TRUTH MATTERS when we talk about Stonewall, Thoughs on the opening of the New York Public Library STONEWALL REBELLION Exhibition

STONEWALL: PLEASE READ: THE TRUTH IS SOMETIMES SHOCKING.     

I was shocked to see the word "RIOT" used continually in the NYPL STONEWALL/50 exhibition handout. As someone who was actually standing on Christopher street in front of the mafia bar known as the Stonewall inn from 10:15 until the streets had been reopened to traffic at 1:15. I know it was not a riot. That is when 6 gay men and I: included were Mark Seigal, Marty Robinson, and Michael Brown gathered together at the junction of where  Waverly meets Waverly.

We were excited by the night's activities and wanted to continue what had been released.  We attempted to conspire together to figure out how to continue the energy released that first night.

We succeeded!

No one who was actually present inside or outside the bar can justify calling what happened a "riot." Under no known definition of 'riot" does the spontaneous release of oppression each of us experienced that might meet the definition of "riot." There was no crowd out of control, no looting, no hospital admissions, no fire department report... What did happen  was each of us present on the street experienced at a particular flashpoint the spark of freedom and liberation as we became visible to each other and threw off the internalized homophobia and for once collectively challenged the external homophobia and the policing that the mob, the state, and the church had imposed on each of .us.

To try to place a straight 60's template on what happened diminishes who was there and how we as gay men acted that first night. When David Scott shares his first-hand, eye-witness experience. He says: it seemed more like a collective celebration.

It troubles me deeply that an institution like the New York Public Library which is known around the world as an esteemed research center would use language that misrepresents the reality of what happened. I would have thought they would have known better.  As to the confabulators who say different, are simply not telling the truth.

There were no bricks thrown,, No Slyvia Rivera, no ripping of parking meters out of the cement (really dear!) no setting fire to the building, Yes Marsha, who was my friend, did show up around 12: 15. Marsha hung out on the sidelines.    

Whatever happened to the phrase "The truth will set you free"?  

The second night was much more militant according to a revised memory by Lucian K. Truscott IV a straight writer (and a long time friend)...but again the events of the second did not meet the definition of riot.

I am saddened that people would rather believe false myth than the truly radical event that took place that actually changed history for homosexuals male and female of all gender expression everywhere.

What happened that first night seeded the desire for visibility, equality, and acceptance of same-sex desire and erotic expression. Wanting to be seen as expressing emotion, desire, and personhood as a natural part of human behavior.

Language matters to me ...and I hope to you.  What took place the first night of the Stonewall rebellion changed history and gave a new definition to being a gay man or a lesbian of any gender expression.

I use the word rebellion because it best represents to me what actually did happen.  Rebellion,  in the sense of rebellion against internalized homophobia and the external homophobia, imposed and manipulated by State and Church.

Yes, some choose to use the word "uprising.” But an uprising by definition involves pre-planning.  Please, trust me! It was spontaneous that first night ..anyone who tries to take credit is lying.

As to the NYPL opening reception, it was full of memory for me. Both Diana Davies photos were taken when she was an active member of GLF and Mattacine member Kay Tobin, lover and life partner to the late Barbara Gittings. Kay one of the people (including Gittings and Frank Kameny)  who took under their wings and mentored the 8 GLF men and 1 woman dissatisfied with the GLF meeting process and  left, They were mentored in single-issue politics in sharp contrast to the GLF politics of "no one is truly free until all oppressed people are free.

But the most iconic image that best expresses the true meaning of the STONEWALL/REBELLION  was missing. It is the recruitment poster published by the COME OUT cell of the Gay Liberation Front in the Fall of 1969. A photo was taken by Peter Hujar on the street in what is now called Soho of lesbians and gay men running in the street smiling. Out and inviting others to join them in changing the world. Not afraid! Although they had no protection in the workplace nor on the streets or in their homes.  …(oh, that is me in the striped pants!)

Please, now take a breath. What I have said may be disrupted to the message you might have heard. I have no reason to lie. I have not changed my story in 50 years.

