The Trouble With Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement - Hardcover

Timmons, Stuart

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1555831753 ISBN 13: 9781555831752

Publisher: Alyson Pubns, 1990

Synopsis

Book by Timmons, Stuart

About this title

Reviews

The gay Mattachine Society was founded in L.A. in 1951 by English-born Harry Hay, whose colorful personality and turbulent life are portrayed in a book written with a verve worthy of its subject. The underground organization skills he used on behalf of the gay movement were honed by years in the U.S. Communist Party, whose homophobia, notes freelance journalist Timmons, pushed Hay into a 13-year marriage. Anecdotes by Hay and his contemporaries greatly enrich this account of his film career; his numerous gay affairs, notably with fashion designer Rudi Gernreich and politically active actor Will GeerGrandpa Walton! ; his divorce; his break with the Party and hearings before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. Today, at 80, as elder statesman of the gay movement, Hay remains active in the Radical Faeries network. Photos. Author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"The trouble with Harry Hay," according to Timmons, "was his refusal to adapt to a reality he found unacceptable." Born to privilege, Hay turned to the Communist party, USA before founding the Mattachine Society, a homophile group organized in 1950. Hay's continuing insistence on highlighting the differences between gay and straight people challenges the assimilationist goals of the contemporary gay rights movement. Timmons has written a substantive biography, based on documentary sources and on extensive interviews with Hay and his associates over the years. Hay's importance in the emergence of a significant social movement merits this book a place in any collection concerned with gay or minority rights. Recommended.
- James Michael Mac Leod, Library of Congress
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Alyson Pubns
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1555831753
• ISBN 13: 9781555831752
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 317