Friday, October 23, 2015

Harry Hay~Leader in the American Gay Rights movement


Harry Hay is one of the most significant people in the "liberation movements" of mid-20th century America.  Most people have never heard of him because Gay history is erased as quickly as it occurs.  
I hope you enjoy this re-cap of Harry's life.


HARRY HAY, American activist  http://www.harryhay.com

Born:

Died:

NicknameThe Duchess
A leader in the Gay Rights movement in the United States, known for founding the Mattachine Society in 1950 and the Radical Faeries in 1979. He was raised as a Catholic.

Harry was born in 1912 in the coastal town of Worthing, Sussex, England where he grew up until his parents emigrated to California in 1919. Starting in Los Angeles in 1950, Hay worked with a handful of supporters to found the Mattachine Society. At this time, nineteen years before the Stonewall Riots, virtually no Gays or Lesbians were publicly out, it was illegal for homosexuals to gather in public, and the American Psychiatric Association defined homosexuality as a mental illness. Very slowly, he gathered members to this group. The Mattachine Society met in secret, with members often accompanied by a female friend to prevent being publicly identified as Gay. Though Henry Gerber’s Gay Rights group The Society for Human Rights had briefly flowered in Chicago twenty years earlier, it was quickly shut down by authorities. Hay's successful launching of a lasting national Gay network makes him a plausible entry for the founder of the American Gay rights movement.


Although Harry Hay claimed 'never to have even heard of the earlier Gay liberation struggle in Germany - by the people around Adolph Brand, Magnus Hirshfeld and Leontine Sagan - he is known to have talked about it with European emigrés in America including Mattachine co-founder Rudi Gernreich. (However, Gernreich arrived in America at age 14, and Hay had already written his Gay manifesto when they met).

Hay (upper left) with members of the Mattachine Society in a rare group photograph. With Hay are (l-r) Konrad Stevens, Dale Jennings, Rudi Gernreich, Stan Witt, Bob Hull, Chuck Rowland (in glasses), Paul Bernard. Photo by James Gruber, about 1951.
A married man (beard/wife Anita Platky) and a member of the Communist Party USA, Hay composed the first manifesto of the American Gay rights movement in 1948, writing:
We, the Androgynes of the world, have formed this responsible corporate body to demonstrate by our efforts that our physiological and psychological handicaps need be no deterrent in integrating 10 percent of the world's population towards the constructive social progress of mankind.

In 1950, in the midst of America’s most conservative decade, Harry Hay started the Mattachine Society, the country’s first successful gay liberation organization. Harry’s ideas would become the guiding principles of the US gay rights movement. 

Harry began his activist life in the 1930’s fighting for worker’s rights in the labor movement. Soon after meeting fellow activist Will Geer, Harry became an active member of the Communist Party and a celebrated Marxist teacher. While later abandoned by most activists, at that time the Party was on the cutting edge of social change in the US. As fellow activist Frank Pestana says, “They were fighting for workmen’s comp, job security, medical care, social security - all the things that we have now.” 

It was Harry’s experience organizing in these activist movements that gave him the tools he needed to create a secret, underground homosexual organization in Los Angeles. In a climate of extreme oppression, Mattachine provided enough safety and security for homosexuals to gather together and take steps towards their own liberation. The Mattachine Society would eventually spread to major cities across the country.

He soon dispensed with the apologetic language and ideas entirely. Though it may seem dated today, the group was very radical compared to the rest of society at the time of its beginnings. It and Hay were among the first to advance the argument that Gay people represented a "cultural minority" as well as being just individuals, and even called for public marches of homosexuals, predicting later Gay pride parades. Hay's concept of the "cultural minority" came directly from his Marxist studies, and the rhetoric he and his colleague Charles Rowland employed often reflected the militancy of Communist tradition. As the Mattachine Society grew with chapters around the country, the organization saw the Communist ties of its founders, including Hay, as a threat during that McCarthyite witch-hunt era, and expelled them from leadership. The organization took a more cautious tack so that by the time of the Stonewall riots the Mattachine Society came to be seen by many as stodgy and assimilationist.


Hay later became an outspoken critic of Gay assimilationism and went on to help found both Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition and the Gay men's group the Radical Faeries, as well as being active in the Native American movements.

A Faerie gathering in 1986, with Hay in bottom left corner
"We pulled ugly green frog skin of heterosexual conformity over us, and that's how we got through school with a full set of teeth," Hay once explained. "We know how to live through their eyes. We can always play their games, but are we denying ourselves by doing this? If you're going to carry the skin of conformity over you, you are going to suppress the beautiful prince or princess within you.”

One of his first lovers in the early '30s was actor Will Geer, who found fame as "Grandpa Walton" on The Walton’s. Hay later wrote about their political activism and how he and Geer were present at the San Francisco General Strike in July 1934. Hay, along with Roger Barlow and LeRoy Robbins directed a short film Even As You and I (1937) featuring Hay, Barlow, and filmmaker Hy Hirsh.


