Nov. 1, 1969: 53 years ago, Oct 31 1969, the Committee for Homosexual Freedom/Gay [...]

53 years ago, Oct 31 1969, the Committee for Homosexual Freedom/Gay Liberation Front protested outside the San Francisco Examiner offices in response to homophobic articles. Examiner workers attacked them with bags of newsprint ink, which they smeared on the building’s walls

The CHF, a revolutionary San Francisco gay rights group, was in the process of becoming a chapter of the GLF, a similar group founded in New York after the Stonewall Riots. They demanded the Examiner fire Robert Patterson, a virulently homophobic writer
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CHF/GLF members were also attacked by the police, who arrested 12 and brutally beat others. One demonstrator was kicked down a flight of stairs and had a rib broken. Afterwards, a sit-in was held at the mayor’s office, who refused to meet with the demonstrators

That same night, the CHF/GLF also held a protest at the Beaux Arts Ball, a yearly drag event (held on Halloween to skirt anti-drag laws) heavily associated with the more moderate “gay establishment,” which the younger radicals of CHF/GLF considered conciliatory and repressive

After this event, which became known as “Friday of the Purple Hand,” the “lavender hand” became a prominent symbol of the radical wing of the gay movement. In 1970, GLF members would cover Oakland’s White Horse Inn in purple handprints
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