Editing Harry Hay (section)

== Early life ==
===Youth: 1912 to 1929===
Hay was born in the coastal town of [[Worthing]] in Sussex, south-east England (at 1 Bath Road, then known as "Colwell"), on April 7, 1912.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=10}} Raised in an [[upper middle class]] American family, he was named after his father, Harry Hay, Sr. (1869-1938), a mining engineer who had been working for [[Cecil Rhodes]] first in [[Witwatersrand]], South Africa, and then in [[Tarkwa]], Ghana.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=6–8}}<ref name="loughery224">Loughery, p. 224</ref> His mother, Margaret Hay (née Neall),<ref>Shively, from Bronski, p. 171</ref> a [[Catholicism|Catholic]], had been raised in a wealthy family among American expatriates in [[Johannesburg]], South Africa, prior to her marriage in April 1911.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=9}}<ref name="loughery224" /> Hay Sr. was raised a Presbyterian<ref>{{cite web | url=https://static.library.ucla.edu/oralhistory/text/masters/21198-zz0008zfzz-7-master.html | title=Interview of Harry Hay,"We Are a Separate People," }}</ref> but converted to her religion on their marriage, and their children were brought up Catholic.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=9}} Harry Hay Jr.'s aunt took him to an Episcopal church<ref>{{cite web | url=https://static.library.ucla.edu/oralhistory/text/masters/21198-zz0008zfzz-7-master.html#p725 | title=Interview of Harry Hay,"We Are a Separate People," }}</ref> and later he would join [[First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bQMdAAAAYAAJ&q=%22harry+hay%22+%22joined+a+church%22 |title=The Trouble with Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement - Stuart Timmons - Google Books |date=2008-05-30 |isbn=9781555831752 |accessdate=2022-09-14|last1=Timmons |first1=Stuart |publisher=Alyson }}</ref>

Their second child, Margaret "Peggy" Caroline Hay, was born in February 1914, but following the outbreak of the First World War, the family moved to Northern Chile, where Hay Sr. had been offered a job managing a copper mine in [[Chuquicamata]] by the [[Guggenheim family]]'s [[Anaconda Company]].{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=11}}<ref name="loughery224" /><ref name="hay355">Hay/Roscoe, p. 355</ref>

In Chile, Hay Jr. contracted [[bronchial pneumonia]], resulting in permanent scar tissue damage to his lungs.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=14–15}}  In May 1916, his brother John "Jack" William was born.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=15}} In June 1916, Hay Sr. was involved in an industrial accident, resulting in the amputation of a leg. As a result, he resigned from his position and the family relocated to California in the United States.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=15–16}} In February 1919, they moved to 149 Kingsley Drive in Los Angeles, with Hay Sr. purchasing a 30-acre citrus farm in [[Covina, California|Covina]], also investing heavily in the stock market.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=18}}<ref name = hay355 /> Despite his wealth, Hay Sr. did not spoil his son, and made him work on the farm.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=19}} Hay had a strained relationship with his father, whom he labelled "tyrannical". Hay Sr. would beat his son for perceived transgressions, with Hay later suspecting that his father disliked him for having effeminate traits.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=8, 19–20}} He was particularly influenced on one occasion when he noted that his father had made a factual error: "If my father could be wrong, then the teacher could be wrong. And if the teacher could be wrong, then the priest could be wrong. And if the priest could be wrong, then maybe even God could be wrong."{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=23}}

