The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York: 'An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail'

by Cohen; Stephan L.

• ISBN13: 9780415957991
• ISBN10: 0415957990
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781135905675
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-09-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Between 1966 and 1975 North American youth activists established over 35 school- and community-based gay liberation youth groups whose members sought control over their own bodies, education, and sexual and social relations. This book focuses on three groundbreaking New York City groups?Gay Youth (GY), Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), and the Gay International Youth Society of George Washington High School (GWHS)?from the advent of gay liberation in NYC in 1969 to just after its dissolution and the rise of identity politics by 1975. Cohen examines how gay liberation?with its rejection of stultifying sex roles, attack on institutional oppression, connection between personal and political liberation, celebration of innate androgyny, and resolute anti-war and anti-capitalist stance?shaped understandings of sexual identity, membership criteria, organization, decision-making, the roles of youth and adults, and efforts to effect social change.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. vii
List of Tables	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Prior to Gay Liberation: Sin, Crime and Illness	p. 11
Ideology and Practice: Program Types	p. 17
Gay Liberation Shapes Youth Activism	p. 25
Gay Youth (GY)	p. 41
Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.)	p. 89
Gay International Youth Society of George Washington High School: High School Gay Liberation Groups	p. 165
Conclusion	p. 189
Afterword	p. 201
Gay Liberation Youth Groups-1966 to 1975	p. 203
Chronology of George Washington High School News Coverage	p. 215
Notes	p. 219
Bibliography	p. 273
Index	p. 299
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