How 1967 changed gay life Bra: ‘I thk for my generatn, we’re still a ltle b uneasy’ | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS 50 YEARS ON: 10 WAYS WHICH THE UK HAS CHANGED
• LONDON PRI PARA: HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS THE UK
• STONEWALL RTS: 50 YEARS ON OM THE RTS THAT CHANGED GAY RIGHTS HISTORY
• HOW 1967 CHANGED GAY LIFE BRA: ‘I THK FOR MY GENERATN, WE’RE STILL A LTLE B UNEASY’
• THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
• A TIMELE OF GAY RIGHTS THE UK
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT: ONE VICTORY AT A TIME
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• KEY DAT FOR LBIAN, GAY, BI AND TRANS EQUALY

GAY RIGHTS 50 YEARS ON: 10 WAYS WHICH THE UK HAS CHANGED

Gay rights movement, also lled gay liberatn movement, civil rights movement that advot equal rights for LGBTQ persons (i.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. This article will e the term the latter sense.) 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. Ined, his poem “Two Lov” (1894), Lord Aled (“Bosie”) Douglas, Osr Wil’s lover, clared “I [homosexualy] am the love that dare not speak s name.” Homosexual and bisexual men and women were given voice 1897 wh the foundg of the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee (Wissenschaftlich-humanär Komee; WhK) Berl.

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.

LONDON PRI PARA: HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS THE UK

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.

STONEWALL RTS: 50 YEARS ON OM THE RTS THAT CHANGED GAY RIGHTS 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). Approval fell the 1980s when the Aids crisis and the troductn of sectn 28 - a law prohibg the promotn or teachg of homosexualy schools - uld have swayed public opn acrdg to NatCen, the thk tank which ns the a steady and rapid rise om the early 1990s reflects a wir trend of social liberalisatn, somethg also seen changg attus to pre-maral sex. Approval of pre-maral sex grew ially among the young - as they got olr they retaed that belief, and soon both old and young were more liberal on the same-sex relatnships the shift attu has been quicker - not only did young people wh liberal views get olr, but olr people changed their mds, might part be bee chang the law, such as the legalisatn of civil partnerships and then gay marriage, have a powerful fluence on people's views, a NatCen spokman suggts.

1967 - Sex between two men over 21 and " private" is crimalised1980 - Decrimalisatn Stland1982 - Decrimalisatn Northern Ireland1994 - The age of nsent for two male partners is lowered to 182000 - The ban on gay and bisexual people servg the armed forc is lifted; the age of nsent is equalised for same- and oppose-sex partners at 162002 - Same-sex upl are given equal rights when to adoptn2003 - Gross cency is removed as an offence2004 - A law allowg civil partnerships is passed2007 - Discrimatn on the basis of sexual orientatn is banned2010 - Genr reassignment is add as a protected characteristic equaly legislatn2014 - Gay marriage be legal England, Wal and Stland3.

Government has attempted to redrs this legacyGiven this legacy of crimalisatn, the ernment troduced a scheme October 2012 allowg those prosecuted unr funct gay-sex-related laws, to have their nvictns removed om police and urt Home Office timat that there were about 50, 000 such offenc rerd on the system om the 1950s until of the 50, 000, only an timated 16, 000 are for people who are still livg and so able to all of the 16, 000 offenc are eligible to be "disregard". Gay and lbian people report higher levels of anxiety than straight people, but bisexual people are even more likely to suffer om the lbian, gay and bisexual people are also more likely to suffer om suicidal thoughts than their straight iends, acrdg to a 2014 survey by LGBT support chary Metro. Same-sex upl have gaed equal marriage rightsCivil partnerships were legalised 2004 throughout the Uned Kgdom, wh the first ceremoni takg place at the end of the followg 140, 000 people entered to civil partnerships between 2005 and 2015, the last year for which figur are the UK, gay and lbian upl were granted many of the same rights as married heterosexuals, albe wh a few differenc around issu like private-sector meant that upl uld no longer be kept out of hospal rooms when their partner was sick, they would no longer lose their home or bs bee of tax laws, and they had parental rights over marriage was legalised a later, wh the first ceremoni takg place England, Wal and Stland 2014.

