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Steven F. Dansky (Writer, Photographer, and Activist) Steven F. Dansky, writer, photographer, and activist, was an initial member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), New York City in 1969 after the Stonewall Rebellion. He was a founder of the movement of antisexist, pro-feminist men called Effeminism. Contents 1.	Early Life 2.	Activism - 1960s 3.	Gay Liberation Front 4.	Effeminism 5.	AIDS Epidemic 6.	Marriage Equality 7.	Current 8.	References 9.	External Links

1.	Early Life

Steven F. Dansky was born on April 15, 1944 at Beth Israel Hospital, New York, and was raised in the Morrisania section of the Bronx.

2.	Activism 1960s

While an adolescent, Dansky worked for the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy and met the then senator when he spoke at the Concourse Plaza Hotel, November 5, 1960. He became a member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) when he attended the City College of New York (CCNY) in 1961. During the early 1960s, he was an active in the Anti-Vietnam War movement. In the mid- to late 1960s, he published a bilingual newspaper, Peace/La Paz (later Basta) on Manhattan’s Lower Eastside that supported community control of public schools and the Black Panther Party based at the Christodora House, 143 Avenue B.  He was associated with Alternate U, a radical, free school, and taught a course on mimeography. He shared a radical bookstore on East 4th Street with I-Kon, a magazine.

3.	Gay Liberation Front (NY)

About six weeks after the Stonewall Rebellion, Dansky joined the Gay Liberation Front, New York. He worked on the GLF newspaper Come Out!. In 1970, he wrote, “Hey Man,” a polemical essay that was published in Come Out!, Gay Flames, and RAT. ,,    The controversial essay, critical of gay male sexism, advocated living collectives of gay men and supported the right of gay men to be involved in the raising of children. When Blake Morgan—son of feminist and writer Robin Morgan and poet Kenneth Pitchford—was six-months old he was a principal caregiver.

4.	Effeminism

He was a founding member of Effeminism with John Knoebel and Kenneth Pitchford, which published Double-F: A Magazine of Effeminism. “The Effeminist Manifesto”. . .,  ,  ,  ,    Jill Johnston, feminist author and cultural critic,  acknowledged Dansky as an early gay polemicist and wrote that “[E]feminists are the first western male revolutionaries. The first men to confess the inappropriateness of their manhood and to withdraw from the classic male demand of support from the female.”  Martin Duberman, historian, playwright, and gay-rights activist, wrote in The New York Times that “[Effeminist] essays are formulating basic questions on gender.”   Karla Jay, a pioneer in the field of lesbian and gay studies, and June Rook noted that “Double-F contains some ideas which constitute an important step towards the liberation of humankind and women in particular.”   Susan Rennie and Kirstin Grimstad wrote that Effeminism was “the most persuasive political analysis of gender developed by any men anywhere.” 5.	HIV/AIDS Epidemic

Dansky was active in the HIV/AIDS pandemic as an activist, psychotherapist, and healthcare administrator in underserved communities, such as Harlem and the South Bronx. He is the author of two books, Now Dare Everything: Tales of HIV-Related Psychotherapy (The Haworth Press, 1994), ,  ,  ,   and Nobody's Children: Orphans of the HIV Epidemic (The Haworth Press, 1997). ,  He was a group therapist at Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC).

6.	Marriage Equality

He was married in Williamstown, MA, in 2004, on the first day, in the first state, that same-sex marriage became legal anywhere in America. He lives with his spouse Barry Safran in Canaan, New York, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

7.	Current

He is the author of On Bearing Witness: Images & Reflections of the LGBT Movement (1969-1971) (2010), a collection of essays, speeches, and photographs. He is a frequent contributor to the Gay and Lesbian Review—Worldwide. “The Effeminist Moment” was published in the anthology Smash the Church, Smash the State!: The Early Years of Gay Liberation, Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Editor, City Lights, 2009. A short story, “Broken Gender,” was published in Gertrude: A Journal of Voice and Vision, 2006. The Steven F. Dansky Papers is archived at the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, SUNY. As a photographer, Dansky has exhibited in New York and Las Vegas, Nevada, and he curated “Gay Liberation Front (1969-1971): A 40th Anniversary Retrospective,” Campbell Soady Gallery, New York, NY, 2009.

