Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York

<p>Between 1966 and 1975 North American youth activists established over 35 school- and community-based gay liberation youth groups whose members sought control over their own bodies education and sexual and social relations. This book focuses on three groundbreaking New York City groups -- Gay Youth (GY) Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.) and the Gay International Youth Society of George Washington High School (GWHS) -- from the advent of gay liberation in NYC in 1969 to just after its dissolution and the rise of identity politics by 1975. Cohen examines how gay liberation -- with its rejection of stultifying sex roles attack on institutional oppression connection between personal and political liberation celebration of innate androgyny and resolute anti-war and anti-capitalist stance -- shaped understandings of sexual identity membership criteria organization decision-making the roles of youth and adults and efforts to effect social change.</p>