Yes! The GAA accused the GLF of being too radical, even as many or most LGBTQ people accused the GAA of violating lines of respectability. As for Act Up and Queer Nation -- well, we had our supporters for sure, but it wasn't like you might expect from reading about it today with the benefit of hindsight. (Nobody expected Act Up's work to bear such amazing fruit - not even most Act Up members, despite our public bravado.)

I wore my Act Up regalia (a black tee and denim look with Silence = Death accoutrements) nearly everywhere I went for years when I wasn't at work. I got plenty of silent nods from passersby, but I got plenty of eyerolls too, mostly from older gay men who wished we'd tone ourselves down and maybe get the New York Times to take us seriously, so to speak.

But, no matter what anybody says, progress is always pushed by the (relatively) radical fringe. Moderates have to buy in eventually for progress to take hold and gel, but moderates are never going to provide the energy or the drive to make things happen.

Visionary groups and people who change the world are radical by definition - for good or for ill.