Shoulders to Stand On

From Bob Osborne to John Altieri, Gay Alliance Leadership Remains Strong

By Evelyn Bailey

In 1970, Bob Osborne, Larry Fine, Patti Evans, RJ Alcala, Karen Hagberg, Marshall Goldman, Rosanne Leipzeig, Debbie Lestz and others came together around LGBT issues and our community.

These individuals were the movers and shakers of the Gay Liberation Front at the University of Rochester. In 1973, Whitey LeBlanc (first President of the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley), Jay Baker (first editor of The Empty Closet), Mark Hull (owner of the Brown Street property), and the Coordinating Council oversaw the transition of the organization from the U of R Campus to Brown Street. In 1974, the first elected officers of the GAGV were installed: Michael Robertson, Robert Crystal, William Glave, Vince DiSchino, Phil Garbus, John Cook, Howard Cullen, and Tim Mains.

The Beginning of the Gay Alliance

The Gay Liberation Front

Interviewed: Patti Evans and Whitey LeBlanc

Our History Is Our Strength

by Evelyn Bailey

From the very beginning of time, women have been viewed as the “weaker” sex. However, when you look at the women who wrote our history with their lives, they can hardly be identified as “weak”!

The women involved in the gay history of Rochester in the 1970s came out of a closeted frightened homosexual culture. Community meeting places consisted of bars that were commonly raided by police once a month on average, with those arrested exposed in newspapers.

Gay Liberation Front

By Evelyn Bailey

Bob Osborne, Larry Fine, R.J. Alcala, Patti Evans, Karen Hagberg, Marshall Goldman. Who would you say these people are?

These men and women were the Shoulders on which the University of Rochester’s Gay Liberation Front was founded.

This October marks the 40^th Anniversary of the Gay Liberation Front. On the U of R campus the group has gone through many name changes, and is currently the Pride Network. The University of Rochester’s Meliora Weekend, Oct. 14–16, provides two opportunities to celebrate this extraordinary event where past meets the present: Pride Network 40th Anniversary After Hours, Friday, Oct. 15, 9 p.m.-12 midnight at Wilson Commons, Bridge Lounge; College Diversity Roundtable: Conversations about Diversity at the College, Saturday, October 16, 4:30 p.m.-6 p.m., Gleason Hall, Room 318/418. All are welcome!

UR Celebrates 40th Anniversary of Pride Network at Meliora Weekend

Pride Network 40th Anniversary After Hours
Friday, October 15, 9:00 pm - 12:00 am
Wilson Commons, Bridge Lounge

Register to join other GLF, GAU, GLBFA, and Pride alumni and their friends and allies for relaxing conversations and catching up. Cash bar and complimentary appetizers.

College Diversity Roundtable: Conversations about Diversity at the College
Saturday, October 16, 4:30 - 6:00 pm
Gleason Hall, Room 318/418

CDR Chair Norman Burnett, Assistant Dean of the College and Director of the Office of Minority Student Affairs, and Dean of the College, Richard Feldman, host a reception and moderate a panel of undergraduate student scholars and leaders. Panelists talk about campus diversity and inclusion as it relates to their campus experiences, activities, leadership, research, and community service. Reception follows.
Register

Events in Gay History - July

by Evelyn Bailey

Sunday, May 16, 1971: the first gay picnic - About 300 people from Rochester, buffalo and other upstate areas gathered in Genesee Valley Park for Rochester Gay liberation Front's First Annual "Gay In." A volleyball game and a women's touch football game highlighted the afternoon picnic.

June 21-27, 1971 is Gay Pride Week all across the country for the second year. In New York City a march by 50,000 gay people on June 27 will be the highlight of the week on the East Coast. The Rochester Gay Liberation Front is charting a bus to New York City for the March. The bus fare is $15 round-trip.

What did the Gay Liberation Front do?

by Evelyn Bailey

In previous issues we looked at WHAT the Gay Liberation Front at the University of Rochester was.  We looked at WHO the driving force behind the organization was.  In this issue we want to look at WHAT  DID  THE  GLF  DO?

The accomplishments of the Gay Liberation Front at the University of Rochester can be summarized in one word – VISIBILITY.  The members of the GLF were naturally catapulted into the public arena.  Their commitment to educating the public and speaking out resulted in being OUT and VISIBLE themselves. 

Karen Hagberg, a student at the Eastman School of Music, came out publicly when she and two other students, R J Alcala and Jim Fishman, did a TV spot on WXXI channel 21, on July 14, 1971 on a talk show “Call 21.”  The show aired live so no copies were made at the station. 

Bob Osborne

by Evelyn Bailey

In last month’s Shoulders To Stand On article we looked at HOW and WHAT the Gay Liberation Front was.  This month we will look at who the people involved in the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) were.  We need to remember the times in which the GLF was established. 

The year was 1970.  A Richard Nixon was President.  U.S. troops invade Cambodia (May 1). Four students at Kent State University in Ohio slain by National Guardsmen at demonstration protesting incursion into Cambodia (May 4).   This was the year the Beatles broke up, the year Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin died of a drug overdose at the age of 27, the year of Midnight Cowboy, Love Story, Airport, the year IBM introduces the floppy disk, the year Maya Angelou wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and the year of the 5th Dimension’s Grammy award winning song Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.

Onto this stage steps Bob Osborne, the original founder of the Gay Liberation movement in Rochester.  Bob had a flair for revolutionary rhetoric.  His early writings in the first three Empty Closets carried with them the spirit of the turbulent 1960s.

Gay Liberation Front

by Evelyn Bailey

Over the next three months, Shoulders To Stand On will honor the Rochester Gay Liberation Front (hereafter referred to as the RGLF), forerunner to the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley.

Who or what - you might ask – was the Gay Liberation Front? To answer this question we need to take a trip back in our LGBT history.

The event that most authors seem to identify as having the most influence on the beginning of the gay liberation movement was the Stonewall riots of 1969. It would be a mistake to consider this event as the origin of the concept of gay liberation or the origin of a sense of community and gay pride.

The Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley's Coming Out Journey

by Evelyn Bailey

Imagine a fall October day.  The sun is shining, the trees glisten with color.  You are standing outside of Todd Union on the University of Rochester campus in the quadrangle.  You are listening to Bob Osborne and Larry Fine, both students at the U of R, discuss the meeting to be held that night to hear the invited speakers from Ithaca and Buffalo.   The conversation went something like this:

“Hopefully we will have a few people who will come to listen.  I really don’t expect more that a dozen or so” said Bob. 

“I know.  I have invited everyone I know. But people are afraid to be open and associated with any public activity involving homosexuality.  I just hope that we won’t be embarrassed by the poor turnout.” said Larry. 

“We did pass out flyers to the bars and coffee houses in the city – maybe some people from the city will come”  said Bob.  “I hope so – I’ve got to get to class – see you tonight” said Larry.