By Zane McNeill, Riley Clare Valentine, and Blu Buchanan
The Mattachine Society — originally called the Society of Fools — was founded in Los Angeles on November 11, 1950, by a group of leftist gay men that consisted of Harry Hay, Rudi Gernreich, Dale Jennings, Bob Hull, and Chuck Rowland.
Promotional poster for the Mattachine Society, 1960. Source: Public domain
It was the first durable gay rights group in the United States. The name “Mattachine” was taken from a medieval French troupe whose actors used masks to satirize societal norms, as the group was founded on the belief that queers had to wear metaphorical masks in order to survive in society.
The Mattachine Society acted primarily as a social group in which members could discuss the discrimination and antigay violence they experienced. The Mattachine Society believed that government, religion, and psychiatry were agents of antigay oppression. Members worked to stop police entrapment of gay men and provided legal advice to those who were arrested. The society also addressed the stigmatization and medicalization of homosexuality and used “sip-ins” to protest the prohibition of LGBTQ+ people meeting in bars. Historically, the Mattachine Society preferred to advocate for change through legal and political means.
This post is taken from Be Gay, Do Crime: Everyday Acts of Queer Resistance and Rebellion, edited by Zane McNeill, Riley Clare Valentine, and Blu Buchanan, and published by PM Press and Working Class History.
Packed with daily snapshots of radical queer history, this book celebrates the bold, the brave, and the beautifully defiant moments that have shaped the fight for justice. By situating readers within a larger pattern of struggle, these everyday acts counter the erasure of queer people from history and serve as a reminder that our struggles are part of a broader fight against systemic violence and dehumanization. [Adapted from publishers’ description.]
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