Gay Activists Alliance

Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) has been an advocacy group dedicated to securing "full rights and privileges" for gay and lesbian community that was also instrumental in securing the passage of the D.C. Human Rights Law in 1973, one of the US nation's first laws to ban "discrimination" against gays and lesbians.[1]

## Historical background[edit]

The creation of GAA was the result of reorganization of Kameny's campaign committee after he lost the elections for Congress. As the first openly gay person to candidate for it, he used the elections to increase the publicity for his "personal freedoms" platform and to politicize the local gay community. Kameny spread his activist agenda across the country by giving speeches, organizing rallies,[2] radicalizing existing gay organizations and helping a myriad of new groups to emerge in other cities. GAA has become a powerful advocate for homosexual agenda with local officials, the media, the police, and the school system.[1] Together with the Gay Liberation Front-DC (GLF) and the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., it also participated in laying plans for a major disruption of the APA's Convocation.[3]

## References[edit]

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 David De Leon (1994). Leaders from the 1960s: A Biographical Sourcebook of American Activism. Greenwood Publishing Group, 253–259. ISBN 978-03132-74145.
2. ↑ GAA rally on photo. Retrieved on 18 Jun 2016.
3. ↑ Mark Meinke. Zapping the Shrinks, May 3, 1971. The Rainbow History Project: Preserving Our Community's Memories. Retrieved on June 21, 2013. “Earlier in April, the newly formed Gay Activists Alliance/DC (GAA), the Gay Liberation Front-DC (GLF) and the Mattachine Society of Washington had laid plans for a major zap of the APA's Convocation. Perry Brass recalls (in his Come Out article chronicling Gay MayDay and the zap) that six members of GAA were given copies of the statement to be read to the psychiatrists following the disruption of the convocation. … [Following the GayMayDay demonstrations] About thirty people from the GayMayDay Tribe including several members of the Washington commune [GLF House, 1620 S St. NW, Washington, DC] piled into a VW van and a few cars and headed for the [hotel]. Half of the men were in really fabulous drag with wildly painted faces, that accentuated the spontaneous, liberating attitude of brothers in drag ..."…Dr. Kameny recalls "At that point they were afraid to say no to us. So they said yes."”

## See also[edit]

* LGBTI Gleichschaltung
* Zapping the shrinks