Also in the 1960s, the Mattachine Society of New York was associated with other groups (including the Mattachine Society of Washington) in ECHO (East Coast Homophile Organizations) and, from 1966 (along with Mattachine Midwest), in NACHO (North American Conference of Homophile Organizations).
•
As Hay became more involved in his Mattachine work, he correspondingly became more concerned that his homosexuality would negatively affect the Communist Party, which did not allow gays to be members.
•
These societies, lifelong secret fraternities of unmarried townsmen who never performed in public unmasked, were dedicated to going out into the countryside and conducting dances and rituals during the Feast of Fools, at the Vernal Equinox.
•
Because of concerns for secrecy and the founders’ leftist ideology, they adopted the cell organization being used by the Communist Party of the United States.
Mattachine New York leader Dick Leitsch, who had influence within Mayor John Lindsay's administration, did not want to give up his organization's independence.
Society of Jesus | Royal Society | National Geographic Society | American Cancer Society | Royal Television Society | American Physical Society | American Chemical Society | International Society for Krishna Consciousness | American Society of Civil Engineers | Royal Society of Canada | Royal Geographical Society | American Philosophical Society | Theosophical Society | Royal Society of Edinburgh | Society of Antiquaries of London | Society of the Cincinnati | Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals | Justice Society of America | American Mathematical Society | Royal Aeronautical Society | National Honor Society | Black Label Society | Students for a Democratic Society | society | Royal Society of Arts | secret society | Royal Dublin Society | Royal Astronomical Society | London Missionary Society | Zoological Society of London |
Activist Craig Rodwell conceived of the event following an April 17, 1965 picket at the White House by members of the New York City and Washington, D.C. chapters of the Mattachine Society, Philadelphia's Janus Society and the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis.
The New York chapter of the Mattachine Society was established in 1955 (incorporated in 1961), and Barbara Gittings established the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis September 20, 1958.
It chronicles the founding of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained LGBT rights organization in the United States, and the love affair of two of its founding members, Harry Hay (Thomas Jay Ryan) and Rudi Gernreich (Michael Urie).
The newspaper also contained illustrations by Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, as well as regular contributors as Arthur Bell, Taylor Mead, Charles Ludlam, Pudgy Roberts, Bill Vehr, Pat Maxwell,Clayton Cole and regular columns from all of the active LGBSTG groups, from the most conservative Mattachine Society to the most radical The Gay Liberation Front, and all the other groups in between.
The Temperamentals, a 2009 play about the founding of the Mattachine Society