Jim Fouratt

History Lesson KEEPING HOPE ALIVE Or how Hujar helps me keep hope alive + real history of 1st night of Stonewall rebellion

 KEEPING HOPE ALIVE:  In these days of chaos and darkness, I will share a few things over the next few days that make me smile and help keep open my heart. Yes, my life refracts my history, the places, and the events that have shaped me and impact culture and politics in the world I have existed in from my earliest youth until today. But the deepest meaning I have,I hope,is being a queer hippie at heart full of gay spirit. A radical fairy who lives in the real external world which nurtures the spirit of love, compassion and community that builds solidarity in a natural rhythm that fuels my heart .. not easy ..but the appreciation of beauty such as in this Peter Hujar image is one of the ways I try to stay balanced.

Blessed be we say! (Note: not religion based, but spirit manifest)

PETER HUJAR: This is an image from the Peter Hujar show at The Morgan Library & Museum in NYC ( it closes on May 20^th and opens at the Berkeley Museum July 11^th through November 13^th). Peter was my lover for 3 1/2 years at a critical artistic moment in his life. I am very happy that the Morgan's Photography Curator, Joel Smith, has brought forward Peter Hujar. While I, because of my personal relationship with Peter and my involvement in the culture Peter's work is immersed in, have different insights and would have made some different choices,  I highly recommend you see the Hujar show before it moves to the Berkeley Art Museum.

It is one thing to look at photography online and a totally, I think, different experience encountering an image directly. In particular with Hujar's work this I believe to be essential. 
I suggest you take the time to really absorb the multiple layers of a Hujar image. While there may be a certain frisson that happens when encountering a room full of, mostly dead, queer, pop culture icons that dominate the curator's selection, I suggest strongly you spend quality time with each of the images. The reward will be that you will see not just the surface but the multiple layers of humanity, empathy, personal statement, and communication between the subject and the photographer. Elsewhere I will speak of what I know about Peter's practice, but here  I repeat,  you will in doing so experience the work first before distancing oneself from the aesthetic conversation that the encounter can give to you before the academic analysis of intent. 

One of the biggest disappointments for me of the Mogan Hujar show is the stripping of a photo that Peter did for me when the COME OUt cell of GLF decided we wanted to do a recruitment poster for GLF.   I organized the shoot with Peter.

I had asked Joel to include the poster next to the stripped image he had selected of people running in the street and to identify the brave women and men running, smiling and happy in the street. Brave because there was no legal protection for lesbian and gay people in the workplace etc. In fact to have homosexual sex was against the law. 

The photo was taken by Peter in a location he selected in what was then a part of Little Italy where mostly manufacturing building existed.   Later these buildings became artist lofts and the area renamed SOHO. Because of lighting etc, he later superimposed the running image on a location close to a loft we had on 16th street at Union Square. 
The story of who and why these people were in the picture and why they are all white is a story of the reality of racism and dual oppression. They all self-selected to be in the photo. Neither Peter or I excluded anyone who wanted to be in the photo.

Peter and I were lovers when the Stonewall Rebellion took place. 
By happenstance, I was on my way home that night from work at CBS/Columbia Records. At 10:30 P.M. I found myself in front of a sleazy gay bar around the corner from where I still live. I did not frequent the Stonewall Inn,  I was standing in front because as I entered the street from the subway and rounded the corner on to Christopher Street on my way home. I saw a police car parked in front of the Stonewall Inn, .Like any good radical of the '60's, (I had been involved in the Anti-war movement as an openly gay man and had been a co-founder ot the YIPPIES)  I went to see what was happening. I know what actually took place that might because I was in front of the Bar from 10:30 until the streets were re-opened to traffic around 12:15 P.M..

Around that time a group of 7 gay men met at the corner of Waverly and Waverly (yes!). It included Michael Brown, who later became with me one of the people to sit in at the Bakery on 13th street that we finally won from the City for a Lesbian and Gay Center in New York City, (rip-aids), Marty Robinson, my ex-boyfriend and a member of Mattachine's youth group. Marty became a founding member of GLF and later Gay Activist Alliance, (rip-aids), Mark Segal, who would form the Gay Youth cell in GLF and gay hippie and anarchist printer Ralph Hall (rip-aids). We decided to continue this moment the following night. We collectively organized to get the word out. Remember this was prior to cell phones, texting and the Internet etc. We succeded

What happened in the streets is for me the spark of rebellion that changed history forever everywhere for same-sex loving people.  It was not a celebration of another police raid on a gay bar, It was a rebellion against oppression both external and internal. 

