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Gay Liberation Front

The Knitting Circle: Movement

In 1969, after theStonewall Rebellion, the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) sprang up in New York City.

An early statement of the gay liberationist's aims wasCarl Wittman's,"e;A Gay Manifesto"e;of 1969, which condemned the mimicry of 'straight'; society, oppression, self-oppression, and role dichotomies, while favouring gay ghettoes, if reorganised as 'liberation zones', together with coalitions with women, blacks, Hispanics, and radicals.

Versions of the GLF grew in a number of countries.

In the summer of 1970, afterAubrey Walterhad completed his sociology degree at the London School of Economics (LSE), he went to New York, having read about the GLF inThe Times. There he metBob Mellors, a 20-year-old who had also been a student at the LSE. On returning to London they held a meeting for the GLF in a basement room of the LSE on 13th. October, 1970. (Jivani (1997), page 162). The first ever public gay protest in Britain took place on 27th. November, 1970 when approximately 80 GLF members gathered for a torchlight demonstration on Highbury Fields in what was then the working class area of Islington. In August 1971 the GLF organised a further public event when members marched along Islington's Upper Street back to Highbury Fields. This was an exclusively GLF event but led to the first real Pride in London in 1972. SeePride history.

Martin Corbettjoined the GLF in 1971 and became a key GLF administrator and fundraiser.

In the spring of 1973 the London GLF set up the support groupIcebreakers.

Part-way through the 1970s the GLF in the USA and elsewhere began to fade.

• Simon Watney, (1980), "e;The Ideology of GLF"e;, inGay Left Collective, "e;Homosexuality: Power and Politics"e;, pages 64-76.
  Page 74: "e;Someone had intervened, saying that the group was no more than a 'knitting-circle'. At once a keen argument followed. Wasn't this a typical male sexist remark? Didn't the metaphor suggest that women are innately different from men? Didn't it reinforce a stereotype of women? And finally - what was sowrongabout being members of a knitting-circle, talking quietly while being involved in useful (if unpaid?) work? This may perhaps sound trivial when written down like this. What is important I think is that such a discussion could not have taken place between a group of socialist men in any other context than that of GLF. It also illustrates, I think, the practical sensitivity of the gay movement. This kind of discussion introduced a not inconsiderable number of women and men, like myself, to an altogether new and exciting idea of politics"e;

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The Knitting Circle

First uploaded 26th. June, 1999.

Last altered 27th. August, 1999