Parallels Between Civil Rights and Gay Marriage : NPR

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• #FLASHBACKFRIDAY – THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT. [VTAGE VIO CLIPS]
• THE ROLE OF GAY MEN AND LBIANS THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• NEW COALN PLEDG TO FIGHT GAY MARRIAGE
• THE GAY ‘SIP-IN’ THAT DREW OM THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO FIGHT DISCRIMATN
• PARALLELS BETWEEN CIVIL RIGHTS AND GAY MARRIAGE
• CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: GAY TEXAS COUPLE APPLY FOR MARRIAGE LICENSE, GET ARRTED INSTEAD

GAY RIGHTS

Rather than subm to the ual and unremarkable arrts and shakedowns of the New York Cy police that were monplace at gay tablishments at the time, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn said together: “Enough! Though earlit s were intified 1981, by the late 80s, the ernment rponse-om the Center for Disease Control, the Natnal Instute of Health and the Feral Dg Admistratn-was still lackadaisil, impotent and wholly sufficient to addrs the tens of thoands of annual aths that were ravagg the gay muny. Johnson, a proment activist New York Cy’s gay muny, is creded by some as one of the first people to throw a projectile durg the Stonewall Rts, although Johnson personally nied the claim.

Durg the AIDS crisis, ncerns grew that existg Gay Rights groups were not dog enough to prsure the ernment and dg pani to velop affordable, effective treatments for people wh HIV/AIDS.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

When terviewed about Fci’s role durg the COVID-19 epimic, ACT UP member Jim Eigo remembered that “Fci, spe beg straight and Catholic, was not only not homophobic, which much of medil practice still was the late 1980s, he also wouldn’t tolerate homophobia among his lleagu.

The Supreme Court’s June 15, 2020 cisn to protect gay and transgenr people om workplace discrimatn marks another important landmark LGBTQ+ rights, but there is still work to be done.

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.

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

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.

THE ROLE OF GAY MEN AND LBIANS THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

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. 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.

NEW COALN PLEDG TO FIGHT GAY MARRIAGE

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.

THE GAY ‘SIP-IN’ THAT DREW OM THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO FIGHT DISCRIMATN

Hodg), and 2020 the Court termed that firg an employee for beg homosexual or transgenr was a vlatn of Tle VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964), which prohibs discrimatn on the basis of sex (Bostock v.

Nearly 50 years ago, LGBTQ+ activists achieved what was lled the “greatt gay victory” of the time: succsfully phg members of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA) to remove the diagnosis of homosexualy om the official classifitn of mental illns, the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM). Declassifitn, as the years-long effort was known, culmated 1973, when May, LGBTQ+ voic were heard at the annual APA nference, and later the APA Board of Tste voted to remove homosexualy om the DSM.

The classifitn of mental illns was born om the legacy of multiple systems of power: the Amerin legal system crimalized homosexual behavr; feral and state ernments had not yet dified protectns for queer and trans people seekg employment and hog; and an sistence on heteronormative genr rol stigmatized anyone who viated om their role as a “woman” or a “man. Dubbed the “homophile” movement, gay and lbian rights anizatns major ci like New York Cy, San Francis, and Philalphia started to prsure elected officials and lnch public mpaigns for LGBTQ+ visibily and rights. Activists ramped up their efforts after years of mpaigng om the outsi: they cid to go straight to the APA nferenc where practners attend panels and discsns of psychiatry and psychology—and uld prs to classify homosexualy.

PARALLELS BETWEEN CIVIL RIGHTS AND GAY MARRIAGE

Karla Jay, a lbian activist who participated disptg a panel discsn on “sex problems” that advoted shock treatment to “cure” homosexualy, said that prottors shouted to the APA members, “off of the uch and to the streets!

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: GAY TEXAS COUPLE APPLY FOR MARRIAGE LICENSE, GET ARRTED INSTEAD

“Pull your urage up by your bootstraps and disver ways which you as homosexual psychiatrists n be appropriately volved movements which attempt to change the attus of both homosexuals and heterosexuals toward homosexually, ” Fryer plead. ” The roundg le was somewhat of a double entendre: the APA was lerally sayg that Gold, as a gay man, was ill, implyg that the “medil profsnals” were creatg sickns where there was none. “In fact, the ntroversy over the homosexualy diagnosis was able to reach such heights of publicy part bee the APA had never had e to reach nsens on a standardized fn of mental illns, ” Lewis wr.

They believed that by monstratg that they uld fd gaful employment, mata relatnships, and assiate to heteronormative culture, they uld prove that there was nothg abnormal—and nothg impairg—about homosexualy. Many Amerins today are faiar wh the history of the Cold War and how Amerin lears and policymakers fought munism abroad, but ls know of the liberate efforts rried out by the feral ernment to prevent the spread of munism the Uned Stat—cludg the surveillance and persecutn of spected “homosexual” cizens. The nsistent terratn of rights for LGBTQ+ cizens durg the “Lavenr Sre” led to the homophile movement and the first documented and anized gay rights picket at the Whe Hoe on April 17, 1965.

Johnson about their tentns:A group of homosexual Amerin cizens, and those supportg their e, is picketg the Whe Hoe, today, lawful, dignified, and orrly prott— the bt Amerin tradn—agast the treatment beg meted out to fifteen ln homosexual Amerin cizens by their ernment—treatment which nstantly mak of them send-class cizens, at bt.