Bob Hull + Chuck Rowland +
Wallace de Ortega Maxey Project

About Hull, Rowland and Maxey
Hull and Rowland co-founded the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles in 1950 with Harry Hay, Rudi Gernreich, and Dale Jennings. Maxey was a prominent early member. The group’s activities set the stage for the gay liberation movement of the late 1960s and 1970s.

The Project
Because he died in 1962, before historians could interview him, Hull remains a relatively obscure player in the early struggle for homosexual civil rights. We will paint a portrait of Bob Hull with the memories of those who knew him, as well as existing documentation. Rowland died in 1990 after founding the gay-oriented Celebration Theatre in 1982, and contributed much more to the record through writing and interviews. Newly processed archival information will shed light on Chuck Rowland’s post-Mattachine ventures. Maxey, who was an eccesiastic in several traditions, left much writing and other documentation, some of it contradictory. Nevertheless, as an apostle for existentialism and the First Amendment, Maxey’s voice still resonates.

Brief profiles of Hull and Rowland are posted on TangentGroup.org; Maxey’s is at LGBT-RAN. A book-length tri-biography is being drafted. If you know anything about Hull, Rowland or Maxey, we need to hear from you. Discretion is guaranteed.
Please contact David Hughes — david [at] qualityofmercy.com.