Nikos Diaman (b. November 1, 1936), left, and other Gay Liberation Front members, Times Square, New York City, August 31, 1970. Photo by Diana Davies, c/o @nyplpicturecollection. Nikos Diaman, who turns eighty today, was an early member of New York City’s Gay Liberation Front (GLF), and he played an active role in the radical queer liberation group throughout the immediate post-Stonewall era. Diaman, who now is a novelist and artist, had a reputation as a gentle revolutionary who was overwhelmed by the freedom brought on by the gay liberation movement. Originally from San Francisco, Diaman “had just been passing through New York…on his way to Paris,” according to Lillian Faderman, “where he’d planned to live for a year….But after a New York friend took him to GLF, Diaman canceled his Paris plans. For the first time in his life, he found himself sitting with a group of gay people who were talking not about their cowering fear of police busts but about fighting police and being out and proud and guilt free.” Describing an early GLF dance, David Carter wrote that “the men and women joined together and snaked around the room hooting and shouting, then spiraled into a tight mass before quickly unwinding with such terrific force that Nikos Diaman’s glasses snapped in two as he was thrown into another reveler’s body.” In the late 1990s, Diaman maintained a website for GLF alum; it is still available at angelfire.com/on2/glf2000. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #QueerHistoryMatters #HavePrideInHistory #NikosDiaman (at Times Square, New York City)