Mattachine Society
The Mattachine Society was one of the earliest gay rights organisations in the United States founded in 1950 by Harry Hay. He first conceived the idea in 1948 after speaking to several gay men at a party about forming a gay support organisation. It took him two years to put together his plan for the Mattachine Society and presented the idea to Rudi Gernreich in 1950, who agreed that the idea was incredibly progressive and became a financial investor. The first meeting of the Mattachine Society was held on November 11 1950 in Los Angeles under the name Society of Fools. Eventually the group changed its name to the Mattachine Society, which originated from a medieval French society of masked people to represent the public "masking" of homosexuality. These people were known to be a clan of unmarried men who were never in public without wearing a mask. Hay was quoted as saying "So we took the name Mattachine because we felt that we 1950s Gays were also a masked people, unknown and anonymous, who might become engaged in morale building and helping ourselves and others, through struggle, to move toward total redress and change." The Mattachine Society was initially a small group of people with not a large amount of membership, until Dale Jennings; one of the founding members, was arrested for lewd behaviour and unlike what many would do in his situation, plead not guilty and insisted that his arrest was due to being entrapped by an undercover police officer. The Mattachine Society began to publicise the case and generated a lot of financial and emotional support. He admitted during the trial that he was a homosexual but claimed that he was not guilty of the charge, the jury deadlocked and the Mattachine claimed it as a victory. The main goals for the Mattachine Society were to unify homosexuals and assist gays who are victimised and oppressed in their everyday life. Slowly, new chapters opened up all across America and focused on being an organisation to provide legal, medical and personal advice for homosexuals.
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The Daughters of BilitisThe Daughters of Bilitis was founded by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon in San Francisco in 1955 and was the first lesbian civil and political rights organisations in the United States. The naming of the club came from the work of French poet Pierre Louÿs' "Song Of Bilitis" if they were ever questioned about the name, the women said they would tell people that they were a part of a poetry club. The two women had been lovers for three years but did not know any other lesbians, suggesting that they create a social club so that they can have a social outlet. This was the preferred option to going to lesbian bars and clubs that were often raided by police. In October 1955, there were four lesbian couples and had the priority of educating other women about lesbians in order to make their lives a lot easier in the hopes of being free from discrimination. Their numbers began to grow slowly in the few years following the founding, they began to print their own newsletter called "The Ladder", which was the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the US. They advertised themselves as a "Woman's Organisation for the purpose of Promoting the Integration of the Homosexual into Society"
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SimilaritiesThe Mattachine Society began as a provocative organisation but slowly had seen it as more productive to prove to society that homosexuals can fit into society and are no different to heterosexuals except for their sexuality. The Daughter of Bilitis agreed with this and promoted assimilation into society over fighting aggressively for equal rights. However during the time of the sexual revolution, people in these associations were becoming fed up with the lack of results. The Mattachine Society of Washington D.C started a protest in 1965 at the White House and the Pentagon against the exclusion of homosexuals from both the military and federal employment. Through this, the New York sectors of both the Daughters of Bilitis and the Mattachine Society became radicalised. Slowly both organisations encouraged their members to come out to their families and friends
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