The Flaming Faggots

As Gay Liberation Front women began to refocus their energies on lesbian feminist activism in the spring and summer of 1970, a number of men followed their lead, forming living collectives and consciousness-raising groups to challenge male privilege, free themselves from the boundaries of conventional sex roles, and learn to “interact naturally” with each other. One of the more controversial groups to develop out of this movement was The Flaming Faggots. Founded by Steve Dansky, John Knoebel, and Kenneth Pitchford—the husband of radical feminist Robin Morgan—the Flaming Faggots aligned themselves with the bourgeoning women’s liberation movement, eventually disavowing their ties with gay liberation. The group identified themselves as effeminists as a way to lay claim to their own effeminacy and demonstrate their commitment to women's liberation.

The Flaming Faggots maintained that sexism was at the root of all forms of oppression, arguing that only with women's rise to power could they create a just and equitable world. Operating under the radical premise that "all women are oppressed by all men," the group rejected masculinity and challenged the "misogyny and effemiphobia" they saw in themselves and others. They committed themselves to taking on an equal share of "the day-to-day life-sustaining drudgery that is usually consigned to women alone" and especially devoted themselves to "raising and caring for children" (most often Pitchford's own son, Blake).

Having faced oppression as effeminate men, the Flaming Faggots believed they too had "a stake in the destruction of the patriarchy." In the 1973 "Effeminist Manifesto," they called on "all such men as ourselves (whether celibate, homosexual, or heterosexual) to become traitors to the class of men...so that collectively we can struggle to change ourselves...into anti-masculinists and begin attacking those aspects of the patriarchal system that most directly oppress us." What's more, they urged men to abandon masculine ways of thinking and acting, encouraging them to embrace more feminine traits.

The group saw homosexuality as an "affront to conventional manhood" and a move away from oppressive "male roles," but they also condemned the gay male subculture. They argued not only that gay men maintained some male privilege, but also that they directly participated in the oppression of women and perpetuated restrictive sex roles that "keep us in our oppression." (Dansky) They were especially critical of camp (which they saw as "anti-woman mimicry and self-mimicry"); sado-masochism, sexual role playing, and cruising (which they viewed as objectifying); and transvestism (which they believed degraded women). More than just derisive of the gay liberation movement as a whole, the Flaming Faggots also used their publication, Double F: A Magazine of Effeminism, to name individual men as “enemies of feminism,” a strategy that alienated many from the group. (Jay, 235)

The Flaming Faggots never grew far beyond its three founding members, but the group played an important role in exposing the ways gay men retained male privilege and perpetuated male dominance while challenging all men to become involved in the movement for gender equity.