[[File:Los Angeles High School Graduating Class of Summer 1940.png|thumb|250px|left |Los Angeles High School, where Hay studied]]
Hay was enrolled at [[Cahuenga Elementary School]], where he excelled at his studies but was bullied.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=19, 21–22}} He began experimenting with his sexuality, and aged nine took part in sexual activity with a twelve-year-old neighbour boy.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=22}} At the same time he developed an early love of the natural world and became a keen outdoorsman through walks in the wilderness around the city.{{Sfn|Timmons|1990|p=24}} Aged ten he was enrolled at [[Virgil Junior High School]], and soon after joined a boys' club known as the Western Rangers, through which he developed an interest in [[Native American Culture]]s, specifically the [[Hopi]] and the [[Sioux]].{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=25}}<ref name = hay355 /> Becoming a voracious reader, in 1923 he began to volunteer at a public library, where he discovered a copy of [[Edward Carpenter]]'s book ''[[The Intermediate Sex]]''. Reading it, he discovered the word ''homosexual'' for the first time and came to recognize that he was gay.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=27–28}} Aged twelve he enrolled at [[Los Angeles High School]], where he continued to be studious and developed a love of theater.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=30–31}} Coming to reject Catholicism,{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=36–37}} he remained at the school for three mandatory years before deciding to remain for a further two. In this period, he took part in the school's poetry group, became State President of the [[California Scholarship Federation]] and President of the school's debating and dramatic society, and competed in the Southern California Oratorical Society's Contest, as well as joining the [[Reserve Officers' Training Corps]].{{Sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=38–40}}

During the summer holidays, Hay's father sent him to work on his cousin's cattle ranch in [[Smith Valley, Nevada|Smith Valley]], Nevada. Here he was introduced to [[Marxism]] by fellow ranch hands who were members of the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] ("Wobblies"). They gave him books and pamphlets written by [[Karl Marx]], leading to his adoption of [[socialism]].{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=31–32}} He learned of [[Men who have sex with men|men having sex with other men]] through stories passed around by ranch hands, telling him of violent assaults on miners who attempted to touch men with whom they shared quarters.{{Sfn|Timmons|1990|p=33}}<ref name = loughery224 /> Hay often told a [[tall tale]] that, in 1925, he was invited to a local gathering of Natives, where he claimed to have met [[Wovoka]], the Paiute religious leader who revived the [[Ghost Dance]] movement, and that Wovoka had recognized him in some way.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=33–35}}<ref>Shively, from Bronski, p. 173</ref> However, Wovoka, as a well-known spiritual leader, led a well-documented life,<ref name = "Mooney">{{cite book |title= The ghost-dance religion and the Sioux outbreak of 1890|last=Mooney |first=James |year=1896 |publisher=G.P.O.  |page=[https://archive.org/details/ghostdancerelig01moongoog/page/n155 765] |isbn=9780585345642 |url=https://archive.org/details/ghostdancerelig01moongoog}}</ref><ref name=Hittman>Hittman,"Wovoka And The Ghost Dance:Expanded Edition" (Lincoln, Nebraska:University of Nebraska:Press 1997)</ref> and Hay's story does not line up with his activities and whereabouts during the time in question.<ref group="note">All of this makes the meeting and events Hay describes highly unlikely. As no one else ever confirmed the tale, it is probable it never happened.</ref> However, Hay's family did have an actual, documented, blood connection to Wovoka and the Ghost Dance movement. In 1890, a misinterpretation of the Ghost Dance ritual as a war dance by [[Indian agent]]s led to the [[Wounded Knee Massacre]]. Hay's great-uncle, Francis Hardie, carried the Third Cavalry flag at Wounded Knee.<ref>(Timmons, p. 7)</ref>

In 1926, at the end of the summer, Hay took his union card to a [[hiring hall]] in San Francisco, convinced the union officials he was 21, and got a job on a cargo ship to work his way back to Los Angeles. After an unloading at [[Monterey Bay]], the 14-year-old Hay met and had sex with a 25-year-old merchant-sailor named Matt, who introduced him to the idea of gay men as a global "secret brotherhood".{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=35–36}}<ref name = loughery224 /><ref name="hogan275">Hogan, et al., p. 275</ref> Hay would later build on this idea, in combination with a [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] definition of nationalist identity, to argue that homosexuals constituted a "cultural minority".<ref group="note">[[Joseph Stalin]] stated in ''Marxism and the National Question'' that a nation is "a historically-evolved, stable community of language, territory, economic life and psychological make-up manifested in a community of culture" (Stalin, quoted in Hay/Roscoe, p. 41). Hay asserted that homosexuals manifested two of the four criteria, language and a shared psychological make-up, and thus qualified as a cultural minority (Hay/Roscoe, p. 43).</ref>