HOW 1967 CHANGED GAY LIFE BRA: ‘I THK FOR MY GENERATN, WE’RE STILL A LTLE B UNEASY’

Sometim a Q+ is add which stands for queer and + is an clive symbol to mean 'and others' to clu people of all well as an opportuny to raise awarens of the fight for equal rights for the LGBT muny, Pri is also a celebratn of the USJune is particularly signifint as this is Pri Month the US, which is where the movement fightg for gay rights began wh the Stonewall rts June has been celebrated all over the world over the last few weeks. Media ptn, WATCH: It was a 'very lonely' life when beg gay was illegal (Augt 2017)Profsor Brian Heaphy, an expert om the Universy of Manchter, explas: "Homosexualy was often treated as an illns by doctors and psychiatrists, who thought they uld 'heal' people by treatg them.

The ernment did not make the chang at first and more people started to mpaign for the rights of gay source, Getty ImagImage ptn, This man, John Wolfenn, led the group which ma remendatns to the ernment about how the law should be changedEventually, the law was changed 1967, which allowed two men to be a relatnship together whout the fear of beg though this happened, there were still many laws place at the time which meant that gay people did not have the same rights as people who were not gay. "Today is illegal to discrimate agast somebody bee of their sexualy or genr, although many gay people face discrimatn their daily says: "We want to get to a suatn where no one r what sexualy you are; where we accept the person and their right to love whoever they wish - male, female, both or neher. They threw 200 people out onto the streets and beat some gay muny were angry about the way they were beg treated by the police, so they chose to fight source, NY Daily News Archive / GettyImage ptn, Police raid the Stonewall Inn and phed people out to the streetThis event triggered a week of protts and rtg by people om the gay muny, who were fed up of beg harassed by the of the rts spread around the world, and this spired others to jo protts and rights groups to fight for equaly.

THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

But now, more than a ln celebrate the event every year chary Stonewall was found the UK 1989, named after the bar which sparked the famo works to fight equaly and homophobia, and mpaigned to overturn the Sectn 28 law, which prevented teachers om talkg about gay relatnships at school the beme illegal to enurage homophobic hatred ptn, WATCH: Fd out more about the rabow flag - a symbol of gay pri all over the worldIn 2017, Peter Tatchell - a gay rights mpaigner - told Newsround: "We have ma fantastic progrs.

Callow not that those who uld do so still felt the need to leave the untry orr to live gay liv, wh Tangier, voutly Mlim Moroc, providg an atmosphere of relative openns for thoands of Brish left London 1968 to go to universy Belfast, which he likens to steppg to a time mache (the 1967 act didn’t apply there, and male homosexualy remaed illegal until 1982). Sometim appears wh Q, meang queer and +, which is an clive symbol to mean 'and others' to clu people of all history month tak place Febary each year, to help te people on lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr history, as well as the history of the gay and civil rights out more about some of those who have ma an impact both om the past and prent. Alan TurgAlan Turg was not a well known figure durg his lifetime, but today he is famo and celebrated for the ccial part he played the victory over Nazi Germany was a mathematician who cracked somethg lled the Enigma , which is thought to have shortened the war by several was also a victim of mid-20th Century attus to homosexualy and 1952 was arrted bee beg homosexual was illegal Bra at this 2013 he was pardoned for this 'crime', and 2017 the ernment agreed to officially pardon men acced of 'crim' like this, meang they will no longer have a crimal pardong has e to be known as the Alan Turg 2019 Turg was named the most "inic" figure of the 20th Century and his face now appears on the £50 note.

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

Osr WilImage source, Napoleon Sarony/Universal History ArchiveOsr Wil is one of the famo playwrights of all time, fact, you might even have studied 'The Importance of Beg Earnt' - one of his most famo plays - at was married to a woman and had two sons, but was later acced of beg homosexual. Later the North Wt Commtee was transformed to the Campaign for Homosexual Equaly (CHE), which was the largt LGBT anisatn there has ever been the UK, wh more than 5, 000 members and 120 lol groups all over the untry when was at s 's role the removal of the stigma of crimaly om homosexualy remaed his crowng achievement.

He began his reer as a journalist before workg for MI6, and beg prcipal of Aberystwyth was asked to jo the ernment's mtee lookg to homosexual offenc which led to the Wolfenn Report, which remend that havg a homosexual relatnship should no longer be a crimal laid the foundatns for a later law which partially crimalised male homosexualy for the first time England and Wal. Jt FashanuImage source, Getty ImagJt Fashanu was Bra's first openly gay footballer, and although 30 years have passed he remas the only male footballer to reveal his sexualy while playg profsnally the top reer was gog well, havg risen through Norwich Cy's youth ranks and 1981 he beme the untry's most expensive black player wh his £1m move to Nottgham stunned the football world 1990 by when he told a newspaper he was gay. In 2019 he received France's hight civilian award, the Legn d'honnr, by Print Emmanuel Macron, who lled him one of the first gay artists to give a voice to the LGBT me out as bisexual a 1976 terview wh mic magaze Rollg Stone, and 1992 said he was and his partner David Furnish were among the first upl the UK to get a civil partnership 2005, when the law was changed to allow gay relatnships to be legally 2014, after gay marriage beme legal the UK the pair got married and have two sons born via on this story.

