The History of Homosexuality: The Mattachine Society
The Mattachine Society was founded in LA in 1950 by Harry Hay and a number of his friends. Hay conceived of an “international…fraternal order” to serve as “a service and welfare organization devoted to the protection and improvement of Society’s Androgynous Minority”. He had tried to form a similar political activist group in 1948 in support of a Progressive presidential candidate, but it never got off the ground. Over the following two years, Hay worked hard on the model of a queer emancipation group which could be politically engaged on a public stage. (more…)