<strong>The long read</strong>: A police raid on a gay bar New York led to the birth of the Pri movement half a century ago – but the fight for LGBTQ+ rights go back much further than that
Contents:
- GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT
- THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN
- GAY RIGHTS
- UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT
- DIFFERENT FIGHT, 'SAME GOAL': HOW THE BLACK EEDOM MOVEMENT SPIRED EARLY GAY ACTIVISTS
- HOW GAY ACTIVISTS CHALLENGED THE POLICS OF CIVILY
- PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
- GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- GAY LIBERATN FRONT
- GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
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. * goals of the gay liberation movement *
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. 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).
THE GAY LIBERATN 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. * goals of the gay liberation movement *
The Daily Signal attend several panel discsns featurg speakers such as Janson Wu, executive director of the advocy group GLAD; Jam Esseks, director of the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and AIDS project at the Amerin Civil Liberti Unn; and Evan Wolfson, former print of Freedom to Marry, a mpaign largely creded wh wng the legalizatn of same-sex marriage.
THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN
* goals of the gay liberation movement *
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.
GAY RIGHTS
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. Addnally, several openly LGBTQ dividuals secured public office posns: Kathy Kozachenko won a seat to the Ann Harbor, Michigan, Cy Council 1974, beg the first out Amerin to be elected to public Milk, who mpaigned on a pro-gay rights platform, beme the San Francis cy supervisor 1978, beg the first openly gay man elected to a polil office asked Gilbert Baker, an artist and gay rights activist, to create an emblem that reprents the movement and would be seen as a symbol of pri.
In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn published a report about five prevly healthy homosexual men beg fected wh a rare type of 1984, rearchers had intified the e of AIDS—the human immunoficiency vis, or HIV—and the Food and Dg Admistratn licensed the first mercial blood tt for HIV 1985.
But after failg to garner enough support for such an open policy, Print Clton 1993 passed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, which allowed gay men and women to serve the ary as long as they kept their sexualy a rights advot cried the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, as did ltle to stop people om beg discharged on the grounds of their 2011, Print Obama fulfilled a mpaign promise to repeal DADT; by that time, more than 12, 000 officers had been discharged om the ary unr DADT for refg to hi their sexualy.
UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was officially repealed on September 20, Marriage and Beyond In 1992, the District of Columbia passed a law that allowed gay and lbian upl to register as domtic partners, grantg them some of the rights of marriage (the cy of San Francis passed a siar ordance three years prr and California would later extend those rights to the entire state 1999) 1993, the hight urt Hawaii led that a ban on gay marriage may go agast the state’s nstutn.
In 1994, a new anti-hate-crime law allowed judg to impose harsher sentenc if a crime was motivated by a victim’s sexual Matthew Shepard ActCourty of the Matthew Shepard FoundatnMatthew Shepard, who was btally killed a hate crime 2003, gay rights proponents had another b of happy news: the U. Gay rights proponents mt also ntent wh an creasg number of “relig liberty” state laws, which allow bs to ny service to LGBTQ dividuals due to relig beliefs, as well as “bathroom laws” that prevent transgenr dividuals om g public bathrooms that don’t rrpond to their sex at birth.
DIFFERENT FIGHT, 'SAME GOAL': HOW THE BLACK EEDOM MOVEMENT SPIRED EARLY GAY ACTIVISTS
Key potsIn the late 1960s and 1970s, Native Amerins, gay men, lbians, and women anized to change discrimatory laws and pursue ernment support for their terts, a strategy known as inty groups, whose aims and tactics posed a challenge to the existg state of affairs, often met wh hostily om dividuals, lol officials, and the US ernment. Shortly thereafter, the Gay Liberatn Front and Gay Activists’ Alliance were formed; the anizatns began to prott discrimatn, homophobia, and vlence agast gay people, and promoted gay liberatn and gay advocy anizatns lled for gay men and lbians to e out—reveal their sexual orientatn—gay and lbian muni moved om the urban unrground to the polil sphere.
HOW GAY ACTIVISTS CHALLENGED THE POLICS OF CIVILY
On April 25, 1965, three teenagers refed to leave Dewey’s Rtrant Philalphia after employe repeatedly nied service to “homosexuals and persons wearg nonnformist clothg, ” acrdg to Dm magaze, which was created by the Jan Society, an early gay rights teens were arrted and charged wh disorrly nduct, and Jan Society members protted outsi of the rtrant for the next five days, acrdg to Marc Ste, a history profsor at San Francis State Universy. C., one of the first homophile groups ("homophile" beg the adjective of choice at the time), and he drew strategi directly om the Black civil rights movement, acrdg to Eric Cervi, a historian and thor of “The Deviant’s War, ” which foc on Kameny and the early gay rights movement. (In fact, 1979, activists would anize a Natnal March on Washgton for Gay and Lbian Rights, which drew an timated 200, 000 protters, acrdg to the Natnal LGBT Chamber of Commerce) hold signs as they participate the Natnal March on Washgton for Lbian & Gay Rights Washgton, DC, on Oct.
PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
A aln of gay and lbian anizatns held a yearly peaceful prott at Inpennce Hall lled the Annual Remr om 1965 to 1969, which Ste said were fluenced by the early civil rights monstratns which monstrators were stcted to drs rpectably, wh women drs and men sus. ”“This ia of a aln between the two anizatns — that the Black Freedom Movement might be spirg this other group of Amerin cizens who are also margalized, and the fact that they may both be takg to the streets, perhaps ordatn — that is what sred them the most, ” Cervi said of the FBI and Southern racist Kameny and Mattache Society of Washgton members marchg New York, June Tob Lahen / NYPLHowever, the homophile movement, at least New York and Washgton, never ma that aln a realy, Cervi said he the word “plagiarism” to scribe how Kameny ed civil rights tactics whout workg wh or credg the activists whose tactics he ed. Kuromiya -found the Gay Liberatn Front’s Philalphia chapter and beme a spokperson for a homosexual workshop at the Black Panther’s Revolutnary People's Constutnal Conventn September 1970, acrdg to gave a prentatn “to the huge dience of the nventn to applse, ” Ste said of Kuromiya, cg this as one of many exampl showg that the movements weren’t agmented or divid at the time some ci.
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Outlg the group’s posn on the two emergg movements, Newton wrote: “Whatever your personal opns and your securi about homosexualy and the var liberatn movements among homosexuals and women (and I speak of the homosexuals and women as opprsed groups), we should try to une wh them a revolutnary fashn.
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). 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 LIBERATN FRONT
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 LIBERATN 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.
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.