Read about key moments the history of the LGBTQ fight for rights Ameri, om the first gay rights group to prent day.
Contents:
- GAY RIGHTS
- GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- TIMELE: KEY MOMENTS FIGHT FOR GAY RIGHTS
- THE RIGHTS OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENR PEOPLE
- CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
- SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS
- A PROCLAMATN ON LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, AND QUEER PRI MONTH, 2021
- HOE PASS SWEEPG GAY AND TRANSGENR EQUALY LEGISLATN
- CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS COULD REMOVE IT NEXT YEAR
- PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
- TEXAS JUDGE WHO DON’T WANT TO PERFORM GAY MARRIAGE CEREMONI HOP WEB SIGNER’S SUPREME COURT SE HELPS HER FIGHT
- WHY THE BATTLE FOR GAY MARRIAGE WAS WON SO EASILY
- SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
- DONALD TMP HOLDS HIGH THE FLAG FOR GAY EQUALY
- WHO IS JOSEPH ZIEGLER, THE GAY IRS WHISTLEBLOWER HUNTER BIN PROBE?
GAY RIGHTS
People around the world face vlence and equaly—and sometim torture, even executn—bee of who they love, how they look, or who they are. Sexual orientatn and genr inty are tegral aspects of our selv and should never lead to discrimatn or abe. Human Rights Watch works for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr peopl' rights, and wh activists reprentg a multiplicy of inti and issu. We document and expose ab based on sexual orientatn and genr inty worldwi, cludg torture, killg and executns, arrts unr unjt laws, unequal treatment, censorship, medil ab, discrimatn health and jobs and hog, domtic vlence, ab agast children, and nial of fay rights and regnn. We advote for laws and polici that will protect everyone’s digny. We work for a world where all people n enjoy their rights fully. * gay equality *
Bee of the fluence of Schorr put siarly Natnal Review: “To suggt that social suggtibily uld be playg a role the skyrocketg numbers of young girls’ exprsg their sire to bee mal, for example, is not of urse to say that gay and transgenr people would not exist whout the topics’ beg discsed the public square. 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.
”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.
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.
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
The ACLU works to ensure that lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people n live openly whout discrimatn and enjoy equal rights, personal tonomy, and eedom of exprsn and associatn. * gay equality *
”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.
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.
TIMELE: KEY MOMENTS FIGHT FOR GAY RIGHTS
The crease the number of visible gay and trans people is sometim treated as a cursy or a e for ncern by crics, but ’s not a surprise. It’s normal. * gay equality *
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 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.
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).
THE RIGHTS OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENR PEOPLE
The gay rights movement the Uned Stat began the 1920s and saw huge progrs the 2000s, wh laws prohibg homosexual activy stck down and a Supreme Court lg legalizg same-sex marriage. * gay equality *
”On his first day office, Bin signed an executive orr directg feral agenci to implement the Supreme Court’s Bostock lg and to enforce any regulatns banng sex discrimatn on the basis of sexual orientatn and genr inty, as last October, Bin told Philalphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal that passg the Equaly Act would ensure “no future print n ever aga roll back civil rights and protectns for LGBTQ+ dividuals.
He was assassated at Cy Hall jt a year Reste/Getty ImagHundreds of gay rights activists took to the Natnal Mall 1979 for the first Pri rally to ph to for equal rights the gay muny and the eedom to live Alpert/Getty Imag, FILEReverend John Kuiper, right, the first gay man Ameri to w the right to adopt a child, is shown wh his partner Roger Hooverman, durg a Gay Rights March, 1979, New Agosti/Liaison/Getty Imag, FILEStartg 1981, gay advocy groups began to form to talk about how the ernment was handlg the AIDS crisis, a new disease that manifted as pnmonia and was found mostly gay men. Y, twelve stat (California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachetts, Mnota, New Hampshire, Nevada, New Jersey, Rho Island, Vermont and Wisns), the District of Columbia, many municipali, and hundreds of bs and universi have enacted laws that protect gay, lbian and bisexual people om employment discrimatn.
CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR
Gay rights movement, civil rights movement that advot equal rights for LGBTQ persons—that is, for lbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons—and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life. * gay equality *
"However, some of the first rerd stanc of stutnal workplace discrimatn agast workers specifilly based on their LGBTQ inti (rather than for racial or genr inti) n be dated to the 1950, a Senate report tled "Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts Government" was distributed to members of Congrs claimg that homosexualy and "sex perversn" posed a natnal secury risk and announcg that hundreds of ernment employe had been fired for spicn of homosexualy. Biblil terpretatn ma illegal for a woman to wear pants or a man to adopt female drs, and sensatnalized public trials warned agast “viants” but also ma such martyrs and hero popular: Joan of Arc is one example, and the chillg origs of the word “faggot” clu a stick of wood ed public burngs of gay men.
This creasg awarens of an existg and vulnerable populatn, upled wh Senator Joseph McCarthy’s vtigatn of homosexuals holdg ernment jobs durg the early 1950s outraged wrers and feral employe whose own liv were shown to be send-class unr the law, cludg Frank Kameny, Barbara Gtgs, Allen Gsberg, and Harry Hay.
