Coming Out in Print

Howard J. Brown
Issue 125, November 21, 1973
New York City’s former chief health officer created a sensation when he came out as gay in front of 600 colleagues at a symposium on sexuality. At the time The Advocate described it as the biggest boost for gay liberation in three years. Brown penned an article for the magazine about his decision.

“It is one measure of how society has really oppressed me, that though I had been active in the fight for the poor and for civil rights, it never occurred to me that I could fight for the rights of the homosexuals. The gay freedom fighters redefined my previous feelings of shame at being a homosexual into a sense of rage that society could do this to me and so many of the people I loved.”