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On the first page of Come Out! #1 is an uncredited statement “COME OUT FOR FREEDOM, COME OUT NOW!” For many, this piece was the dynamite at the door of the closet. Other pieces in the issue include:
• "To the Gay Liberation Front” by Ron Ballard and Bob Fontanella
•"Stepin Fetchit Woman," by Martha Shelley
•"BITCH: Summer’s Not Forever," by "butch drag" lesbian Marty Stephen
•Village Voice Protest

This issue announced the "Christopher Street Liberation Day, Saturday, June 29, 1970;" this first march later morphed into the world's celebration of Gay Pride, the Pride March. Also in this issue:.

• "More Radical Than Thou," Martha Shelley

• "Word Thoughts," Jim Fouratt

• "GLF News," by Lois Hart

In the July 1970, Come Out! published “Hey Man,” the seminal manifesto for men opposing sexism of all kinds by Steve Dansky. There’s a poem in Spanish and English about the Young Lords. Also in this issue:

• "A Time to Dance, A Time to Mourn," by Ellen Broidy on the Kent State massacre

• "Lesbian Oppression," by Kathy Wakeham

• "Gay Youth Liberation," by Ian Edelstein

What was it like to arrive at the starting off point for the very first march? This leaflet was handed out to people as they lined up to march from the Village up to Central Park.

• Urged participants not to respond to hecklers

• Explained that the march was in fact legal, and protected by the police and CSLDC marshals

• Congratulated marchers for joining a historic event

Learn More

Did you know that long before the LGBTQ Center on 13th street, and before the GAA Firehouse, GLF opened a Community Center on West 4th Street? Here’s a copy of the letter sent to supporters to help raise funds for it.

GLF members joined with other gay activist groups in a large, organized march on 42nd Street called to protest an ongoing, anti-gay police crackdown in Times Square. Read what happened at this demonstration in the Timeline section under the History tab.

Red Butterfly was a cell wtihin GLF that focused on a Marxist analysis of LGBT oppression and linked it to other movements for social change. In this leaflet they describe NYU as a factory for the liberal elite to produce docile white collar workers and connect this to oppressing sexual minorities.

GLF joined members of NYU’s gay and lesbian student group, GSL, and other LGBT activists to occupy the basement of the Weinstein Hall dorm at NYU for five days to protest their ban on proposed gay student dances.

• Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and others founded STAR during this protest

GLF members traveled the country to light the fire of Gay Liberation and inspire other activists. In Houston, 5 GLF members were arrested on bogus charges and the story was covered in the local alternative press.

While participating in the occupation of Weinstein Hall at NYU, GLF members Nova, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson led others in the founding of a new cell within GLF, “Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries” Their manifesto was later published in Come Out!

One of 4 mimeographed pamphlets printed by the Marxist cell of GLF, the Red Butterfly. Written by Carl Wittman, it was also published in the Harvard Crimson in February 1970.

A group of GLF members aged 18-22, that included Zazu Nova, and led by Stonewall veteran, Mark Segal, formed “Gay Youth” as a sub-group/cell of GLF. GY members, promoted outreach to gay youth, bravely standing outside NYC high schools to hand out leaflets and newsletters. This issue and others will soon be available for viewing and download.