Morris Kight
Early gay rights activist dies
By Joe Delaplaine
Los Angeles
Gay and civil-rights activist Morris Kight died in his sleep
Jan.19 at age 83. Morris had demonstrated and organized for
more than half a century for peace, the rights of gay, lesbian,
bi and transgender people, and to unite the struggles of the
oppressed around the world.
In 1969, at a time when homosexuality was not publicly
discussed, Morris co-founded the Gay Liberation Front. The GLF,
named in wartime solidarity with the Vietnamese National
Liberation Front's heroic struggle against the Pentagon, used
acts of civil disobedience to educate about the oppression of
LGBT people.
At Morris's insistence, the GLF also demonstrated in front
of Dow Chemical Co. Dow manufactured the lethal defoliant Agent
Orange, which killed and disabled so many Vietnamese people and
U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War.
The day before he died, Morris was made aware that the
biggest anti-war protests since that war were taking place
worldwide.
It's fitting that an anti-war rally scheduled to take place
here on Feb.15 will pass Hollywood and Highland, the site of
the first Christopher Street West march. In 1970, Morris
organized Christopher Street West--the first LGBT pride march
in Los Angeles. The march was to commemorate the previous
year's most public assertion of the demand for LGBT
equality--the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion against police
repression in Greenwich Village.
The Los Angeles Police Department announced it would arrest
anyone who attended the 1970 Pride event. Police Chief Ed Davis
compared LGBT people marching for their civil rights to thieves
and robbers parading in the streets. Permits were issued, but
the cost of insurance that the police required the march
organizers to obtain was prohibitively high.
The city still uses this tactic, most recently to hinder the
Jan. 11 demonstration of 30,000 people against war in downtown
Los Angeles. But the marchers prevailed--then and now.
The heat of this struggle won a 1970 court ruling that LGBT
people were equal citizens, entitled to protection under the
law. It forced the LAPD to allow the Pride march to take place
without any additional fee to the organizers.
Uncompromising and inspiring
Morris's life serves as a wonderful exam ple, especially to
young people, of how to keep the pressure on and never stop
organizing to gain rights. His commitment was uncompromising
and inspiring.
Years of struggle forged his
determination.
He founded the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Service
Center in 1971--the first in the country and now the biggest.
The Gay and Lesbian Center here was the first organization with
the word "gay" in it to ever receive federal funding--but not
without a fight.
My fondest memory is watching Morris frustrate an LAPD
officer who was trying to get him to stop demonstrating in
front of Barney's Beanery, a local tavern in West Hollywood. At
that time he was in his late 70s.
Morris was undaunted. He looked up from his wheelchair and
let the cop have it: "This is a public sidewalk, I have every
right to be here, there's still a thing in this country called
freedom of speech!" The stunned officer remained silent.
He had won a 15-year legal battle to force Barney's Beanery
to remove an anti-gay sign over its bar that let gay men know
in no uncertain terms that they were not welcome. This sign was
an example of the discrimination LGBT people faced daily.
Last year Morris spent his birthday testifying before the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, demanding im proved
services for people with HIV/ AIDS. Years earlier, he had
created the Van Ness House to provide aid for LGBT people
suffering from alcoholism and drug addiction.
An injury to one is an injury to all!
Morris always tried to unite the struggle for LGBT rights
with the struggles of all oppressed people.
At a meeting of Los Angeles Pride march sponsors in 1997,
Morris invited a Latina to speak about immigrant labor. Some
complained that the issue was "unrelated" to gay pride. But
Morris knew many locally gay-owned restaurants hired immigrant
workers. He asked patrons of the restaurants to pressure the
owners to improve employee working conditions.
When it came to defending unions, Morris would not be
silenced. He helped organize the Oil, Chemical and Atomic
Workers union and built labor alliances throughout his
life.
He began in 1977 what became a national Coors boycott to
expose how the Coors Brewing Co. used its millions to finance
union-busting legislation and anti-LGBT politicians. Morris
infuriated organizers of Outfest, an LGBT film festival, the
year Outfest accepted Coors funding. He organized a
demonstration in front of the event, using the opportunity to
educate the community about the ways anti-gay corporations try
to clean up their public image by funding cash-starved LGBT
organizations and events. He handed out fliers explaining that
Coors bosses undermined unions, polluted the environment,
degraded women and used racist hiring practices.
Morris persevered and Outfest no longer accepts Coors
funding.
Not one to be intimidated, he also went to West Hollywood
City Hall and shouted over festival organizers, sponsors, local
gay bar and magazine owners as well as members of the L.A. Gay
and Lesbian Center who were eager to end the Coors boycott so
they could receive money from the company without controversy.
Morris embarrassed them for their greed and for accepting money
from anti-gay and anti-union corporations.
Morris devoted his life to defending the rights of the
disenfranchised and underserved. For this we say:
"Morris Kight, presente!"
Reprinted from the Feb. 6, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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