The 1960s and Gay Liberatn | Historil Materialism

Contents:

• THE 1960S AND GAY LIBERATN
• GAY
• BRGG PEOPLE HOPE: HARVEY MILK AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMERI
• MARXISM AND THE LBIAN, BISEXUAL, GAY, TRANSGENR AND QUEER MOVEMENT
• GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT MEANG ENGLISH
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

THE 1960S AND GAY LIBERATN

In June 1969, several thoand queer people rted for two nights New York Cy, and Gay Liberatn was born, as part of a broar radil movement fightg for social change.

This meetg will look at the pre-Stonewall world of the 1950s and 60s; how the broar radilisatn of Amerin society affected gay people; the extraordary and spirg tails of the rt; and the movement which grew out of the rt the US and Bra. He mpaigned agast Clse 28; was an aniser for Lbians and Gays Agast P Closur Manchter; has been active UNISON LGBT mpaigns; was one of the anisers of an anti-racist Pri London 2012; and has mpaigned agast Israeli pkwashg. gay [ɡeɪ] adjective1 (homosexual) [+man, muny, movement] gay adjective:variable; (a) homosexual; [+woman] homosexual; lbiano; [+bar] gay adjective:variable; (a) gays a centre for lbians and gay men un centro para lbianas y gays; gay men and women hombr y mujer homosexual; gays y lbianas; gay sex relacn (f) homosexual; the gay scene el ambiente gay or homosexual2 gayer (parative)gayt (superlative) (cheerful) [+person, lour, stume] alegre; [+atmosphere, mic, lghter] alegre; ftivo Nancy liked their gay stum she was feelg wty and gay3 (reee) wh gay abandon spreocupadamente; alegremente He has splashed dollars around wh gay abandon she's livg the gay life Paris se da la gran vida en París; se pega la vida padre en París (rmal) I don't have the money to live the gay life gay [Paree] [Paris]noun (man) gay (m); homosexual (m); (woman) lbiana (f); homosexual (f);modifierthe gay liberatn movement gay lib (n) el movimiento liberación homosexualgay rights (n) rechos (m) los homosexual.

Though Milk was assassated 11 months after he was elected to office, his legacy of fightg for gay rights has spired a new generatn of civic activists across the Uned Stat, fightg for sexual equaly and the expansn of civil liberti for gays and lbians. Acrdg to Milk, “There is a major difference – and remas a val difference – between a iend and a gay person, a iend office and a gay person office…It’s not enough anymore jt to have iends reprent .

GAY

After losg his first three mpaigns, Milk was elected Supervisor of the cy of San Francis 1977, and as the first openly gay man elected to public office the Uned Stat, Harvey Milk had already reached a tone the fight for gay rights. Milk sought not only to change the stereotyp that existed about gays, but to also promote a legal amework that supports gays, cludg the passage of a gay rights bill, and speakg out agast a barrage of legislatn which would rtrict gays’ civil and polil liberti.

Once Milk was swept up the unter-culture of the 1960s and the gay rights liberatn movement 1972, he was surprised that spe the large gay populatn San Francis, immense equali still existed. Perhaps the bt example of this me durg a speech Milk ma at the June 1978 Gay Freedom Day Para, where he clared, “On the Statue of Liberty says: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled mass yearng to be ee…’ In the Declaratn of Inpennce, is wrten: ‘All men are created equal and they are endowed wh certa alienable rights…’ And our Natnal Anthem, says: ‘Oh, say do that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave over the land of the ee. To highlight his unrlyg drive for equal opportuny, Milk would often reference two gay teenagers who ntacted him om Richmond, Mnota and Altoona, Pennsylvania: “The only thg they have to look forward to is hope.

Even though Jimmy Carter had bee print 1976 on a platform that supported human rights, and many stat had place laws that protected gays and lbians om discrimatn, a nservative opposn began to rerce anti-gay stereotyp. Th, the gay rights movement lnched a grassroots effort to elect Milk to San Francis’s Board of Supervisors; while his first attempts were unsuccsful, Milk gradually began growg a base of support. He nvced the growg gay mass of ‘Sodom by the Sea’ that they uld have a role cy learship, and they turned out to form ‘human billboards’ for him along major thoroughfar.

BRGG PEOPLE HOPE: HARVEY MILK AND THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMERI

” Milk reached out to anyone his district who would listen by nvassg neighborhoods, turng his mera store to an official voter registratn post while leadg multiple ralli for gay rights. In November 1978, after Milk took office, he was nonted wh a piece of anti-gay legislatn known as the Briggs Iniative, or Proposn 6, which would bar gays om teachg schools. Bee the iative vered the whole state of California, Milk unrstood that the only way to nvce Californians that gays should not be fired simply bee of their sexual orientatn was for closeted gays to e out.

” Proposn 6 was feated by over one ln vot on November 7, 1978, wh the support of both Ronald Reagan and Print Jimmy Carter, heraldg a new tolerance for gays natnwi.

” Milk would e his soap-box and bullhorn, rallyg the gay muny wh the slogan “My name is Harvey Milk and I’m here to rec you” to march thoands through the cy of San Francis, but he never let his supporters get out of ntrol. Milk quickly disvered that his fight for equaly was supported by not only gays, but also straight workg-class, elrly and mory voters, who reprented a signifint chunk of the votg populatn San Francis. Acrdg to the gay muny magaze Advote, “[Milk] mold the gay muny to a uned votg bloc, and his populist agenda—which attracted straight fai, workg-class voters, and senr cizens—gave him a powerful base.

MARXISM AND THE LBIAN, BISEXUAL, GAY, TRANSGENR AND QUEER MOVEMENT

For example, lol workers’ unns had attempted to boytt the Coors beer pany for years bee of non-unn stat, while the gay muny faced employment discrimatn by the pany.

It was this kd of operatn that led to Milk’s and the gay muny’s succs; acrdg to gay activist Cleve Jon, a close iend of Milk’s, “In each muny, he found a handful of people who were willg to ve to their livg rooms and church to talk.

That tersectn is as old as the morn fight for LGTBQ rights, and perhaps no moment illtrat that as well as the movement’s most famo turng pot: the 1969 Stonewall Rts, the uprisg sparked by a police raid at a gay bar New York Cy’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, and the tone to which Pri Month is pegged. As they are today, members of the LGBTQ muny were disproportnately targeted by police durg the 1950s and 1960s, “the most homophobic perd Amerin history, ” says historian Hugh Ryan, thor of When Brooklyn Was Queer: A History.

GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT MEANG ENGLISH

Donut shop that was a popular meetg place for transgenr and gay people, was the se of an uprisg agast the ntuo police harassment that the shop’s patrons endured. Trans women of lor played a key role the Augt 1966 Compton Cafeteria Rts San Francis, and a police raid on the Black Cat tavern Los Angel on New Years’ Day 1967 rulted anized public protts agast police harassment of gay, trans and genr non-nformg people. For historian Ryan, the Haven Rt 1970, which took place at the Haven gay bar Greenwich Village, was also a landmark event and monstrat that there was a nsistency to the ancy beyond the sgular moment of Stonewall.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The fact that several members of the Black Panther Party, cludg Angela Davis, Afeni Shakur and Joan Bird, had also spent time the prison speaks to the shared nnectns a broar stggle, Ryan says, as lks emerged between the Black Panther Party, the Gay Liberatn Front, radil lbians and the femist and women’s movements.

It was after she saw the prison how the opprsn of gay people was nnected to the opprsn of mori that Afeni Shakur went on to anize a meetg between the Black Panther Party and the Gay Liberatn Front at Jane Fonda’s penthoe apartment on the Upper East si 1970.