‘The Deviant’s Trove’, An Introduction:

Charles Francis, Mattachine President

“History is written by the winners”, said Attorney General William Barr, “so it largely depends upon who is writing the history.”   What better inspiration for our work than Barr’s dangerous cynicism!  The “Deviant’s Trove” is Mattachine’s answer to anyone who would re-write or erase LGBTQ history.   Working with McDermott Will & Emery, our pro bono legal counsel for the past nine years, we have collected thousands of pages of original documents that provide the evidentiary history of brutal government animus toward LGBT Americans.   These documents cannot be erased or “written by the winners”.   They could only have been destroyed, but it is too late for that. 

Read more

Mike Huttenlocher, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery

The mission of The Mattachine Society of Washington D.C. (“MSDC”) is to uncover documents – once hidden in government files – that detail the long-standing history of discrimination against the LGBT community. In furtherance of that mission, nine years ago, the MSDC partnered with the law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP (“McDermott”) to submit dozens of requests for documents concerning the LGBT community to various federal and state government agencies, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (or its state law equivalents). And, when government agencies have refused to reveal their secrets, the MSDC/McDermott partnership has successfully pursued litigation to make public those materials that were long kept secret.

Read more

Resources:

Connecting The Deviant’s War to the Present: The New Mattachine of Washington, D.C.

Summary of Supporting Documents from McDermott Will & Emery LLP

For the full archive to “The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America” please visit: The Deviant’s Archive

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Index

Various documents CIA Documents released 8/27/99

Mattachine Society Wash DC press release on “No History, No Equality”.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Index