Six decades after it was first printed, a Mattachine Society ad is making the rounds online. The ad bears the image of a zebra proudly wearing spots instead of stripes—and it shares a message still revenant today.
“Homosexuals are different… but we believe they have the right to be,” the ad reads. “We believe that the civil rights and human dignity of homosexuals are as precious as those of any other citizen…. we believe that the homosexual has the right to live, work and participate free society. Mattachine defends the rights of homosexuals and tries to create a climate of understanding and acceptance.”
The image comes from the New York Public Library, which has the original ad in its Manuscripts and Archives division and offers digital reproductions of it for free through its Digital Collections website. The library also displayed the ad as part of its “Love and Resistance: Stonewall at 50” exhibit in 2019.
Related: The moment when “homosexual” became “gay”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
And the NYPL reports that the Mattachine Society — an early gay rights organization co-founded by labor activist Harry Hay, pictured at top right in the group photo above — distributed the ad in 1960.
The ad also marks the Mattachine Society’s definitive answer to the question of whether to assimilate, a question that activist Jim Kepner pondered in a 1954 issue of the magazine ONE, published by the Mattachine offshoot One, Inc.
“Are homosexuals in any important way different from other people?” Kepner wrote. “If so, ought that difference be cultivated, or hidden under a bushel, or extirpated altogether? … What can a Society accomplish if half of it feels its object is to convince the world we’re just like everyone else and the other half feels homosexuals are variants in the full sense of the term and have every right to be?” (For the record, Kepner was all for the differences. “Homosexuals are natural rebels, he wrote.”)
Related: This 1972 author predicted gay rights, non-monogamy, and maybe even Grindr
As this Mattachine ad circulated on Reddit recently, users posted their appreciation for its message and their fears for societal regression. “I was born in ‘65 and legal gay marriage is one of the things I thought I would never see in my life,” one wrote. “I also never thought I’d see a Black president or weed legalized. I hope I don’t see gay marriage stricken from that list.”
Another person wrote: “It’s written like someone really didn’t like the darker implications of the word ‘tolerance’ because it spells out really explicitly ‘this is about social equity, not mere existence.’ Really nice stuff today, to be honest. If I read this on an ad right now, as a man who voluntarily has sex with other men, I’d be pretty stoked.”
crazyoldman
I was born in 1951. Not only did I ever think marriage was a possibility, I never dreamed that the hospital from which I retried in Indiana, would have a gay employee group and light the side of the hospital with the rainbow during June.
inbama
AIDS had a lot to do with the sudden focus on same sex marriage. Parents who had shunned their gay sons suddenly showing up and attempting to break their wills. landlords tossing out surviving partners.
Also, “official” family status was important to lesbians as many had kids, and the massive die-out of gay leadership created openings for them at the top of organizations like HRC.
barryaksarben
for inbama – my best friend /soulmate died in the early 80s and he was a working artist of incredible talent, he was in a long term relationship and his family seemed to accept this along with hosting me in Idaho on many occasions. When he died they took every last scrap of art or anything that was so called “his” leaving his lover with nothing but sadness, his sister told me a few years later that they were left in boxes in the garage so it meant nothing to them. They also had the funeral on a weds so it was nearly impossible for anyone to attend from La where we all were living. I felt so betrayed as I thought they had accepted him but they were unable to get past their medivial sense of shame. I was probably the only person that Brian ever told that he had been raped by his father numerous times growing up. self hatred is a horrible thing
Fname Optional Lname
The Mattachine Society was brazen and bold. Going out in public with picket signs that brought attention to the fact that they were homosexual was certainly not something the public was comfortable with (and in many places they still are not). Educating the public on a subject that the majority of people frowned upon took guts. They deserve to be honored for the pioneers they were..
Gordon of the Bassets
“a message still revenant today”? Revenant? Back from the dead? Wouldn’t it have been better to run this story for Halloween? Ahem!