John J. Sweeney, The Growg Alliance between Gay and Unn Activists, Social Text, No. 61, Out Front: Lbians, Gays, and the Stggle for Workplace Rights (Wter, 1999), pp. 31-38
Contents:
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
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 labor movement *
Workg together, they feated the discrimatory Proposn 6, which would have banned people who were gay or lbian om workg public schools, and succsfully boytted anti-unn and anti-gay practic by Coors Brewg Co. Marie Equi went toe-to-toe wh the boss to fight for their fellow Rose Schneirman — who famoly ed the slogan “The worker mt have bread, but she mt have ros, too” — was hired as the Natnal Women’s Tra Unn League’s (WTUL) first full-time, workg-class Jewish anizer, her salary was paid by a donatn om a wealthy, anonymo Jewish Mare Cooks and Stewards Unn (MCSU), notable for s acceptance of both Black and gay members durg a time when many unns were far ls welg to eher group, elected Stephen Blair, who was openly gay, to the posn of vice print the 1930s.
Blair’s partner, Frank McCormick, helped anize San Francis’s 1934 dockworkers’ strike alongsi Harry Hay, a Communist and gay rights activist who, wh fellow gay activist Morris Kight, found the Mattache MCSU — which flew a banner proclaimg “Race-bag, Red-bag, and Queer-Bag is Anti-Unn” s unn hall — won the first workplace protectns for gay people U. Followg the mpaign, Milk ed his fluence to enurage the Teamsters to hire openly gay tck drivers as well as to feat the Briggs Amendment, a California state ballot measure that would have banned gay and lbian teachers om employment. “The gay bartenrs marched out wh the bottl of beer and dumped them the sewers, ” remembers Nancy Wohlforth, the now-retired secretary-treasurer of the Office and Profsnal Employe and -founr of Pri At Work, the AFL-CIO’s nstuency group for LGBTQ people.
GAY RIGHTS
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 labor movement *
LGBTQ uc were found many unns as thoands of gay members anized to protect their rights, ” Caleb Fil, a member of the Washgton-Baltimore News Guild Lol 32035 and former Mid-South digal director of the Fight for $15 mpaign, tells Teen Vogue.
”In 1994, LGBTQ labor activists who were tired of the learship’s reticence to go all on gay rights formed the Pri at Work nonprof nstuency group, which was spired part by a 1990 anizg handbook lled Pri at Work: Organizg for Lbian and Gay Rights Unns. For example, one of the primary archects of the 1963 March on Washgton, a gay Black man named Bayard Rt, had an immeasurable impact on the civil rights movement, but was relegated to the sil and publicly smeared by racist policians like Strom Thurmond due to his sexualy. 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 AND LABOR SHARE MON STGGLE
I have worked as a r mechanic, an English profsor, a tck driver, and a unn anizer—and through all I have been a lbian. The more blue-llar, dirty, and stigmatized the job was, the easier was to be gay. At a small pennt r shop and then aga drivg long-hl tcks, people ribbed me about my sexualy, lghed wh me about my body and my genr * gay labor movement *
) 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. 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.
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.
Many of the fac on picket l and stg across bargag tabl on behalf of Chigo's newt unn workers are relatively young, and many of them are lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr. * gay labor movement *
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.
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).
In the 1970s, the gay rights movement worked to build bridg wh anized labor, unrstandg the need for broad support. * gay labor movement *
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. 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.
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.
* gay labor movement *
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. 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. 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.