Allen Young is best known for his work as a New Left journalist and prominent gay liberation writer and activist. He was born in Liberty, New York, on June 30, 1941. He attended Columbia University, where he was active in left-wing causes and organizations, and received a history degree in 1962. He then attended both Stanford University and the Columbia Journalism School, receiving a master's degree from each institution.
Young began his journalism career by working on the local newspaper while still a student in high school. As an undergraduate he was editor of the college newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator. After graduation from journalism school, he spent three years in South America freelancing for the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times and several other American newspapers. During these years Young was also a frequent contributor to Leftist publications and an outspoken critic of American foreign policy.
Returning to the United States in 1967, he worked briefly as a reporter for the Washington Post. He resigned to join Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and to become a staff writer and editor for Liberation News Service (LNS), a newly formed but widely influential press service for underground newspapers and Leftist publications. Young was instrumental in developing the radical politics and analysis that became the hallmark of LNS reporting. He wrote extensively on the social movement and radical activities of the late 1960s. He also served as the press spokesman for SDS at several of its national conventions.
Young left the staff at LNS in 1970 to work full-time in the emerging gay liberation movement. He joined the New York Gay Liberation Front, an organization of radical lesbians and gay men, and participated in the first mass action by gay people, the June 1970 Christopher Street Gay Pride March. In 1973 he moved to a gay commune, Butterworth Farm, located near Royalston, Mass. While Young continued to write on a variety of subjects from a New Left perspective, the gay movement and the struggle against sexism became his primary concern. Besides contributing to various publications, he co-edited with Karla Jay three gay-themed anthologies, including one of the first gay liberation books to be published. His 1981 book Gays Under the Cuban Revolution was the culmination of Young's long-time criticism against gay persecution under Cuba's Communist rule. He lectured at several colleges and was a frequent speaker at demonstrations and meetings. He was also active in the fight against Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire.
Young's activism decreased in 1979 when he took a full-time job as a newspaper reporter at the Athol Daily News. He grew increasingly involved with local social and environmental concerns, serving as a longtime member of the Millers River Watershed Council and Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust. He also founded the North Quabbin Diversity Awareness group.
In 1983, he founded Millers River Publishing Company, which published about a dozen books on subjects ranging from tourism to poetry before going out of business. He later worked as vice-president for public relations at Athol Memorial Hospital. His particular interests in land preservation and natural resources prompted him to write two popular guidebooks to the North Quabbin region of Massachusetts. Young, the only remaining member of the commune he helped create in 1973, celebrated 30 years at Butterworth Farm in 2003.
