Harry Hay: The Great Forerunner

Beginning with the 'ghetto riot' at the Stonewall Bar in Greenwich Village in 1969, an open gay rights movement emerged and had been a significant force in the larger people's movement. Before the Stonewall uprising, however, an instrumental figure in the movement for lesbian and gay rights was Harry Hay, a one-time member of the Communist Party USA, a trade unionist and cultural activist. Hay helped found the first gay liberation group in the US, laid a theoretical basis for gay rights, and helped pave the way for the rebellions of the 1960s and beyond.