References http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=60430#axzz1WLfphby7 http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/apap289.htm http://books.google.com/books?id=_D4XdvkOQpYC&pg=PT199&lpg=PT199&dq=alternate+u+tom+wodetski&source=bl&ots=Gc08zZcppO&sig=d-4k5SDI-kkcMhoaC0ygqz8Mrzc&hl=en&ei=_YxaTrrOC4TEgQfzpdmIDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=alternate%20u%20tom%20wodetski&f=false http://web.me.com/shermans3/Site/IKON.html “Steven Dansky’s article ‘Hey Man’ carries the struggle against sexism and its expression in maleness to the heart of gay liberation.” Jeffrey Weeks, Coming Out, Quartet Books, 1977. “Male chauvinism in gay males was shortly to come under attack by Gay Liberation Front women and men. . . Few gay men, however, would come to accept Steven Dansky’s extremist view.” Don Teal, The Gay Militants, Stein and Day, 1971 “Steven Dansky was one of the first to think about how radical lesbians and radical feminist ideas applied to the behavior of male homosexuals.” Toby Marotta, The Politics of Homosexuality, Houghton Mifflin, 1981 “In order to free women for feminism, they declare caring for children to be “a duty, right, and a privilege.” Steven Dansky seems to have this fundamental contradiction in mind when he refers to as the anomaly of effeminate men.”  For Men Against Sexism, Jon Snodgrass, Editor, Times Change Press, 1976 “The Effeminist Manifesto [by Steven Dansky, John Knoebel, and Kenneth Pitchford] is one of the most enduring documents to emerge from the modern gay liberation movement. It fermented controversy. . . By questioning the sexism of gay men.” Jennifer Smith, The Gay Rights Movement, The Greenhaven Press,  2003. “[Steven Dansky, John Knoebel, and Kenneth Pitchford in the] radical 1973 Effeminist Manifesto. . . were excited by the possibilities offered by feminism for social transformation. The Manifesto argues that effeminacy in men. . . must be sought after and valued, and can take many forms.” Men Who Believe in Feminism, Amanda Goldrick-Jones, Praeger, 2002 “[Steven Dansky, et al, writing in Double-F: A Magazine of Effeminism is] the earliest thoughtful antisexist writing by men.” Saturday’s Child: A Memoir, Robin Morgan, W.W. Norton, 2001 “Another group of men, first in New York and then in Los Angeles, called themselves effeminists, an affirmation, they said, of feminist values.” Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America, Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Simon and Schuster, 1999 “Others took feminism more seriously, analyzing their position as men as well as their oppression as gays. . . . Radicalism unique in the history of lesbian and gay politics.” Mark Blasius and Shande Phelan, We Are Everywhere: A History of Gay and Lesbian Politics, Routledge, 1997 Jill Johnston, The Village Voice, 1972 Martin Duberman, The New York Times Book Review, December 10, 1972 Karla Jay and June Rook, Gay Sunshine, June/July 1973 Susan Rennie and Kirstin Grimstad, The New Women’s Survival Sourcebook, New York, Knopf, 1975 Disability Studies, Volume 17, Number 1, 1998 Laurie Stone, The Village Voice, 1995 AIDS Book Review Journal, No. 20, 1995 Bernard Ratigan, British Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 167, 1995 Lee Hanson, Our Own, Vol. 19, No. 5, March 1995 Oncology Nursing Forum, Vol. 25, No. 6, 1998 AIDS Book Review Journal, Number 49-January, 1999 “New Yorkers first gay couple to marry in N. County,” Carrie Saldo, North Adams Transcript, May 18, 2004. “Portraits that speak to the life of a city by reflecting on its lesser-seen residents. . . . Draws on the work of the great 20th century photographers.” Las Vegas Seven Magazine, 2011. “Some 40 years after they were taken, the photographs in Steven Dansky’s wonderful exhibition continue to set off hot sparks of sexual revolution and queer solidarity. In the midst of our current struggles for LGBT rights, these groovy freedom-seekers inspire us to turn on, tune in, and keep fighting for full equality and liberation.” Richard Meyer, author, Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art; Associate Professor, Department of Art History, University of Southern California