STONEWALL  was NOT a riot. Stonewall was a REBELLION.! (WHEW!)
Note: when I use the word “beauty” I am not referring to “pretty” or “decorative.” I intend to be inclusive of empathy, humanity and visual excitement, I include the possibility of horror and shock as a component of beauty...when executed as an intentional aesthetic choice.

jim fouratt May 11, 2018 

I am also including  few images in color that apparently Joel did not have access to or thought were not representative of the Hujar he was curating

Vince Aletti and I on the beach on Fire Island.on a windy day.. that is a dried piece of seaweed I found in my hand, I was reading "Two Serious Ladies" by Jane Bowles and had it with me ...Peter always referred to this photo as "Two Serious Ladies."  

I just like this photo of me and Vince. We were close back then..He was a writer at RAT an alternative newspaper. I thought Vince was a brilliant short story writer.   I introduced him to Peter. They lived across the street from each other for years and Peter introduced him to the art of photography. They were best friends until Peter died.

Another fire Island trip when Peter and I stayed at Sam' Green's house in Ocklyville just past the Sunken Forest.  Sam's other guest was Greta Garbo and companion. (!)

Village Voice reunion ...So Many Memories .. Don McNeill, Jill Johnson, Arthur Bell, Howard Smith, Voice Censorship demo

Nice to catch up with Lynn Holtz and she filled me in on why Karen Durban (Voice editor) was not there, I told her of recently having a face book conversation with John Wilcox who lives Ouija California. He was one of the founders of the Voice. Sorry I did not see Musto or Richard Goldstein or John Parles or Joe Levy or RJ Smith there ..were they present? I was telling John Leland about Don McNeill

who I think would have been the voice of his generation if he had not drowned on LSD while in a swimming hole upstate.Don was 22 and immersed himself in the late 60's world of hippies, Yippies, Be Ins, the Motherfuckers, draft card burnings and the Jade Companions and reported them vividly and accurately in the pages of the Voice.
I had a flashback to when Howard Smith called me and said "Jim, the Voice is throwing away its Gerstner printing press and if you want it I will tell you when it will be put on the Street," I answered "YES." Got a group of kids to wheel it over from the Voice's Christopher Street office to my loft at 26 Bond street. With it we printed the Communication Company /NYC' missives and distributed them freely locally. A combination of culture (first published Diane DePrima's extraordinary Revolutionary Letters and political stories about police harassment and news about the Vietnam war in an attempt to wake up the hippies who Tim Leary had convinced to drop out and get high. In the late 60's, pre cell phones and social media, it was Howard Smith writing in Scenes (then the most read regular feature in the Voice after Jules ' cartoons about my organizing projects like the Be In etc and Bob Fass on WBAI that were the key to the Communication Company's organizing success. It also was what got Abbie Hoffman to come knocking on my door. We woke up a lot of hippies, and they joined the Anti-War movement with flowers in their hair. All of these memories because fresh again in my mind being in the room with all of the people who made the Village Voice matter each week. From the editorial side to the production side to the sales and promotion side. I told Jeff Weinstein about how the first demonstration of the Gay Liberation Front right after it formed the 3rd night of the Stonewall Rebellion was out side the Voice offices on Christopher Street.

We had tried to place an ad for a dance we were organizing at Alternate U on 14th street for gay men and lesbians as an alternative to meeting in bars.


The woman head of advertising refused to take our ad because we used the word "gay" . Imagine!


And then trying to explain who Jill Johnson was to a younger person who had never heard of her or her writing ... Or knew that Arthur Bell, a Voice critic was a founding member of the Gay Activist Alliance








Here are Jill Johnson and Arthur Bell at the 1971 Gay Freedom March in NYC









Ah, the Voice Reunion was a night to remember!

