Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' Bill Is Part of a Shameful History | Time

time magazine gay

You may have seen the other ntroversial newsmagaze ver this week, the one where Newsweek dubbed Print Obama “The First Gay Print". But as Jim Loewen at the History News Network would like to remd , even if Obama were gay, he wouldn't be the first: more than 150 years before the...

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HOW TIME’S REPORTG ON GAY LIFE AMERI SHAPED—AND SKEWED—A GENERATN’S ATTUS

T.J. of the Brothers Osborne is now the only openly gay artist signed to a major untry label—a historic moment for the genre. * time magazine gay *

In that spir, TIME is publishg this article by Eric Marc, thor of Makg Gay History. Over lunch one afternoon at our kchen table, wh the latt issue of TIME turned to an article about Ana Bryant’s succsful mpaign to repeal a gay-rights bill Da County, Fla., I raged over the jtice of both Bryant’s assertn that gay people were a danger to children and the wardly legislators who ved to prejudice and ignorance.

FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL IS PART OF THE STATE'S LONG, SHAMEFUL HISTORY

The April 14, 1997, issue of TIME featured a s-down wh the edian, who nfirmed that her s character was gay—and so was she. * time magazine gay *

Unknowgly, my red-faced outrage offered another clue to my mother that there was more than a ltle self-tert at stake for me the fate of the gay civil-rights movement. June 20, 1997 TIME article about Ana Bryant’s mpaign to repeal a gay-rights bill Da County, Fla.

It wasn’t until more than a later, when I began rearchg an oral-history book on what was then lled the gay and lbian civil-rights movement, that I realized that TIME magaze had also played a role shapg how my mother thought of homosexuals — and how she’d e to view her teenaged gay son.

READ THE 'YEP, I'M GAY' ELLEN DEGENER INTERVIEW FROM 1997

Why gay upl have more equaly and ls tensn at home--but still spl up more often than straight pairs" name="scriptn * time magazine gay *

In my rearch, as I stggled to ga an unrstandg of why people saw homosexuals as sick, sful and crimal, I stumbled on a 1966 say TIME that jt about burned the sk off my face as I read .

FLORIDA JT PASSED THE "DON'T SAY GAY" BILL. HERE’S WHAT IT MEANS FOR KIDS

What happens when you e out as a kid? How gay youths are challengg the right--and the left" name="scriptn * time magazine gay *

I thk was meant as a medatn on what to make of the then-growg visibily of gay life Ameri.

The media those years, as is most often the se today, reflected society’s prevailg views about homosexuals.

ARE GAY RELATNSHIPS DIFFERENT?

It won't be nearly as ntroversial as Time magaze's breastfeedg ver, but Newsweek's May 21 issue clar Barack Obama the untry's "first gay print." The acpanyg ver story was wrten by Andrew Sullivan, the popular--and openly gay--polil blogger. The magaze even giv the manr--chief a rabow halo. Obama, Sullivan wr, "had to disver his black [...] * time magazine gay *

Back then, homosexualy was still nsired a treatable mental illns, sexual relatns between two people of the same sex uld get you arrted almost every state, and thoands — perhaps tens of thoands — of gay men and lbians had been hound out of feral employment sce Print Eisenhower signed an executive orr 1953 banng them om ernment jobs. In New York, a state law about “disorrly” nduct was terpreted as makg illegal to serve known homosexuals alhol, and the police routely raid gay bars.

THE BATTLE OVER GAY TEENS

* time magazine gay *

The now-celebrated 1969 Stonewall uprisg — triggered by a police raid of the Stonewall Inn gay bar — which is beg marked this month by 50th anniversary celebratns, march and protts, got a particularly pungent headle the New York Daily News: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad. ” The Village Voice, an alternative downtown newspaper, published an article the immediate aftermath of the first night of rtg which the reporter ed a slur to refer to the uprisg’s participants, earng the Voice, jt days after the start of the uprisg, one of the first public protts that would e to characterize the newly ant era of “gay liberatn.

NEWSWEEK VER: OBAMA ‘FIRST GAY PRINT’

OUT f and articulat the ntributn of gay men and women to the culture through a provotive blend of fashn, pop culture, and journalism, spirg rears to nsir the ever-evolvg meang of gay. * time magazine gay *

31, 1969, ver story was headled “The Homosexual: Newly Visible, Newly Unrstood. And yet the picture the article pated of the “newly unrstood” homosexual was still drippg wh sarsm and ntempt.

WHO WAS OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?

The Advote is the world's leadg source of LGBT news and polics. Disver the most recent articl published the prt issue, which is the olst and largt gay magaze the Uned Stat. Sort through The Advote prt issue archiv to fd articl wrten by the founrs of the morn-day LGBT rights movement like Vo Rso and Gore Vidal. Fd out about the historic magaze that was spired by a police raid of a Los Angel gay bar and has grown to bee a proment voice for topics related to the gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr muny and s alli. * time magazine gay *

One sectn of the report noted several “typ” of homosexuals: “The Blatant Homosexual, ” “The Secret Lifer, ” “The Dperate, ” “The Adjted, ” “The Bisexual, ” “The Suatnal-Experimental.

” After scribg the different tegori, the wrer not: “The homosexual subculture, a semi-public world, is, whout qutn, shallow and unstable. ” Although that ver story also said some paratively nice thgs about homosexuals, is any wonr members of the newly formed Gay Liberatn Front and the Dghters of Bilis (an anizatn for lbians found 1955 San Francis) picketed the Time-Life buildg after s publitn?

When I told my mother eight years later that y, I was gay, she jt looked at me wh a blank stare.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* TIME MAGAZINE GAY

Florida Passed The Don’t Say Gay Bill. Here's What It Means | Time .

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