40 Years After Assassatn Of First Openly Gay Elected Official In California : NPR

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• UNVERG GAY HISTORY SAN FRANCIS
• THE STONEWALL RTS DIDN’T START THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• SF GAY HISTORY
• HOW GAY ACTIVISTS CHALLENGED THE POLICS OF CIVILY
• 40 YEARS AFTER ASSASSATN OF FIRST OPENLY GAY ELECTED OFFICIAL IN CALIFORNIA
• PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

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.

UNVERG GAY HISTORY SAN FRANCIS

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.

THE STONEWALL RTS DIDN’T START THE GAY 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.

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).

SF GAY HISTORY

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.

However, by the end of the 1940s, the gay bar scene was growg and queer bars beme not only a safe space for gay and lbian people, but also a statn for visors to the cy, who watched performanc and mgled wh the lols. I cid to e the Natnal Park Service survey map — and a gui — to go search of the and other nearly visible landmarks to get a better unrstandg of the Bay Area’s unherald gay tour started at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front Natnal Historil Park Richmond, Calif., on the eastern shore of San Francis Bay.

HOW GAY ACTIVISTS CHALLENGED THE POLICS OF CIVILY

The shift was so formative for the gay muny that the mm is seekg to clu lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr stori permanent exhibn mak clear that while the fense dtry employed women huge numbers — 12 ln 1941 and 18 ln by 1944 — there were still others whose liv were siarly shiftg amid war and discrimatn. She offered to gui me around the Tenrlo and peel back the layers, as she put , of the district’s rich gay Grav and I head for the Tenrlo, which today has a smatterg of attractively refurbished buildgs but mostly is not easy on the ey.

Built around 1911 and listed today on the Natnal Register of Historic Plac, the Ambassador was managed by Henry Wilson, a lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr activist, om 1978 until 1996, when he left to re for his dyg parents. In the early 1960s, when he was Gli’s pastor, he was a pivotal figure llg for cln and tolerance, and he still is; he helped form the Council on Relign and the Homosexual, a muny anizatn, and his work has been praised by Maya Angelou and Bill Clton. Crage tail four prev police raids on gay bars ci across the Uned Stat that prompted activist rpons—and lol gas—but that eher fad om lol memory, did not spire memoratns that lasted, or did not motivate activists other ci.

But engagg gay behavr public (holdg hands, kissg or dancg wh someone of the same sex) was still illegal, so police harassment of gay bars ntued and many bars still operated whout liquor licens— part bee they were owned by the Rights Before StonewallThe first documented U. In 1966, three years before Stonewall, members of The Mattache Society, an anizatn dited to gay rights, staged a “sip-” where they openly clared their sexualy at taverns, darg staff to turn them away and sug tablishments who did. When The Commissn on Human Rights led that gay dividuals had the right to be served bars, police raids were temporarily Stonewall Inn The crime syndite saw prof terg to shunned gay clientele, and by the mid-1960s, the Genove crime fay ntrolled most Greenwich Village gay bars.

40 YEARS AFTER ASSASSATN OF FIRST OPENLY GAY ELECTED OFFICIAL IN CALIFORNIA

And was one of the few—if not the only—gay bar left that allowed were still a fact of life, but ually rpt ps would tip off Mafia-n bars before they occurred, allowg owners to stash the alhol (sold whout a liquor license) and hi other illegal activi. Stonewall's LegacyThough the Stonewall uprisg didn’t start the gay rights movement, was a galvanizg force for LGBT polil activism, leadg to numero gay rights anizatns, cludg the Gay Liberatn Front, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD (formerly Gay and Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn), and PFLAG (formerly Parents, Fai and Friends of Lbians and Gays) the one-year anniversary of the rts on June 28, 1970, thoands of people marched the streets of Manhattan om the Stonewall Inn to Central Park what was then lled “Christopher Street Liberatn Day, ” Ameri’s first gay pri para. ”In 2016, then-Print Barack Obama signated the se of the rts—Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and the surroundg streets and siwalks—a natnal monument regnn of the area’s ntributn to gay Gallery The Stonewall Inn is a bar loted New York Cy’s Greenwich Village that served as a haven the 1960s for the cy’s gay, lbian and transgenr muny.

They pneered this h-and-n tactic, known as the “zap actn, ” to urt necsary media attentn and force homophobic figur and stutns to acknowledge gay rights, a prott technique spired by other New Left groups like the Yippi and radil femist llectiv. In the early 1970s, most zaps foced on prottg negative reprentatns of gays and lbians televisn shows, films and newspapers, like ABC's "Marc Welby MD" (zapped 1973 for s nflatn of homosexualy and illns), and NBC's "Police Woman" (zapped 1974 by the Lbian Femist Liberatn group, for pictg a gang of lbian murrers targetg elrly people a nursg home). Some of their actns received bad prs – a TIME magaze article lled them “gay goons” and quoted one of their crics: “Why do people who claim to want human rights go around like a bunch of Storm Troopers tryg to timidate others?

PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI

The biggt moment of the year volved former bety queen, sger, and Florida orange juice spokwoman Ana Bryant, who created the “Save Our Children” mpaign Miami, a Christian aln purportg to protect young people om recment by gay and lbian sexual predators. While some and outsi of the gay muny felt that the group’s boundary-crossg went too far, historians regnize ACT-UP’s succs forcg policians and the public to reckon wh the disease ways that rced social stigma and saved liv.

40 Years After Assassatn Of First Openly Gay Elected Official In California This week marks the 40th anniversary of the assassatn of gay rights lear and San Francis Supervisor Harvey Milk and San Francis Mayor Gee Mosne. Today the seat Milk held when he was killed is occupied by another openly gay man, Rafael MANDELMAN: As someone who was 5 years old when he was shot, I am ntually grateful, not jt for Harvey but for the folks of that generatn who really did change the But first, Manlman not, Milk changed himself. Gwen Craig, who me to San Francis the 1970s and worked wh Harvey Milk before he was killed, trac all back to Milk phg people to e out of the CRAIG: I do thk that he sort of started this path that ma possible for the openly gay officials that were elected this last round.