LAWRENCE GAY LIBERATION FRONT
Gay Liberation was never confined to major cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York—it was a global movement that ignited activism and advocacy across the world. In the wake of the Stonewall Rebellion on June 28, 1969, the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was formed, marking a radical shift in LGBTQ+ activism. The movement spread rapidly, with GLF chapters emerging not only in cities across the United States but internationally, uniting activists in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.
One such chapter was in Lawrence, Kansas, where John Bolin played an active role. The presence of the Gay Liberation Front in smaller cities and college towns like Lawrence demonstrates the widespread reach of the movement, proving that the fight for equality was not limited to urban centers. Activists in these communities organized protests, educational initiatives, and support networks, contributing to the larger struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and visibility.
— August Bernadicou, Executive Director of The LGBTQ History Project
“I knew I was gay before I had speech. Very early on I was aware I had these feelings. When I was three years old, I remember chasing a boy around the yard and shoving my hands in his underpants.
As I progressed through school, it wasn’t easy. At a school assembly, a boy was pretending to be a radio DJ and dedicating songs to people. He dedicated an old Four Seasons song called Walk Like a Man to me. I was crushed.
I was desperate for any news I could find. In the early 1960s, there was a big article in Life magazine about homosexuality in America, and I remember waiting for it to come out. I was desperate to read it. We were on a family vacation and every town we went to I said, ‘Please stop the car.’ I wanted to see if it was on the newsstand at the gas stations.
When I was 13 years old, I was so excited that we were going to San Francisco. I remember reading in the Life magazine article that you could identify gay men by if they were wearing wheat jeans, a light colored Levi's. My mother also read the article and told my brother and me not to wear light jeans. She didn’t want anyone to think we were gay.
Also at this time, I experimented with friends. I had an encounter with an adult that I met. He would drive me around in his car and we would fool around. He was probably in his late 20s, ten years older than me. I didn’t have many other experiences until I was in college. I went to Washington University for a year and then Kansas University in Lawrence, where I had a much stronger self identity of being gay.
I wanted to major in art, and I knew Kansas had a good art program. I fell in love with the town during my first semester. I lived in a dorm my first year, and then I moved off campus. I started meeting more hippies and identifying with hippies and the anti-war movement. There were 15,000 odd students, but it's a relatively small town: cheap rent, old houses. I think that because Lawrence was small, accessible, and friendly, that made it relatively easy to meet like-minded people.
My first roommate was from New York. He was straight, but he wasn't bothered at all that I was gay, so I didn't have that many issues about it, and I felt comfortable. I got into more political groups and protest groups—groups would get together for rap sessions and such, and I was often the only openly gay person in those groups.
I started living in a commune where most people were heterosexual, but we shared the same politics. There were women in the house, and I understood the women’s liberation movement. I joined their protests on and off campus.
I learned about Stonewall because it was in the underground papers. From that, we grew into the Gay Liberation Front. Lawrence was a midway point between the East Coast and West Coast. Many gay liberationists would come through Lawrence and stay at our house.
There was a gay bar in Topeka, and there were no men there who looked like us. The men who went were much straighter, wore matching sweaters, and had short hair. They weren’t welcoming initially because of our cultural differences. We were gay freaks. This difference was hard, but as the Gay Liberation Front grew, we found more like-minded people.
We eventually started our own commune. It was originally called the Body Shop, but we changed the name to Venus. It represented a more positive view and a nod to a less machismo stance. It wasn’t just about sex, which the name Body Shop implied. We eventually got a second house called the Bride of Venus, which was a little closer to campus. Again, this became a hangout for gays. We had a local hotline. Whoever picked up the phone would counsel the caller or tell them about a party that was coming up. We had runaways and people who came from abusive families stay with us.
We were confrontational, but we were also big on education and getting university recognition. There was pushback. We advocated illegal sexual behavior. We promoted coming to terms with being gay and eliminating the stigma of it. We had an educational focus. We went to Washington, D.C., for an anti-war protest and attended the Black Panthers' constitutional convention. We had interconnections and maintained communication via letters and phone calls. It was very much on the ground level.
We were suing the university for not recognizing us as a student organization. Dances were one of the few tools we had to raise money for our court case and to advance our mission. The dances were a visible, positive experience for people to attend. The music was good, and the vibes were good. We hosted counseling sessions to help people through their discomfort. We wanted to share our experiences.
One of our most visible actions was a street cleanup we participated in. It was a city-wide event to clean up all the alleys. It was led by the women from the Chamber of Commerce. So we signed up to do it. We had six or seven men from New York City staying with us at this time. We all dressed up in house dresses and beards, and we got our mops and brooms. It was photographed for the local newspaper. It gave an overall positive impression of us doing something community oriented. We were very visible about doing our work.
Even though I am married now, we were against same-sex marriage. Why would we want to do something dictated by the church and heteronormative standards? Gay people don’t need to be married. That is a false construct. We were against a lot of things that smacked of middle class values.
We brought awareness to an entire state. Whether it was positive or negative, we were reported on. We were loud. I feel like on that level, we achieved a lot. The organization continues to this day. It is certainly one of the periods of my life that I am most proud of.”
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