Gay Liberatn Network

GAY LIBERATN

Takg s cue om the revolutnary events at Stonewall New York Cy a year earlier, the LGBT muny Chigo held s first annual Gay Liberatn March June of 1970. This march (which me to be known as the PRIDE Para) enuraged people to fight homophobia, to e out and raise awarens of the issu and jtic facg the muny. * chicago gay liberation *

When the annual Pri Para steps off om the tersectn of Broadway and Montrose at noon on Sunday, June 30—wh Lori Lightfoot, Chigo’s first openly gay mayor, servg as honorary grand marshal— will reprent a very different md-set om the event that lnched the pri para tradn.

Between 150 and 300 people (pendg on which acunt you read) showed up to celebrate what our flyer promotg the event clared ( all pal letters) was: “THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF GAY PEOPLE TELLING THE WARPED, SICK, MALADJUSTED, PURITAN AMERIKAN SOCIETY THAT THEY HAVE HAD ENOUGH SHIT. Conceived by the library’s director, Wil Brant, and curated by a team of young volunteers cludg profsnal librarians Chase Ollis and Jam Conley and signer Kurt Conley, the display is drawn om Gerber/Hart’s extensive archival march marked the first anniversary of a rt New York Cy on June 28, 1969, when patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a gay nightclub Greenwich Village owned by the Genove crime fay, reacted vlently to what had begun as a route police raid.

That event, and the events leadg up to and followg , are well vered a new book, The Stonewall Rts: A Documentary History by Marc Ste (NYU Prs) that first Stonewall anniversary march wasn’t the first activy of Chigo Gay Liberatn, which started up fall 1969 after Universy of Chigo grad stunt Henry Wiemhoff placed an ad the Chigo Maroon stunt newspaper seekg a gay roommate. Mattache Midwt, an tablished “homophile” anizatn town, published Manley’s picture s mimeographed monthly newsletter and mockgly suggted Manley himself was a closet se: “If I were gay and I didn’t want anybody to know, and I felt very, very guilty, I thk I might get a job where I uld cise the public tert, ” wrote David Stienecker, the newsletter’s edor.

A ‘EAKG FAG REVOLUTNARY’ REMEMBERS THE EARLY YEARS OF GAY LIBERATN CHIGO

Gay rights movement, civil rights movement that advot equal rights for LGBTQ persons—that is, for lbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons—and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life. * chicago gay liberation *

All prent exprsed a sire to avoid the fightg of petive groups other ci”—a reference to the ternece turf wars that tore at the fabric of New York’s gay muny around the same but issue of the CGA newsletter November 1970 explaed: “The Chigo Gay Alliance is actively terted alleviatg the ghetto (whether spirual or physil) ndns of homosexuals, dispellg the psychologil and soclogil mythology that has grown up about the subject of homosexualy, providg referral servic to homosexuals, helpg homosexuals ‘g out’ velop a sense of pri who they are and urage facg the generally hostile outsi world, to provi addnal social outlets so that homosexuals n meet each other as human begs, to change reprsive laws and end police and polil harassment, and to improve munitns between the homosexual and the heterosexual muni. A July 1973 issue of the Chigo Gay Csar reported that 20th Ward alrman Cliff Kelley, workg wh a group lled Illois Gays for Legislative Actn, had troduced legislatn the Chigo Cy Council to prohib discrimatn jobs, hog, and public acmodatns based on sexual orientatn.

Chigo Gay Liberatn, the Chigo Gay Alliance, and the other groups that sprang up the wake of Stonewall ran out of steam by the end of the , but the sense of empowerment they gave the muny—and the lsons we learned om their succs and setbacks—guid to the 1980s, when the AIDS epimic and the stggle for civil rights at the cy, unty, and state level drove a new activist spir. ” The same day, a small group of San Francisns marched down Polk Street, then had a “gay-” piic that was broken up by equtrian and other New York groups had spent months planng the Manhattan event wh the help of anizers like Brenda Howard, a bisexual activist who had cut her anizg teeth durg the anti-Vietnam movement of the late 1960s.

INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN

Chigo hosted the first Gay Pri Para the Uned Stat on June 27, 1970. Here's a look back at how the annual event has evolved through the years. * chicago gay liberation *

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.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The gay rights movement the Uned Stat began the 1920s and saw huge progrs the 2000s, wh laws prohibg homosexual activy stck down and a Supreme Court lg legalizg same-sex marriage. * chicago gay liberation *

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.

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. In the late 1980s, a group of lbian and gay bs owners and activists—cludg Jon-Henri Damski, Lana Hostetler, Art Johnston, Rick Garcia, and K Duffy—led a succsful lobbyg effort which persuad the cy uncil 1988 to pass the Chigo Human Rights Ordance protectg lbians, gay men, and bisexuals om discrimatn hog, employment, and public acmodatn.

GAY RIGHTS

(Chris Walker/Chigo Tribune)1987: Chigo Pri Para Members of the Chigo Gay Men's Chos sg and march durg the 18th annual Gay and Lbian Pri Week Para on June 28, 1987, Lln Park, where Mayor Harold Washgton discsed the AIDS legislatn passed the prev week by the General Assembly. (Lane Christiansen / Chigo Tribune)2011: Chigo Pri Para Armand Colls and Rich Whe, om left, both of South Bend, rry a flag wh members of Amerin Veterans for Equal Rights on Halsted Street durg the annual Gay Pri Para Lakeview Sunday, June 26, 2011.

CHIGO GAY ALLIANCE

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.

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.

CHIGO GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS SET TO PROTT AGAST CHICK-FIL-A

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.

Gay Rights - Movement, Marriage & Flag | HISTORY

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