Clergy Express Outrage and Spark Resistance
Exhibit Map
Introduction
In response to the police raid at California Hall on New Year’s Day 1965, the clergy leaders of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual (CRH) held a press conference the next morning. Their expression of outrage and call for an end to police harassment of homosexual persons provoked unparalleled public clamor and mobilization of activity by homophile groups and leaders. The outpouring of activity following the California Hall incident, often recognized as San Francisco’s “Stonewall,” thrust the newly-formed CRH into the public spotlight.
Clergy Press Conference
Long frustrated by routine police intimidation, some San Francisco homosexual activists were beginning to organize efforts to end this oppression. However, the CRH clergy, who tended to be iconoclastic by nature and held positions of social privilege, rose to the challenge immediately and held a press conference the morning after the ball. There they expressed their outrage over the police action they had witnessed and called on city and police officials to cease such harassment.
Public Outcry Grows
The widespread coverage of the CRH clergy’s press conference sparked unprecedented public debate over police harassment of gay and lesbian persons in San Francisco. The American Civil Liberties Union moved immediately to support the lawyers arrested, marking the first time the ACLU took on a gay rights case.
Homophile Community Organizes
The defiant actions of the CRH clergy and the resultant public debate galvanized gay and lesbian leaders and organizations to new levels of activism and resistance to oppression by police and city government. A new organization, Society for Individual Rights, formed around the same time as CRH and, with more grass roots emphasis than some earlier homophile groups, began its rapid rise to become one of the preeminent gay rights groups of the late 1960s.
Trials in the Public Eye
Public attention followed the trial of the three lawyers and “ticket-taker” Nancy May six weeks later. The trial helped expose the unwarranted actions of the police and resulted in the judge ordering a verdict of not guilty. In a later trial that did not receive such widespread attention, the two men arrested for disorderly conduct were convicted.
Aftermath of the Ball
The California Hall affair is recognized by San Francisco historians and activists as a major turning point in the modern gay/lesbian liberation movement there. Local historians also point out that this incident preceded the resistance at Stonewall in New York City by four years. The affair also thrust CRH into the public spotlight and spurred it to new levels of activity.
