Different fight, 'same goal': How the Black eedom movement spired early gay activists

Contents:

• AIN-AMERINS QUTN COMPARG GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO CIVIL RIGHTS
• IS THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT SIAR TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT?
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• GAY RIGHTS
• DIFFERENT FIGHT, 'SAME GOAL': HOW THE BLACK EEDOM MOVEMENT SPIRED EARLY GAY ACTIVISTS
• WHAT THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT LEARNED OM THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• #FLASHBACKFRIDAY – THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT. [VTAGE VIO CLIPS]
• GAY RIGHTS VS. CIVIL RIGHTS
• THE ROLE OF GAY MEN AND LBIANS THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT VS. CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• ARE GAY RIGHTS CIVIL RIGHTS?
• WHAT HISTORY SAYS ABOUT COMPARG GAY RIGHTS TO CIVIL RIGHTS

AIN-AMERINS QUTN COMPARG GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO CIVIL RIGHTS

That is the GRIGSBY BATES, BYLINE: And 's an important one for Ain-Amerin televisn host Roland Mart bee, he says, black Amerins back the '60s were more disenanchised than LGBT people are And so we get Ain-Amerins Jim Crow who uldn't vote, who uldn't stay hotels, who uldn't stay rtrants, but if you were whe and gay, you Reverend Patrick Walker agre. 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 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.

IS THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT SIAR TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT?

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.

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). 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.

GAY RIGHTS

On April 25, 1965, three teenagers refed to leave Dewey’s Rtrant Philalphia after employe repeatedly nied service to “homosexuals and persons wearg nonnformist clothg, ” acrdg to Dm magaze, which was created by the Jan Society, an early gay rights teens were arrted and charged wh disorrly nduct, and Jan Society members protted outsi of the rtrant for the next five days, acrdg to Marc Ste, a history profsor at San Francis State Universy. "Eric Cervi, LGBTQ Historian“Unlike so many other episos, kd of bed issu of homosexualy and trans issu, ” Ste, thor of “Rethkg the Gay and Lbian Movement, ” told NBC May 2, three more people staged a send s- at Dewey’s. Specifilly, s-s anized by gay activists the ‘60s appear to be directly spired by protts held 1960 by Black llege stunts at Woolworth’s lunch unter Greensboro, North Carola, agast racial stunts wa va for food service at this F.

C., one of the first homophile groups ("homophile" beg the adjective of choice at the time), and he drew strategi directly om the Black civil rights movement, acrdg to Eric Cervi, a historian and thor of “The Deviant’s War, ” which foc on Kameny and the early gay rights movement. (In fact, 1979, activists would anize a Natnal March on Washgton for Gay and Lbian Rights, which drew an timated 200, 000 protters, acrdg to the Natnal LGBT Chamber of Commerce) hold signs as they participate the Natnal March on Washgton for Lbian & Gay Rights Washgton, DC, on Oct. A aln of gay and lbian anizatns held a yearly peaceful prott at Inpennce Hall lled the Annual Remr om 1965 to 1969, which Ste said were fluenced by the early civil rights monstratns which monstrators were stcted to drs rpectably, wh women drs and men sus.

”Crowd attempts to impe police arrts outsi the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street New York's Greenwich Village York Daily News via Getty ImagCervi said FBI reports explicly nnect the Black Freedom Movement and the early homophile movement. ”“This ia of a aln between the two anizatns — that the Black Freedom Movement might be spirg this other group of Amerin cizens who are also margalized, and the fact that they may both be takg to the streets, perhaps ordatn — that is what sred them the most, ” Cervi said of the FBI and Southern racist Kameny and Mattache Society of Washgton members marchg New York, June Tob Lahen / NYPLHowever, the homophile movement, at least New York and Washgton, never ma that aln a realy, Cervi said he the word “plagiarism” to scribe how Kameny ed civil rights tactics whout workg wh or credg the activists whose tactics he ed.

DIFFERENT FIGHT, 'SAME GOAL': HOW THE BLACK EEDOM MOVEMENT SPIRED EARLY GAY ACTIVISTS

Kuromiya -found the Gay Liberatn Front’s Philalphia chapter and beme a spokperson for a homosexual workshop at the Black Panther’s Revolutnary People's Constutnal Conventn September 1970, acrdg to gave a prentatn “to the huge dience of the nventn to applse, ” Ste said of Kuromiya, cg this as one of many exampl showg that the movements weren’t agmented or divid at the time some ci.

