How Gay Culture Blossomed Durg the Roarg Twenti | HISTORY

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• GAY ERA
• HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: ANTI-GAY LAWS PROMOTE VLENCE, DISCRIMATN ST. VCENT
• BEFORE STRAIGHT AND GAY
• GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT

GAY RIGHTS

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. ”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.

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. 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.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

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. 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. Biblil terpretatn ma illegal for a woman to wear pants or a man to adopt female drs, and sensatnalized public trials warned agast “viants” but also ma such martyrs and hero popular: Joan of Arc is one example, and the chillg origs of the word “faggot” clu a stick of wood ed public burngs of gay men. This creasg awarens of an existg and vulnerable populatn, upled wh Senator Joseph McCarthy’s vtigatn of homosexuals holdg ernment jobs durg the early 1950s outraged wrers and feral employe whose own liv were shown to be send-class unr the law, cludg Frank Kameny, Barbara Gtgs, Allen Gsberg, and Harry Hay.

Fstrated wh the male learship of most gay liberatn groups, lbians fluenced by the femist movement of the 1970s formed their own llectiv, rerd labels, mic ftivals, newspapers, bookstor, and publishg ho, and lled for lbian rights mastream femist groups like the Natnal Organizatn for Women. The creasg expansn of a global LGBT rights movement suffered a setback durg the 1980s, as the gay male muny was cimated by the Aids epimic, mands for passn and medil fundg led to renewed alns between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups like Aids Coaln to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Natn. Wh greater media attentn to gay and lbian civil rights the 1990s, trans and tersex voic began to ga space through works such as Kate Boernste’s “Genr Outlaw” (1994) and “My Genr Workbook” (1998), Ann Fsto-Sterlg’s “Myths of Genr” (1992) and Llie Feberg’s “Transgenr Warrrs” (1998), enhancg shifts women’s and genr studi to bee more clive of transgenr and nonbary inti.

THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY

Historians om Oxford Universy have been taken aback to disver that Matthew Tomlson's diary om 1810 ntas such open-md views about same-sex attractn beg a "natural" human diary challeng prenceptns about what "ordary people" thought about homosexualy - showg there was a bate about whether someone really should be discrimated agast for their sexualy. "In this excg new disvery, we see a Yorkshire farmer argug that homosexualy is nate and somethg that shouldn't be punished by ath, " says Oxford rearcher Eamonn O' ptn, The diari were handwrten by Tomlson the farmhoe where he lived and workedThe historian had been examg Tomlson's handwrten diari, which have been stored Wakefield Library sce the thoands of pag of the private journals have never been transcribed and prevly ed by rearchers terted Tomlson's eye-wns acunts of electns Yorkshire and the Ludd smashg up O'Keeffe me across what seemed, for the era of Gee III, to be a rather startlg set of arguments about same-sex relatnships.

Tomlson had been prompted by what had been a big sex sndal of the day - which a well-rpected naval surgeon had been found to be engagg homosexual ptn, Historian Eamonn O'Keeffe says the diari provi a rare sight to the views of "ordary people" the early 1800sA urt martial had orred him to be hanged - but Tomlson seemed unnvced by the cisn, qutng whether what the papers lled an "unnatural act" was really that unnatural. "It mt seem strange ed that God Almighty should make a beg wh such a nature, or such a fect nature; and at the same time make a cree that if that beg whom he had formed, should at any time follow the dictat of that Nature, wh which he was formed, he should be punished wh ath, " he wrote on January 14 there was an "clatn and propensy" for someone to be homosexual om an early age, he wrote, " mt then be nsired as natural, otherwise as a fect nature - and if natural, or a fect nature; seems cel to punish that fect wh ath" diarist mak reference to beg rmed by others that homosexualy is apparent om an early age - suggtg that Tomlson and his social circle had been talkg about this se and discsg somethg that was not unknown to this time, and also Wt Yorkshire, a lol landowner, Anne Lister, was wrg a d diary about her lbian relatnships - wh her story told the televisn seri, Gentleman knowg what "ordary people" really thought about such behavur is always difficult - not least bee the loust survivg voic are ually the wealthy and has exced amics is the chance to eavdrop on an everyday farmer thkg aloud his source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Tomlson was appalled by the levels of rptn durg electns"What's strikg is that he's an ordary guy, he's not a member of the bohemian circl or an tellectual, " says O'Keeffe, a doctoral stunt Oxford's history acceptance of homosexualy might have been exprsed privately aristocratic or philosophilly radil circl - but this was beg discsed by a ral worker.

O'Keeffe says shows ias were "perlatg through Brish society much earlier and more wily than we'd expect" - wh the diary workg through the bat that Tomlson might have been havg wh his the were still far om morn liberal views - and O'Keeffe says they n be extremely "jarrg" someone was homosexual by choice, rather than by nature, Tomlson was ready to nsir that they should still be punished - proposg stratn as a more morate optn than the ath ptn, Tomlson's former home was still there the 1930s (bottom left), but has sce disappeared beneath hog and a golf urseO'Keeffe says disverg evince of the kds of bate has both "enriched and plited" what we know about public opn this pre-Victorian diary is raisg ternatnal Fara Dabhoiwala, om Prceton Universy the US, an expert the history of attus towards sexualy, scrib as "vivid proof" that "historil attus to same-sex behavur uld be more sympathetic than is ually prumed".

