Artist/activist fought for rights of men and boys

Guy Strait, a gay movement pioneer with a love of the beauty of early and pre-teen boys and the ability to capture that beauty on film, died on March 25, 1987 - 67 years from the day he was born in Dallas, Texas. He died from a heart attack at the Laguna Honda Home in San Francisco, where he had been placed ten days earlier following a serious stroke. In 1961 Guy and some other unhappy San Francisco Mattachine members organized San Francisco's first gay political action group, the League for Civil Education. At a time when raids on gay bars were common, Guy believed that if gay people would organize as a voting block, they could put an end to their blatant mistreatment. With Guy's leadership, the group published this country's first newspaper-format gay periodical, the L.C.E. News. This first gay newspaper was distributed in San Francisco's gay bars, carrying the L.C.E.'s message and informing people of their rights. In 1964 some L.C.E. members left the group to form S.I.R., the Society for Individual Rights, which replaced the L.C.E. as San Francisco's leading gay group.

source: Article 'Artist/ Activist Fought for Rights of Men and Boys' by John Fish; Nambla Bulletin; January/February 1988