Difference between revisions of "Third World Gay Revolution"
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| − | ''This page focuses on the Third World Gay Revolution, a group of gays and lesbians of color who splintered off from the Gay Liberation Front to explore and challenge their particular oppression.'' | + | ''This page focuses on the Third World Gay Revolution (TWGR), a group of gays and lesbians of color who splintered off from the Gay Liberation Front to explore and challenge their particular oppression.'' |
[[Image:TWGR.jpg|thumb|center|635px|Courtesy of Lesbian Herstory Archives]] | [[Image:TWGR.jpg|thumb|center|635px|Courtesy of Lesbian Herstory Archives]] | ||
Revision as of 19:56, 22 March 2010
This page focuses on the Third World Gay Revolution (TWGR), a group of gays and lesbians of color who splintered off from the Gay Liberation Front to explore and challenge their particular oppression.
In July of 1970, a group of Black and Latino gays and lesbians split off from the Gay Liberation Front to form the Third World Gay Revolution. Arguing that they "suffer[ed] a triple oppression" by capitalism, racism, and sexism, TWGR members challenged the discrimination they faced in gay liberation and "third world” movements while carving out their identities within these communities.[1]
Many GLFers had worked hard to confront racism in themselves and others--and the group had made antiracist politics an integral part of its platform, devoting significant time and resources to support radical “third world” organizations like the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the Young Lords Party (YLP).[2] But GLF was always primarily white, and the group failed to adequately address the needs of gay men and women of color.
In an early statement, TWGR members explained:
"Third world gays suffer an oppression which is not shared by our white sisters and brothers, one which they could never really FEEL. Therefore, despite the many organizations emerging in the Gay Liberation movement, third world people haven’t been able to relate to any of these. This is due to the inherent racism found in any white group with white leadership and white thinking."[3]
TWGR organized consciousness-raising groups that provided a space for gay people of color to come together around their particular struggles. The group also urged white gay liberationists to confront their "collegiate and middle-class viewpoint" and challenged the "verbal and physical abuse" they had endured from "masculinity-deprived Third World males."[4]
Despite its criticisms, TWGR maintained ties with both gay liberation and “third world” movements. The group adopted much of the Gay Liberation Front's political platform and helped to lead the gay delegation at the BPP-sponsored Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention that fall.[5] Members also proudly carried “gay banners” at actions for the Black Panthers and the Young Lords, and some gay liberationists saw them as the movement’s "real connection to the struggle to transform the Black Liberation movement."[6]
One of the first groups to take on racism in the gay community and homophobia in Black and Latino communities, TWGR allowed gay people of color to explore and understand their particular oppression. Although the group collapsed after only a few months, its struggle to create a diverse and inclusive gay movement continues to this day.
Return to Gay Liberation in New York City.
References
- ↑ “The Oppressed Shall Not Become the Oppressor,” Gay Liberation Front (GLF) N.Y. Organizational File, Lesbian Herstory Archives, Brooklyn, NY; Néstor Latrónico, “My Memories as a Gay Militant in NYC,” in Smash the Church, Smash the State, ed. Tommi Avicolli Mecca (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2009), 51.
- ↑ Latrónico, “My Memories as a Gay Militant in NYC,” 51.
- ↑ “T.W.G.R. Third World Gay Revolution,” Come Out! 1, no. 5 (September/October, 1970): 12. Emphasis in original.
- ↑ “Gay People Help Plan New World,” Gay Flames Pamphlet, no. 2. Reprinted in Donn Teal, The Gay Militants (New York: Stein and Day Publishers, 1971.
- ↑ Teal, Gay Militants, 212-9; Lois Hart, “Black Panthers Call a Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention: A White Lesbian Responds,” Come Out! 1, no. 5 (September/October 1970): 15.
- ↑ Latrónico, “My Memories as a Gay Militant in NYC,” 51; Hart, "Black Panthers Call A Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention," 15.