A TIMELE OF GAY RIGHTS THE UK

Soon they were advotg nothg ls than “gay liberatn” nscns-raisg groups to fundraisg danc, protts outsi hostile newspapers to refug for homels trans and queer people, this surge LGBTQ+ anisg took many forms, and as the first anniversary of the rts me to view, some the muny began discsg how bt to mark what was beg regard as the “Bastille day” of gay rights.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT: ONE VICTORY AT A TIME

The roots of that bate go back to s earlit days, and suggt that Pri and the Stonewall rts have always been part of a ntent battle for inty and ownership – a battle that has helped produce the very ia of what beg a lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or queer person might Stonewall rts were not the birth of the gay rights movement. Seven years before that, when police had raid Coopers, a donut shop the cy ntled between two gay bars, LGBTQ+ patrons had attacked officers after the arrt of a number of drag queens, sex workers and gay had been a gay rights movement the US among people scribg themselv as “homophil” sce the late 40s. Hirschfeld’s scientific approach, bed wh his sympathetic treatment of LGBTQ+ people – he was himself homosexual – had been key velopg the ia that their shared experienc uld be unrstood not jt as discrete sexual (and crimal) acts, nor as psychiatric illns, but as a legible sexual and genr inty, which uld be afford civil rights.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

) The Mattache Society had radil roots activism, takg on the anisatnal stcture of cells and central anisatn favoured by the Communist well as publishg magaz for gay men, and supportg victims of police entrapment, the society had wir polil aims, cludg to “unify homosexuals isolated om their own kd” and to “te homosexuals and heterosexuals toward an ethil homosexual culture parallelg the cultur of the Negro, Mexin and Jewish peopl”. Such aims would bee key to the ncept of “gay pri” some two s two s, however, would be among the harst for LGBTQ+ people US history, as the greater visibily of the homosexual inty led to a nservative backlash, and a moral panic the media that was palised upon by policians.

KEY DAT FOR LBIAN, GAY, BI AND TRANS EQUALY

After he was forced to appear before the Hoe Un-Amerin Activi Commtee, Hay was expelled om the Mattache Society, now a growg anisatn of a few thoand men, and he wasn’t the last radil to be thrown homophile movement began to tackle “subversive elements” and orient self around rpectabily. In 1966, the Mattache Society challenged this policy wh a “sip-” at Juli’, a Greenwich Village bar that was popular wh gay men, but was attemptg to shake off s homosexual bars equently flouted this law, explog legal loophol and payg off the NYPD while chargg their LGBTQ+ ctomers high pric for watered-down drks.

As the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns me together for a meetg November 1969 to discs the followg year’s Annual Remr, Rodwell wonred whether a memoratn of the rts – one whout a drs or other rtrictns, and that uld be mirrored across the natn – might not be more suable. At the same time, there were tensns around the excln of trans people, many of whom scribed themselv as queens and transvt, the language of the LGBTQ+ scene at the time, even while still intifyg themselv as “gay” umbrella, which brought people together for the e of liberatn, failed to acknowledge the different experienc of those who sheltered unr , or addrs the power imbalanc wh . It wasn’t until the 00s, though, that rporate sponsorship began to overwhelm Pri, as more fundg led to larger and larger events, which LGBTQ+ people are now often charged to the late 90s, some US activists created Gay Shame rponse to Pri’s mercialisatn, an event that foced on anisg around wir issu that affected the whole LGBTQ+ muny.

Dpe the radil LGBTQ+ anisg that took place rponse to the Aids crisis – where Pri paras beme a loc for awarens-raisg protts – many more-radil activists felt that, wh creasg rporate volvement, the event was beg taken over by liberal activists wantg to assiate queer liv to beg a “mol mory”, wh marriage and ary service beg a symbol that gay people particular had “ma ”. This is te, of urse – but then the same uld be said for the US’s close regnal ally, Sdi Rsia, both fascists and relig fundamentalists have found attempts to anise Pri march a potent rallyg ll, mobilisg wispread homophobic feelg by claimg that homosexualy is, sence, a rptg import om the wt.