The Stonewall Rts Didn’t Start the Gay Rights Movement - JSTOR Daily

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
• HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
• THE STONEWALL RTS DIDN’T START THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• GAY POWER! : THE STONEWALL RTS AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT, 1969
• STONEWALL: THE BIRTH OF GAY POWER
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT: ONE VICTORY AT A TIME
• THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT
• THE GAY AND LGBT PRI MOVEMENT

GAY RIGHTS

Ernment signated Gerber’s Chigo hoe a Natnal Historic Pk TriangleCorbis/Getty ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, gay rights movement stagnated for the next few s, though LGBT dividuals around the world did e to the spotlight a few example, English poet and thor Radclyffe Hall stirred up ntroversy 1928 when she published her lbian-themed novel, The Well of Lonels. Addnally, 1948, his book Sexual Behavr the Human Male, Aled Ksey proposed that male sexual orientatn li on a ntuum between exclively homosexual to exclively Homophile Years In 1950, Harry Hay found the Mattache Foundatn, one of the natn’s first gay rights group. ”Though started off small, the foundatn, which sought to improve the liv of gay men through discsn groups and related activi, expand after foundg member Dale Jenngs was arrted 1952 for solicatn and then later set ee due to a adlocked the end of the year, Jenngs formed another anizatn lled One, Inc., which weled women and published ONE, the untry’s first pro-gay magaze.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Post Office, which 1954 clared the magaze “obscene” and refed to liver Mattache Society Mattache Foundatn members rtctured the anizatn to form the Mattache Society, which had lol chapters other parts of the untry and 1955 began publishg the untry’s send gay publitn, The Mattache Review.

That same year, four lbian upl San Francis found an anizatn lled the Dghters of Bilis, which soon began publishg a newsletter lled The Ladr, the first lbian publitn of any early years of the movement also faced some notable setbacks: the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn listed homosexualy as a form of mental disorr followg year, Print Dwight D. ”In fear of beg shut down by thori, bartenrs would ny drks to patrons spected of beg gay or kick them out altogether; others would serve them drks but force them to s facg away om other ctomers to prevent them om 1966, members of the Mattache Society New York Cy staged a “sip-”—a twist on the “s-” protts of the 1960s— which they vised taverns, clared themselv gay, and waed to be turned away so they uld sue.

PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI

They were nied service at the Greenwich Village tavern Juli, rultg much publicy and the quick reversal of the anti-gay liquor Stonewall Inn A few years later, 1969, a now-famo event talyzed the gay rights movement: The Stonewall clanste gay club Stonewall Inn was an stutn Greenwich Village bee was large, cheap, allowed dancg and weled drag queens and homels the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn.

Addnally, several openly LGBTQ dividuals secured public office posns: Kathy Kozachenko won a seat to the Ann Harbor, Michigan, Cy Council 1974, beg the first out Amerin to be elected to public Milk, who mpaigned on a pro-gay rights platform, beme the San Francis cy supervisor 1978, beg the first openly gay man elected to a polil office asked Gilbert Baker, an artist and gay rights activist, to create an emblem that reprents the movement and would be seen as a symbol of pri. In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn published a report about five prevly healthy homosexual men beg fected wh a rare type of 1984, rearchers had intified the e of AIDS—the human immunoficiency vis, or HIV—and the Food and Dg Admistratn licensed the first mercial blood tt for HIV 1985. But after failg to garner enough support for such an open policy, Print Clton 1993 passed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, which allowed gay men and women to serve the ary as long as they kept their sexualy a rights advot cried the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, as did ltle to stop people om beg discharged on the grounds of their 2011, Print Obama fulfilled a mpaign promise to repeal DADT; by that time, more than 12, 000 officers had been discharged om the ary unr DADT for refg to hi their sexualy.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was officially repealed on September 20, Marriage and Beyond In 1992, the District of Columbia passed a law that allowed gay and lbian upl to register as domtic partners, grantg them some of the rights of marriage (the cy of San Francis passed a siar ordance three years prr and California would later extend those rights to the entire state 1999) 1993, the hight urt  Hawaii led that a ban on gay marriage may go agast the state’s nstutn. In 1994, a new anti-hate-crime law allowed judg to impose harsher sentenc if a crime was motivated by a victim’s sexual Matthew Shepard ActCourty of the Matthew Shepard FoundatnMatthew Shepard, who was btally killed a hate crime 2003, gay rights proponents had another b of happy news: the U. Gay rights proponents mt also ntent wh an creasg number of “relig liberty” state laws, which allow bs to ny service to LGBTQ dividuals due to relig beliefs, as well as “bathroom laws” that prevent transgenr dividuals om g public bathrooms that don’t rrpond to their sex at birth.

HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS

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. 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. 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).

Soon they were advotg nothg ls than “gay liberatn” nscns-raisg groups to fundraisg danc, protts outsi hostile newspapers to refug for homels trans and queer people, this surge LGBTQ+ anisg took many forms, and as the first anniversary of the rts me to view, some the muny began discsg how bt to mark what was beg regard as the “Bastille day” of gay rights. The roots of that bate go back to s earlit days, and suggt that Pri and the Stonewall rts have always been part of a ntent battle for inty and ownership – a battle that has helped produce the very ia of what beg a lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or queer person might Stonewall rts were not the birth of the gay rights movement.

