The History of Gay Liberatn | Psychology Today

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN
• QUOT & SAYGS ABOUT GAY LIBERATN
• THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT
• GAY LIBERATN QUOT
• MARSHA P. JOHNSON, A BLACK TRANSGENR WOMAN, WAS A CENTRAL FIGURE THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT
• THIS IS WHAT GAY LIBERATN LOOKED LIKE IN THE '70S
• INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI

THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN

June 28 marks the anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, when members of the LGBTQ muny fought back when police raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar New York's Greenwich Village, 1969. Savenok/Strger/Getty Imag"In light of Jamey's ath, beme clear to me an stant that livg a gay life whout publicly acknowledgg is simply not enough to make any signifint ntributn to the immense work that li ahead on the road to plete equaly.

"—From an terview Out of the Closets: Voic of Gay Liberatn, 1972"Our strategy is how we pe—how we measure and weigh what is to be said and when, what is to be done and how, and to whom, daily cidg/riskg who is we n ll an ally, ll a iend (whatever that person's sk, sex, or sexualy).

Arsham Parsi, an Iranian refugee livg Canada exile, has ma his missn to help LGBTQ people livg Iran: a natn where acts of homosexualy are punishable by floggg or even ath. The most mon “treatment” at the time was talk therapy, but many gay men and women were subjected to more aggrsive terventns such as aversn therapy and electronvulsive therapy—even, extremis, stratn or lobotomy.

QUOT & SAYGS ABOUT GAY LIBERATN

Meanwhile, the World Health Organizatn Geneva only removed homosexualy om s Internatnal Classifitn of Diseas (ICD) wh the publitn of ICD-10 1992, although ICD-10 still rried the nstct of "ego-dystonic sexual orientatn. As I discs The Meang of Madns, the evolutn of the stat of homosexualy the classifitns of mental disorrs highlights that ncepts of mental disorr n be rapidly evolvg social nstcts that change as society chang. Today, the standard of psychotherapy the US and Europe is gay affirmative psychotherapy, which enurag gay people to accept their sexual orientatn—although some licensed profsnals still nduct so-lled "nversn therapy.

Gay marriage has been legal for some years now, but the old notns of s and mental illns, of guilt and aquacy, live on the llective nscns, cludg the substance of gay people born long after the 1970s. Endg fdalism, endg slavery, enactg labor laws, wng universal sufage, endg Jim Crow laws, overg much of the mdset and practice of patriarchy as was entrenched the '50s and '60s, brgg gay rights and liberatn to the light of social policy and practice. Ined, as gay liberatn blossomed the wild 1970s the bars and bathho beme creasgly lucrative enterpris, and the Mafia had no tentn of abandong a racket had ntrolled for s.

THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT

The wise guys seemgly embraced the gay rights movement and cut more so-lled Auntie Gays to the actn as their onts, and rorted to vlent threats and sometim murr agast others who refed to play ball wh the crime fai. In particular, I was able to scribe the effect of gay liberatn on an dividual life (me) as events paralleled my own growg self-acceptance; this se, the polil tly was the personal.

GAY LIBERATN QUOT

Om ernment hostily to employment and hog discrimatn, Mafia ntrol of Gay bars, and anti-Homosexual laws" (Christopher Street Liberatn Day Commtee Fliers, Frankl Kameny Papers). The ncept behd the ial Pri march me om members of the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns (ERCHO), who had been anizg an annual July 4th monstratn (1965-1969) known as the "Remr Day Pickets, " at Inpennce Hall Philalphia. At the ERCHO Conference November 1969, the 13 homophile anizatns attendance voted to pass a rolutn to anize a natnal annual monstratn, to be lled Christopher Street Liberatn Day.

As members of the Mattache Society of Washgton, Frank Kameny and Lilli Vcenz participated the discsn, planng, and promotn of the first Pri along wh activists New York Cy and other homophile groups belongg to ERCHO. The Law Library of Congrs has piled guis to memorative observatns, cludg a prehensive ventory of the Public Laws, Printial Proclamatns and ngrsnal rolutns related to Lbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgenr and Queer Pri Month.

