Remembering Harry Hay on His Birthday

 

 

 

Born on this day in 1912: gay rights pioneer Harry Hay. From Wikipedia:

 

"Henry "Harry" Hay Jr. (April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) was an American gay rights activist, communist, and labor advocate. He was a co-founder of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States, as well as the Radical Faeries, a loosely affiliated gay spiritual movement."

 

Homophobes like to circulate a picture of Hay at a 1986 pride parade, protesting the exclusion of the North American Man/Boy Love Association. They're trying to exploit the stereotype of gays as sexual "predators" on youth, but conveniently ignore the fact that Hay's perspective, like that of so many others, came from the other side of that relationship. As related in Positive Memories by T. Rivas:

 

"Harry Hay (1912-2002) was a leading American within gay liberation. When he was 14 years old, he met a merchant-seaman of about age 25. Rind writes:

 

"'One evening, when the two walked alongside the moonlit ocean, Hay was swept by the physical sensations. When Hay clasped the man's hand, the boy was afraid the sailor might respond violently. Instead, it turned into Hay's first lovemaking with an adult. When Hay revealed that he was only 14, the sailor panicked for fear of a lengthy prison sentence. Hay desperately tried to settle the man down, and when he did, the man gave the boy tips on how people like us should conduct themselves, which inspired Harry almost as vividly as the erotic memory of [the man].'

 

"Bruce Rind tells us that according to Hay's biographer Timmons, Hay always described it as the most beautiful gift that a fourteen-year-old ever got from his first love!

 

"According to another author quoted by Rind, Hay remarked, 'Wherever he is, I want him to know that my love and gratitude followed him all my days, and all of his.'"

 

(Source: Article by Bruce Rind “Blinded by Politics and

Morality – A Reply to McAnulty and Wright” in Censoring

Sex Research)"