"I wrote this book to set the record straight, because little about the 1969 militant gay movement in the San Francisco Bay Area has been detailed in print. While many brave activists have contributed to the cause before and since, a close look shows how the militant side of gay liberation actually began within the bowels of San Francisco a few months before the New York Stonewall uprising. The concept of a coming out en masse as a way to enlighten and change the world was born in the hilly streets of the City by the Bay and championed by Gale Whittington and Leo Laurence, co-founders of the Committee for Homosexual Freedom (CHF). Indeed, this book shows how a handful of fiery West Coast gay guerillas fanned the sparks that helped inspire participants at Stonewall to stand and fight openly for their rights, thereby passing along a torch that would ignite the movement to liberate gays and enlighten heterosexuals around the world" -- p. [4] of cover.