A 1992 Daily Record article outlining some of GAAMC’s work helping young men and women and their families and friends. Meanwhile, businesses and professionals advertised in GAAMC newsletters and neighborhood guides to let readers know that they welcomed LGBT customers. A selection of GAAMC newsletters, Pride Guides, t-shirts and mugs from the organization’s 48-year history.īeginning in 1977, GAAMC members staffed a resource hotline for anyone in the state who needed information on a range of LGBT topics, including issues around coming out, locating social groups and bars, and finding doctors, attorneys and other businesses that served LGBT customers.īy 1992, the Gay Helpline of New Jersey was staffed by two volunteers from 7:30-10:30 pm seven days a week, who responded to over 3,000 calls per year, and returned thousands more answering machine messages.
FIRST GAY PRIDE PARADE MORRISTOWN TN SERIES
GAAMC coordinated statewide events with the New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Coalition from the early 1970s, fought legislation aimed at re-criminalizing homosexuality in New Jersey, established a speakers series and the nation’s first Gay Blood Blank, organized camping and ski trips, and held protests to hold hands across the George Washington Bridge and around the Statue of Liberty. The June 1994 issue of Challenge depicts numerous events in New Jersey, including Governor Christine Todd Whitman’s proclamation of June as Pride Month, as well as religious services, conferences, meetings, and ongoing human rights advocacy. Headquartered at Morristown’s Unitarian Fellowship Church, GAAMC membership quickly grew from 25 to 100 by 1976, and by the late 1970s members were instrumental in confronting new and existing discriminatory laws, while also providing support services and social activities for residents. The Gay Activist Alliance in Morris County ( GAAMC) was founded in 1972 by Jenny Glaab, Jeff Samuels, John Sheehey III, and Mickey Suiter, all of whom were between 18 and 21 years old.
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The May 1980 issue of Challenge, the newsletter of the Gay Activist Alliance in Morris County (GAAMC), in which members invited Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick to discuss opposition to legislation in which teachers could be fired for being gay. It was most active from 1969 until its headquarters was destroyed by arson in 1974. New York City’s Alliance was one of the region’s most prominent, and its members worked to focus media attention on those suppressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights. Gay Activist Alliance in Morris County collection, North Jersey History & Genealogy Center of the Morristown & Morris Township Library (NJHGC).ĭuring the aftermath of Stonewall, Gay Activist Alliance groups started in several states. New York Times article relaying the New Jersey Supreme Court’s ruling that First Amendment rights applied to gay and lesbian residents, despite how uncomfortable some of justices said they were at conduct protected among heterosexuals. Over the following five decades, New Jerseyans came out to build new relationships with neighbors, co-workers, and family, and sought legislative means to end workplace and housing discrimination - while also living busy lives of their own.
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Organizers sought to end laws making it illegal for gay and lesbian Americans to congregate in bars, and end the subsequent police raids that resulted in arrests while also ending careers and families.
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This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first LGBT Pride march held in New York City, on June 28, 1970, one year after the Stonewall Riots that were precipitated by years of anti-gay persecution and harassment. Moy, North Jersey History and Genealogy Center