Committee for Homosexual Freedom

The next two slides depict many of the subsequent protest actions that the Committee for Homosexual Freedom carried out in the spring, summer, and fall of 1969. Aside from the daily picket lines in front of 320 California Street to protest the firing of Gale Whittington from his job, the committee joined or initiated protests all over the Bay Area. This first slide is all photos of the California Street picket line in front of the States Steamship headquarters. The photo of the Financial District businessmen standing around is humorous on a couple of levels. Whittington captions the photo “bankers across the street appear infatuated.” If anyone remembers the Digger film NOWSREAL, there is a similar scene. On the Summer Solstice 1968, one year earlier than these photos, the Diggers drove up Montgomery Street with a troupe of belly dancers performing on a flat bed truck. In the film, a gaggle of businessmen stand on the sidewalk ogling the dancers. The fashion of the businessmen hadn’t changed in one year although the protesters certainly had.