A brief history of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr social movements

Contents:

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

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

Siarly, the appropriatn of Darwian theory evaluated people and behavr, characterizg homosexual and bisexual people as evolutnary throwbacks, ak to “primive” peopl whom Europeans had lonized throughout the world and whose sexual mor were at odds wh Wtern notns of moraly. 5 percent -- alt wh gay men and HIV/AIDS, particularly on ways to rce HIV emphasis on gay men isn't entirely surprisg bee the HIV/AIDS epimic, more than anythg else, shed a spotlight and directed limed rourc at gay men's health and the dispari that ntribute to their risk for HIV.

Mayer, a Harvard profsor and medil rearch director of the Fenway Instute, said Fenway was able to foc more rourc on women's health and the medil challeng of an agg they uld work to velop terventns aimed at unterg the harmful upstream psychosocial impacts of anti-gay stigma -- such as prsn and substance abe -- that n ntribute to harmful downstream behavr such as unsafe sex or not adherg to HIV treatment. Mor, PhD, a medil profsor, chief of the preventn science divisn and director of the Center for AIDS Preventn Studi at the Universy of California-San Francis, poted out that before the AIDS epimic, the primary issu -- for health rearchers and polil activists alike -- were promotg self-teem, lookg at how people pe wh beg gay and proud, and fightg back agast the stigma and discrimatn associated wh sexual orientatn. Yet this groupg of “nonheterosexuals” clus men and women; homosexual and bisexual dividuals; people who label themselv as gay, lbian, or bisexual, among other terms; and people who do not adopt such labels but neverthels experience same-sex attractn or engage same-sex sexual behavr.

And the transgenr populatn, which self enpass multiple groups, has needs and ncerns that are distct om those of lbians, bisexual women and men, and gay noted above, spe the many differenc among the populatns that make up the LGBT muny, there are important monali as well. Differenc Wh LGBT PopulatnsNot only are lbians, gay men, bisexual women and men, and transgenr people distct populatns, but each of the groups is self a diverse populatn whose members vary wily age, race and ethnicy, geographic lotn, social background, religsy, and other mographic characteristics.

LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR HEALTH

The majory of dividuals affected by disorrs of sex velopment do not face challeng related to sexual orientatn and genr inty, although homosexualy, genr role nonnformy, and genr dysphoria (fed as disfort wh the genr assigned to one at birth [see Chapter 2]) are somewhat more prevalent among this populatn pared wh the general populatn (Cohen-Kettenis and Pfaffl, 2003). They clu ternalized homophobia (a term referrg to an dividual's self-directed stigma, reflectg the adoptn of society's negative attus about homosexualy and the applitn of them to onelf), perceived stigma (which relat to the expectatn that one will be rejected and discrimated agast and leads to a state of ntuo vigilance that n require nsirable energy to mata; is also referred to as felt stigma), and ncealment of one's sexual orientatn or transgenr inty. Biblil terpretatn ma illegal for a woman to wear pants or a man to adopt female drs, and sensatnalized public trials warned agast “viants” but also ma such martyrs and hero popular: Joan of Arc is one example, and the chillg origs of the word “faggot” clu a stick of wood ed public burngs of gay men.

This creasg awarens of an existg and vulnerable populatn, upled wh Senator Joseph McCarthy’s vtigatn of homosexuals holdg ernment jobs durg the early 1950s outraged wrers and feral employe whose own liv were shown to be send-class unr the law, cludg Frank Kameny, Barbara Gtgs, Allen Gsberg, and Harry Hay. Fstrated wh the male learship of most gay liberatn groups, lbians fluenced by the femist movement of the 1970s formed their own llectiv, rerd labels, mic ftivals, newspapers, bookstor, and publishg ho, and lled for lbian rights mastream femist groups like the Natnal Organizatn for Women. The creasg expansn of a global LGBT rights movement suffered a setback durg the 1980s, as the gay male muny was cimated by the Aids epimic, mands for passn and medil fundg led to renewed alns between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups like Aids Coaln to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Natn.

Wh greater media attentn to gay and lbian civil rights the 1990s, trans and tersex voic began to ga space through works such as Kate Boernste’s “Genr Outlaw” (1994) and “My Genr Workbook” (1998), Ann Fsto-Sterlg’s “Myths of Genr” (1992) and Llie Feberg’s “Transgenr Warrrs” (1998), enhancg shifts women’s and genr studi to bee more clive of transgenr and nonbary inti. Although sexual attractns and behavrs are generally unrstood as rangg along a ntuum om exclively heterosexual to exclively homosexual (Ksey et al., 1948, 1953), sexual orientatn is often discsed acrdg to three ma tegori, pecially when is fed terms of inty: (1) heterosexualy (for dividuals who intify as, for example, “straight” or whose sexual or romantic attractns and behavrs foc exclively or maly on members of the other sex); (2) homosexualy (for dividuals who intify as, for example, “gay, ” “lbian, ” or “homosexual” or whose attractns and behavrs foc exclively or maly on members of the same sex); and (3) bisexualy (for dividuals who intify as, for example, “bisexual” or whose sexual or romantic attractns and behavrs are directed at members of both sex to a signifint gree).