Homophobia media and psychiatry: In the 1960s, liberal stutns did no favors for gays.

Contents:

• PNEERG PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY LIFE THE 1960S
• BEG GAY THE 60S - A BEYOND REASON
• RESISTANCE! HOW UNRGROUND GAY LIFE THRIVED THE 1950S
• BARBARA GTGS HELPS LEAD FIRST 'ANNUAL REMR' PROTTSGGS WAS AN ACTIVIST BOTH THE PRE-STONEWALL HOMOPHILE MOVEMENT OF THE 50S AND 60S AND THE POST-STONEWALL GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT. SHE ANIZED THE NEW YORK CHAPTER OF THE DGHTERS OF BILIS AND, 1965 – ALONG WH FRANK KAMENY – GTGS WAS STMENTAL LEADG THE “ANNUAL REMR” PICKETS, WHICH WERE SOME OF THE VERY FIRST PRO-LGBTQ+ PROTTS VISIBLE TO THE AMERIN PUBLIC. ONE RNERSTONE OF HER WORK CLUD PRSURG THE AMERIN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATN TO CLASSIFY HOMOSEXUALY AS A MENTAL DISORR. FOR THREE NSECUTIVE YEARS BEGNG 1970, GTGS ANIZED PROTTS, STORMED TO, AND PARTICIPATED THE ASSOCIATN’S ANNUAL MEETG. IN 1972, GTGS ANIZED A PANEL ON HOMOSEXUALY ALONG WH AN ANONYMO PSYCHIATRIST WHO WAS MASKED AND ED A VOICE MODULATOR. FALLY 1973, THE ASSOCIATN ANNOUNCED S REMOVAL OF THE CLASSIFITN AND VED GTGS TO THE MEETG. ‍COMPTON’S CAFETERIA RT CATALYZ TRANS COMMUNY POWER IN SAN FRANCIS
• WHEN PSYCHIATRY AND THE MEDIA COLLUD AGAST THE GAYS
• GAY RIGHTS

PNEERG PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY LIFE THE 1960S

“I was 19, vulnerable, young and puttg my own inty together, ” says photographer Anthony Friedk when reflectg on his first project, The Gay Essay, which documents gay culture Los Angel and San Francis between 1969-1972.

What started, as a self-assigned project for a young photographer growg up Hollywood has now bee one of the most thentic portras of gay life Ameri om this perd. But The Gay Essay really began while he explored the Los Angel Gay Communy Servic Center where he met Morris Kight and Don Kilhefner, two men who ran the programs there and found the Gay Liberatn Front Los Angel 1969 where they mobilized the muny agast the LAPD’s harassment of homosexuals.

“In The Gay Essay I wanted to celebrate the gays that were livg openly, ” pecially at a time, the early days of the gay movement, followg the Stonewall rts.

BEG GAY THE 60S - A BEYOND REASON

” In 2014, The Gay Essay was first shown s entirety at the De Young Mm San Francis and was published as a book by the Fe Arts Mm of San Francis and Yale Universy Prs. “Everythg I love about photography is the gay say: the sense of the event, pturg the soul of the people, the journey, the procs, the unknowns, ” he says. Life Perth the 1960s and 70s was a very different experience to what is today for a young gay man Bce Tapper, who is now his 70s, said the persecutn of gay people days gone by was Tapper says the 60s was a difficult perd for gay men Perth.

Homosexualy was a crime Wtern Atralia until was crimalised 1989 and even then, crimalisatn legislatn only passed wh stipulatns discrimatg agast gay laws set the age of nsent for men havg sex wh men at 21 years of age, ntrast to 16 years for the rt of the populatn, and ma illegal to promote or enurage homosexual legislatn did not fe what would be nsired "enuragement" or "promotn" which left the law open to different Tapper said while he tried not to let discrimatn get to him, the existence of the laws ma life difficult for gay said for many, the fact that homosexualy was a crime harmed gay men's self image. "He also remembers the regular raids at a bar popular wh the gay muny the Tapper said police would routely orr everyone out of The Roo on the Roof Fremantle, fill a police wagon wh the most "gay" lookg men and keep them the lockup overnight for beg dnk and also relled tim when he was sgled out for beg of those was a day had been hangg around at the area known as "the beat" the cy near the Esplana between Barrack Street and William Street.

"He asked whether he would fd vasele or baby powr, as if this might prove somethg, " he saidMr Tapper said the tective told him "I'm gog to put you the homosexualy book", somethg he had never heard of before.

RESISTANCE! HOW UNRGROUND GAY LIFE THRIVED THE 1950S

It was there that Vermazen first heard discsn of same-sex marriage—an outrageo thought at the time—and the first time he met the late Sheldon Anlson, the Universy of California’s first openly gay regent. Given the tremendo prsur to rist or hi beg gay, lbian, or transgenr those years, would be easy to thk that LGBTQ life disappeared, or was a miserable existence. The highpot of the Boston gay social season was the annual Bex Arts Ball; was the one night when the police let anythg happen on the dance floor and people me om as far away as Chigo to be part of the fun.

