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Harry Hay

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Advocate

The Resume

    (April 7, 1912-October 24, 2002)
    Born in Worthing, England, United Kingdom
    Birth name was Henry Hay, Jr.
    Gay rights activist
    Founded the Mattachine Society (1950) and the Radical Faeries (1979)
    Appeared in the documentaries 'Word Is Out' (1977), 'After Stonewall' (1999) and 'Hope Along the Wind: The Story of Harry Hay' (2002)
    Wrote 'Radically Gay: Gay Liberation in the Words of Its Founder' (1996)

Why he might be annoying:

    He had an affair with Will 'Grandpa Walton' Geer.
    He was a member of the Communist Party.
    He married a fellow Communist at the suggestion of a Party higher-up to whom he had confided his homosexuality.
    He protested the exclusion of NAMBLA from gay rights events, and marched in a Los Angeles Pride Parade (1986) with a sign declaring 'NAMBLA walks with me.'
    He was nicknamed 'Duchess.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    His homosexuality got him expelled from the Communist Party as a security risk.
    He wrote the first manifesto of the American gay rights movement and organized the first gay pride parade.
    He and life partner John Burnside were together 40 years until Hay's death.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 137 Votes: 65.69% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 34 Votes: 94.12% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 20 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 24 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 391 Votes: 65.47% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 22 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 18 Votes: 61.11% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 78 Votes: 60.26% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 820 Votes: 79.02% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 508 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 774 Votes: 69.12% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 700 Votes: 74.57% Annoying