Harry in the 1980s

In 1963, at age 51, he met an inventor named John Burnside, who became his life partner. They lived first in Los Angeles, and later in a Pueblo Indian reserve in New Mexico. After returning to Los Angeles to organize the Radical Faerie movement with Don Kilhefner and Mitch Walker, the couple moved to San Francisco, where Hay died of lung cancer at age 90. Burnside passed in September 2008 of brain cance
Harry Hay in September 2000
Hay was the subject of the 2002 documentary by Eric Slade, "Hope along the Wind: The Life of Harry Hay" (2002). He also appeared in other documentaries such as "Word is Out" (1978).

*Thanks to our good friends at The White Crane Institute and gaywisdom.org. Are you getting their FREE daily emails on gay history?
(go to: http://www.gaywisdom.org/list.html to sign up now!)
And if you can you help support their important work for our community with any amount...please do!

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

A White Guy on "Privilege"

Greg is from the Midwest, grew up in Nebraska, lived in northwest Arkansas (the hills where the Waltons of Wal-Mart and other wealthy folks live) and now resides in southern California.  He has a Bachelors in Philosophy, is a trained chef, and works in social services.

He is also a very great father to his son Logan, seen below.



Greg sent me his thoughts (below) on the reality of "White privilege" in American history and current American life.  I am sharing them, with his permission.  
****************************************************

Robin Morgan is a poet and an author and is using poetic language for artistic and metaphoric effect. Don't take it literally.
“My white skin disgusts me. My passport disgusts me. They are the marks of an insufferable privilege bought at the price of others’ agony. If I could peel myself inside out I would be glad. If I could become part of the oppressed I would be free.” Robin Morgan, a key radical feminist member of the American Women’s Movement

This was posted to facebook, with a meme that stated "This si why Feminist are scary". 

Below are my thoughts on the subject. 

Yes, we (feminists) are scary!
Being born an US citizen is a privilege and grants us certain benefits in this world. It's not very fair that a baby born in a third world nation will never be given those benefits. That baby could try to earn them, but it's hard and takes real effort. You and I personally did nothing to earn them. We got em. That foreign baby doesn't. That baby is of equal value and worth and yet we inherently have it better and easier in life.

It is shameful that the human race hasn't resolved this global inequality yet. It is shameful that many people on this bountiful planet are starving, especially as so much food is wasted. It's shameful that American consumers rely on low prices that still generate massive profits for the 1% leaders of American corporations that utilize third world slave wage labor.

American Privilege is real. White Privilege is real. So is Male Privilege. And it shouldn't be. 
That's what feminism is all about, eliminating privilege and advocating for equality.

Acknowledging your own privilege and actively recognizing that others do not get to benefit by the nature of their birth is the very heart of feminism: seeing all men and women as equals and advocating for that ideal.

Those who reject the label of feminism and reject the very concept of privilege usually do not understand the word equality in this context. They incorrectly think that political and social equality means that all people are identical. They obviously are not. 

Think of it as of equal value, worth, and limited only by personal differences.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."
Notice it did NOT say All men are created identical! And obviously, the Founding Fathers didn't think women and black people were their equals, because they saw them as inferiors and subordinates.

The Founding Fathers thought of blacks as 3/5ths a person and some owned slaves and some even had sex with those slaves while denying their very humanity. Thus, bestiality with these 3/5ths manbeasts. The Fathers were highly flawed. And they were wise enough to accept that possibility and build in the ability to amend the Constitution.

A majority of them agreed to the 3/5ths and all of them signed off on it, with a minority of them compromising their own beliefs. A bunch of white men decided everyone else was worth less than they were. The rest of the white men across the newborn nation benefited from it too, for many generations to come. 

That... is white privilege!


The dominant group in almost all areas of life in America is white. Look at the latest award shows for actors. Almost zero non-white nominees. Minority groups of all kinds can only gain power and status in society by banding together, along with allies. And those in power recognizing their unfair treatment of those minorities. 

This isn't about racism, it goes beyond that. It's about the abuse of power and the effort it takes for the less powerful to rise up. Compare it to the labor unions against the owners and corporations. If they don't organize and band together, the powerful mistreat them. 


The powerful have no ethical need to band together and it is wrong for them to be exclusionary. What's the purpose of that... to pool even more power? That's White Power in a nutshell.


***************************************************************************

I (Ed Garren, blog host) would add to this that the other more personal element of "privilege" is that those who are privileged never have to ask the question "Do THEY let people like me do that?"  Members of minority groups live with that question constantly, along with "Will I be safe?"  "Will my children be safe?" etc.  Most "majority" people never even think about these issues, much less feel constrained by them.  

