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Compiled By GayToday
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New York, New York-The life and times of the late Stonewall-era author and activist John Paul Hudson, will be celebrated Monday, June 17 at 6:00 p.m. at Rawspace, 531 42nd Street (North side between 10th and 11th Avenues). Those curious about the heroines and heroes of Manhattan's legendary Stonewall period are welcome. Old friends and Hudson's activist comrades will also attend. |
 John Paul Hudson |
Under the pen name "John Francis Hunter", Hudson wrote The Gay Insider (Olympia Press) and The Gay Insider USA (Stonehill). It was out of this latter book, that the famed Gayellow Pages subsequently developed, according to Frances Green, the Gayellow Pages' long-time editor and publisher.
The author also wrote for GAY, America's first gay weekly newspaper, edited by Lige Clarke and GayToday's Jack Nichols.
"When John Paul turned forty," Nichols recalls, "he was still very youthful looking, debonair, and happy-go-lucky. A very kindly man. That kindness caused him to remain strikingly handsome until his recent death at age 73. In 1969 he wrote what may well have been the first direct assault on ageism in the gay community. He and the pioneer, Lige Clarke were good friends. John Paul dedicated his first book to Lige and to me. We loved him dearly."
Hudson was a leading member of the Gay Activists Alliance, New York's most effective
post-Stonewall activist organization. His "comrade-brothers" and "comrade-sisters"-as he called the group's other members -- gratefully recall his organizing capabilities.
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"He was one of the activists with whom I've kept in touch," Dr. George Weinberg told GayToday. "I'm really feeling very sad he's no longer among us. He was warm-hearted, a very good man." Dr. Weinberg, author of the groundbreaking Society and the Healthy Homosexual coined the term "homophobia."
In June, 1977 Hudson was the male co-Master of Ceremonies at New York's annual Gay & Lesbian Pride Rally on the Great Lawn of Central Park where the march culminated that year, an event "most memorable," says Joe Kennedy, a fellow GAA member, "for his rousing denunciation of Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade and the crowd-pleasing appearance of Congresswoman Bella Abzug."
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Related Stories from the GayToday Archive:
John Paul Hudson, Stonewall Era Author/Activist Dies at 73
John Paul Hudson Remembered (by Jack Nichols)
The Gay Militants
Related Sites:
The Ninth Street Center: John Paul Hudson
GayToday does not endorse related sites.
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