[Marxism] 1965 Daily Californian articles on gays at U.C. Berkeley

[Brian Shannon <brian_shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Considering the controversy that these articles stimulated, I am  
puzzled by the fact that I was completely unaware of them. However,  
this was a politically slow period for me. What I remember most was  
getting up late, going to the Mediterranean (still there although run  
down and no longer "in", which was even earlier called the Piccolo),  
where Don Johnson (no, not that one) picked me up to work for him  
building a house in the Oakland Hills, returning to the Med for an  
inexpensive Moussaka, if available, perhaps a political meeting, then  
to the Steppenwolf Bar on San Pablo (started and owned by Max Scheer,  
later founder of The Berkeley Barb).

I roomed with SWP comrade George Myland (probably since deceased) and  
we shared a rent of $50.

No wonder there was always a move to clean out Berkeley and probably  
San Francisco as well.

Brian Shannon
_______________

Daily Californian, 1965

Late in 1965 Cal students picked up their Daily Californian and saw  
this bold front page headline: 2,700 Homosexuals at Cal. The  
headlined article began a week’s worth of articles on “sexual  
minorities” at Cal, focusing on the gay male community. All five  
articles are reproduced here along with related news articles,  
editorials, and letters to the editor that also appeared in the Daily  
Cal in response to the series.

The author of the series, Feature Editor Konstantin Berlandt,  
interviewed students, staff, and alumni who — quoted anonymously —  
described underground gay life at Cal including restroom sex and  
“cruising” on and off campus. Berlandt went on to interview local  
police and a campus psychiatrist. His most startling revelations  
included the claims of one former student that a prominent member of  
the 1961 football squad was gay and that several fraternities  
routinely brought gay men to their houses to “service” the members.

The articles seem tame by today’s standards, but they should be  
understood in the context of their times. Traditional sexual roles  
and mores were still not broadly liberalized in Berkeley. During the  
same period that these articles on “sexual minorities” ran, the Daily  
Californian was reporting, editorializing, and fielding indignant  
letters from students on the then-controversial possibility that  
residence hall rules might be relaxed to allow women students to come  
to dinner in the dining commons wearing pants instead of dresses or  
skirts.

Even before the publication of the series was complete, a bright  
blaze of indignation arose in some sectors. The series was criticized  
both by the ASUC’s elected Senate and its Publications Board (the  
Daily Californian was then part of the ASUC, not an independent  
newspaper), and was allegedly edited mid-stream to tone down the  
content of the final articles.

Konstantin Berlandt went on to be Editor-in-Chief of the Daily  
Californian and, later, an independent writer and journalist. He came  
out himself and is remembered today as an early gay activist who  
pushed the limits of convention in forums well beyond the University  
of California, where he began his writing career.

Several articles, plus letters in response
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/gaybears/dailycal/
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