The LAPD Arrested The Wrong Gay Dude That Day
June 24, 2018 4:07 PM   Subscribe

Pride Month Special: “One True Pervert In the Courtroom” – The Trial of Dale Jennings
So smear on your best body paint, cuddle up with the spouse you previously couldn’t marry, and call that one homophobic Aunt that everyone has just to tell them to fuck right off as we talk about Dale Jennings, and how the LAPD totally George Michael’d the fuck out of him…and in doing so helped kick off the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement as we know it today.

…Fucking talk about some shit backfiring, eh?
posted by Lexica (10 comments total) 35 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is a great article. So much of the modern Pride movement focuses on the genuinely praiseworthy Stonewall event as the beginning. It was a key inflection point, I think, to say it more accurately. There was a lot of groundwork and organizing that went on before and after Stonewall that owes a great deal to the Mattachine, Janus and Bilitis groups. Thanks for posting!
posted by darkstar at 4:58 PM on June 24, 2018


To give some context I know of three southern California police departments still pulling this shit in the recent past. Long Beach and Los Angeles as late as and later than 2014. Manhattan Beach in 2012.
posted by rdr at 5:06 PM on June 24, 2018


Yeah police entrapment at cruising grounds is still totally a thing. Complete with newspapers publishing arrest photos to humiliate the men.

I'm always amazed at the stories of how gay men had the courage to stand up to police and the courts and fight for their rights. The book on Lawrence v Texas (the case that struck down anti-gay sodomy laws) talks in great detail about how a gay bartender heard about Lawrence's arrest and got the story to some lawyers who could take it up as a case.
posted by Nelson at 5:42 PM on June 24, 2018 [4 favorites]


Man-o-Manischewitz, the chutzpah it took to take on the legal system as a gay man back then.

If Dale Jennings is dead, then I hope Heaven is as fabulous as he could hope it to be, if not, then I am cracking a beer open right now in his honor.
posted by FleetMind at 8:01 PM on June 24, 2018 [2 favorites]


Dale Jennings died at the age of 82 in 2000. His wikipedia entry is worth reading.

He was a Wolrd War II hero. He wrote a movie that starred John Wayne ("caused considerable controversy among publishers due to its glimmers of homoeroticism"), he was portrayed in an award winning play (The Tempermentals), he was a novelist.
posted by el io at 9:32 PM on June 24, 2018 [3 favorites]


I'd heard of the Mattachine society, but I hadn't heard about this case. That's some remarkable don't-give-a-fuck levels of courage right there. Thank you Dale!
posted by rmd1023 at 5:08 AM on June 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


"The jury, much like Jennings I imagine, was hung."

Good night everybody.
posted by parliboy at 8:19 AM on June 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


I thought I was fairly well versed in gay history and I'm certainly familiar with the Mattachine Society, but this story is news to me. (Which is really a shame, since Jennings' novel The Cowboys contributed greatly to my store of jerk-off fantasies as a teenager.)

Thanks very much to the Boozy Barrister for telling the story and to Lexica for bringing it to Metafilter. One tiny quibble, in memory of a dear, departed friend for whom the distinction was a very big deal: in 1970, New York had a Pride March. It wouldn't become a Parade until many years later.
posted by layceepee at 9:57 AM on June 25, 2018


thank you so much for posting this. I always wonder how people have such courage and such a strong sense of self against societal prejudice.
posted by biggreenplant at 8:20 AM on June 28, 2018


Ordinary Person, Wild Radical - "Seventeen years before the Stonewall Riots, Dale Jennings proclaimed to a California court that he was a homosexual. It was the first glimmer of a civil rights revolution. This is the story of an unsung, and reluctant, hero."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:07 AM on July 6, 2018


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