>From: Jim Clifford >Date: Mon, 25 Apr 94 15:05:33 EDT PRESS RELEASE EARLY GAY ACTIVISTS RE-UNITE FOR STONEWALL 25 April 20, 1994 - For Immediate Release A celebration of the activists of the Gay Liberation Front who started the modern-day gay liberation movement will take place during Stonewall 25, the week-long celebrations surrounding the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall bar rebellion in June 1969. While several homophile organizations were in existence in 1969, and gays had fought back against police harassment before, what made the Stonewall Rebellion significant was the strong national movement that it began. Gay Liberation Front in New York, started immediately after the riot, was the first militant organized response, and GLF groups quickly appeared across the country and around the world. The Women's, Anti-War, and Anti-Racism movements had set the stage: GLF was where it came together for lesbians and gays. It was in GLF meetings that ``coming out'' was first defined as a political act. Centuries of fear and repression were examined and faced, and many courageous actions were taken to push back the boundaries of the closet. ``Out of the Closets and Into the Streets!'' became the watchword of a new political movement. GLF organized the first anniversary march of thousands of open gays and lesbians up Sixth Avenue in New York City, demonstrating their new-found political strength. It adapted the technique of ``consciousness raising'' from the women's movement, held demontrations to bring the issue of gay rights into the public consciousness, began the first gay community center in NYC, and made strategic alliances with many other movements on the political left. Although the group had a lifespan of only a few years, the issues that it identified and struggled with are very much a part of the issues that the gay movement and society still face today. A two-day program is planned at New York University, on Friday and Saturday, June 24--25, 1994, sponsored by the Association of Lesbian and Gay Faculty, Administrators, and Staff (ALGFAS) at NYU and organized by 4 early pioneers in New York's and Chicago's GLFs, Jim Clifford, Steven Dansky, Murray Edelman and Henry Wiemhoff. A group of filmmakers working on a film recording the history of GLF in New York will be on hand, both to show a short segment of footage that they have already shot for this documentary film, as well as to capture additional footage of this historic two-day event. A call is out to all activists that participated in any of these early Gay Liberation Front organizations to attend a reception and reunion on Friday evening, June 24th. Then, on Saturday June 25th, there will be a program of panel discussions entitled ``Gay Liberation: From Rebellion to Activism, Then and Now,'' addressing the meaning of the GLF experience. Saturday's program is open to the public, with a minimum donation of 5.00 requested at the door. The first part of the program,``Gay Liberation in the Beginning,'' will be held from 1pm to 3pm and will discuss the homophobic climate in New York in 1969, the seeds of GLF in the left, and the impact of GLF in America and around the world. From 3:30 until 5pm, the panel ``Gay Liberation into the 21st Century'' will concentrate on what the early struggles for gay liberation have to say about the gay and lesbian movement today and into the future. The intention of the two-day program is both to commemorate our history and also to bring the wisdom and experience of the past together with the people who are active in the gay and lesbian movement today. Saturday's program will be held at the NYU Theater, 35 West 4th Street. For more information about the program or to RSVP to the reunion, contact GLF 25th Reunion, c/o Persona Productions, PO Box 14022, San Francisco, CA 94114, (415) 775-6143 CONTACT: Prof. James Clifford New York University (212) 998-0803 jclifford@stern.nyu.edu