Zap (action)
A zap is a form of political direct action that came into use in the 1970s in the United States. Popularized by the early gay liberation group Gay Activists Alliance, a zap was a raucous public demonstration designed to embarrass a public figure or celebrity while calling the attention of both gays and straights to issues of gay rights.
Although American
Pre-Stonewall actions
Beginning in 1959,
Post-Stonewall activism
On June 28, 1969, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar located in New York City's Greenwich Village, resisted a police raid. Gay people returned to the Stonewall and the surrounding neighborhood for the next several nights for additional confrontations.[7] Although there had been two smaller riots — in Los Angeles in 1959 and San Francisco in 1966 — it is the Stonewall riots that have come to be seen as the flashpoint of a new gay liberation movement.[8][9]
In the weeks and months following Stonewall, a dramatic increase in gay political organizing took place. Among the many groups that formed was the Gay Activists Alliance, which focused more exclusively on organizing around gay issues and less of the general leftist political perspective taken by such other new groups as the Gay Liberation Front and Red Butterfly.[10] GAA member Marty Robinson is credited with developing the zap following a March 7, 1970, police raid on a gay bar called the Snake Pit.[11] Police arrested 167 patrons. One, an Argentine national named Diego Viñales, so feared the possibility of deportation that he leapt from a second-story window of the police station, impaling himself on the spikes of an iron fence.[12] Gay journalist and activist Arthur Evans later recalled how the raid and Viñales' critical injuries inspired the technique:
The Snake Pit incident truly outraged us, and we put out a leaflet saying that, in effect, regardless of how you looked at it, Diego Viñales was pushed out the window and we were determined to stop it....There was no division for us between the political and personal. We were never given the option to make that division. We lived it. So we decided that people on the other side of the power structure were going to have the same thing happen to them. The wall that they had built protecting themselves from the personal consequences of their political decisions was going to be torn down and politics was going to become personal for them.[13]
Zaps typically included sudden onset against vulnerable targets, noisiness, verbal assaults and media attention. Tactics included sit-ins, disruptive actions and street confrontations.[14]
GAA founding member Arthur Bell explained the philosophy of the zap, which he described as "political theater for educating the gay masses":
Gays who have as yet no sense of gay pride see a zap on television or read about it in the press. First they are vaguely disturbed at the demonstrators for "rocking the boat"; eventually, when they see how the straight establishment responds, they feel anger. This anger gradually focuses on the heterosexual oppressors, and the gays develop a sense of class-consciousness. And the no-longer-closeted gays realize that assimilation into the heterosexual mainstream is no answer: gays must unite among themselves, organize their common resources for collective action, and resist.[15]
Thus, obtaining media coverage of the zap became more important than the subject of the zap itself.
Notable zaps
One area of special interest to GAA was how LGBT people were portrayed on television and on film. There were very few gay characters on television in the
In response to the 1973 Welby episode, "The Other Martin Loring", a GAA representative tried to negotiate with ABC,[18] but when negotiations failed GAA zapped ABC's New York headquarters on February 16, 1973, picketing ABC's New York City headquarters and sending 30-40 members to occupy the office of ABC president Leonard Goldenson. Executives offered to meet with two GAA representatives but GAA insisted that all protesters be present. The network refused. All but six of the zappers then left; the final six were arrested but charges were later dropped.[19]
When NBC aired "Flowers of Evil", an episode of Police Woman about a trio of lesbians murdering nursing home residents for their money, it was met with a zap by Lesbian Feminist Liberation. LFL, which had split from GAA over questions of lack of male attention to women's issues, zapped NBC's New York office on November 19, occupying the office of vice president Herminio Traviesas overnight. NBC agreed not to rerun the episode.[20] LFL had earlier zapped an episode of The Dick Cavett Show on which anti-feminist author George Gilder was the guest.[21]
