As early as 1948 Harry Hay began pursuing his vision of forming an organization, the Mattachine Society, devoted to the welfare of Gay people. Hay was the first to propose the idea of Gay men and Lesbians as a cultural minority, the very basis of the Gay movement today. For the last fifty years, he has grappled with each new wave of cultural and political thought and synthesized agonizing contradictions from spirituality to Marxism, from art to politics.

This first collection of Hay's own words - speeches, papers, and interviews - offers invaluable insight into the vision of one man who made it possible for millions to live in freedom and with self-respect.