JOIN . US JOIN US JOIN US ,,The GAY LIBERATION FRONT IS MARCHING FOR FREEDOM EVERYWHERE FOR LGBT PEOPLE

JOIN US JOIN US JOIN US JOIN US JOIN US JOIN US JOIN US JOIN US

ALERT: WE ARE MARCHING ON FREEDOM PRIDE DAY IN NYC as the GAY LIBERATION FRONT JOIN US!!

1969 :

We are intergenerational and invite anyone who feels the MARCH does not have a place for them ..we don't support TRUMP and reject the attempt to simply make us into a market. We have today the same multi-issue politics we had when formed in 1969 on the 3rd night of STONEWALL REBELLION.

We support the RESISTANCE section of the March but because the principal organizer RISE and RESIST, which many of us are active in and support, has chosen to not have sexual orientation as part of their mission statement, we WILL MARCH in solidarity but separately as THE GAY LIBERATION FRONT.

Gay liberation was not just a struggle for the right to be sexual ... we always were sexual despite the campaign of terror waged by Church and State.

2016

2016

We will not be defined by sex acts alone. From our first meeting on the third night of the Rebellion, we called on people to take the first step towards liberation and COME OUT. It was our organizing mantra. We were fighting for full personhood: integrating sexuality into who we are as fully integrated, self-respecting people despite whatever cultural differences we may have with each other and across borders.

We made COME OUT our organizing mantra. We knew that those of us who had been active in the political left in fighting against the war in Vietnam had to be closeted. In the anti-war movement, the struggle for racial justice and the emerging women's liberation movement or we would be kicked out. This was one of the principal reasons so many of us, lesbians and gay men, joined together in forming the GAY LIBERATION FRONT.

United and Out we are. Our people ar still, being bullied and killed around the world because of their SEXUAL ORIENTATION; Who we desire; Who we love; Who we make love with. This is why sexual orientaiton:  same-sex desire and love and erotic pleasure is a critical issue to us.

We came out of the closet in 1969 and we refuse to be put back into the closet in 2017 by anyone including Church and State and the "politically correct" police.

While postmodern and queer theory have attempted to say homosexuality does not exist and is simply a bourgeoisie social construct (Oh My! Oh please dear brainiacs get out of your white tower echo chambers) .. We knew then and we know now that desire for same-sex love and erotic expression has always been a part of human life despite the attempts to deny or erase us . Please join us and please pick an issue that is important to you ...make a sigh.... and yes we will have our allies, our samba band, to move the body and the spirit

COME OUT AND JOIN THE SISTERS AND BROTHERS OF THE GAY LIBERATION FRONT (

let us know you are coming and we will tell you where we are meeting
e: glf1969@gmail.com

HISTORY CORRECTION : 'Patient zero' Gaëtan Dugas not source of HIV/Aids outbreak, study confirms | Science | The Guardian

Gaëtan Dugas  . This is no surprise to me and I  am angry that it has taken so long  for the record to be corrected. I asked Randy Shilts directly about why he had singled out  Gaëtan Dugas. His answer surprised me . He told me that he had not originally named  Dugas as the cause of the Aids pandemic in US  . He told me that his editor Michael Denney has insisted he personalize the story so readers could identify.  Shilts told me he resisted but Michael insisted back. Randy was already sick and simply gave up the fight. He told me he regretted doing so in retrospect.





Two things i should add: 2: prior to the formal announcement of the discovery of grid an std epidemiologist conference in Washington State had a paper presented that showed the outbreak of a what was presumed to be a infectious agent among gay men. The study had traced sexual activity pf a closed circle of men in Los Angeles which included  Gaëtan Dugas whose members had come down with this mysterious immune affected disease. They also discovered the same pattern in a group of men on fire island in ny  who also were experience this unknow condition.  Gaëtan Dugas becasue of his work as an airline steward had had sex with men in each group. It was concluded that what each group had in common besides dugas was extreme sex play which could involved blood,.When I spoke to Shults I  asked him if he was familiar with this group study, He said yes, it was where he first learned of  Gaëtan Dugas.  I remeber suggesting to him that people who do similar rhings have similar results. He agreed.



