The Spiritual Conference for Radical FairiesHay and others switched to the alternate spelling of ''faeries'' after 1979 (Hay/Roscoe, p. 240). was organized as a "call to gay brothers" by early gay rights advocates

Harry Hay Henry Hay Jr. (April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) was an American gay rights activist, communist, and union organizer, labor advocate. He cofounded the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States, as well as th ...

and

Don Kilhefner Don Kilhefner is an LGBT rights in the United States, LGBTQ rights activist, community organizer, and Analytical psychology, Jungian psychologist living in West Hollywood, California, West Hollywood, California. He founded and co-founded multiple g ...

. The 1979 conference was held over three days, coinciding with

Labor Day Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...

weekend: 31 August–2 September. Over 200 participants gathered at the Sri Ram

Ashram An ashram (, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions, not including Buddhism. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< Benson, Arizona Benson is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, Cochise County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 5,355. It was founded as a rail terminal for the area, and is located approxim ...

to explore ideas for merging spirituality into

gay liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s in the Western world, that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoff ...

History

The organizing group formed out of discussions between their members spanning 1973-1978. These discussions mixed the works of

Edward Carpenter Edward Carpenter (29 August 1844 – 28 June 1929) was an English utopian socialist, poet, philosopher, anthologist, an early activist for gay rights and prison reform whilst advocating vegetarianism and taking a stance against vivise ...

Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. The first excavations at the Minoan palace of Knossos on the List of islands of Greece, Gree ...

Jungian psychology Analytical psychology (, sometimes translated as analytic psychology; also Jungian analysis) is a term referring to the psychological practices of Carl Jung. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their s ...

, and Hay's studies of Native American spirituality, on topics ranging from gay consciousness, gay mythos, and the evolving nature of

gay subculture Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual m ...

. By 1978, such discussions indicated the need for a retreat to focus more deeply on these topics. In the fall of 1978 Hay, Kilhefner, and Walker led a workshop at the Gay Academic Union at UCLA. This workshop broke from the conference's academic tone and instead led to a group discussion similar to what is now known as a "heart circle", a structure where people take it in turn to speak from the heart, without interruption. Throughout the summer of 1979, they developed and distributed what Hay termed a "Call", a flier to invite gay men to the retreat. The conference was held over the

weekend and attracted over two hundred participants.Shively, from Bronski, p. 176 The success of the retreat inspired organizers and participants to thereafter coalesce under the moniker of the

Radical Faeries Radical Faeries are a loosely affiliated worldwide network and Counterculture, countercultural movement blending queer consciousness and secular spirituality. Sharing various aspects with neopaganism, the movement also adopts elements from anarchi ...

. Participants at the 1979 conference were also integral in establishing the

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), also called Order of Perpetual Indulgence (OPI), is a charitable, protest, and street performance movement that uses drag and religious imagery to satirize issues of sex, gender, and morality (particular ...

later the same year.

Notes

References

Sources

* Hay, Harry, with Will Roscoe (ed.) (1996). ''Radically Gay: Gay Liberation in the Words of its Founder''. Boston: Beacon Press. . * Shively, Charley. "Harry Hay". Collected in Bronski, Michael (consulting editor) (1997). ''Outstanding Lives: Profiles of Lesbians and Gay Men''. New York, Visible Ink Press. . * Timmons, Stuart (1990). ''The Trouble With Harry Hay''. Boston, Alyson Publications. .

External links

* * {{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928112336/http://www.radfae.org/khrysso/bitofeyhistory.html , title=A bit of History of the Radical Faeries Gay events Radical Faeries 1979 in LGBTQ history