THE STONEWALL RTS DIDN’T START THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Seven years before that, when police had raid Coopers, a donut shop the cy ntled between two gay bars, LGBTQ+ patrons had attacked officers after the arrt of a number of drag queens, sex workers and gay had been a gay rights movement the US among people scribg themselv as “homophil” sce the late 40s. Hirschfeld’s scientific approach, bed wh his sympathetic treatment of LGBTQ+ people – he was himself homosexual – had been key velopg the ia that their shared experienc uld be unrstood not jt as discrete sexual (and crimal) acts, nor as psychiatric illns, but as a legible sexual and genr inty, which uld be afford civil rights.

) The Mattache Society had radil roots activism, takg on the anisatnal stcture of cells and central anisatn favoured by the Communist well as publishg magaz for gay men, and supportg victims of police entrapment, the society had wir polil aims, cludg to “unify homosexuals isolated om their own kd” and to “te homosexuals and heterosexuals toward an ethil homosexual culture parallelg the cultur of the Negro, Mexin and Jewish peopl”. Such aims would bee key to the ncept of “gay pri” some two s two s, however, would be among the harst for LGBTQ+ people US history, as the greater visibily of the homosexual inty led to a nservative backlash, and a moral panic the media that was palised upon by policians. After he was forced to appear before the Hoe Un-Amerin Activi Commtee, Hay was expelled om the Mattache Society, now a growg anisatn of a few thoand men, and he wasn’t the last radil to be thrown homophile movement began to tackle “subversive elements” and orient self around rpectabily.

In 1966, the Mattache Society challenged this policy wh a “sip-” at Juli’, a Greenwich Village bar that was popular wh gay men, but was attemptg to shake off s homosexual bars equently flouted this law, explog legal loophol and payg off the NYPD while chargg their LGBTQ+ ctomers high pric for watered-down drks.

GAY POWER! : THE STONEWALL RTS AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT, 1969

As the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns me together for a meetg November 1969 to discs the followg year’s Annual Remr, Rodwell wonred whether a memoratn of the rts – one whout a drs or other rtrictns, and that uld be mirrored across the natn – might not be more suable. At the same time, there were tensns around the excln of trans people, many of whom scribed themselv as queens and transvt, the language of the LGBTQ+ scene at the time, even while still intifyg themselv as “gay” umbrella, which brought people together for the e of liberatn, failed to acknowledge the different experienc of those who sheltered unr , or addrs the power imbalanc wh . It wasn’t until the 00s, though, that rporate sponsorship began to overwhelm Pri, as more fundg led to larger and larger events, which LGBTQ+ people are now often charged to the late 90s, some US activists created Gay Shame rponse to Pri’s mercialisatn, an event that foced on anisg around wir issu that affected the whole LGBTQ+ muny.

Dpe the radil LGBTQ+ anisg that took place rponse to the Aids crisis – where Pri paras beme a loc for awarens-raisg protts – many more-radil activists felt that, wh creasg rporate volvement, the event was beg taken over by liberal activists wantg to assiate queer liv to beg a “mol mory”, wh marriage and ary service beg a symbol that gay people particular had “ma ”. This is te, of urse – but then the same uld be said for the US’s close regnal ally, Sdi Rsia, both fascists and relig fundamentalists have found attempts to anise Pri march a potent rallyg ll, mobilisg wispread homophobic feelg by claimg that homosexualy is, sence, a rptg import om the wt.

STONEWALL: THE BIRTH OF GAY POWER

In Poland, natnalist and nservative policians have found electoral benef siar statements; only last year Jarosław Kaczyński, lear of the lg Law and Jtice party, scribed LGBTQ+ activism as a “foreign imported threat to the natn” e of such rhetoric across the world, and the history of European exportatn of homophobic laws, means that attempts by liberal, pro-LGBTQ+ mentators the wt to pict other untri as somehow naturally backwards is often dangeroly unterproductive for LGBTQ+ people those untri.

Five months after the rts, activists Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Brody and Lda Rhos proposed a rolutn at the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns (ERCHO) Philalphia that a march be held New York Cy to memorate the one-year anniversary of the raid.

