2011: A good year to be gay | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• 2011: AN EXTRAORDARY YEAR FOR GAY RIGHTS
• 2011: A GOOD YEAR TO BE GAY
• GAY RIGHTS
• PRINTIAL PROCLAMATN--LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR PRI MONTH
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?
• UN ISSU FIRST REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS OF GAY AND LBIAN PEOPLE

2011: AN EXTRAORDARY YEAR FOR GAY RIGHTS

After s which gay rights have polarised US opn, the untry barely shgged September when a two- old law prohibg gay men and women om servg openly the ary was fally repealed, promptg thoands of gay soldiers to post g-out vios on YouTube – jt one more example of how the web has transformed gay visibily. To put that ntext, there are more people livg New York than the Netherlands, which 2001 beme the first untry to legalise same-sex stggle for marriage equaly has been one of the most bterly divisive issu Ameri, but after a seri of feats for gay-rights advot, the ti appears to be shiftg irrevobly their directn. In the 2004 electn, unr the keen enuragement of Karl Rove, no fewer than 11 stat passed ballot iativ banng gay marriage — a cynil get-out-the-vote ploy that helped swell Republin ranks at the pollg perceptn that marriage equaly was a poisoned pk chalice persisted up to the 2008 electn, when even Obama was reful to clarify that he wasn't favour of gay marriage, apparently heedg warngs om Bill Clton to give the issue a wi berth.

Even Obama, facg prer odds for a send term, has said that he favours repealg the notor Defense of Marriage Act that has prevented feral regnn of gay marriag, even those performed stat where they are changed those few short years?

2011: A GOOD YEAR TO BE GAY

This was a quantum leap on 1990s shows such as Will & Grace, which the gay characters had the whiff of "nfirmed bachelors", to e the archaic phemism of obuary wrers, rarely prented functng relatnships, much ls young gay men and women today the ia that they will be able to marry and raise kids no longer sounds outlandish or ntroversial. Most of all, they munite wh a diverse group of iends on Twter and Facebook, where gay and straight teens revel their shared cultural is all a long way om the wdowls gay bar wh the peephole the door Edburgh, where I first learned to socialise wh other gay people durg my first tentative steps out of the closet. Lookg back 's clear that this dramatic metamorphosis, om poppers to panis, reprented a broar shift gay culture, or – if you believe the mentator Andrew Sullivan – the "exorable evolutn" towards the end of gay culture self.

GAY RIGHTS

Sullivan may have been overly optimistic a 2005 article that he wrote for The New Republic, welg the recedg differenc between gay and straight, but he was the first to fully articulate the assiatn of gay inty to the mastream. A year later, when I beme edor of Out, seemed pertent to ask what functn a gay magaze would serve a world that, if not yet post-gay, seemed to be headg that Europe, many of the old prejudic were rapidly fallg away as one untry after another extend equal rights to their gay cizens. It also ma talk of post-gay culture seem crassly then, a rash of teen suicis lked to gay-bag or bullyg has remd many of who live smopolan bubbl such as New York or San Francis that life as a gay teenager n still be prehensibly lonely.

The popular belief that people are now ee to e out at a younger age was challenged by a major study last year, The 2010 State of Higher Edutn for LGBT People, which found that some stunts were actively gog back to the closet at llege bee of fear of retaliatn for beg gay.

"Given such vlent rhetoric is not, somehow, surprisg to disver that the prcipal advot of the anti-gay polici that have lead to wch hunts Uganda are associated wh The Fay, a secretive Amerin evangelil anisatn.

PRINTIAL PROCLAMATN--LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR PRI MONTH

And while the ter has enabled young gay men and women to nnect as never before, offerg affirmatn and support at the click of a moe, the web has also given rise to new forms of harassment and yet, as more gays e out, has bee harr for their iends, fai and acquatanc to stand the way of their basic rights. In September, the mpaign for marriage equaly found support om an unual quarter when former vice print Dick Cheney, whose dghter is a lbian, appeared on a popular daytime show to announce his support for gay unns, addg the da that "Freedom means eedom for everybody.

Realy TV, for all s qutnable ethics, has brought real gay people to the livg rooms of Ameri; 2009, the most popular of those shows, Simon Cowell's Amerin Idol, was seen as a bellwether of changg attus as a young gay nttant, Adam Lambert, eyeler and glter, advanced to the fal. Lambert's flamboyance nflicted wh the show's notor reluctance to field openly gay nttants: he seemed to be tellg he was gay whout spellg out (until after the fale), and the subsequent nversatn the media, and onle, showed how far we had was also a remr of how cril popular entertament has been challengg attus, and remas the sgle most pellg argument for the annual Out 100, a photo portfol of 100 gay men, women and transgenr people om all walks of life who live their liv openly and whout promise. The androgyno Atralian mol, Andrej Pejic, who met the Queen October wearg a vtage Versace pencil skirt is as much part of the unfoldg gay narrative as the social secretary of the Whe Hoe (and first gay man to hold the posn), or Gareth Thomas, one of the most pped Welsh gby unn players history.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Servg openly ary be protectn granted as homosexualy is illegalLGBT discrimatn be no protectn is granted as homosexualy is illegalHomosexual activy be illegal (imprisonment as punishment) to 10-14 years prison and a fe. Not 8Same-sex marriage be not homosexualy is a punishable offense, same sex marriage is also not legalJune 16Same-sex adoptn be step-child adoptn June 16, 2011, the Slovenia Natnal Assembly voted 43 to 38 favor of repealg the prev law makg adoptn illegal for same-sex 25Same-sex marriage be n/ May 2011, a qutn to amend the Mnota Constutnal is placed on the November 2012 ballot by the state legislature.

Army service World War I, Gerber was spired to create his anizatn by the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee, a “homosexual emancipatn” group ’s small group published a few issu of s newsletter “Friendship and Freedom, ” the untry’s first gay-tert newsletter.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?

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.

UN ISSU FIRST REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS OF GAY AND LBIAN PEOPLE

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. 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.