Product Code Database
Lee Greer Brewster (April 27, 1943 – May 19, 2000) was an American drag queen, transgender activist, and retailer. He was a founding member of the pre-Stonewall activist group, Queens Liberation Front. In the 1970s and 1980s, he published Drag magazine. Brewster helped to raise funds for the very first U.S. celebration of Pride, Christopher Street Liberation Day in 1970. He continued to help raise funds and organize Christopher Street Liberation Day for several years. Lee Brewster was active in the homophile and gay liberation movements, working with the Mattachine Society of New York as well as the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.
He moved to New York City in the 1960s after being fired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for being a homosexual.
Brewster died of cancer on May 19, 2000, in New York City. He was survived by a sister and three brothers.
West Virginia University has created an online exhibit dedicated to him, and his work.
In the 1970s and 1980s, he published Drag magazine.
His boutique made efforts to provide privacy to its customers, including never having a street-level entry. However, some customers have been public about utilizing the store. Among its public and notable customers were Lady Bunny, and costume designers for The Birdcage, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, and Tootsie. Brewster described his clientele in an interview in The Village Voice saying, "Half of my clients are respectable-looking businessmen," and that they were "very normal, but they know better than to present that side of themselves."
He became active in the Mattachine Society after moving to New York City in the 1960s, and was even nominated for the position of Secretary of the organization. He coordinated the organization's and fundraising events. Some members of the organizations disliked public cross-dressing, so he began holding the balls at the Diplomat Hotel on West 43rd Street. The balls, held from 1969 to 1973, became notable enough that the final one was attended by Carol Channing, Shirley MacLaine and Jacqueline Susann.
In the 1970s, Brewster financed a successful legal challenge to a New York City ordinance that allowed people to be removed from public places because they were homosexuals. Though seldom enforced, he felt the regulation gave law enforcement an opportunity to harass LGBT people.
In 1971, the Queens Liberation Front was teamed with the Street Tranvestite Action Revolutionaries, and the Gay Activists Alliance in support of Intro 475, to end discrimination based upon sexual orientation in New York City. Eventually these efforts were successful, and the early involvement of transgender organizations helped to guarantee that transgender rights were respected in resulting gay rights legislation. (2025). 9780143133513, Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780143133513
Lesbian Feminist Liberation opposed the performance by at the 1973 LGBT Pride March in New York City. As they passed out flyers, Sylvia Rivera, of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, took the microphone from emcee Vito Russo and spoke against the sentiment and spoke of the harassment and arrests of drag queens on the street, some of whom had been involved with the Stonewall riots. Lesbian Feminist Liberation's Jean O'Leary then insisted on responding by denouncing drag as misogynist and criticizing the march for being too male-dominated. This prompted Brewster to denounce anti-transgender lesbian feminists. The increasingly angry crowd only calmed when Bette Midler, who heard on the radio in her Greenwich Village apartment, arrived, took the microphone, and began singing "Friends". This was one of many events in early 1970s where lesbian and transgender activists clashed.
|
|