”Spencer Grant/Getty ImagView of the large crowd, some of whom are holdg up handma signs and banners, participatg a gay and lbian pri para the Back Bay neighborhood of San Francis, activists marched down Polk Street and held a “Gay-” at Goln Gate Park on June 28th, too. : 23 cmThis book scrib the stand of gay people agast the police the Stonewall Inn, New York Cy, on the night of June 28, 1969, and discs how gay people ntue to fight for equal rights and regnnThis book reunts the history of the gay rights movement, discsg chang that have taken place om early Amerin history to ntemporary polici and public perceptn and highlightg the Stonewall Rts of 19699-121040Inclus chronologyInclus glossaryInclus biblgraphil referenc (p.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT: ONE VICTORY AT A TIME

136-140) and xAll the past: homosexualy early Ameri - Never fet: World War II and the forti - The fear: the fifti - So bold: the sixti - The Stonewall rts - Euphoric: 1969-1970 - Hope: the seventi - Beg vcible: the morn LGBTQ movementAccelerated Rear AR Middle Gras Pl 7. ”7 Donald Webster Cory, a psdonym for a leadg Mattache activist, took on a handful of younger ants advotg public protts and a rejectn of the medil pathologizg of gays for “alienatg [the movement] om scientific thkg…by s nstant, fensive, nrotic, disturbed nial” that homosexuals were sick. 10Image the Black civil rights movement of that era havg to challenge whe supremacist ias wh s ranks and one begs to grasp the enormo iologil obstacl that permeated the thkg of many LGBT the volvement of many mostly closeted gays and lbians the civil rights, women’s, and anti-Vietnam War movements shaped a new generatn of buddg radils chafg at their own opprsn.

Wearg sus and ti, drs and heels, handfuls of picketers began an annual tradn of prottg outsi Philalphia’s Inpennce Hall on July 4, 1965, to remd the natn that there remaed a group of Amerins who had yet to receive humane treatment and San Francis’s Tenrlo district there had even been a Stonewall drs rehearsal of sorts the summer of 1966 when a p’s manhandlg of a transvte at a lol eatery equented by drag queens and gay street youth led to “general havoc” cludg smashed wdows and the burng of a newsstand. Loted at the crossroads of Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue South, near a major subway statn, and steps away om the former offic of the natn’s largt pennt weekly, the Village Voice, the Stonewall Inn was dark wh two bars, a jebox, and an eclectic crowd of drag queens, gay street youth, cisg men, and a smatterg of lbians.

THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT

News of the first night’s rebelln spread wily, and by the followg eveng anized leftists, and more gays, lbians, transvt, and transgenred people me out to see what would happen, tch a glimpse of the prev night’s tr, and snag their own opportuny for revenge agast police who had huiated and beaten them all for years. A clash between the old guard anizers and newly risg ants was apparent om the Sunday of the rts, when Mattache activists who’d met wh the mayor’s office and police posted this sign on the ont of the Stonewall: “We homosexuals plead wh our people to please help mata peaceful and quiet nduct on the streets of the Village—Mattache.

Each night thereafter through Wednday, more and more gays and straight leftists, om socialists and Black Panthers to the Yippi20 and Puerto Rin Young Lords, arrived on the scene to participate the latt nontatn wh the time the rts subsid, activists began distributg leaflets that read: “Do You Thk Homosexuals Are Revoltg?

THE GAY AND LGBT PRI MOVEMENT

”25 Stonewall’s wake created the ndns for this rise social fluence of small radil groups the GLF was evint s statement to one unrground newspaper, the Rat:We are a revolutnary homosexual group of men and women formed wh the realizatn that plete sexual liberatn for all people nnot e about unls existg social stutns are abolished. 31Later that year, a group of activists spl om the GLF and formed a new sgle-issue group, the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA), wh a nstutn that fed s agenda as “exclively voted to the liberatn of homosexuals and avoids volvement any program of actn not obvly relevant to homosexuals. 33 Five years later, gay and lbian psychiatrists formed a uc wh the APA—never aga would a gay shrk have to hi om his lleagu behd a grotque was a major breakthrough when on Augt 21, 1970, Black Panther -founr Huey Newton wrote the first openly pro-gay statement by a major heterosexual movement activist of any race, which was prted the pag of The Black Panther, the party’s newspaper.

“Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad, ” New York Daily News, July 6, Teal, Gay Milants, 2– Carter, Stonewall, Teal, Gay Milants, Carter, Stonewall, Youth Internatnal Party (Yippi) was a hippie movement tablished the late 1960s that adhered to anti-thorarian methods and ed guerrilla theater as a means of advancg s untercultural Teal, Gay Milants, Mart Duberman, Stonewall (New York: Plume, 1994), 229. D’E, Sexual Polics, Sexual Communi,, Saad, “Tolerance for Gay Rights at High-Water Mark, ” May 29, 2007,, [September 6, 2008] Carter, Stonewall, Ibid.,, Teal, Gay Milants,,, Stonewall, Teal, Gay Milants, Marc, Makg History: The Stggle for Gay and Lbian Equal Rights, 1945–1990 (New York: Harper Colls, 1992),,, 155.

By the time the Stonewall Rts end on July 2, 1969, the gay rights movement went om beg a ge issue largely ignored by policians and the media to ont-page news Gay Pri ParaOne year later, durg the anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, activists New York Cy marched through the streets of Manhattan memoratn of the uprisg. The atmosphere at the events n range om r, rnivalque celebratns to strint polil prott to solemn memorials for those lost to AIDS or homophobic June 2000, Print Bill Clton officially signated June as Gay and Lbian Pri Month, regnn of the Stonewall Rts and gay activism throughout the years.