A photo of the organizers of the first major American gay-rights advocacy organization in 1951. Harry Hay is the one on the upper left who would, 25 years later, with fellow gay spirit visionary, Mitch Walker, envision an inspired community of likeminded brothers, and then, after inducting Don Kilhefer, “this magnificent organizer,” according to Harry (see page 261 of Stuart Timmons’ book, The Trouble with Harry Hay, 1991), the first “Spiritual Conference for Radical Faeries” was held in the Arizona Desert in 1979. Attended by 200 gay men, this effort laid the groundwork for the founding of Treeroots in 1981, as well as the Radical Faerie movement, both both of which quietly thrive to this day.
