Subtitle:

We Are a Separate People

Series:

Interviews not in a series, part one

Topic:

Social Movements

LGBT Movement

Biographical Note:

Founder of the Mattachine Society, an early gay rights organization and Radical Faeries, a gay spiritual movement.

Interviewer:

Tuchman, Mitch

Interviewee:

Hay, Harry

Persons Present:

Hay and Tuchman. John Burnside, Hay's life-partner, occasionally passed through the kitchen where the sessions were recorded. Ron Grele, director, Oral History Program, helped set up the video equipment and was present briefly during that session.

Place Conducted:

Tapes I to IX, XI to XII: Hay's home in Los Angeles, California, Tape X: 136 Powell Library, UCLA.

Supporting Documents:

Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.

Interviewer Background and Preparation:

The interview was conducted by Mitch Tuchman, Principal Editor, Oral History Program, UCLA; B.A., sociology, Occidental College; M.Ph., Ph.D., sociology, Yale University.Tuchman prepared for the interview by relying principally on John D'Emilio's series of articles, "Dreams Deferred," which appeared in Body Politic, November 1979 through February 1980, and secondarily on Gay American History, by Jonathan Katz, and Word Is Out, the book based on Peter Adair's documentary film of the same title.

Processing of Interview:

Tuchman edited the interview. He checked the verbatim transcript of the interview against the original tape recordings, edited for punctuation, paragraphing, and spelling, and verified proper names. Words and phrases inserted by the editor have been bracketed.Hay reviewed and approved the edited transcript. He made a number of changes. Additions to the original text are bracketed and indicated in the transcript as having been added by Hay during his review of the interview. He worked on the review slowly, returning the edited transcript to Tuchman tape by tape over a period of two and a half years. Tuchman review edited the transcript. Front matter and index were prepared by program staff.

Length:

17.5 hrs.

Language:

English

Copyright:

Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.

Audio:

Hay's previous interview experiences--Factions within the gay movement--Hay's radical position--­On conventional histories of the gay movement and their efforts to downplay the role of the left-- The desire to make the gay movement respectable-- Hetero imitation--Family background--The Hay clan of Scotland.

Hay's parents marry in South Africa--Hay is born in England--Edwardian life--Childhood memories of Chile--Hay's relations with his father--The family moves to Southern California in 1916.

More on the Hays' move to Southern California-- Further discussion of restrained relations with parents—Early attraction to masturbation--­Archaic medical practices used to curtail the habit--On his father's efforts to instill manly discipline--Defying his father's authority--Hay's work in father's nursery and Nevada hay fields--­Hay's great--grandmother travels in Mexico and the West during and after the Civil War.

Hay's great-grandmother settles in Virginia City-- Aunt Kate's work as a teacher.Great-grandfather James Alan Hardie's service in the Civil War--Great-uncle Frank Hardie's participation in the Battle of Wounded Knee--More on working in Nevada--Recollections of visit to the Washoe rancheria.

More on the visit to the Washoe rancheria--Wovoka--Hopi pilgrimages to the Pacific--Setting up the Committee for Traditional Indian Land and Life--Ghost Dance religion--0n influences derived from exposure to divergent cultures--Exposed to the Wobblies--Childhood memories of growing up in Los Angeles--Further disputes with father--More on Aunt Kate--Hay's father as a "negative identity"--Raised as a Catholic--Schooling--More recollections of growing up in Los Angeles—Dance classes.

Rituals of dance lessons--Sports interests--Early inclinations to homosexuality--Sexual initiations--The Bimini Bath Club--Boxing "lessons"--Crushes on schoolgirls--Masturbation fantasies--Discovering Edward Carpenter--Early homosexual encounters--Opening up of "subterranean rivers of feelings and sensations."

More on Los Angeles High School--Interests in mathematics, history, and literature-- Difficulties in choosing a career--Varied activities in high school--Involvement in ROTC and a citizens' military training camp in Northern California--Matt--Options faced after high school graduation--Assumes a job in legal firm with intent of studying law.

Recollections of Spring Street during the Wall Street Crash--Continued work in the law firm--­Determined to explore new sexual horizons--Pershing Square--Rites of passage--Champ-—On Stanford's admission process—More on summer work in Nevada--Sustains serious back and stomach injuries.

Fields of study pursued at Stanford--Leaves Stanford in 1931 due to medical complications--­Background to interest in dramatic arts--Hay finds his "calling" in the theater--On "coming out" at Stanford--Friendships developed while at Stanford--James Broughton--Recollections of San Francisco in the thirties--Finocchio' s--Roy.