Harry Hay

American gay rights activist

Born: April 7, 1912 · Died: October 24, 2002

Famous Persons

Who was Harry Hay?

Henry Hay Jr. (April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) was an American gay rights activist, communist, and labor advocate. Hay has been described as "the Founder of the Modern Gay Movement" and "the father of gay liberation". Acknowledging both his same-sex sexual attraction and an interest in Marxism from an early age, Hay eventually worked as a professional actor in Los Angeles, where he joined the Communist Party USA, becoming a committed labor activist. He ended his 1938 marriage to a Party activist after recognizing he remained homosexual, establishing the Mattachine Society in 1950. Hay increasingly stood against the assimilationism and subversive infiltration tactics advocated by the majority of gay rights campaigners. Organizing to subvert the social and political marginalization of gay people, he cofounded the Los Angeles chapter of the Gay Liberation Front in 1969.

A Faerie gathering in 1986, with Hay in bottom left corner

Historical significance

He cofounded the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States, as well as the Radical Faeries, a loosely affiliated gay spiritual movement.

Hay at a Radical Faeries campout in the Anza-Borrego Desert, April 1996

Sources and further reading

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Wikipedia source

Cite this page

MLA

“Harry Hay.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/harry-hay/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

APA

Harry Hay. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 24, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/harry-hay/

Chicago

“Harry Hay.” thisDay. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/harry-hay/.

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