Katy Lee ENGL 121 SP2 11.08.

2013 Family and Democracy The Gay Liberation Fronts Manifesto was written in London during the year 1971. By this time the Gay Liberation Front was recognized as a political movement within the United Kingdom, emerging from an incident in New York City two years earlier. When New York police raided a gay bar, fighting moved from the bar out onto the streets. It quickly became a riot spreading through the West Village and continuing for three nights in a row. As a response to these riots Gays from the Matachine Society New York moved together to the Alternative University in Greenwich village, eventually becoming the Gay Liberation Front (Stevens). Their manifesto was a call to action, written first and foremost to other members of the gay community, though clearly intended to be read by many others. It systematically tears down the social constructs prohibiting the acceptance of homosexuality, calls for an end to self-oppression, and clearly explains the many flaws in reasoning against homosexuality. The Gay Liberation Front: Manifesto challenges the way society views community, community issues and community action. They accomplish this through rebelling against the most basic unit of community within society, the family itself. The manifesto sees community action taking place through the tearing down of these societal constructs and creating new community among gay communes. Their attack against the family unit is present from the third paragraph of the manifesto throughout the last sentence. This attack is emotional to say the least, claiming a woman is a slave to her husband, that parents oppress their children by forcing

themselves as ideal models, and that every aspect of this community works against homosexuality. This assault on the family deepens as they state How many of us have been thrown out of home? How many of us have been pressured into marriage, sent to psychiatrists, frightened into sexual inertia, ostracized, banned, emotionally destroyed-all by our parents? Through this appeal to the emotional heartache that has come from the family unit, the manifesto effectively questions the legitimacy and necessity of family as a basic social community. This fundamental assault on family continues throughout their attack on numerous other social constructs including school and church, emphasizing the sexism and homophobia that is a direct result of the family. As the Gay Liberation Front addresses these community groups, they systematically define them and proceed to logically break them down. The greatest example of rationale used on their part occurs as they explain the social reasoning behind their oppression. The truth is that there are no proven systematic differences between male and female, apart from obvious biological ones all differences of temperament, aptitudes and so on, are the result of upbringing and social pressures. They are not inborn. Through claims such as this, they contest the reasoning behind their oppression. The manifesto goes on to address community action through building up new community groups in the place of family. The only tangible solutions given to ending the oppression they are experiencing is the developing of consciousness-raising groups and gay communes. At this suggestion they complete the task of redefining community, as they have given a complete alternative to the most comfortable and conventional standard of community, the family.

Interestingly, many of the primary societal constructs torn down by The Gay Liberation Front, according to Alexis De Tocqueville, play an important role in society. In fact, according to his writings from Democracy in America, the family unit, which as he writes in 1831 already appears to be falling apart within America, is a major part of what prevents individualism. While individuals who live in aristocratic societies are bound in a tight manner to something that is placed outside of them, and they are often disposed to forget themselves those who live in a democratic society easily forget those who have preceded [them], and have no idea of those who will follow [them]. Tocqueville recognizes the loss of family lineage, and the long-term effects of this loss. No longer will people sacrifice personal enjoyments for beings who no longer exist or who do not yet exist. Without the concept of aristocracy, the burden to fit in or to honor your family through conforming to society has been lifted. A hundred and forty some years later, the individualism created from this produces the Gay Liberation Front. It is no coincidence the progression continues, and they then further challenge the necessity of family. What started with a widespread and rather accepted concept of losing connection to and responsibility for past and future family has now moved to a radical minority viewpoint challenging the significance of the intimate family unit in our society. Tocqueville identifies individualism as a breeder of selfishness, and selfishness as the creator of despotism. Therefore, it isnt a stretch to conclude that Tocquevilles writings state, in conversation with the Gay Liberation Fronts Manifesto, that the success of gay liberation, which is promoting individualism and tearing down the legitimacy of family, might be all that stands between America and despotism. Despotism, which is dangerous in all times, is therefore particularly to be feared in democratic centuries.

While Tocqueville and the manifesto both view the family under drastically different lights, they ultimately support one another in their conclusions. Both seem to agree that the familial community is one that prevents change. The Gay Liberation Front has challenged something many of us hold very dear. The concept that something as important to our culture as the family could be creating the hostile society described in the manifesto is uncomfortable to seriously consider. Tocqueville, on the other hand, suggests we may have already strayed too far from the confines of the family, and fears an authoritarian society could be the result. The dominant American view certainly remains one in favor of family, though Tocquevilles writings emphasize the continued loss of its importance as time wears on. While the manifesto may have been the first to challenge family to such a grave extent, it will not be the last. Only time will tell to what extreme the Gay Liberation Fronts viewpoint will prevail, and the accuracy of Tocquevilles predictions to that success.

Bibliography Gay LIberation Front. Manifesto Group. Gay Liberation Front Manifesto. Rev. ed. London: GLF, 1979. Steven, . "A Brief History of the Gay Liberation Front." libcom. N.p., 21 Nov 2007. Web. 16 Oct 2013. <http://libcom.org/library/brief-history-gay-liberation-front-1970 73>. Tocqueville, Alexis , and Thomas Bender. Democracy in America. New York: Modern Library, 1981. Print.