2:  Michael Denney also insisted that David Carter in STONEWALL RIOT  use the word riot to describe  the first night of the Stonewall Rebellion. Carter knew it was not a riot . What happened in no way fit the criteria for the use of the word riot. But the inexperienced writer was told it was important to use the word to help book sales by Denney. Carter told me this himself when i asked why the book was so titled. Carter now likes to use the word "uprising" but this too is not the correct use of the word uprising. Uprising implies pre-planning . This is why I  use the word rebellion ... in this historical moment the actions of the people in the street were spontaneous ..It was not pre-planned,. No one can take credit for what happened . I know i was present in front of the Stonewall Inn from 10:30 pm that first night and the following three,,, this is documented in Martin Duberman's book STONEWALL 





'Patient zero' Gaëtan Dugas not source of HIV/Aids outbreak, study confirms | Science | The Guardian

SPROUT : The Little Pink Pull ..viagra for women???? As the song said "GO ASK ALICE ..... FEED HER....

PHARMA scores a new $$$$$$$$$$$ victory at FDA .. the female VIAGRA called SPROUT …. WITH ONE HUGE WINDFALL difference: While the expensive blue pill for men SHOULD BE TAKEN BEFORE engaging in sexual activity, WOMEN ARE TO TAKE THE PINK PILL DAILY and the use is not tied to specific sexual activity. Now add that to the little blue pill called TRUVADA for sexually active women and men to protect themselves from possible transmission of HIV in condom-less vaginal or anal intercourse(big subway campaign in NYC sponsored by the NYC Health Department that promotes condom-less sex by implication). We see the further chemicalization of of the sex life of an individual who wishes to be sexually active. No mention in announcement of the possible serious side effects or the interaction with other medications including the widely prescribed anti-depression/anxiety drugs. Or the shedding of the chemicals in the body fluids of the people engaged in sexual activity.

Wild as this next statement may sound I am still going to suggest that there is a darker Big Brother aspect: the policy to keep people in a constant state of sexual arousal to keep then distracted from the economic reality of their lives reminds me of what happened in NYC right after the STONEWALL REBELLION. There were well know cruising areas along the waterfront in the far West Village and the lower West Side that the police department would selectively police. The cops, usually at the request of the owners of the those piers that had not been abandoned and by the owners of the trucking services that legally parked on the West Side waterfront, patrolled the area. For gay men it was a dance of hide and seek. The police no longer policed these areas because of a tacit agreement between the cities policy leaders in response to the political demands, of principally the Gay Activist Alliance and later a small group of activist in SEX PANIC, of a hands-off and out of the gay cruising areas demand. The results were the trucks and Piers at night became more dangerous with pickpockets, rapists and assault because the police no longer were patrolling. While the demands of these activists addressed police harassment of homosexuals looking for sex, I believe there was another politician goal. Keep them is a constant state of sexual stimulation and tumescence and they will stop their police and politician confrontations on other issues that impacted the lives of lesbians and gay men.

So here we are again in 2015 : the good goal a having a healthy sexual life for men and women suffering from mental of physical distention is exploited to keep people quiet .. now please reread and think about the consequences of what the police policy did in the gay male community in the 70's and what one of the potential side effects of SPROUT can be. Women will once again be pressured not to say no ...just like happened when the “pill” was introduced to women in the 60's Sprout really benefits men as it makes their sexual demands ..chemically initiated... on women medically possible. What SROUT shares with the rape drug if any I will await what women have to say. As to the name ..Oh please it sees to be rooted in the biology of women and conception …. despite the fact that the statistics point to older women and sexual function.

So caution is in order with SPROUT as it was with the PILL and the introduction of VIAGRA.

FDA approves 'female Viagra' pill Flibanserin after two rejections

Drug to help women boost sex drive overcomes concerns over effectiveness and side effects, but some experts fear precedent campaigning could set

THEGUARDIAN.COM|BY JANA KASPERKEVIC

46 years later one part of the Stonewall rebellion has been achived in Ireland thank you Jack O'Rourke - Silence

Thank you ...when we formed the Gay Liberation Front in 1969 on day three of the Stonewall REBELLION some of us wanted to make revolution in our lifetime (me) but many who came that night simply wanted to hold the hand of their date/lover/comrade in public .or simply wanted to marry the same sex person they loved.... and now that simple part of revolution has taken part in Ireland ... thank you