The North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO, pronounced "Nay-Ko") was an umbrella organization for a number of

homophile Terms used to describe homosexuality have gone through many changes since the emergence of the first terms in the mid-19th century. In English, some terms in widespread use have been sodomite, Achillean, Sapphic, Uranian, homophile, lesbian, ...

organizations. Founded in 1966, the goal of NACHO was to expand coordination among homophile organizations throughout the Americas. Homophile activists were motivated in part by an increase in mainstream media attention to gay issues. Some feared that without a centralized organization, the movement would be hijacked, in the words of founding member

Foster Gunnison Jr. Foster Gunnison Jr. (1925–1994) was an American LGBT rights activist who collected a substantial archive of LGBT history and activism in Hartford, Connecticut. Following Gunnison's death, his family donated the archive to the University of Co ...

, by "fringe elements, beatniks, and other professional non-conformists".

Origins

NACHO was modeled on an earlier organization, the

East Coast Homophile Organizations East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) was established in January 1962 in Philadelphia, to facilitate cooperation between homophile organizations and outside administrations. Its formative membership included the Mattachine Society chapters in N ...

(ECHO), that formed in 1963 to coordinate the activities of homophile groups from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Washington, D.C. and

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Planning conference

The first meeting of the organizations that would become NACHO was held over the weekend of February 18, 1966 in Kansas City under the title "National Planning Conference of Homophile Organizations". Fourteen organizations were represented at the conference, which was held in Kansas City as a centralized location. Over the next six months, the attendees set up a legal defense fund and started a newsletter.Bianco, p. 175

First meetings

NACHO was officially formed at a meeting held in San Francisco six months after the planning conference. Although Gunnison delivered a keynote speech calling for a strong centrally-controlled structure, others in attendance were wary.

Daughters of Bilitis The Daughters of Bilitis , also called the DOB or the Daughters, was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. The organization, formed in San Francisco in 1955, was conceived as a social alternative to le ...

co-founder Del Martin and other women were growing increasingly suspicious that men could understand the needs of lesbians. Mattachine New York leader Dick Leitsch, who had influence within Mayor John Lindsay's administration, did not want to give up his organization's independence. NACHO was hampered by internal conflicts from the beginning. Fault lines formed over membership, credentialing and voting rights, with East coast organizations favoring a more formal membership process and West coast activists wishing for a more casual members policy. Mattachine New York and

ONE, Inc. One, Inc., or One Incorporated, was one of the first gay rights organizations in the United States, founded in 1952. Organization The idea for an organization dedicated to homosexuals emerged from a Mattachine Society discussion meeting held on O ...

refused to attend the 1967 conference in New York because of these concerns. Lesbians were also concerned that the male-dominated leadership was giving short shrift to women-specific issues.

Slogan and the Homosexual Bill of Rights

At its 1968 conference in

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, held just weeks after the contentious

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...

, NACHO adopted the slogan "Gay is Good". Coined by founding member

Frank Kameny Franklin Edward Kameny (May 21, 1925 – October 11, 2011) was an American gay rights activist. He has been referred to as "one of the most significant figures" in the American gay rights movement. In 1957, Kameny was dismissed from his po ...

, the slogan was modeled on the African American slogan "Black is Beautiful." NACHO also adopted a five-point Homosexual Bill of Rights at its 1968 meeting:

# Private consensual sex between persons over the age of consent shall not be an offense. # Solicitation for any sexual acts shall not be an offense except upon the filing of a complaint by the aggrieved party, not a police officer or agent. # A person's sexual orientation or practice shall not be a factor in the granting or renewing of federal security clearances or visas, or in the granting of citizenship. # Service in and discharge from the Armed Forces and eligibility for veteran's benefits shall be without reference to homosexuality. # A person's sexual orientation or practice shall not affect his eligibility for employment with federal, state, or local governments, or private employers.

NACHO resolved to send questionnaires to political candidates to determine their positions on the points of the Bill. A number of lesbian organizations, still concerned over the lack of attention being paid to their issues, refused to participate. Daughters of Bilitis president Rita LaPorte compared the relationship between NACHO and DOB to a husband and wife. Heterosexual women, she argued, dissipated their energy through their marriages; similarly, lesbians risked dissipating their energy should DOB become a surrogate "wife" to what she perceived as the male-centered NACHO.

Final conferences

NACHO held two additional conferences in 1969 and 1970, but by this time the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of ...

had occurred and the momentum and energy of the gay movement had shifted to more radical groups like the

Gay Liberation Front Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK and Canada. The GLF provided a ...

and the

Gay Activists Alliance The Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) was founded in New York City on December 21, 1969, almost six months after the Stonewall riots, by dissident members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). In contrast to the Liberation Front, the Activists Allianc ...

. Older members and younger, more radicalized activists struggled at the 1970 convention in San Francisco, particularly over the issues of membership and participation, which led to the gay liberationists' taking control of the convention. The younger activists passed a series of resolutions supporting the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

and Women's Liberation and the immediate withdrawal of troops from

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

. NACHO never recovered from the conflict and the 1970 convention was the organization's last. ''Gay Sunshine'' magazine declared the convention "the battle that ended the homophile movement".

Legacy

Although its existence was brief, NACHO helped start dozens of local gay groups across the country and issued position papers on a variety of LGBT-related issues. It organized national demonstrations, including a May 1966 action against military discrimination that included the country's first gay motorcade.Fletcher, p. 42 Through its legal defense fund, NACHO challenged anti-gay laws and regulations ranging from immigration issues and military service to the legality of serving alcohol to homosexuals. It's notable that within fifty year's time every major goal identified in the original NACHO declaration of rights has been achieved and in many ways surpassed by the passing of marriage equality, for example.

References

Works cited

* Andryszewski, Tricia (2000). ''Gay Rights''. Twenty-First Century Books. . * Armstrong, Elizabeth A. (2002). ''Forging Gay Identities: Organizing Sexuality in San Francisco, 1950-1994''. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. . * Bianco, David (1999). ''Gay Essentials: Facts For Your Queer Brain''. Los Angeles, Alyson Books. . * Blasius, Marc and Shane Phelan, eds. (1997). ''We Are Everywhere: A Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics''. New York, Routledge. . * Eisenbach, David (2006). ''Gay Power: An American Revolution''. Carroll & Graf Publishers. . * Fletcher, Lynne Yamaguchi (1992). ''The First Gay Pope and Other Records''. Boston, Alyson Publications. . * Kaiser, Charles (1997). ''The Gay Metropolis 1940–1960''. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. . * Moyer, Bill, Joann Macalister, Mary Lou Finley and Steve Soifer (2001). ''Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements''. New Society Publishers. . * Witt, Lynn, Sherry Thomas and Eric Marcus, eds. (1995). ''Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America''. New York, Warner Books. .

External links

ECHO and NACHO resources at Rainbow History Project
from the papers of

{{LGBT , state=uncollapsed , selected=history 1966 in LGBT history Defunct LGBT organizations in the United States 1966 establishments in the United States Organizations established in 1966