TO THE STREETS The Gay Liberation Network protests hate speech in 2007 on the ninth anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s murder.

Gay Liberation Network
(4404 N Magnolia Ave, suite 420; gayliberation.net)
Mission Win full equality and liberation for lesbian, gay, bi and trans people through direct action and solidarity politics
Victories In 2000, it co-organized the Stop Dr. Laura Campaign, a protest aimed at persuading TV stations not to air radio-show host Laura Schlesinger’s TV show after she made comments deemed homophobic. More than 170 advertisers, including Procter & Gamble, pulled their advertising. The show aired for six months before getting yanked, prompting some to call it the first successful boycott in TV history.
Methods Marches and boycotts

The GLN became a player in LGBT political action when it joined in protesting hate speech and antigay rhetoric surrounding the murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in 1998. GLN cofounder Andy Thayer believes the protests were directly responsible for widening discussion about violence toward queer people. “All these protests prompted a nationwide conversation,” Thayer says. “It shows how regular people can change the terms of the debate.”

But that was ten years ago. Now the organization views the marriage debate as the last obstacle to full citizenship for LGBT people. “We see this as an issue of whether or not gay and lesbian people are going to be allowed to become citizens in this country,” he says. “Citizenship is defined as having equal legal rights with your peers. Until our relationships [are] treated on an equal basis before the law, we really aren’t citizens.” To make that happen, Thayer is willing to put himself on the line: He’s facing a felony charge for obstructing President George W. Bush’s motorcade en route to a meeting with Mayor Richard M. Daley and Cardinal Francis George at the Union League Club in Chicago on January 7, in protest of what he sees as the White House’s antigay, prowar stance. “When you’re talking about legal and social inequality, you have to be loud and pushy,” he says. “You’ve got to make a stink, to force the politicians to do something that they are not inclined to do—that’s how you make real progress. Change always comes from the bottom up, it never comes down from on high.”

—Jason A. Heidemann

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