Marshall’s legal strategy, which volved g the due procs and equal protectn cls of the 14th Amendment, served as a mol that the LGBTQ movement ed to challenge the crimalizatn of homosexualy and the nial of marriage rights. Outlg the group’s posn on the two emergg movements, Newton wrote: “Whatever your personal opns and your securi about homosexualy and the var liberatn movements among homosexuals and women (and I speak of the homosexuals and women as opprsed groups), we should try to une wh them a revolutnary fashn.

Wh the nsirable amount of attentn beg paid to racism and LGBTQ rights the days—wh the Conferate flag and Charlton massacre on the one hand, and the Supreme Court marriage equaly cisn on the other—there have been efforts to pare the two, as if to say the Black stggl agast racism are the same as the LGBT muny agast homophobia. NBJC’s missn is to end racism and Releasg, 2008 | WatchTongu UntiedMarlon Riggs' say film Tongu Uned giv voice to muni of black gay men, prentg their cultur and perspectiv on the world as they nont racism, homophobia and margalizatn. Wner of ten Bt Documentary awards, cludg the GLAAD Media Award for Outstandg Documentary, Livg wh Pri was directed by Yvonne Welbon and has been screened over 150 venu around the Boyk | Anchor Books, 1998 | BookOne More River to CrossAgast a backdrop of civil rights and the black experience Ameri, Boyk terviews Baptist misters, gay polil lears, and other black gays and lbians on issu of fah, fay, discrimatn and visibily to terme what differenc — real and imaged — separate the two muni.

WHAT THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT LEARNED OM THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

However, where LGBT issu and racial issu tersect, I mt emphatilly draw an equivalency orr to make a pot that I'm particularly passnate about: people on both sis -- liberal and nservative, pro-LGBT and anti-LGBT -- actively avoid equatg gay rights wh civil rights. We have been persecuted by religns and ernments for centuri, imprisoned, strated, lobotomized, queer-bashed, 'rrectively' raped and subjected to other 'separate but equal' laws, forced to damagg 'pray away the gay' therapy, terred ncentratn mps, stoned, and hanged.

But perhaps was the late Coretta Stt Kg, who voted her life to the same civil rights for which her hband gave his life, who said bt when she famoly remarked 2003:I still hear people say that I should not be talkg about the rights of lbian and gay people... Refg to acknowledge this realy only serv to unjtly acmodate homophobic bigotry, rerce artificially nstcted hierarchi of opprsn, and distract om our fundamental obligatn to fend the rights of all our fellow human begs. And the civil rights movement really pneered the ncept as a powerful polil ncept of mory rights and ma easier for gays to beg to pict themselv as a mory who served the same civil rights that other Amerins and other mori the civil rights movement pneered many of the anizatnal forms and polil strategi that are important to the gay movement, women's movement, the Lato movement, and many others.

#FLASHBACKFRIDAY – THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT. [VTAGE VIO CLIPS]

Even the march themselv, the March on Washgton '63 was followed jt two years later by the first gay civil rights pickets outsi the Whe Hoe and Inpennce Hall Philalphia, and by the first Natnal March on Washgton for Lbian and Gay Rights 1979. And if you thk about , what the gay and lbian movement did and the women's movement did is, we changed the terms of bate Amerin polil you look at the legislatn that was passed jt about women, women got the right to have cred rds their own nam, to buy mortgag, to be on juri certa stat.

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. 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.

GAY RIGHTS VS. CIVIL RIGHTS

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.

" This sign was wrten by the Mattache Society–an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay reportg the events, The New York Daily News rorted to homophobic slurs s tailed verage, nng the headle: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad. 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.

THE ROLE OF GAY MEN AND LBIANS THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

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. 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.

The law prevented the ernment om grantg feral marriage benefs to same-sex upl and allowed stat to refe to regnize same-sex marriage certifit om other marriage rights backtracked, gay rights advot sred other victori. 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 MOVEMENT VS. CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

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 Marriage Legalized Massachetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage, and the first legal same-sex marriage was performed on May 17, 2004—a day when seventy-seven other upl across the state also tied the knot.

ARE GAY RIGHTS CIVIL RIGHTS?

Perhaps that was the pot that Jam Antle tend to make his recent article “Why Conservativ Say No” when he rid the parison of the black civil rights stggle of the 20th century wh the gay civil rights stggle of the 21st.

WHAT HISTORY SAYS ABOUT COMPARG GAY RIGHTS TO CIVIL RIGHTS

The wispread misnceptn today of gay people as mostly smug, well-off wh wh fat bank acunts and fortable (and, we’re told, chosen) liftyl, however, do not negate the unniable history of often btal treatment of gays and lbians and their lack of basic human rights the ey of ernment for most of this natn’s history.