Gay people anized to rist opprsn and mand jt treatment, and they were pecially galvanized after a New York Cy police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, sparked rts 1969. Although members of the gay muny were divid their opns about the rt, hundreds of people returned to the scene for the next several nights, some to ntue vlent opposn to the police and others to exprs their sexualy public for the first time. The Stonewall Inn, shown here 2005, was signated on the State and Natnal Registers of Historic Plac 2016 to memorate the importance of the 1969 uprisg the gay liberatn movement.

MARSHA P. JOHNSON, A BLACK TRANSGENR WOMAN, WAS A CENTRAL FIGURE THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT

At the time, gay bars were often hidn and vulnerable to attacks by police, who were thorized by cy ernments to shut down tablishments that promoted what was nsired lewd behavr. After Stonewall, however, a more radil polil nscns veloped that rulted om the formatn of many new groups, cludg the Gay Liberatn Front and Radilbians, whose members rejected the strategi and lled for a more ant rponse to homophobia.

The papers clud sectns voted to muny updat, cultural events, and personal ads, but they also highlighted new polil ncerns, namely efforts to raise awarens about the problems of gay people prisons and ncerns about gay health. Although many var relig stutns believed homosexualy was sful, some LGBTQ people did not believe that their fah and sexual orientatn were at odds and took shelter relig muni anized by gay people. Public health thori, journalists, doctors, and even many the gay muny blamed gay liberatn and the looseng of sexual rtrictns for the epimic, but no one the medil or scientific muny actually unrstood the behavr of the vis.

Johnson played a key role the uprisg that began on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn New York’s Greenwich Village after police raid the gay bar and patrons fought back. “We were … throwg over rs and and screamg the middle of the street ‘e we were so upset ‘e they closed that place, ” Johnson told historian Eric Marc a 1989 terview that’s now been piled to an episo for the “Makg Gay History” podst. “Comg out” me wh threats of vlence and social that changed the aftermath of the 1969 Stonewall uprisg—when a group of LGBTQ people rted rponse to a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar New York Cy.

THIS IS WHAT GAY LIBERATN LOOKED LIKE IN THE '70S

“The homosexual who wants to live a life of self-fulfillment our current society has all the rds stacked agast them, ” read one 1970 article about the upg march the Gay Liberatn Front News.

” The same day, a small group of San Francisns marched down Polk Street, then had a “gay-” piic that was broken up by equtrian and other New York groups had spent months planng the Manhattan event wh the help of anizers like Brenda Howard, a bisexual activist who had cut her anizg teeth durg the anti-Vietnam movement of the late 1960s. 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. (Although the term gay is monly ed reference to homosexual mal, is also ed more generally to refer to homosexual mal together wh some or all other orientatns wh the LGBTQ muny.

) 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.

INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN

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. 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. In addn, 2019 Lori Lightfoot beme the first openly gay person to be elected mayor of Chigo, and two years later Pete Buttigieg beme the first openly gay bet member Amerin history.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

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). The issu emphasized by gay rights groups have varied sce the 1970s by time and place; different natnal anizatns have promoted polici specifilly tailored to their untry’s i.

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). 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. Hodg), and 2020 the Court termed that firg an employee for beg homosexual or transgenr was a vlatn of Tle VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964), which prohibs discrimatn on the basis of sex (Bostock v.

Over the past week New York Cy, hundreds of homosexuals had fought police a week-long rt Greenwich Village, followg a botched police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a mafia-n bar equented by LGBTQ+ people. 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. Wh a sgle lifetime, homosexualy has moved om beg a crime and a psychiatric disorr, punished the US by imprisonment, chemil stratn, social ostracisatn and a lifetime as a registered sex offenr, to a socially and legally regnised sexual inty.

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

To relig and cultural nservativ, Pri paras are nothg ls than the public flntg of viancy, while many LGBTQ+ people regard today’s rporate-sponsored paras as havg sold out the radil, revolutnary mands of the gay liberatn movement. 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.

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. When gay people began anisg the US after the war, they were forced to start aga om first prcipl, wh only a vague awarens of Hirschfeld’s Hirschfeld, an early mpaigner for gay rights. Photograph: Getty ImagIn Los Angel 1950, a group of experienced polil activists and munists, cludg Communist party USA member Harry Hay, me together to form the Mattache Society, one of the first homosexual rights anisatns the US.