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Rev.
Ray Broshears was a larger-than-life, unarguably controversial gay liberation
activist, early San Francisco LGBT spiritual leader and a highly vocal critic
of police activity in San Francisco. Rev. Broshears co-founded the Gay Pride
Parade & was one of the first officially ordained ministers in the United
States to perform marriages for Gay couples. He was also the founder of Helping
Hand Center, an outreach program for young gay youths and homeless people.
A
pastor in a non-mainline denomination, Rev. Ray moved to San Francisco from
the mid-west in 1965, and by mid-1968 had gained notoriety for being a key part
of conspiracy theories surrounding the death of JFK. Broshears had at one time
been the roommate of David Ferrie, who some believe was involved in a conspiracy
plot to kill President John Kennedy. Ferrie was the former roommate of Lee Harvey
Oswald. Nothing came of the investigation.
Broshears,
along with H.L. Perry, and Rev. Bob Humphries, organized San Francisco's first
officially recognized gay freedom march, calling it “Christopher Street
West” in honor of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York. What began as “Gay
Freedom Day” in 1972 has culminated in what we know today as the “Gay
Pride Parade”.
Broshears
received national attention in Time and Rolling Stone magazines when, in the
summer of 1973, he announced the formation of the Lavender Panthers, an allegedly
armed and militant Gay group that was to “fight back” against anti-Gay
street attacks. His primary purpose, as the Rev. Ray candidly put it, was to
strike terror in the hearts of "all those young punks who have been beating
up my faggots.” The August 1st, 1973 issue of The Advocate carried a photo
of the Rev. Ray, (at that time a minister of the Metropolitan Community Church
in San Francisco), brandishing a shotgun after announcing the formation of the
Lavender Panthers. Broshears was quoted as saying, “Gay people are not
sissies and will use self-defense”, yet he never revealed publicly that
all the weapons were borrowed, and none of them was loaded.
Also
in 1973 in San Francisco Rev. Broshears performed a non-legally-recognized marriage
ceremony for three lesbian couples from the Women's Army Corps, attracting much
media attention throughout the country.
Broshears
ran for Community College Board in 1976 and an extensive biographical piece
on him was run in the SF Chronicle at the time. He published a gay political
newspaper called the "Gay Crusader," and helped Harvey Milk win the
seat for San Francisco’s Supervisor the second time.
Those
who knew Broshears closely relate numerous incidents of his individual generosity
that did not get mentioned in the press. He frequently brought food and clothing
to jail prisoners, gave advise to male prostitutes, assisted transsexuals who
were on the fringe of the Gay community, and regularly provided food and assistance
to the elderly throughout the city.
Ray
Broshears had heard of and seen Mulleian’s exhibit at the Frank Gallery
on San Francisco’s Sutter Street Gallery row in the early 70’s, but
the two wouldn’t officially meet until the mid-70’s, at which time
Broshears expressed intrest in Mulleian’s work along with the artist’s
intriguing charisma and his activistism for Gay rights. Broshears invited a
freelance writer to compose a large artical on the artists for his next issue
of the “Crusader”.
After
this issue Rev. Broshears frequently wrote articles on Mulleian for his paper
all through the late ‘70s. Over the years, the two men got to know each
other rather well. The last time Mulleian would meet with Broshears was at a
new Mulleian exhibit in 1980. Rev. Ray Broshears died at the age of 46 of a
cerebral stroke on January 14, 1982.
