CRH Thrives on Many Fronts
Exhibit Map
Introduction
In a flurry of activity beginning in early 1965, CRH was at the forefront of campaigns for gay/lesbian rights in San Francisco. Several local and national media stories featured CRH leaders. CRH created, published and distributed resources espousing legal reform regarding homosexuality as well as religious support for homosexual persons. CRH leaders utilized their contacts in other cities to encourage the creation of CRH-like groups elsewhere.
Hubbub of Meetings and Activities
In response to its sudden prominence as a result of the California Hall incident, CRH became a whirlwind of activity in early 1965. Clergy and homosexual activists worked together to identify and implement the group’s mission, mobilize actions to further justice for homosexual persons, fulfill media and public speaking requests, and establish links in other cities. CRH members passed out a flyer, “Every 10th Persons Is a Homosexual” at the California State Fair that summer and organized a first-ever Candidates’ Night in San Francisco with a largely homosexual audience.
Publishes Brief of Injustices
As redress for the legal repression of homosexual persons as evidenced at California Hall, CRH leaders composed an “indictment of our society in its treatment of the homosexual.” This Brief of Injustices details ten injustices faced by homosexuals in the U.S. This 12-page booklet was written cooperatively by the CRH clergy and gay/lesbian leaders over the spring and summer of 1965 and published that September.
Influence Extends Beyond San Francisco
Homosexual persons and issues were beginning to publicly emerge in U.S. society in the mid-1960s. As a unique clergy and homosexual activist coalition with a high public profile, CRH was flooded with inquiries from media persons writing stories or documentaries, other homosexual advocacy groups needing assistance developing religious support, and individual gay and lesbian persons seeking guidance and affirmation. CRH-like groups began in several other U.S. cities and in Canada. CRH was active in regional and national coalitions of homophile organizations being formed in the U.S. Ted McIlvenna and Don Lucas represented CRH as presenters at the Consultation on the Church, Society and the Homosexual in London on August, 1966.
Becomes Resource Publishing Agency
CRH filled a void in published educational resources on homosexuality in the U.S. CRH published The Church and the Homosexual (see “Dialogue” in first room in this exhibit) that reported the Mill Valley consultation that spawned CRH in detail so as to model how religious leaders and homosexual persons could be in dialogue. CRH also published The Brief of Injustices (above) in its first year to educate the public about the legal repression faced by homosexual persons. In 1968 CRH published The Challenge and Progress of Homosexual Law Reform that analyzed the current state of legal reform regarding homosexuality in the U.S. and England. CRH also published CRH:1964-1968 that documented and promoted CRH’s myriad accomplishments.
