LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Rosa Parks of the Gay Rights Movement Dies at 82 |
In a dramatic 1952 Los Angeles court trial, Dale Jennings won a resounding jury acquittal in a pioneering rebuke of police harassment, intimidation and entrapment of homosexuals. The acquittal energized gay people into action throughout the nation and brought respect to the Mattachine Society (a new organization of gay and lesbians founded in 1950) who funded Jennings' defense. The Love That Dared Not Speak Its Name was now on its way out of the closet, and the infamous statutes of "Crimes Against Nature" on the law books in every one of the United States were targeted for eradication. Today most States have removed these statutes from their laws, partly due to the influence of Dale Jennings. As Jennings walked home from a park one evening, he was followed by a plainclothes vice officer who arrested him in his apartment under an indecent behavior charge. He was demoralized at first, but friends urged him to fight the charge in court. Being strong-willed he chose to fight, rather than being branded for life. The trial lasted ten days, ending in his acquittal. William Dale Jennings was born in Amarillo Texas on October 21, 1917. Not long thereafter his parents moved to Denver, Colorado where he attended school. After finishing high school, he moved to Los Angeles where he wrote, produced and directed theatre stage plays in suburban Pasadena. In 1942 he joined the U.S. Army and was stationed in Guadalcanal for two years. In 1946 he was honorably discharged from the service, returned to Los Angeles and attended theatre school at the University of Southern California for two years. In 1950 he was a co-founder of the Mattachine Society, along with Harry Hay. In 1952 he co-founded ONE, Inc. along with Don Slater and Dorr Legg, which started publishing ONE Magazine, dedicated to speaking out in public for homosexuals, and sold on newsstands and by mail subscriptions throughout the country. In 1954 the mailing of ONE Magazine to subscribers was confiscated by the Los Angeles Postmaster on the basis of obscenity. This led to a Federal Court case which ended with a 1958 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that a magazine calling for equality for homosexuals is not obscene. The Post Office was prevented from any further interference in mailing ONE Magazine. This decision brought more freedom to all media, and was the basis for all future growth of the gay and lesbian press. Over the years Jennings contributed articles and book reviews to ONE magazine, and later did the same for TANGENTS magazine, a publication of the Homosexual Information Center, where he was a member of the Board. Jennings also became an accomplished writer and reviewer of mainstream books and movies. His published books are The Ronin, The Sinking of the Sarah Diamond and The Cowboys. He sold Warner Brothers his rights to The Cowboys, and they produced it as a movie starring John Wayne, which is still shown on television today. He passed away at Specialty Hospital, La Mirada, California on May 11, 2000. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 10, No. 5, May 19, 2000. |