One unexpected consequence of neighborhood mobilization was the formation of Vanguard, an organization made up mostly of young gay hustlers and transgender people. Vanguard, formed in 1965 with the encouragement of a young minister named Adrian Ravarour, is the earliest known queer youth organization in the United States. Its name, which signaled members’ perception that they were the cutting edge of a new social movement, shows how seriously they took the ideals of radical democracy. The group’s second leader even took a nom de guerre, Jean-Paul Marat, after a famous figure in the French
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