This is a constant issue in Mental Health for members of minority groups, and completely off the charts for majority folks.  This is why it is called "Privilege."
*************************************************************
Greg read this post, noted my closing comments (above) and sent me this to add:


I have a white friend in Albuquerque who is married to a Black Woman. They have three children obviously of mixed heritage. He worries about exactly those things when it comes to his kids. Are they safe. What discrimination are they going to face. He has had to deal with a considerable amount of it himself just by walking around in public with his wife. 

I have another friend in Phoenix that is married to an Indian, he worries about the same things and has endured the same level of discrimination,

I was talking to a lady from Oklahoma who lives out here went out on a few dates, we really were hitting it off. Then one day something set her off about the Native tribes of the America's and she went on a tirade about how they aren't even humans less then animals etc. etc. I finally had to stop her and tell her that I was part Native American, that my great great grandmother on my fathers side was a Cherokee survivor of the trail of tears, and with that I walked out of the restaurant and have never spoken to her since. 

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Sleeve Gastrectomy April 14, 2015

I am pleased to announce that in two weeks, I am "giving birth to the baby" (the 80+ pounds I've carried for WAY too long).

The last time I got up to Runyon Canyon, with much huffing and puffing.  This photo tells it all.  It's time to get rid of this extra weight !!  310 pounds, 42" waist.
**********************************************************
After over a year of research and talking to many people who have had the surgery, and now that I finally have Medicare, and a good supplement policy, I am having a Sleeve Gastrectomy.

The reasons are best stated on the USC Keck Medicine website:


Obesity is a serious disease with symptoms that build slowly over an extended period of time. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) define morbid obesity as:
  • Being 100 pounds or more above your ideal body weight
  • Or, having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or greater
  • Or, having a BMI of 35 or greater and one or more co-morbid condition
The disease of morbid obesity interferes with basic physical functions such as breathing or walking. Long-term implications of the disease include shorter life expectancy, serious health consequences in the form of weight-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and a lower quality of life with fewer economic and social opportunities.
I meet all of the above criteria.  And my left knee is bone on bone on one side, so walking is both difficult and painful.

One of the major benefits of the surgery is that in most cases, the Type 2 diabetes goes away instantly.  

For any of you who love to eat, we often quip that our stomach "has a mind of it's own."  It turns out that is probably true.  Apparently there are nerve endings in the stomach that regulate energy, blood sugar, appetite, etc.  By removing most of the stomach, all of those things change.

Here is the website for the hospital:  http://weightloss.keckmedicine.org

Here is information about the surgery and an animation about how it is performed: 

http://www.surgery.usc.edu/uppergi-general/bariatric-glossary-sleevegastrectomy.html


This is NOT a "By-Pass" surgery.  No tubes are cut and reconnected (as in traditional by-passes).  

This surgery has fewer complications than Gall Bladder surgery.  

My brother Gene is coming out to be with me for the event.  I am looking forward to seeing him and having time together.    

Please keep me in your prayers, good thoughts, etc.

Here are some photos of me in earlier years when my body weight was around 200 pounds.  Ironically, due to low self esteem, I felt "fat and ugly" even when I wasn't.  

Thinnest I ever have been (as an adult) 185 pounds.  Note the very bony wrists, waist was 34"
Age 27

Around 200 pounds, 36" waist, age 31

Age 29, around 205 pounds, 36" waist.

Please celebrate with me as I begin this chapter of my journey and reclaim my health.  

Thanks,  Edward George Garren

Before, 42" pants, 300 #                                                   


2 months later, 38" pants, 260#  My weight is stable here so far, will have to push to lose more.

September 2019

September 2019 After some ups and downs, I decided to make a "push" to lose more weight.  The surgery is postured as a "tool" and it is a very powerful tool that no amount of "willpower" can match.  It remains one of the best gifts I have ever given myself and I recommend anyone who has serious weight issues consider having it.  

===================================================================================

December 2019 UPDATE:

I hit a plateau at 260# that would not budge, mostly because I would get "triggered" by food and it was difficult to resist cutting back to less than 2,000 calories a day, which is necessary for me to lose weight.  I had a work up at the weight loss clinic at USC in Pasadena and the doctor suggested I try a relatively new medication, "Contrave" which is a combination of Naltrexone HCI and Bupropion HCI.  Each is used to curb drug cravings for addicts.  Food IS an addiction, and so far, the medication IS working.  I've been able to cut my food intake significantly, and I've lost 7 pounds in 2 weeks.  In my youth, I was around 200 pounds, so that is my new goal weight, which is in line with the weight charts.  


Losing the next 50 pounds should eliminate any need for blood pressure medicine, reduce or eliminate my chronic edema (swelling in my lower legs and feet), eliminate most of my joint pain, and increase my energy levels (even more).  I take a LOT of vitamins to compensate for not eating much.  "Gummy" adult vitamins are best, as they digest and absorb very easily.