Shoulders to Stand On

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

UR Pride Network Annual Reception

The University of Rochester Pride Network student organization invites alumni, students, families, and friends to their annual reception, taking place over Meliora Weekend, October 10, 1:30 - 3:00 pm, Alumni & Advancement Center's Alumni Lounge.

This will be a time to network and to learn about initiatives to support the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered campus community. We hope you will join us to reconnect and share your stories. A shuttle will be available from the River Campus to the Alumni & Advancement Center. If you have questions about the event or are interested in attending, please contact Thomas McArthur, assistant director of alumni relations, at the University, at thomas.mcarthur@rochester.edu.

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. 

Gay Liberation in Rochester, New York

Excerpts from an article by Michael Robertson in the Empty Closet, June 1975

“We have fled from blackmailing cops, from families who disowned or ‘tolerated’ us; we have been drummed out of the armed services, thrown out of schools, fired from jobs, and beaten by punks and policemen.  Straight cops patrol us, straight legislators govern us, straight employers keep us in line, straight money exploits us.  We have pretended everything is OK because we haven't been able to see how to change it - - we've been afraid.”

Out of this intolerable reality and the struggle of all peoples to be treated as human beings was born the gay liberation movement. In this article I want to focus on the event that catapulted gay liberation into the 20th century full-blown, and specifically its effect on Rochester, New York.

It was this month 39 years ago that some thing unremarkable happened. On June 27, an event which had occurred a thousand times before across the United States over the decades took place. THE POLICE RAIDED A GAY BAR! The very first public response to overt harassment was demonstrated. The Stonewall Riots mark the conscious organized beginning of the gay liberation movement. They also mark the beginning of Gay Pride.

Larry Fine's Memories

Larry Fine was one of the founders of the Gay Liberation Front at the University of Rochester.  Larry now lives in Boston.  Shoulders to Stand On interviewed Larry for over two hours about the early days of the Gay Liberation Front at the University of Rochester.         

Larry gave us an April 22, 1971 University of Rochester Journal which included an article Larry had written titled "Feeling Gay."  Excerpts from that article appear below.

A Gay Dance in 1971

The following letter to the editor appeared in the University of Rochester Campus TImes and the first edition of the Empty Closet (January, 1971). It was written by Patricia Evers, a student at the University of Rochester. This was a pseudonym. Typically in 1971, many men and women used different names in public to maintain their anonymity. In the early minutes of the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Alliance, only first names and last initials were used to identify members.

On Norms and Nature (reprinted with permission from the UR CAMPUS-TIMES)

What happened in the MDC lounge Saturday, December 5th?  I was there: let me tell you a little about it.

Dance Anyone?

Printed in the first edition of the Empty Closet, January 1971:

Dance Anyone? by Larry Fine and R. J. Alcala

On December 5, UR Gay Liberation and UR Women’s Liberation co-sponsored a Liberation Dance in the Lounge of the Frederick Douglass Building at the U of R.  The band was the Albatross.  They were going through their warm up while some of us went about putting candles in the windows, setting up the colored flashing lights, the incense, the beer counter, and trying to figure out where the change boxes were.

In Todd, Perry Brass, editor of “Come Out”, and two others from New York City Gay Liberation were speaking at the UR Gay Liberation Front meeting, while the preliminary blizzard of the evening raged outdoors.  Meanwhile, back at the FDB lounge, people started buying tickets.  The candle on the ticket table kept going out.  As the dance floor began to sprout writhing bodies of all kinds (MMMMMM!), we started to stop worrying about how much money we could conceivably lose.  The Albatross kept the sound flowing.

The Making of a Gay President

The March, 1974 issue of the Empty Closet, contains a front page article, written by Michael Robertson We have reprinted it below.

The Making of a Gay President by Michael Robertson

A month has passed since you elected as president of the Gay Alliance for 1974.  Since then, I have wanted to share some thoughts with you and share the growth I've experienced since meeting some of the beautiful people involved with the gay liberation movement in Rochester.