===Stanford University and the Communist Party: 1929 to 1938===
{{quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quote=The little pockets existed and either you were lucky enough to fall into them or you could go your whole life and not know about them. The close-down, the terror, was so complete that people could remain ignorant, unsocialized, and undeveloped. 'Communities' were the little groups that formed by accident. And with lots of restrictions. Tiresome bitchiness and boasting predominated. To find someone whose sensibility was more wide-ranging was relatively rare.|source= —Harry Hay on Los Angeles' gay scene in the 1930s.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=83}}}}

Graduating from school in 1929, Hay hoped to study [[paleontology]], but was forbidden from doing so by his father, who insisted that he pursue law. Hay Sr. obtained an entry-level job for his son at his friend's legal firm, Haas and Dunnigan.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=40–41}} While working at the firm, Hay discovered the [[Cruising for sex|gay cruising]] scene in [[Pershing Square (Los Angeles)|Pershing Square]], where he developed a sexual relationship with a man who taught him about the underground gay culture.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=41–43}} It has been claimed that here he learned about the Chicago-based gay rights group the [[Society for Human Rights]],<ref name="loughery225">Loughery, p. 225</ref> although Hay would later deny having any knowledge of previous [[LGBT]] activism.<ref>''Gay Almanac'', p. 131</ref>

In 1930, Hay enrolled at [[Stanford University]] to study [[international relations]], taking independent study courses in English, history, and political science.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=43–45}} There, he became increasingly interested in acting{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=45–46}} and also wrote poetry, some of which was published in university magazines.{{Sfn|Timmons|1990|p=52}} He came to frequent the gay scene in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, attending parties where men danced with men, women danced with women, people [[cross-dressed]], and alcohol was consumed, all of which was illegal.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=46}} He had a number of sexual and romantic trysts with various men; one biographer asserts that these included a [[one-night stand]] with [[Prince George, Duke of Kent]], and a brief affair with [[James Broughton]].{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=47–48, 50–52}} In 1931, he [[Coming out|came out]] as gay to some people he knew at Stanford, and while he did not face any vehement backlash, some friends and associates, including a number who were gay, chose not to be seen with him from then on.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=49–50}}<ref name = loughery225 /><ref name="progressive">{{Cite news |last=Cusac |first=Anne-Marie |url=http://progressive.org/mag_cusachay |title=Harry Hay Interview |date=September 1999 |work=The Progressive |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090519203033/http://progressive.org/mag_cusachay |archive-date=May 19, 2009}}</ref> A severe sinus infection led Hay to drop out in 1932, and he returned to his cousin's Nevada ranch to recuperate; he would never return to university.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=53}}

Relocating to Los Angeles, Hay moved back in with his parents.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=63}} He associated with artistic and theatrical circles, befriending composer [[John Cage]] and his lover Don Sample, with the former getting Hay to perform vocals at one of his concerts in November 1932.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=56–59}}  Becoming a professional voice actor, he obtained a minor role in a radio adaptation of [[Charles Dickens]]' ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'' performed by [[George K. Arthur]]'s International Group Players for the [[Hollywood Playhouse]]. They were impressed with his talent, and gave him a job as a permanent understudy.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=60–61}} He supplemented this income as a screen extra, usually as a [[Stunt performer|stunt rider]] in [[B movies]], and also worked as a freelance dialogue coach for expat aristocrats in Hollywood.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=61}}<ref name="hay356">Hay/Roscoe, p. 356</ref> Through a friendship with [[George Oppenheimer]] he was able to get work screen-writing as a ghost-writer.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=70}} Immersing himself in the Hollywood gay scene, he claimed to have had brief flings with [[Willy Wakewell]], [[Philip Ahn]], [[Hans Heinrich von Twardowski]], and [[Richard Cromwell (actor)|Richard Cromwell]].{{Sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=71–72}} Having met the [[Thelema|Thelemite]] high priestess [[Regina Kahl]] on a play that they were both working on, he agreed to play the organ for the public performances of the [[Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass|Gnostic Mass]] given by [[Agape Lodge]], the Hollywood branch of [[Ordo Templi Orientis]].{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=75–76}}

