Is the Sp P Gay? | SSENSE

Contents:

• “HAIRP DROP HEARD AROUND THE WORLD”: FIFTY YEARS SCE STONEWALL & THE BIRTH OF GAY LIBERATN
• IS THE SP P GAY?

“HAIRP DROP HEARD AROUND THE WORLD”: FIFTY YEARS SCE STONEWALL & THE BIRTH OF GAY LIBERATN

Fifty years ago this June, the summer of 1969, patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar New York Cy, fought back agast abive police, and dog so lnched the morn, lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer movement. Wh the Supreme Court’s historic legalizatn of same-sex marriage 2015 and creased acceptance and reprentatn of LGBTQ people popular culture, ’s unniable that we have e a long way om a time when ps routely raid gay bars and beg outed guaranteed a person would be labeled a sexual psychopath, blacklisted, ostracized by iends and fay, and legally barred om employment most occupatns.

In rponse, mastream LGBT anizatns also referred to as Gay Inc., have not anized a ser ristance. In this ntext studyg the Stonewall Rebelln and the gay liberatn movement is more than jt an tertg history lson — provis activists and radils wh lsons for nontg the polil challeng we face today and rebuildg a movement that n w sexual liberatn for everyone.

IS THE SP P GAY?

While people have been sexually timate wh others of the same sex sce the begng of time, the social nstctn of a gay inty is a new phenomenon. In the late neteenth and early twentieth century, an extensive unrground gay world began to velop major US ci.

However, was not until World War II — what many gay historians refer to as a natnal g out experience — that LGBTQ history would unrgo a qualative turng pot. Millns of men and women were lled away om their hom and placed to overwhelmgly homosocial environments like ary bas, hospals, dtrial factori, ernmental offic, and urban centers. The new material ndns — upled wh the emotnally tensive circumstanc of war — enuraged lns of men and women to explore and pursue homosexual sir and to form timate and meangful same-sex relatnships on a sle that was prevly nceivable.

Corrpondgly, after returng om bat abroad or ary productn at home, many gay men and lbians opted for the pennce offered by Ameri’s urban centers. The 1950s hered a perd of nservatism along wh growg cultural attentn to homosexualy. On the one hand, McCarthyism unleashed a ernment-sponsored wch hunt agast munists and leftists and a wispread mpaign known as the Lavenr Sre to remove gays and lbians om ernment occupatns.