Gay at HLS: A Brief History

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS
• THE AMERIN GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• GAY AT HLS: A BRIEF HISTORY
• GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

GAY RIGHTS

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. 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.

THE AMERIN GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

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.

GAY AT HLS: A BRIEF HISTORY

”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. 1 / 12: NY Daily News Archive/Getty ImagChristopher Street Liberatn Day Shortly after the Stonewall uprisg, members of the Mattache Society spl off to form the Gay Liberatn Front, a radil group that lnched public monstratns, protts and nontatns wh polil officials. Siar groups followed, cludg the Gay Activists Alliance, Radilbians, and Street Transvt Actn Revolutnari (STAR) 1970, at the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, New York Cy muny members marched through lol streets memoratn of the event.

Addnally, several openly LGBTQ dividuals secured public office posns: Kathy Kozachenko won a seat to the Ann Harbor, Michigan, Cy Council 1974, beg the first out Amerin to be elected to public Milk, who mpaigned on a pro-gay rights platform, beme the San Francis cy supervisor 1978, beg the first openly gay man elected to a polil office asked Gilbert Baker, an artist and gay rights activist, to create an emblem that reprents the movement and would be seen as a symbol of pri. In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn published a report about five prevly healthy homosexual men beg fected wh a rare type of 1984, rearchers had intified the e of AIDS—the human immunoficiency vis, or HIV—and the Food and Dg Admistratn licensed the first mercial blood tt for HIV 1985. But after failg to garner enough support for such an open policy, Print Clton 1993 passed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, which allowed gay men and women to serve the ary as long as they kept their sexualy a rights advot cried the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, as did ltle to stop people om beg discharged on the grounds of their 2011, Print Obama fulfilled a mpaign promise to repeal DADT; by that time, more than 12, 000 officers had been discharged om the ary unr DADT for refg to hi their sexualy.

GAY MARRIAGE

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was officially repealed on September 20, Marriage and Beyond In 1992, the District of Columbia passed a law that allowed gay and lbian upl to register as domtic partners, grantg them some of the rights of marriage (the cy of San Francis passed a siar ordance three years prr and California would later extend those rights to the entire state 1999) 1993, the hight urt  Hawaii led that a ban on gay marriage may go agast the state’s nstutn.

In 1994, a new anti-hate-crime law allowed judg to impose harsher sentenc if a crime was motivated by a victim’s sexual Matthew Shepard ActCourty of the Matthew Shepard FoundatnMatthew Shepard, who was btally killed a hate crime 2003, gay rights proponents had another b of happy news: the U. Gay rights proponents mt also ntent wh an creasg number of “relig liberty” state laws, which allow bs to ny service to LGBTQ dividuals due to relig beliefs, as well as “bathroom laws” that prevent transgenr dividuals om g public bathrooms that don’t rrpond to their sex at birth.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

” Some of the lbian, gay or bisexual people of this movement clud wrers and poets such as Langston Hugh, Countee Cullen and Zora Neale Hurston; Profsor Ala Locke; mic cric and photographer Carl Van Vechten, and entertaers Ma Raey, Bsie Smh, Ethel Waters and Gladys Bentley. 1945 – German Homosexual men, signated by a pk triangle on their clothg, were the last group to be released om the Nazi ncentratn mps after liberatn by the Allied forc bee Paragraph 175 of the German Crimal Co stated that homosexual relatns between mal to be illegal.

The APA found that “the latt and bt scientific evince shows that sexual orientatn and exprsns of genr inty occur naturally…and that short, there is no scientific evince that sexual orientatn, be heterosexual, homosexual or otherwise, is a eewill choice. When the NYPD raid a gay bar Greenwich Village and started arrtg employe and drag performers, they got more than they bargaed for--a crowd of some 2, 000 lbian, gay, and transgenr supporters of the bar took on the police, forcg them to the club. Democratic lears had everythg to ga and ltle to lose by supportg gay rights, so they serted a new plank the party platform: "All groups mt be protected om discrimatn based on race, lor, relign, natnal orig, language, age, sex or sexual orientatn.

They were headg to their meetg wh a simple requt, but one that had not yet been uttered wh the hallowed halls of Harvard Law: they wanted Harvard to sist that employers that me to mp not discrimate on the basis of whether stunts were gay. Whether each other’s dormory rooms, elsewhere on the Harvard mp, or bars and clubs Boston, homosexual men at the Law School found furtive ways to acmodate their sir whout riskg the succsful reers they unted on as Harvard-traed lawyers.

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

Eventually, startg the 1950’s, as gays and lbians began to slowly velop a social and polil inty and to form groups like the Mattache Society, beme possible for the gay stunts of Harvard Law School to abandon, or at least to dwell ls on, their hop of turng straight. Numero GLBT stunts of the Class of 1992 joed and helped lead a large aln of stunts mandg creased faculty diversy, and were willg to engage civil disobedience to get — although ncerns about the lack of an openly gay faculty member took a backseat to issu of genr and race. So while some GLBT stunts foced on faculty diversy, others ntued to re-energize the HLS gay muny, lobbyg for a urse on sexual orientatn on the law (if only to be tght by visg faculty), creatg new social and polil programs to support the now-sizable muny on mp, and, upon graduatn, creatg a gay and lbian mtee of the Harvard Law Alumni Associatn.

The gay muny at Harvard Law was so large the early ’90s that effectively spltered to two: one openly gay and polilly active, centered on the stunt group – now lled the Commtee on Gay, Bisexual and Lbian Legal Issu, or COGBLLI — and another group of stunts who thought everythg about COGBLLI was silly, startg wh the anizatn’s unwieldy name. By 1993, Amerin society general had seen a major change attus toward homosexualy: Bill Clton had n for print on a platform of acceptance 1992, gay characters began to appear popular televisn shows, and mastream pani had begun advertisg the gay prs.

Although Lambda remaed small and paratively quiet, wh an emphasis on social activi, this was part a reflectn of the fact that a growg number of out, GLBT stunts felt fortable beg openly gay at the Law School whout jog the stunt group. Not until the summer of 2002, when Harvard gave to the Bh Admistratn’s mand that ary recers be allowed back on mp – undog the very first victory won by the Commtee on Gay and Lbian Legal Issu – did a sense of urgency and foc revigorate the HLS gay muny.