While working on a play, Hay met actor [[Will Geer]], with whom he entered into a relationship. Geer was a committed leftist, with Hay later describing him as his political mentor.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=64–65}}<ref name="levy">{{Cite news |last=Levy |first=Dan |url=http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Ever-the-Warrior-Gay-rights-icon-Harry-Hay-has-3240144.php |title=Ever the Warrior: Gay rights icon Harry Hay has no patience for assimilation |date=June 23, 2000 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618234952/http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Ever-the-Warrior-Gay-rights-icon-Harry-Hay-has-3240144.php |archive-date=June 18, 2013 |page=DD–8}}</ref><ref>John Gallagher, "Harry Hay's Legacy" (obituary) ''The Advocate'', November 26, 2002; pp. 15; No. 877; ISSN 0001-8996</ref> Geer introduced Hay to Los Angeles' leftist community, and together they took part in activism, joining demonstrations for laborers' rights and the unemployed, and on one occasion handcuffed themselves to lamposts outside [[UCLA]] to hand out leaflets for the [[American League Against War and Fascism]].{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=64–65}} Other groups whose activities he joined in with included [[End Poverty in California]], [[Hollywood Anti-Nazi League]], the [[Mobilization for Democracy]], and [[Workers Alliance of America]].{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=78}} Hay and Geer spent a weekend in San Francisco during the [[1934 West Coast waterfront strike|city's 1934 General Strike]], where they witnessed police open fire on protesters, killing two; this event further committed Hay to societal change.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=68–69}}<ref name = hay356 /> Hay joined an [[agitprop theatre]] group that entertained at strikes and demonstrations; their performance of ''Waiting for Lefty'' in 1935 led to attacks from the fascist [[Friends of New Germany]] group.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=67, 72–74}}

After Hay had become increasingly politicized, Geer introduced him to the [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA); however, from the beginning, Hay was perturbed at the Party's hostility to homosexuals and its view that same-sex attraction was a deviance resulting from bourgeois society.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=67, 69}}<ref>D'Emilio, p. 59</ref> Although he joined the Party in 1934, his involvement was largely restricted to attending fundraisers until 1936.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=78}} In late 1937, Hay attended further classes in Marxist theory at which he came to fully understand and embrace the ideology, becoming a fully committed member of the Party.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=92–93}} From the time he joined the Party until leaving it in the early 1950s, Hay taught courses in subjects ranging from Marxist theory to folk music at the "People's Educational Center" in Hollywood and later throughout the Los Angeles area.<ref>Timmons, pp. 120—21</ref> Hay, along with Roger Barlow and LeRoy Robbins, directed the 1937 short film ''Even As You and I'', featuring Hay, Barlow, and filmmaker [[Hy Hirsh]], in which they spoofed [[surrealism]].{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=86–87}} In early 1937, Hay Sr. was partly paralysed following a stroke, leaving Hay to take on many of his family duties.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=87–89}}