Zaps could sometimes involve physical altercations and vandalism. GAA co-founder Morty Manford got into scuffles with security and administration during his successful effort to found the student club Gay People at Columbia University in 1971, as well as at a famous protest against homophobia at the elite Inner Circle event in 1972 (which led Morty's mother Jeanne Manford to found PFLAG).[22][23] GAA was later associated with a series of combative "super-zaps" against homophobic politicians and anti-gay business owners in the summer of 1977. On one occasion activists threw eggs and firecrackers at the home of Adam Walinsky, a state official who had denounced new gay rights legislation for New York, and cut the phone lines of his house. Although Time magazine derided them as "Gay goons", and Walinsky won an injunction against protests near his home, the actions succeeded in keeping the conservative backlash of the late-1970s out of New York state.[24][25][26]
Activist
Politicians and other public figures were also the targets of zaps. New York Mayor John Lindsay was an early and frequent GAA target, with GAA insisting that Lindsay take a public stance on gay rights issues. Lindsay, elected as a liberal Republican, preferred quiet coalition building and also feared that publicly endorsing gay rights would damage his chances at the Presidency; he refused to speak publicly in favor of gay rights and refused to meet with GAA to discuss passing a citywide anti-discrimination ordinance.[16] The group's first zap, on April 13, 1970,[33] involved infiltrating opening night of the 1970 Metropolitan Opera season, shouting gay slogans when the mayor and his wife made their entrance.[34] Lindsay was zapped again on April 19 as he taped an episode of his weekly television program, With Mayor Lindsay. Approximately 40 GAA members obtained tickets to the taping. Some GAA members rushed the stage calling for the mayor to endorse gay rights; others called out comments from the audience, booed, stomped their feet and otherwise disrupted taping. One notable exchange came when the mayor noted it was illegal to blow car horns in New York, drawing the response "It's illegal to blow a lot of things!"[35] When Lindsay announced his candidacy for the Presidency in the 1972 election, GAA saw the opportunity to bring gay issues to national attention and demanded of each potential candidate a pledge to support anti-discrimination. Lindsay was among those who responded favorably.[clarification needed][36]
Zapping migrated to the West Coast as early as 1970, when a coalition of several Los Angeles groups targeted Barney's Beanery. Barney's had long displayed a wooden sign at its bar reading "FAGOTS [sic] – STAY OUT". Although there were few reports of actual anti-gay discrimination at Barney's, activists found the sign's presence galling and refused to patronize the place, even when gay gatherings were held there. On February 7, over 100 people converged on Barney's. They engaged in picketing and leafletting outside and occupied tables for long periods inside with small orders.[note 1] The owner of Barney's not only refused to take down the sign, he put up more signs made of cardboard, harassed the gay customers inside, refused service to them, ordered them out of the restaurant and eventually assaulted a customer and called the sheriff. After several hours and consultation with the sheriff's department, the original wooden sign was taken down and stored out of sight and the new cardboard signs were removed and distributed among the demonstrators.[37][note 2]
Encouraged by GAA co-founder Arthur Bell, in his capacity as a columnist for The Village Voice, activists employed zaps against William Friedkin and the cast and crew of the 1980 film Cruising. In 1979, Cruising opponents blew whistles, shined lights into camera lenses and otherwise disrupted filming to protest how the gay community and the leather sub-culture in particular were being portrayed.[38]
Exporting the zap
Emerging activist groups in other countries adopted the zap as a tactic. The British GLF
ACT UP and Queer Nation
In response to the
Queer Nation formed in 1990 and adopted the militant tactics of ACT UP and applied them more generally to LGBT issues. Queer Nation members were known for entering social spaces like straight bars and clubs and engaging in straight-identified behaviour like playing spin the bottle to make the point that most public spaces were straight spaces. QN would stage "kiss-ins" in public places like shopping malls or sidewalks, both as a shock tactic directed at heterosexuals and to point out that gay people should be able to engage in the same public behaviours as straight people. Echoing the disruption a decade earlier during the filming of Cruising, Queer Nation and other direct action groups disrupted filming of Basic Instinct over what they believed were negative portrayals of lesbian and bisexual women.[41]
See also
- Charivari
- Egging
- Glitter bombing
- Inking (attack)
- Pieing
- Cancel culture
- Shoe-throwing
- Zelyonka attack
Footnotes
- ^ This tactic was employed decades later against the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain when it instituted a policy of refusing to employ gay workers. It became known as a "sip-in".
