Queens Liberation Front (QLF) was a homophile group primarily focused on transvestite rights advocacy organization in New York City.

[3]: 83  At his first ball in February 1969, Brewster announced plans to form the group, with October 31, 1969 (Halloween, a particularly popular holiday in the drag community) to be its formal founding date.

[4] The organization was founded in part to oppose the relegation of drag queens to the back of the March at the first Christopher Street Liberation Day in June 1970.

As they passed out flyers, Sylvia Rivera, of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, took the microphone from emcee Vito Russo and spoke against this sentiment, delivering a speech about spending time in jail, and being harassed and beaten by the straight men who were preying on all the members of the gay community.

"[12] The increasingly angry crowd only calmed when Bette Midler, who heard on the radio in her Greenwich Village apartment, arrived, took the microphone, and began singing "Friends".