Portrait
Harry Hay
Born
7 April 1912Worthing, England
Died
24 October 2002San Francisco, USA · aged 90
ActivistUnited States

Harry Hay

An organiser who helped give American gay men a collective political identity.

Harry Hay was born in Worthing in 1912. Raised by American parents in Chile and California, he later worked in Los Angeles as an actor and labour organiser. His Communist Party involvement shaped his understanding of collective action, even as the party itself rejected homosexuality.

In 1950 Hay and a small group of men founded the Mattachine Society. They argued that gay people formed a minority with shared experiences and could organise for their own rights. Secrecy offered protection during the McCarthy era, but disputes over politics and leadership led Hay to leave in 1953.

His marriage to Anita Platky had ended in 1951. He later shared his life with the inventor John Burnside. Together they helped establish the Radical Faeries in 1979, combining gay community with ritual, spirituality and encounters with nature.

Hay remained a challenging figure within the movement he had helped build. His support for NAMBLA’s inclusion in gay organising, despite its advocacy of sexual relationships between adults and boys, drew strong criticism. He died in San Francisco in 2002, aged 90, leaving a legacy that includes both pioneering organisation and serious controversy.

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