The creasg expansn of a global LGBT rights movement suffered a setback durg the 1980s, as the gay male muny was cimated by the Aids epimic, mands for passn and medil fundg led to renewed alns between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups like Aids Coaln to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Natn.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
June celebrat LGBT Pri Month, a look at some key moments gay rights. * gay equality *
Wh greater media attentn to gay and lbian civil rights the 1990s, trans and tersex voic began to ga space through works such as Kate Boernste’s “Genr Outlaw” (1994) and “My Genr Workbook” (1998), Ann Fsto-Sterlg’s “Myths of Genr” (1992) and Llie Feberg’s “Transgenr Warrrs” (1998), enhancg shifts women’s and genr studi to bee more clive of transgenr and nonbary inti.
SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS
Prime Mister Rishi Sunak apologized for the UK’s historic treatment of gay veterans followg a damng report tailg electric shock nversn therapy, sexual asslts and blackmail suffered by personnel over s. * gay equality *
"We didn't see really anybody other than the Conference of Catholic Bishops e and make an argument that there are large numbers of employers who refe as a blanket matter to hire people who are lbian, who are gay or bisexual or who are transgenr, " said Karlan, who argued one of the Tle VII s before the Supreme Court October. VioThe Rpect for Marriage Act, which passed Congrs wh bipartisan support, mandat feral regnn for same-sex and terracial Contreras for The New York TimWASHINGTON — Print Bin signed the Rpect for Marriage Act to law on Tuday, mandatg feral regnn for same-sex marriag and ppg his own personal evolutn toward embracg gay rights over the urse of a four- polil an elaborate signg ceremony on the South Lawn, plete wh mil performanc om Cyndi Lper and Sam Smh, Mr.
A PROCLAMATN ON LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, AND QUEER PRI MONTH, 2021
The Supreme Court says the feral ban on discrimatn "based on sex" appli to gay, lbian and transgenr employe. * gay equality *
”Durg a time when most bars refed to serve gay people, the Mattache Society, one of the untry’s first gay rights anizatns, staged a “Sip-In, ” durg which activists entered a New York Cy bar, announced they were gay, orred drks, and waed to be Braerd/The Denver Post via GettyJune 28, 1969: The Stonewall rts spark the begng of the LGBT the early morng hours on June 28, 1969, police performed a raid of the Stonewall Inn, a New York Cy gay bar — and the ctomers and their supporters took a stand.
Those “Stonewall rts” are largely nsired the start of the LGBTQ civil rights movement the Uned Hir/Getty1973: Homosexualy is no longer clared a mental years of studi, analysis, and changg cultural attus, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s board of directors removed homosexualy om the official list of mental illns, known as the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs, a move that was upheld wh a vote by the associatn’s membership. Armed, 2013: SCOTUS strik down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which beme a law 1996, clared that marriag between gay or lbian upl were not regnized by the feral ernment, meang those upl uld not receive legal benefs — like Social Secury and health surance — that straight married upl uld. Senators Jeff Merkley, Tammy Baldw, and Cory Booker, as well as Reprentative David Cicille formerly troduced The Equaly Act, which would make LGBTQ dividuals a protected class and grant them basic legal protectns areas of life cludg tn, hog, employment, cred, and, 2016: The Stonewall Inn will bee a natnal Obama admistratn announced that they are preparg to signate New York’s Stonewall Inn, the se of those historic rts 1969, the first-ever natnal monument dited to gay, 2016: The Obama admistratn publicly supports transgenr the midst of anti-transgenr movements throughout the untry, Print Obama and his admistratn issued a directive to all public schools that transgenr stunts should be allowed to e the rtrooms that reflect their genr inty.
HOE PASS SWEEPG GAY AND TRANSGENR EQUALY LEGISLATN
workg to advance fairns, safety and opportuny for lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muni and our alli throughout Geia. * gay equality *
The Supreme Court led Monday that existg feral law forbids job discrimatn on the basis of sexual orientatn or transgenr stat, a major victory for advot of gay rights and for the nascent transgenr rights movement — and a surprisg one om an creasgly nservative a vote of 6-3, the urt said Tle VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which mak illegal for employers to discrimate bee of a person's sex, among other factors, also vers sexual orientatn and transgenr stat. Scholars and the general public beme creasgly terted the issue durg the late 20th century, a perd when attus toward homosexualy and laws regulatg homosexual behavur were liberalized, particularly wtern Europe and the Uned issue of same-sex marriage equently sparked emotnal and polil clash between supporters and opponents.
CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS COULD REMOVE IT NEXT YEAR
The Human Rights Campaign logo is one of the most regnizable symbols of the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muny. * gay equality *
In other s, the cultural homogeney supported by the domant relign did not rult the applitn of doctre to the civic realm but may nohels have fostered a smoother seri of discsns among the cizenry: Belgium and Spa had legalized same-sex marriage, for stance, spe official opposn om their predomant relig stutn, the Roman Catholic Church. Most of the world religns have at some pots their histori opposed same-sex marriage for one or more of the followg stated reasons: homosexual acts vlate natural law or dive tentns and are therefore immoral; passag sacred texts nmn homosexual acts; and relig tradn regniz only the marriage of one man and one woman as valid. 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. 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.
PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
* gay equality *
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.
TEXAS JUDGE WHO DON’T WANT TO PERFORM GAY MARRIAGE CEREMONI HOP WEB SIGNER’S SUPREME COURT SE HELPS HER FIGHT
The Supreme Court led that feral law forbids job discrimatn based on sexual orientatn and transgenr stat, a major victory for advot of gay rights — and a surprise om an creasgly nservative urt. * gay equality *
) 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”.
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. 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 .
WHY THE BATTLE FOR GAY MARRIAGE WAS WON SO EASILY
<strong>The long read</strong>: A police raid on a gay bar New York led to the birth of the Pri movement half a century ago – but the fight for LGBTQ+ rights go back much further than that * gay equality *
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 ”.
SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
What are the Bt LGBTQ Organizatns (Gay, Lbian, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer) the world? The plete LGBT Organizatn Rourc. * gay equality *
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.
Their missn is to relieve poverty for lbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) refuge livg Turkey by providg the basic necsi of life; and to relieve poverty by sponsorg, providg fancial and rettlement assistance to LGBT refuge Turkey who have fled bee of persecutn for their sexual orientatn or genr intifitn and, as victims of human rights ab; and to unrtake activi ancillary and cintal to the attament of the above charable purpose. Even as nservativ fight for relig-liberty exemptns om the new norms around same-sex marriage, such as those the Supreme Court is nsirg a challenge om a Catholic social-servic agency that ref to place foster children gay fai, they’ve effectively nced feat the broar war over the earlier civil rights projects to which the qut for marriage equaly was often pared — notably, for women’s sufage and racial segregatn — not only took much longer to reach their goals but also appeared to leave a ridue of unrolved nflict even after the nstutnal issu were settled. In pretrial statements, the state attorney general’s office dned a range of potential ratnal: that Hawaii thori had an tert ensurg that the state’s legal relatnships were regnized other jurisdictns; that the state had an tert furtherg procreatn wh marriage; that heterosexual marriag were better for children; that the islands’ tourist enomy uld suffer if Hawaii beme Lake Tahoe for gay and lbian none of the ratnal managed to persua judg — eher Hawaii or subsequent succsful challeng to marriage laws Vermont, Massachetts, Connecticut, California and Iowa.
Even if simple exposure to gay fai ed harm to children (and gay-marriage opponents uld never mter anythg beyond njecture to support that claim), they did not brg much to the fight agast same-sex marriage as voters, donors or the same time, the aln of those vted legalizg same-sex marriage not only broaned, but their vtment the oute epened. On July 25, 2014 Miami-Da County Circu Court Judge Sarah Zabel led Florida’s gay marriage ban unnstutnal and stated that the ban “serv only to hurt, to discrimate, to prive same-sex upl and their fai of equal digny, to label and treat them as send-class cizens, and to em them unworthy of participatn one of the fundamental stutns of our society. 2016 printial ndidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fra stated that civil unns are aquate as an equivalent to marriage: “Benefs are beg btowed to gay upl [ civil unns]… I believe we need to rpect those who believe that the word marriage has a spirual foundatn… Why n’t we rpect and tolerate that while at the same time sayg ernment nnot btow benefs unequally.
DONALD TMP HOLDS HIGH THE FLAG FOR GAY EQUALY
McLennan County Jtice of the Peace Dianne Hensley filed a lawsu after a state agency warned her about refg to marry gay upl. She hop a recent U.S. Supreme Court se about relig eedom helps her e. * gay equality *
Court papers filed July 2014 by attorneys fendg Arizona’s gay marriage ban stated that “the State regulat marriage for the primary purpose of channelg potentially procreative sexual relatnships to endurg unns for the sake of jog children to both their mother and their father… Same-sex upl n never provi a child wh both her blogil mother and her blogil father. Queer activist Anrs Zanichkowsky stated June 2013 that the then mpaign for gay marriage “tentnally and malicly eras and exclus so many queer people and cultur, particularly trans and genr non-nformg people, poor queer people, and queer people non-tradnal fai… marriage thks non-married people are viant and not tly servg of civil rights.
The report clud a photo of Joseph Ziegler and his hband, Newsweek not, pl the assertn that the hband was nnected “at least socially” to Demetre Daskalakis, a gay physician who has worked the New York Cy health partment and the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn, and later was appoted by Joe Bin as puty ordator of the rponse to the mpox outbreak.
WHO IS JOSEPH ZIEGLER, THE GAY IRS WHISTLEBLOWER HUNTER BIN PROBE?
Proponents ntend that gay marriage bans are discrimatory and unnstutnal, opponents ague that marriage is primarily for procreatn. * gay equality *