Lige Clarke (February 22, 1942 – February 10, 1975) and Jack Nichols (March 16, 1938 – May 2, 2005), New York City, c. 1970. Photo by Kay Tobin, @nyplpicturecollection. . Elijah “Lige” Clarke, who was born seventy-five years ago today, was an American writer and queer liberation activist, best-known as the co-founder of Gay magazine. . Clarke and his partner Jack Nichols were active members in the homophile movement; the couple worked closely with Frank Kameny and the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., as that organization helped launch the direct-action phase of the movement in 1965. In the mid-1960s, Clarke and Nichols began writing a column, “The Homosexual Citizen,” for The Mattachine Review. (The title—“The Homosexual Citizen”—first appeared in the 1950s in a column written by lesbian pioneer Dr. Lilli Vincenz.) . In 1968, Clarke and Nichols were approached to write a column for Screw magazine; “The Homosexual Citizen,” as it appeared in Screw, was the first queer-interest column regularly to appear in a non-queer publication. The couple also published books including “I have more fun with you than anybody” and “Roommates Can’t Always Be Lovers.” In 1969, Nichols and Clarke founded Gay magazine; it was the first weekly gay newspaper to appear widely on newsstands. To many, Clarke and Nichols were “the most famous gay couple in America.” . On February 10, 1975, Lige Clarke was shot and killed under mysterious circumstances near Veracruz, Mexico; he was thirty-two. There are a number of theories as to what happened the night of Clarke’s death, though there are no definitive answers. Near the end of his life, Jack Nichols appeared resigned to the idea that Clarke was killed by border agents who discovered gay rights material in Clarke’s car. #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #LigeClarke (at Washington Square Park)
