A 75th Anniversary: The Mattachine Society

A presentation and discussion about the organization, founded in Los Angeles, that launched 75 years of LGBTQ+ community organizing in the U.S.

Los Angeles has been called "the cradle of gay history in the U.S." which started with the founding of the Mattachine Society by seven gay men in LA in 1951. The LGBTQ+ community in L.A. has grown into a vibrant, visible, organized, creative, and politically active world class community. Mattachine has touched the lives of all LGBTQ+ people, whether we know it or not.

Drs. Ferguson and Kilhefner will discuss the historical importance and continuing significance of the Mattachine Society, followed by audience questions and interactive dialogue.

Craig M. Loftin, Ph.D., teaches in the American Studies Department at Cal State Fullerton. He is the author of Masked Voices: Gay Men and Lesbians in Cold War America and the editor of Letters to ONE: Gay and Lesbian Voices from the 1950s and 1960s. He has been involved with ONE since 2000.

Don Kilhefner, Ph.D., a pioneer Gay Liberationist, has been a gay community organizer in Los Angeles, nationally, and internationally for the past 60 years, including (with Morris Kight) the LA LGBT Center and Van Ness Recovery House in 1971-1972 and (with Harry Hay) the global Radical Faeries in 1979.

Questions? Email Jude Schoenfeld (jschoenfeld@oneinstitute.org), Director of Public Programs.