← Back to all diffs
NPR

Militant LGBTQ+ rights group 'the Lavender Panthers' was founded on this day in 1973

View original article →
+303 words added -71 words removed
− By Abi Inman Abi Inman / NPR When Ray Broshears, a gay preacher in San Francisco, started a street vigilante group to protect the LGBTQ+ people in the Tenderloin neighborhood, he told a reporter he wanted to frighten "all those young punks who have been beating up my f*****s." This was back in 1973, but even then, "Reverend Ray" was a problematic, controversial figure, and not just for his militant tactics.
+ Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
+ Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Vigilantes 'the Lavender Panthers' defended the LGBTQ+ community : The Picture Show "Reverend Ray" Broshears founded the queer vigilante group the Lavender Panthers in 1973. The group's impact is still felt today. The Picture Show Photo Stories From NPR Instagram The Picture Show Militant LGBTQ+ rights group 'the Lavender Panthers' was founded on this day in 1973 The Lavender Panthers roved the streets of 1970s San Francisco with sawed-off pool cues, defending the queer community from violence. July 6, 202610:25 AM ET By Abi Inman Abi Inman / NPR When Ray Broshears, a gay preacher in San Francisco, started a street vigilante group to protect the LGBTQ+ people in the Tenderloin neighborhood, he told a reporter he wanted to frighten "all those young punks who have been beating up my f*****s." This was back in 1973, but even then, "Reverend Ray" was a problematic, controversial figure, and not just for his militant tactics.
The group he founded, however, was an example of how the queer community filled in the gaps of care and safety, which existed in a homophobic society. It was also an important predecessor to similar mutual aid movements over the coming decades. San Francisco Examiner GLBT History Center; That Was Ray Roger Ressmeyer/Getty Images; John Storey / The Chronicle San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers Richard Carson/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images; Gary Fong/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images; Jerry Telfer/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images The Lavender Panthers are still a relatively obscure piece of queer history. The 2018 Newsweek article "The Most Dangerous Gay Man in America Fought Violence With Violence," one of the most comprehensive write-ups of the Lavender Panthers in a nonacademic publication, noted that at that point neither the Lavender Panthers nor Raymond Broshears had a Wikipedia page. (Both pages have since been created.) And yet, even this amount of documentation is rare for queer mutual aid and defense organizations of the time. Reverend Ray actively courted publicity. He wrote articles for local papers. He set up outrageous publicity stunts, including staging a fake crucifixion outside a company alleged to discriminate against gays. These hijinks did not make him popular with the mainstream gay rights crowd at the time, but they may be the reason that information about the Lavender Panthers lives on in the archives. Other queer defense groups — groups specific to lesbians, to trans people, to people of color — often operated quietly in the shadows so as not to attract dangerous attention. Many of them have likely been lost to time entirely. To learn more about the Lavender Panthers, read Sonja Anderson's "The Controversial Gay Priest Who Brought Vigilante Justice to San Francisco's Streets" in Smithsonian Magazine and Eric Markowitz's "The Most Dangerous Gay Man in America Fought Violence With Violence" in Newsweek. Both articles were consulted extensively for this reporting. Abi Inman is a a comic artist and animator who works on the Visuals team at NPR. Find more of her work online on her instagram, @abiinman, or abiinman.com. Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor