"Activist, author, teacher, and visionary Harry Hay is an American original. He has left his mark on some of the most significant social and cultural movements of the twentieth century, from trade unionism to New Age spirituality. But it is Harry Hay's role in launching the Lesbian/Gay liberation movement that has earned him a place in history. As early as 1948 Harry Hay began pursuing his vision of forming an organization, the Mattachine Society, devoted to the welfare of Gay people. Hay was the first to propose the idea of Gay men and Lesbians as a cultural minority, the very basis of the Gay movement today. For the last fifty years, he has grappled with each new wave of cultural and political thought and synthesized agonizing contradictions from spirituality to Marxism, from art to politics. This first collection of Hay's own words--speeches, papers, and interviews--offers invaluable insight into the vision of one man who made it possible for millions to live in freedom and with self-respect"--Book jacket.

Gay liberation: the birth of an idea / by Will Roscoe -- Prologue: "How did he know?" -- Mattachine, 1948-1953 -- Homophile, 1953-1969 -- Through the gay window, 1970-1980 -- Radical faerie, 1980-1995 -- Reflections -- Afterword: Harry Hay and gay politics / by Will Roscoe -- Chronology.