Christopher Harrity

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The Black Panthers and Gay Rights

  In 1970 the Black Panther Party invited Jean Genet, the famous French gay writer and activist, to the U.S., as many black Americans already considered him an ally because of his play The Blacks. In 1991 in Paris, lesbian Panther Angela Davis spoke Davis also recalls a speech Genet gave at the University of California, Los Angeles, in support of releasing black political prisoners: “Genet had made some proposals 20 years before that we just started to develop — for instance, the white participation in the struggle against racism. After a quarter of an hour, many members of the audience […]

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Was Patty Duke a Gay Icon?

It seems that the celebrity death rate has started climbing of late. But really, it’s just that the famous people and pop idols of my generation are starting their natural return to the cosmic unknown. So they loom larger in my consciousness and the loss of them feels more profound. My generation is the first television generation. We were the first kids who stayed home sick from school and watched soaps with mom, watched Captain Kangaroo in the morning before catching the bus, and then caught frisky game shows and heartwarming sitcoms with the family at night. Straight people control […]