--- description: With news of the Supreme Court's decision in favor of same-sex marriage, LIFE presents photos of the early days of the gay rights movement. title: Gay Rights: Photos From the Early 'Gay Liberation' Movement, 1971 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc35c6cf8c68758d0/698760c7e20a872280a82769/141014-gay-rights-12.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [photography](/tag/photography/) ## photography Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Silent No More: Early Days in the Fight for Gay Rights by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Jan 24, 2024 3:23 PM CUTPublished: May 1, 2014 6:58 PM CUT  Gay Pride, 1971. Gay Pride, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Jan 24, 2024 3:23 PM CUTPublished: May 1, 2014 6:58 PM CUT In late 1971, two years after the [Stonewall riots](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall%5Friots "undefined") in New York sparked the modern gay rights movement in America, and twelve months before LIFE ceased publishing as a weekly, the magazine featured an article on “gay liberation” that, encountered more than 40 years later, feels sensational, measured and somehow endearingly, deeply _square_ all at the same time. Titled “Homosexuals in Revolt” and touted as “a major essay on America’s newest militants,” the piece elicited strong reactions from readers—many of whom, of course, were less than happy that their beloved LIFE would devote a dozen pages to people whom one letter writer characterized as “psychic cripples.” Largely predictable responses from peeved readers that appeared in the Jan. 28, 1972, issue of LIFE included: --- > “” --- But there were also letters from readers praising LIFE’s “accuracy, fairness and dignified tone,” and one from a woman in New Jersey, Jule Lee, who was (in her words) “one of the oldest lesbian activists—both in age and years of participation in the movement.” She was outraged, she wrote, not only because the “Homosexuals in Revolt” article focused on what she called “LIFE-made ‘leaders’ \[who\] do not represent me and my age group,” but also because “out of ten picture pages . . . lesbians are mentioned on two. If this isn’t a new high in male chauvinism, I don’t know what is!” [\[See TIME.com’s “Visual History of the Gay-Right Movement”\]](http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1900959,00.html?iid=lb-photos "undefined") For its part, LIFE introduced its 1971 feature in language that certainly feels more “Us vs. Them” than what we might see in a similar article today, but it’s also language that, all these years later, has about it a sense of an older world trying—really trying—to get a handle on the new: --- > “” --- LIFE.com remembers the early days of a movement that, incredibly, in the second decade of the 21st century, still occasionally has cause to take to the streets. [\[Visit GreyVillet.com to see more of the photographer’s work\]](http://www.greyvillet.com/ "undefined") _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk "undefined")_._  Caption from LIFE In commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, militants this year designated the last week in June as Gay Liberation Week and celebrated with a candlelight parade. The parade involved 300 male and female homosexuals, who marched without incident two miles from Gay Activists headquarters to a park near City Hall. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE When a bill guaranteeing equal job opportunities for homosexuals stalled in New York City Council last spring, militants demonstrated at City Hall. With fists raised, they shout a football style "Gay Power" cheer at police blocking the building. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gay rights protest, 1971. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE A homosexual activist steps between a pair of police horses to be interviewed during a New York demonstration. Militants often charge police brutality and welcome arrest for the sake of publicity. They also encourage press coverage of their protest actions. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gay rights protest, 1971. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gay rights protest, California, 1971. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gay rights protest, New York, 1971. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE Collared by a patrolman after he deliberately crossed police barricades at New York's City Hall, Gay Activists Alliance President Jim Owles submits to arrest. Members of his organization were protesting City Council reluctance to debate a fair employment bill for homosexuals. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gay rights protest, New York, 1971. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gay rights protest, New York, 1971. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gay rights protest, New York, 1971. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gay Pride, 1971. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gay Activists Alliance, New York, 1971. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gay rights rally, 1971. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gay rights event, 1971. Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3507166/silent-no-more-early-days-in-the-fight-for-gay-rights/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3507166/silent-no-more-early-days-in-the-fight-for-gay-rights/"},"headline":"Silent No More: Early Days in the Fight for Gay Rights","datePublished":"2014-05-01T18:58:23.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T15:23:12.000Z","description":"With news of the Supreme Court's historic decision in favor of same-sex marriage, LIFE presents photos chronicling the early days of the gay rights movement in America","url":"https://time.com/3507166/silent-no-more-early-days-in-the-fight-for-gay-rights/","keywords":["photography","Gay Rights","LGBT","Civil Rights"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc35c6cf8c68758d0/698760c7e20a872280a82769/141014-gay-rights-12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc35c6cf8c68758d0/698760c7e20a872280a82769/141014-gay-rights-12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Gay liberation, LIFE magazine, December 1971","caption":"Gay Pride, 1971.","creditText":"Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/photography/","name":"photography"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3507166/silent-no-more-early-days-in-the-fight-for-gay-rights/","name":"Silent No More: Early Days in the Fight for Gay Rights"}}]}] ```