Barbara Gtgs Helps Lead First 'Annual Remr' ProttsGgs was an activist both the pre-Stonewall homophile movement of the 50s and 60s and the post-Stonewall gay liberatn movement. In December 1963, a ont-page article the New York Tim began wh the newspaper’s equivalent of htg the panic button: “The cy’s most sensive open secret—the prence of what is probably the greatt homosexual populatn the world and s creasg openns—has bee the subject of growg ncern of psychiatrists, relig lears, and the police. On one si was the “anized homophile movement—a mory of ant homosexuals that is openly agatg for removal of legal, social, and cultural discrimatns agast sexual verts.

” They argued that gay people should be treated like any other mory group bee homosexualy was “an curable, ngenal disorr” —although the Tim hastened to add that “this is disputed by the bulk of scientific evince. ” This group ced “overwhelmg evince” om a ne-year study led by Irvg Bieber of New York Medil College that homosexuals are not born but ma—generally and advertently by overbearg mothers and weak-willed fathers—and that they uld be cured “by sophistited analytil and theraptic techniqu. Soris warned that the drive by fledglg gay rights groups for social acceptance was worrisome bee “the homosexual is ill, and anythg that tends to hi that fact rc his chanc of seekg and obtag treatment.

BARBARA GTGS HELPS LEAD FIRST 'ANNUAL REMR' PROTTSGGS WAS AN ACTIVIST BOTH THE PRE-STONEWALL HOMOPHILE MOVEMENT OF THE 50S AND 60S AND THE POST-STONEWALL GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT. SHE ANIZED THE NEW YORK CHAPTER OF THE DGHTERS OF BILIS AND, 1965 – ALONG WH FRANK KAMENY – GTGS WAS STMENTAL LEADG THE “ANNUAL REMR” PICKETS, WHICH WERE SOME OF THE VERY FIRST PRO-LGBTQ+ PROTTS VISIBLE TO THE AMERIN PUBLIC. ONE RNERSTONE OF HER WORK CLUD PRSURG THE AMERIN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATN TO CLASSIFY HOMOSEXUALY AS A MENTAL DISORR. FOR THREE NSECUTIVE YEARS BEGNG 1970, GTGS ANIZED PROTTS, STORMED TO, AND PARTICIPATED THE ASSOCIATN’S ANNUAL MEETG. IN 1972, GTGS ANIZED A PANEL ON HOMOSEXUALY ALONG WH AN ANONYMO PSYCHIATRIST WHO WAS MASKED AND ED A VOICE MODULATOR. FALLY 1973, THE ASSOCIATN ANNOUNCED S REMOVAL OF THE CLASSIFITN AND VED GTGS TO THE MEETG. ‍COMPTON’S CAFETERIA RT CATALYZ TRANS COMMUNY POWER IN SAN FRANCIS

No one those days (or even now) expected extravagantly homophobic stutns like the Catholic Church to do anythg other than nsign gays and lbians to the ept and most creatively imaged circl of hell. The belief that gay people uld readily seek treatment and a cure for their so-lled disease led logilly to the ncln that those who chose not to were rponsible for their own misfortune. ” After their anotment as evince-based experts by the Tim, Bieber and Soris would go on to bee publicly regnized thori the now-discreded field of sexual “nversn”—how to turn long-sufferg homosexuals to rponsibly straight hbands and fathers.

Mart Duberman’s g-of-age story, sharply, poignantly, and self-crilly reunted his 1991 memoir Cur: A Gay Man’s Odyssey, illtrat one of the most startlg featur of the era of gay reprsn: that many gay men accepted and ternalized the nmnatn and opprobrium directed their way.

He was a handsome young man attracted to other handsome young men, yet he saw gay relatnships as ultimately hopels and felt nmned to a life of empty, lovels promiscuy. Perhaps the most btal example was “Homo/Hetero, ” the ver story the September 1970 issue of Harper’s, wrten by Joseph Epste (who most recently has regaed notoriety for beltlg first lady Jill Bin’s requt to be lled “Doctor Bin” bee of her Ph.

WHEN PSYCHIATRY AND THE MEDIA COLLUD AGAST THE GAYS

” Epste lls homosexualy “an anathema” and scrib homosexuals as “cursed … the medieval sense of havg been stck by an unexplaed jury, an extreme piece of evil luck. It nclud wh a rgg nmnatn of homosexualy the magaze’s patented voice of God: “It is a pathetic ltle send-rate substute for realy, a piable flight om life.

” But the real problem, Roth clared, was Albee’s purported dishonty—his unwillgns to e clean and adm he was wrg about homosexualy, which is why the play is “so unnvcg, so remote, so obvly a sham. ” Kffmann clared that “I, like many others, am weary of disguised homosexual fluence” the theater, and he sgled out three of “the most succsful Amerin playwrights of the last twenty years” as the chief culprs.

One Sunday he happened upon Kffmann’s piece, wh s plea that a gay playwright attempt “to wre tthfully of what he knows, rather than to try to transform to a life he do not know, to the triment of others. Crowley proceed to wre The Boys the Band, one of the first mastream, openly gay plays, part-edy, part-drama, which premiered off-Broadway April 1968 and played for more than two years and 1, 001 performanc.

GAY RIGHTS

He said he agreed wh Epste that beg gay Ameri was often paful and huiatg, but he placed the blame squarely on a society that treated gay people wh ntempt. Miller relled how one straight iend who knew he was gay had lled him om New York on a Friday before gettg on a tra to e up to his Connecticut home for the weekend.