Sept. 11, 1970: Gay Liberation Front begins picket of the White Horse Inn

54 years ago, September 11 1970, the Gay Liberation Front began picketing Oakland’s White Horse Inn after the iconic gay bar banned a number of GLF members and stopped them from distributing their newspaper on the premises. GLF soon won a number of demands from White Horse management.

The Berkeley chapter of GLF, which had its roots in the Committee for Homosexual Freedom, aggressively challenged the more conservative, less confrontational “mainstream” gay politics of the time, aligning themselves with emerging revolutionary currents.

White Horse management, firmly in the “establishment” wing of the gay movement, ignited the pickets by banning GLF-linked newspaper Gay Sunshine. In a nearby apartment, GLF members set up People’s Alternative, a gay coffeeshop decorated with pictures of Che Guevara and Huey Newton.

GLF soon won several of their demands from the White Horse: over 100 radicals who had been banned from the bar were allowed to return, the bar lifted its ban on slow dancing, and Gay Sunshine sales were allowed. They failed to win their demand for a 10% reduction in drink prices.