The Stage

1980s: AIDS Crisis Emerges (cont’d)

Formation of Additional National Organizations

In 1980, both the Human Rights Campaign Fund and Black and White Men Together (BWMT) were founded. The National Association of BWMT went international in 1983. BWMT and its many local chapters, some of which adopted the name Men of All Colors Together (MACT) or People of All Colors Together (PACT), are multiracial, multicultural organizations of gay and bisexual men committed to addressing and combating racism and discrimination in the LGBT communities and to providing a supportive environment for non-oppressive, multiracial relationships among gay and bisexual men.

HRCF lapel pin. HRC Records.
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LA BWMT logos. LA BWMT Newsletter, April and October 1984. Human Sexuality Collection.
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As its website [http://www.glaad.org] states, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) was “formed in New York in 1985 to protest the New York Post’s grossly defamatory and sensationalized AIDS coverage.”

GLAAD was especially effective in Los Angeles, where it focused on the entertainment industry to produce more realistic portrayals of gays and lesbians on screen. This 1989 letter from Damien Martin of the Hetrick-Martin Institute congratulates GLAAD on its new public service announcement, narrated by Bob Hope.

The 1988 letter from GLAAD’s Craig J. Davidson and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund’s Thomas J. Stoddard shows that the groups worked together to raise issues of lesbian and gay inclusion, in this case with B’Nai B’Rith.

Damien Martin. Letter to GLAAD, April 6, 1989. GLAAD Records.
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Craig J. Davidson and Thomas J. Stoddard. Letter to Mitzi Glenn, B’Nai B’Rith. November 18, 1988. GLAAD Records.
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Female To Male International, an organization for transsexual men, was founded in San Francisco in 1986. Shown here is an award the group gave to photographer Loren Cameron.

Loren Cameron’s 1997 FTM International Pride Award. Loren Cameron Papers.
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