Supreme Court Rul Favor of Gay Rights - PBS NewsHour Classroom

Contents:

• HOW 2013 BEME THE GREATT YEAR IN GAY RIGHTS HISTORY
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• THE TOP TEN GAY-RIGHTS HERO OF 2013
• GAY RIGHTS
• SUPREME COURT RUL FAVOR OF GAY RIGHTS

HOW 2013 BEME THE GREATT YEAR IN GAY RIGHTS HISTORY

Gays and lbians had once plaed about feelg visible, but as lns of dividuals have e out, they not only have ma their polil sir more tangible but also have won sympathetic alli among many straights. Durg his first term, Obama sometim me across as a reluctant warrr on gay issu, takg his time to "evolve" his posn on marriage, his timg perhaps prodd by remarks om Vice Print Joe Bin. Obama has been the "gays' LBJ, " says Jonathan Rch, a rint scholar at the Brookgs Instutn, parg the current print to Lyndon Johnson, who signed to law the Civil Rights and Votg Rights Acts of the 1960s.

This year's Supreme Court cisns on gay marriage might well have turned out differently if the ernment still had an active tert argug for discrimatn, says Aaron Belk, director of the Palm Center at San Francis State Universy, which studi transgenr ary service. "Our journey is not plete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else unr the law, " he said, "for if we are tly created equal, then surely the love we m to one another mt be equal as well. Marriage helped gays "change the subject om beg primarily about rights and nondiscrimatn to beg about love, fay and muny, " says Rch, who has wrten books about same-sex marriage and growg up gay.

E., for lbians, gays [homosexual mal], bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons); seeks to elimate sodomy laws; and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life. ) Gay rights prr to the 20th century Relig admonns agast sexual relatns between dividuals of the same sex (particularly men) long stigmatized such behavur, but most legal s Europe were silent on the subject of homosexualy and bisexualy.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Dpe Paragraph 175 and the failure of the WhK to w s repeal, homosexual and bisexual men and women experienced a certa amount of eedom Germany, particularly durg the Weimar perd, between the end of World War I and the Nazi seizure of power. In the Uned Stat this greater visibily brought some backlash, particularly om the ernment and the police: the ernment often fired gay civil servants, the ary attempted to purge s ranks of gay soldiers (a policy enacted durg World War II), and police vice squads equently raid gay bars and arrted their patrons. In the Uned Stat the first major male anizatn, found 1950–51 by Harry Hay Los Angel, was the Mattache Society (s name reputedly rived om a medieval French society of masked players, the Société Mattache, to reprent the public “maskg” of homosexualy), while the Dghters of Bilis (named after the Sapphic love poems of Pierre Louÿs, Chansons Bilis), found 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart San Francis, was a leadg group for women.

In Bra 1957 a missn chaired by Sir John Wolfenn issued a groundbreakg report (see Wolfenn Report) remendg that private homosexual liaisons between nsentg adults be removed om the doma of crimal law; a later the remendatn was implemented by Parliament the Sexual Offenc Act.

THE TOP TEN GAY-RIGHTS HERO OF 2013

In the 1970s and ’80s, gay polil anizatns proliferated, particularly the Uned Stat and Europe, and spread to other parts of the globe, though their relative size, strength, and succs—and toleratn by thori—varied signifintly. Now headquartered Geneva and renamed the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA World), plays a signifint role ordatg ternatnal efforts to promote human rights and fight discrimatn agast LGBTQ and tersex persons. This support, along wh mpaigns by gay activists urgg gay men and women to “e out of the closet” (ed, the late 1980s, Natnal Comg Out Day was tablished, and is now celebrated on October 11 most untri), enuraged gay men and women to enter the polil arena as ndidat.

At the lol and natnal levels, the number of openly gay policians creased dramatilly durg the 1990s and 2000s, and 2009 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir beme prime mister of Iceland, which ma her the world’s first openly gay head of ernment.

GAY RIGHTS

In Ai, Asia, and Lat Ameri, openly gay policians have had only limed succs wng office; notable electns to natnal legislatur clud Patria Jiménez Flor Mexi (1997), Mike Waters South Ai (1999), and Clodovil Hernans Brazil (2006). Other issu of primary importance for the gay rights movement sce the 1970s clud batg the HIV/AIDS epimic and promotg disease preventn and fundg for rearch; lobbyg ernment for nondiscrimatory polici employment, hog, and other aspects of civil society; endg the ban on ary service for gay and lbian dividuals; expandg hate crim legislatn to clu protectns for gays, cludg transgenr dividuals; and securg marriage rights for same-sex upl (see same-sex marriage). Ary’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (1993–2011), which had permted gay and lbian dividuals to serve the ary if they did not disclose their sexual orientatn or engage homosexual activy; the repeal effectively end the ban on homosexuals the ary.

Hodg), and 2020 the Court termed that firg an employee for beg homosexual or transgenr was a vlatn of Tle VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964), which prohibs discrimatn on the basis of sex (Bostock v. Edh WdsorUnqutnably the most signifint gay-rights figure of 2013, the eighty-four-year-old Wdsor not only brought down the Defense of Marriage Act wh her se the Supreme Court, but she did wh a style and grace that elevated everyone associated wh the gay-rights movement.

Pope FrancisIn July, when a reporter asked Pope Francis about allegatns of a “gay lobby” si the Vatin, his straightforward answer, wh the five words that ma headl around the world—“Who am I to judge? While the Church has not formally shifted any of s posns on homosexualy, and remas to be seen whether Catholic stutns will bee more welg toward gays and lbians (as Frank Bni highlighted a recent lumn), the new Pope’s language was a stark parture om that of earlier Catholic lears, who characterized homosexualy as morally wrong and often evil.

SUPREME COURT RUL FAVOR OF GAY RIGHTS

” Many believe that Kennedy’s opn opened the door for the Supreme Court to liver another big gay-rights cisn, which would regnize a nstutnal right to same-sex marriage and full equaly.

Barack ObamaPrint Obama ntued his “evolutn” wh a breathtakgly bold gural addrs, which he pared the stggle for gay rights to the movements for women’s rights and Ain-Amerin civil rights, and then said: “Our journey is not plete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else unr the law—for if we are tly created equal, then surely the love we m to one another mt be equal as well. Ted Olson and David BoiThe two lawyers behd the succsful challenge to California’s anti-gay, and anti-marriage, Proposn 8, Olson and Boi were famo for havg reprented the opposg sis the epic legal battle that followed the 2000 Printial electn.

But their willgns to step forward as both a legal dream team and a kd of bipartisan odd-uple for gay rights not only attracted wi attentn om the media—which the two lawyers cleverly ed to further te the public on the issue—but also brought amazg new energy and life to the csa.