Gay Liberation Now
On March 14th, 1971 gay liberation groups from around the state marched on Albany with a list of demands. Fueled by the Stonewall riots in 1969 and continuing the momentum from the first Christopher Street Liberation Day march in 1970, activist groups led between 2,500 and 3,000 people in a march on the state capital. The Gay Activist Alliance, Gay Liberation Front, the Mattachine Society, and Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) all came out to fight for LGBT civil rights.
List of demands
1) Scrapping the sodomy law, which defined homosexual sex as a sex crime. 2) Repeal of the solicitation law which criminalized expressions of sexual interest between people of the same sex. 3) An end to the statutes against cross-dressing and impersonation. 4) Fair employment equal opportunity legislation for gays. 5) Legislation outlawing discrimination against gays in housing and public accommodations. 6) Repeal of the loitering laws used to entrap gay men who were seen as "cruising for sex."
Lesbians Demonstrating at the March on Albany, 1971 (1971-03-14) by Richard C. WandelThe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
"All we've ever known was shame," said Kate Millett, the bisexual feminist author and one of the speakers at the march. "We were feeling proud and we liked ourselves and we were free, and we were beginning to show them that we meant to stay that way. And they've got to know that now."
