Queens Liberation Front

Queens Liberation Front was founded as Queens by Lee Brewster in 1969.{{Cite book | title = Rethinking the Gay and Lesbian Movement | author = Stein, Marc | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 9780415874106 | date = 2012 | access-date = June 30, 2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jA8l8EYcnHsC&pg=PA113 }}{{rp|83}} At his first ball in February 1969, Brewster announced plans to form the group, with October 31, 1969 (Halloween, a particularly popular holiday in the drag community) to be its formal founding date.{{Cite web | title = Lee Brewster Dies at 57 – Pioneering Transvestite Activist | publisher = Gay Today | access-date = June 30, 2015 | url = http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/events/052500ev.htm | archive-date = October 6, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091006023040/http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/events/052500ev.htm | url-status = dead }}

The organization was founded in part to oppose the relegation of drag queens to the back of the March at the first Christopher Street Liberation Day in June 1970. In protest, the street queens from STAR moved to the front and marched at the front of the parade anyway.{{Cite book | title = Transgender History | author = Stryker, Susan | publisher = Seal Press | isbn = 9780786741366 | page = 87 | date = January 7, 2009 | access-date = June 30, 2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kEfZ1knAguMC&pg=PT191 }}

Queens Liberation Front participated in many activities to advocate for the rights of LGBT people, particularly transvestites.{{Cite book | title = Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence | author = Hanhardt, Christina B. | publisher = Duke University Press | page = 124 | isbn = 9780822378860 | date = November 13, 2013 | access-date = June 30, 2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_LTbAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA122 }} The organization also participated in LGBT events such as the LGBT Pride March.{{rp|113}}{{Cite book | title = The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York | author = Cohen, Stephen | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 9781135905682 | date = November 21, 2007 | access-date = June 30, 2015 | page = 142 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ML2SAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA142}} Members sometimes wore drag while lobbying New York state legislators.

The organization often collaborated with other local LGBT organizations, such as Gay Activists Alliance and Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.{{Cite book | title = The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement | author = Glisson, Susan M. | date = 2006 | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield | page = 325 | isbn = 9780742544093 | access-date = June 30, 2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ao2DSDX5R3QC&pg=PA325 }}

In the early 1970s, the organizations successfully used litigation to overturn a New York City ordinance against cross-dressing.{{rp|87}}

In 1973, Queens Liberation Front agreed to a compromise amendment to New York City's anti-discrimination ordinance that added sexual orientation to the ordinance, but clarified the ordinance did not cover cross-dressing. The organization's director, Bebe Scarpie, met with the bill's sponsor at City Hall and agreed to the compromise. The organization's lawyer, Richard Levidow, believed the exclusionary clause violated the United States Constitution and was therefore unenforceable.{{Cite web| title = Interview With an Actual Stonewall Riot Veteran: The Ciswashing of Stonewall Must End!| work = The TransAdvocate | date = February 18, 2013 | access-date = June 30, 2015 |url=http://www.transadvocate.com/interview-with-an-actual-stonewall-riot-veteran-the-ciswashing-of-stonewall-must-end_n_8750.htm }}

Lesbian Feminist Liberation opposed the performance by drag queens at the 1973 NYC Pride March in New York City. As they passed out flyers, Sylvia Rivera, of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, took the microphone from emcee Vito Russo and spoke against this sentiment, delivering a speech about spending time in jail, and being harassed and beaten by the straight men who were preying on all the members of the gay community. Rivera ended by leading a chant for "Gay Power!"Rivera, Sylvia, "Queens In Exile, The Forgotten Ones" in Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries: Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle. Untorelli Press, 2013. Lesbian Feminist Liberation's Jean O'Leary then read a statement on behalf of 100 women that read, in part, "We support the right of every person to dress in the way that she or he wishes. But we are opposed to the exploitation of women by men for entertainment or profit."{{cite video |url=https://vimeo.com/57691610 |title= Jean O Leary Lesbian Feminist Liberation 1973 Pride Rally |time=00:30}} June, 1973. Accessed Oct 13, 2015. Queens Liberation Front's Lee Brewster replied in support of drag and the drag queens in the community. Brewster was loudly cursed when he called the lesbians speaking a slur for women - "b***hes."{{cite video |url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx2ND0C0K1Q&pp=ygUSTGVlIGJyZXdzdGVyIHByaWRl |title= Lesbians v Drag Queens: 1st Pride Event in NYC |time=8:39}} June 1973. Accessed Jan 1, 2025. The increasingly angry crowd only calmed when Bette Midler, who heard on the radio in her Greenwich Village apartment, arrived, took the microphone, and began singing "Friends". This was one of several events in early 1970s where lesbian feminists, gay men, and drag queens at times found themselves in conflict; while other events, such as those led by the GLF women's caucus, often had harmonious participation between these sometimes contentious factions.{{rp|113}}{{Cite book | title = That's Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation | author = Sycamore, Mattilda | publisher = Soft Skull Press | date = April 22, 2008 | access-date = June 28, 2015 | isbn = 9781593763145 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PNYlUuvPOQ8C&pg=PA123 }}Shepard, Benjamin Heim and Ronald Hayduk (2002) From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization. Verso. pp.156-160 {{ISBN|978-1859-8435-67}}[https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=Diana+Davies+Gay+Liberation+Front# Photos of Gay Liberation Front Demonstrations] by Diana Davies at the New York Public Library Digital Collection. Accessed 17 May 2019

{{Portal|LGBTQ|New York City}}

• Gay Activists Alliance
• History of lesbianism in the United States
• LGBT culture in New York City
• List of LGBT people from New York City
• NYC Pride March
• Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries

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{{reflist}}

• [https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/v979v309v Drag Queens: A Magazine About the Transvestite] issue 1 on the Digital Transgender Archive

{{LGBT in New York}}

Category:1969 establishments in New York City

Category:LGBTQ political advocacy groups in New York (state)

Category:Organizations based in New York City

Category:Organizations established in 1969

Category:Transgender rights in the United States