve Dansky recalls, "I found their [transgender people’s] narratives compelling and challenged the social construction of an immutable binary gendered world. On rethinking transgender these decades later, it's evident that we, as effeminists, had a very elementary understanding of the construction of gender". [2]
In a 2010 interview, Pitchford shared that, "...in this period in my life, I am re-examining, very closely, the anti-tranvestisim [sic] ... And, I'm trying to look at those things, and see that, perhaps, there's another way to look at them... So, my thinking is changing a lot... A lot of the things, you know, the trimmings, are not right." [14]
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Although there is not a primary or an overarching central organization that represents all LGBT people and their interests, numerous LGBT rights organizations are active worldwide. The first organization to promote LGBT rights was the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, founded in 1897 in Berlin.
Misogyny is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practised for thousands of years. It is reflected in art, literature, human societal structure, historical events, mythology, philosophy, and religion worldwide.
The Stonewall riots, also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall, were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Patrons of the Stonewall, other Village lesbian and gay bars, and neighborhood street people fought back when the police became violent. The riots are widely considered the watershed event that transformed the gay liberation movement and the twentieth-century fight for LGBT rights in the United States.
Faggot, often shortened to fag, is a usually pejorative term used to refer to gay men. In American youth culture around the turn of the 21st century, its meaning extended as a broader reaching insult more related to masculinity and group power structure.
Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK and Canada. The GLF provided a voice for the newly-out and newly-radicalized gay community, and a meeting place for a number of activists who would go on to form other groups, such as the Gay Activists Alliance and Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in the US. In the UK and Canada, activists also developed a platform for gay liberation and demonstrated for gay rights. Activists from both the US and UK groups would later go on to found or be active in groups including ACT UP, the Lesbian Avengers, Queer Nation, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and Stonewall.
The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride. In the feminist spirit of the personal being political, the most basic form of activism was an emphasis on coming out to family, friends, and colleagues, and living life as an openly lesbian or gay person.
Pro-feminism refers to support of the cause of feminism without implying that the supporter is a member of the feminist movement. The term is most often used in reference to men who actively support feminism and its efforts to bring about the political, economic, cultural, personal, and social equality of women with men. A number of pro-feminist men are involved in political activism, most often in the areas of gender equality, women's rights, and ending violence against women.
Morris Kight was an American gay rights pioneer and peace activist. He is considered one of the original founders of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement in the United States.
Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) was a gay, gender non-conforming and transvestite street activist organization founded in 1970 by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, subculturally-famous New York City drag queens of color. STAR was a radical political collective that also provided housing and support to homeless LGBT youth and sex workers in Lower Manhattan. Rivera and Johnson were the "mothers" of the household, and funded the organization largely through sex work. STAR is considered by many to be a groundbreaking organization in the queer liberation movement and a model for other organizations.
The Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire (FHAR) was a loose Parisian movement founded in 1971, resulting from a union between lesbian feminists and gay activists. If the movement could be considered to have leaders, they were Guy Hocquenghem and Françoise d'Eaubonne, while other members included Christine Delphy, Daniel Guérin, and Laurent Dispot. It had disappeared by 1976. Surviving early activists also include painter and surrealistic photographer Yves Hernot, now living in Sydney, Australia.
Nicholas F. "Nick" Benton is the founder, owner, and editor of the Falls Church News-Press, a weekly newspaper distributed free in Falls Church, Virginia, and in parts of Fairfax County, Arlington County, and Washington D.C.
LGBT movements in the United States comprise an interwoven history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied movements in the United States of America, beginning in the early 20th century and influential in achieving social progress for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and transsexual people.
On 9 September 1971 the UK Gay Liberation Front (GLF) undertook an action to disrupt the launch of the Church-based morality campaign Nationwide Festival of Light at the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. A number of well-known British figures were involved in the disrupted rally, and the action involved the use of "radical drag" drawing on the Stonewall riots and subsequent GLF actions in the US. Peter Tatchell, gay human rights campaigner, was involved in the action which was one of a series which influenced the development of gay activism in the UK, received media attention at the time, and is still discussed by some of those involved.
Stonewall Nation was the informal name given to a proposition by gay activists to establish a separatist community in Alpine County, California in 1970. The small population of the county and the election rules for California counties at the time suggested to these activists that if they could induce a relatively small number of gay people to move to the county, they could recall the county government and replace it with an all-gay slate.
The Gouines Rouges are a French radical feminist lesbian movement.
Jim Fouratt is a gay rights activist, actor, and former nightclub impresario. He is best known for his involvement with the Stonewall riots and as co-founder of the Danceteria.
Martha Shelley is an American activist, writer, and poet best known for her involvement in lesbian feminist activism.
Arthur Scott Evans was an early gay rights advocate and author, best known for his 1978 book Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture. Politically active in New York City in the 1960s and early 1970s, he and his partner began a homestead in Washington state in 1972, then later moved to San Francisco where he became a fixture in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. In his later years, Evans remained politically active and continued as a translator and academic. His 1997 book Critique of Patriarchal Reason argued that misogyny had influenced "objective" fields such as logic and physics.
Men Going Their Own Way is an anti-feminist, misogynistic, mostly-online community advocating for men to separate themselves from women and from a society which they believe has been corrupted by feminism. The community is a part of the manosphere, a collection of anti-feminist websites and online communities that also includes the men's rights movement, incels, and pickup artists.
Misogynist terrorism is terrorism which is motivated by the desire to punish women. It is an extreme form of misogyny, the policing of women's compliance to patriarchal gender expectations. Misogynist terrorism uses mass indiscriminate violence in an attempt to avenge nonconformity with those expectations or to reinforce the perceived superiority of men.
