Gerald A. Gerash, director: "Gay Revolt at Denver City Council", October 23, 1973
Documentary DVD: Gay Revolt At Denver City Council, October 23, 1973, and How It Changed Our World
Director's Description
This DVD documentary is the story of grass roots organizing of the Denver gay community in the early 1970s and their little known and amazingly successful landmarks in gay rights history.
I was one of five co-founders of the first gay liberation organization in 1972, Gay Coalition of Denver. Our main focus (but not the only one) centered around organizing the community to protest the hundreds of illegal arrests of gay men in the first 3 months of 1973 (many rounded up with the use of a bus, the notorious “Johnny Cash Special”). The basis of the arrest was agreeing to go home with an undercover Vice officer. Since Colorado repealed its sodomy law a year earlier, these conversational-only arrests were all illegal.
The Denver gay community then was extremely closeted, still fearful to give out even their first names to new acquaintances. However, 300 came out of their closets and overflowed the Denver City Council Chambers on October 23, 1973 for a public hearing to review the city’s criminal laws.
After making us wait for three hours, the President of the Council announced that our 36 speakers were going to be limited to a total of 30 minutes (50 seconds each), and then threatened us with arrest after we applauded our speakers.
However, with the help of statistics we had painstakenly gathered from the criminal court records that proved that only gay men were targeted for “lewd offer” arrests, and two fair minded councilmen, the tide slowly turned. The public hearing ended in a 4 hour Gay Rights Teach-In about who we were and about our everyday lives living in a hateful, heterosexist society. The next month we followed up and the City Council repealed four anti-gay laws.
The Gay Coalition went on to open an office and to also win a lawsuit against the city with a precedent-setting, sweeping court order that restrained the Denver police from the “lewd offer” arrests as well as oppressive and harassing behavior towards the gay community as a whole.
The documentary follows the “big bang” effect of the hearing with the creation of an organized and powerful gay community.
The documentary tells the story, through the unfolding of the events and speeches at the hearing, from the recording of the hearing which I have retained for all these years. The presentation highlights portions of speeches and the photographs taken at the hearing, as well as archival documents and other relevant photographs of the times.
Review
Review of the documentary by librarian Johnnie N. Gray, in the newsletter of the LGBT Round Table of the American Library Association, Summer 2011, p. 7: Calls the DVD “a riveting, heroic narrative of the people who stood up to the injustice in Denver” and a “powerfully important account of gay civil rights.” Click here to see this review
DVD Website
More information: DenverGayRevolt.com
Contact
Gerald A. Gerash
901 5th Street Unit J
Santa Monica, CA 90403
310-395-6298
More on the LGBTQ history of Denver, Colorado
Search for "Denver" in the OutHistory search box.