- West Hollywood, newly incorporated as a city, permanently removed the sign under a newly passed LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance in December 1984 (Kenney, p. 50).
References
- ^ a b Faderman and Timmons, pp. 1–2
- ^ Stein, Marc (2005-05-09). "The First Gay Sit-In". History News Network. Archived from the original on June 24, 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
- ^ Carter, p. 109
- ^ Loughery, p. 270
- ^ Miller, p. 239
- ^ Loughery, p. 271
- ^ Carter, p. 184
- ^ Duberman, p. xi
- ^ Bianco, p. 194
- ^ Teal, p. 89
- ^ Clendinen, p.52-54
- ^ Teal, p. 100
- ^ quoted in Carter, p. 243
- ^ Campbell, p. 135
- ^ Gross, p. 46
- ^ a b Eisenbach, p. 158
- ^ Capsuto, p. 104
- ^ Capsuto, p. 92
- ^ Tropiano, p. 17
- ^ Capsuto, pp. 112–13
- ^ Capsuto, p. 102
- ^ David Eisenbach, Gay Power: An American Revolution (Da Capo Press, 2007), pg. 183-194
- ^ Lambert, Bruce (May 15, 1992). "Morty Manford, 41, a Lawyer and Early Gay Rights Advocate". N.Y. / Region. The New York Times.
- ^ WALINSKY v. KENNEDY (Supreme Court, Westchester County November 25, 1977), Text.
- ISBN 1-884544-002– via Gaynewsandviews.com.
- ^ "Americana: The Gay Goons". Time. August 29, 1977.
- ISBN 9780345412430. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ^ ""Raider" hits Mike Douglas Show" (PDF). Gay. 18 June 1973. p. 1. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ^ Capsuto, p. 95
- ISBN 9781479858286. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ^ Capsuto, p. 96
- ^ Gross, pp. 45–46
- ^ Teal, p. 121
- ^ Gross, p. 45
- ^ Teal, p. 123
- ^ Eisenbach, p. 171–72
- ^ Teal, pp. 255–57
- ^ Lee, Nathan (2007-08-27). "Gay Old Time". Village Voice. Retrieved 2009-02-07.
- ^ Willett, p. 86
- ^ Bronski, p. 234
- ^ Fox, David J; Donna Rosenthal (1991-04-29). "Gays Bashing 'Basic Instinct'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
Sources
- Bianco, David (1999). Gay Essentials: Facts For Your Queer Brain. Los Angeles, Alyson Books. ISBN 1-55583-508-2.
- Bronski, Michael (2011). ISBN 978-0-8070-4439-1.
- Campbell, J. Louis (2007). Jack Nichols, Gay Pioneer: "Have You Heard My Message?". Haworth Press. ISBN 1-56023-653-1.
- Capsuto, Steven (2000). Alternate Channels: The Uncensored Story of Gay and Lesbian Images on Radio and Television. Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-41243-5.
- Carter, David (2005). Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution. Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-34269-1.
- Clendinen, Dudley (1999). Out for good : the struggle to build a gay rights movement in America. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81091-3.
- Duberman, Martin (1993). Stonewall. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-525-93602-5.
- Eisenbach, David (2006). Gay Power: An American Revolution. Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1633-9.
- Faderman, Lillian and Stuart Timmons (2006). Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02288-X.
- Gross, Larry P. (2001). Up from Invisibility: Lesbians, Gay Men, and the Media in America. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11952-6.
- Kenney, Moira (2001). Mapping Gay L.A.: The Intersection of Place and Politics. Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-884-3.
- Loughery, John (1998). The Other Side of Silence – Men's Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth-Century History. New York, Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-3896-5.
- Miller, Neil (1995). Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present. New York, Vintage Books. ISBN 0-09-957691-0.
- Teal, Donn (1971, reissued 1995). The Gay Militants: How Gay Liberation Began in America, 1969–1971. New York, St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-11279-3(1995 edition).
- Tropiano, Stephen (2002). The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV. New York, Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. ISBN 1-55783-557-8.