A New Group
The New Group of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) marked its 50th anniversary in May 2022. According to several sources including the New York Intergroup archive, our group is the first of New York City’s “Gay” special interest groups of AA listed as such in the NYC meeting book of that time. Our group celebrates the first of May 1972, as its founding. New Group continues to serve the Lesbian, Gay, BiSexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) community by providing a welcoming space for recovery and in keeping with AA’s Primary Purpose all are welcome.
A NEW understanding of our history in AA
A brief history of early LGBTQ special interest meetings and members in Alcoholics Anonymous.
In the early days of AA, when there were only two groups in Akron, Ohio with a handful of members, AA co-founder Dr. Bob S. assured a newcomer who was a gay man that he was welcomed to join the group as “the only requirement for membership was a desire to stop drinking.” Marty M., a lesbian, was an early New York member and got sober in AA co-founder Bill W.’s brownstone in Brooklyn. Her story, “Women Suffer Too,” is in the Big Book in the section titled, “Pioneers of A.A.” Marty M. later attended the Greenwich Village Group meetings, and she was one of the co-founders of the AA Grapevine magazine, as well as the National Council on Alcoholism. Barry L. an early gay member of the Greenwich Village group of AA and also the author of many official AA pamphlets including “Do you think you’re different”, and “Living Sober” shared some of LGBTQ peoples’ contributions to AA, including providing multiple experiences for the fellowship to understand the importance of what would become our Third Tradition, which assures that membership in AA is open to those seeking help with their alcoholism.
According to Barry L. in 1949, a group of three gay male members of AA asked Bill Wilson for advice on starting a “special interest group” in Boston for those struggling with alcoholism. Bill’s response was that it didn’t matter what the group focused on, as long as their primary purpose was to remain sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety, and if starting a gay group was their way of going to any lengths to get and stay sober, then so be it. The group began meeting at the Stag Hotel in Boston but was disbanded due in part to the political climate during McCarthyism and the resulting gay purges from the private sector as well as from the government and the military, which led to an estimated 10,000 lgbtq people losing their livelihoods, among other things. According to Greenwich Village Group’s history, in 1957, two New York meetings, Red Door and Saturday Night Follies, declared themselves as gay groups but were not listed as such in the official meeting book. Both of these groups continue to meet and serve LGBTQ AA members today. The emergence of the next gay AA group was in San Francisco in 1968, followed in 1970 by the Alcoholics Together (AT) group in Los Angeles and the Gay Group in Washington, D.C. Two years later New Group was officially registered with NY Intergroup in May 1972 and became the first gay special interest AA meeting in NYC. New Group met in several down-town Manhattan locations over the years. Today it meets at Saint John’s Church located at 83 Christopher Street, in Greenwich Village, just down the block from the site of the June 28, 1969 Stonewall Uprising that led to the broader gay civil rIghts movement.
LGBTQ people in AA continue to get sober, and participate in the life of our fellowship. However, there was no consistent listing of LGBTQ meetings in the AA national and global meeting directories making it difficult for newcomers to find an LGBTQ special interest meeting where they could find a space that welcomed their rigorous honesty, openness, and willingness to share their truth; something that is essential to get and stay sober. At the 1973 General Service Conference a question arose proposing the listing of groups as being gay in the directory. A heated discussion ensued, and the issue was tabled until the following year and in 1974 it was voted (131 for and 2 against) to list groups as gay in the AA directory. In 1976 a proposal to publish a pamphlet for gays and lesbians was made. The pamphlet was initially voted down, and instead a pamphlet titled “Do you think you’re different” was written by Barry L. and published for all of AA. Since then a pamphlet for gays and lesbians has come out and is still available.
Rigorous honesty about our alcoholism, and making space for us to openly share our lived experiences about our same-sex relationships, our gender identities, and the full spectrum of our lives are important issues that provide a sense of belonging and acceptance for all AA members. The LGBTQ AA community has grown exponentially and today there are thousands of LGBTQ AA members, as well as hundreds of meetings, retreats and conferences happening all over the world. Our participation in AA from the early years in the 1930s at the second group of AA in Akron where Dr. Bob welcomed a gay alcoholic into the group when many others were against it; to the forming of the third tradition written by Bill W. who was likely informed by his many experiences with different folks wanting to get sober, including several experiences retold by Barry L. about Bill W. speaking with early gay, and lesbian members of the fellowship about the need to form special interest groups for LGBTQ people as far back as the 1940s.
It is with gratitude that our larger fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous rests upon the foundation of our Twelve Traditions, especially our Third Tradition “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.” and our Fifth Tradition “Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.”