===Marriage and Marxist class: 1938 to 1948===

Hay began [[Analytical psychology|Jungian]] analysis in 1937. He later claimed that the psychiatrist "misled" him into believing that through marriage to a woman, he could become heterosexual; the psychiatrist suggested that Hay find himself a "boyish girl".{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=97–98}}<ref name = progressive /> After confiding with fellow Party members that he was homosexual, they too urged Hay to marry a woman, adhering to the [[party line (politics)|party line]] that same-sex attraction was a symptom of bourgeoise decadence.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=96}} Acting on this advice, in 1938 he married Anna Platky (1914-1983), a Marxist Party member from a working-class Jewish family. Hay maintained that he loved her, and was happy to have a companion with whom he could share his political pursuits; he also got along well with her family.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=98–101}}<ref>Hogan, et al., p. 273</ref> Their marriage took place in September 1938, in a non-religious wedding ceremony overseen by a [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] minister.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=104}} Their honeymoon however was cut short as a result of the sudden death of Hay, Sr.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=104}} Settling into married life, Hay gained employment with the [[Works Progress Administration]] supervising the cataloguing of [[Orange County, California|Orange County]]'s civil records,{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=104–105}} while the couple continued their activism by taking photographs of Los Angeles' slums for a leftist exhibition.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=105}} However, the marriage did not quell Hay's same-sex attractions, and by 1939 he had begun to seek sexual encounters with other men in local parks on a weekly basis.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=105}} He would later describe the marriage as "living in an exile world".{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=96}}

The couple moved to [[Manhattan]], New York City, where Hay went through a series of unsteady and low-paid jobs, including as a scriptwriter, a service manager in [[Macy's]] toy department, and a marketing strategy planner. Briefly returning to acting, he appeared in [[George Sklor]]'s off-Broadway play ''Zero Hour''.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=106–107}} The couple involved themselves with the city's Communist Party branch, with Hay becoming a party functionary in the [[Theater Arts Committee for Peace and Democracy]], and in 1941 he was appointed interim head of the New Theatre League, responsible for organising trade union theatre groups and teaching acting classes, for which he adopted the [[Konstantin Stanislavski]] [[Stanislavski's system|'system']].{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=107, 113}} By 1940 he was having a series of affairs with men in the city, developing a seven-month relationship with architect [[William Alexander Levy|William Alexander]], almost leaving his wife for him.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=111–112}} During this period he took part in the research of sexologist [[Alfred Kinsey]].{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=111}}

In 1942, the couple returned to Los Angeles, renting a house near to Silver Lake and Echo Park; the area was colloquially known as "the Red Hills" due to its large left-wing community.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=115}} There, Hay went through various jobs, including with [[Russian War Relief]], as a [[puddler]], and as a production engineer at a manufacturing plant. He was not [[Conscription in the United States|conscripted into the armed forces]] following the outbreak of World War II due to his work with [[Avion Aircraft]], which was deemed essential for the country's war effort.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=116, 118}} He would subsequently work in a record store, a television repair shop, and at a boiler manufacturing plant.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=131}} Better-paid work was barred from him by his political viewpoints, with the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] monitoring his activities.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=131}} He spent much time teaching lessons in Marxism across the Los Angeles Bay Area, for which he read widely in anthropology and sociology, but faced problems due to the increased anti-communist repression being exerted by the government through the [[Smith Act]] and the subsequent creation of the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]].{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=119–121}} From 1945, he was involved in the [[People's Songs]] organisation, becoming the group's theoretician, through which he came to know [[Woody Guthrie]] and [[Pete Seeger]]. From 1947, he taught a musicology class on the "Historical Development of Folk Music", through which he articulated a Marxist understanding of the genre; he continued to teach these classes through the mid-1950s.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=127–129}}

In September 1943, Hay and his wife adopted a daughter, Hannah Margaret, soon moving to a larger home nearby to accommodate her.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=118}}<ref>Hay/Roscoe, p. 357</ref> They adopted a second daughter, Kate Neall, several days after her birth in December 1945.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=123}}<ref>Hay/Roscoe, p. 358</ref> Hay was a caring parent, and encouraged his children's interests in music and dance.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=123–124}} In 1945, Hay was diagnosed with [[hypoglycemia]],{{Sfn|Timmons|1990|p=122}} and the following year began to suffer intense mental anxiety and repeated nightmares as he realised that he was still homosexual and that his marriage had been a serious mistake.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=127}} The couple divorced in 1951.<ref>Hay/Roscoe, p. 359</ref>