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Instead of seeg homosexualy as a "horrible perversn", Prof Dabholwala says the rerd showed a farmer 1810 uld see as a "natural, dively ordaed human qualy" Norton, an expert gay history, said there had been earlier arguments fendg homosexualy as natural - but the were more likely to be om philosophers than farmers. 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.

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

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. 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 Begngs of a New Gay World“In the late 19th century, there was an creasgly visible prence of genr-non-nformg men who were engaged sexual relatnships wh other men major Amerin ci, ” says Chad Heap, a profsor of Amerin Studi at Gee Washgton Universy and the thor of Slummg: Sexual and Racial Enunters Amerin Nightlife, 1885-1940. ”At the same time, lbian and gay characters were beg featured a slew of popular “pulp” novels, songs and on Broadway stag (cludg the ntroversial 1926 play The Captive) and Hollywood—at least prr to 1934, when the motn picture dtry began enforcg censorship guil, known as the Hays Co.

Read more: You’ve Probably Heard of the Red Sre, but the Lser-Known, Anti-Gay ‘Lavenr Sre’ Is Rarely Tght Schools The richns of that culture still remaed, wag to be redisvered—a procs that began after the 1960s and ‘70s gay rights movement was followed by the loss of life durg the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ’90s, which raised awarens of the need to prerve gay history.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

One of the biblil passag most often ced the prent to nmn same-sex relatnships, Romans 1:24-27, any translatn, mentns how men and women gave up "natural relatns for unnatural" and mted "shamels acts" but, the ntext of the whole passage, this should be unrstood as referencg idolatro behavr – behavg as pagans did at i – rather than a mted gay relatnship.

GAY ERA

Although there is certaly evince of negative personal views toward homosexual practic pre-Christian civilizatn, the seem to have to do wh eher loss of a man’s virily and stat as a man, loss of a young woman’s virgy, or, the se of certa perds of Roman history, extreme licentns and promiscuy. In dog so, they lnched the morn lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer movement, creatg a touchstone moment that would fe the next half-century of activist the Supreme Court’s historic legalizatn of same sex marriage 2015, Congrs’s recent approval of the Equaly Act, and the creased acceptance and reprentatn of LGBTQ people popular culture, we have unniably e a long way om the time when ps routely raid gay bars and beg outed nearly guaranteed a person would be labeled a sexual psychopath, blacklisted, ostracized by iends and fay, and legally barred om employment most occupatns, as scribed by John D’E his classic book on the pre-Stonewall era, Sexual Polics, Sexual much ls is known about day-to-day life for LGBTQ people pre-Stonewall, and what took place prr to the rebelln that laid the groundwork for events that would change the urse of morn LGBTQ people have been sexually timate wh others of the same sex sce the begng of time, the social nstctn of a gay inty is a relatively new phenomenon.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: ANTI-GAY LAWS PROMOTE VLENCE, DISCRIMATN ST. VCENT

In the Uned Stat, this has happened mostly wh the last hundred D'E argu his groundbreakg 1993 say, Capalism and Gay Inty, was only through the velopment of palist dtrializatn, the acpanyg expansn of large urban centers, and the transformative effect this procs had on social life that the material ndns for the velopment of LGBTQ inti and muni beme possible. The personal tonomy and privacy afford by cy life allowed for exploratn of non-heterosexual sir and greater genr exprsn, and the velopment of a muny based on those shared terts a way that was generally not possible unr prev “hoehold-fay based” mos of the late 19th and early 20th centuri, an extensive unrground gay world veloped major U.

BEFORE STRAIGHT AND GAY

Genr relatns and sexual behavr were a big part of this shift, as lns of men and women were lled away om their hom and placed overwhelmgly sex-segregated environments, like ary bas, hospals, dtrial factori, ernmental offic, and urban new material ndns, upled wh the emotnally tensive circumstanc of war, enuraged unknown numbers of men and women to explore and pursue homosexual sir and to form timate and meangful same-sex relatnships on a sle that was prevly returng om bat abroad or ary productn at home, many gay men and lbians opted for the pennce offered by Ameri’s urban centers. As Sherry Wolf scrib her book, Sexualy and Socialism, those arrted often had their nam and pictur published newspapers, which often led to beg fired om their job and beg ostracized by iends and the other hand, Amerin society was more ncerned and terted homosexualy than ever before, thanks part to the 1948 publitn of Aled Ksey’s Sexual Behavr the Human Male, which fundamentally transformed the way society unrstood sexualy and quickly beme a media sensatn.

The Ksey reports showed that homosexual acts were far more wispread among men than prevly assumed, and nclud that such behavr was not as abnormal as believed and would be more openly practiced if weren’t for societal rtrictns and documented Bronksi’s A Queer History of the Uned Stat, durg the 1950s and early '60s, there was an unparalleled outpourg of reprentatn and discsn of gay people lerature and the media. However, as D’E explas Sexual Polics, Sexual Communi, like Mattache, the Dghters of Bilis was heavily fluenced by the opprsive climate of McCarthyism and remaed a self-help anizatn for most of s existence, shyg away om open polil agatn and never growg beyond a uple hundred active gay people the 1960s, there was a ntradictn at play. As David Carter explas his book, Stonewall: The Rts That Sparked the Gay Revolutn, even as eedom, openns, and a mand for change creased throughout society, many areas (and New York particular) were simultaneoly creasg enforcement of anti-homosexual and genr-policg laws to such an extent that many plac beme effective police stat for LGBTQ people.

GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT

Across the natn, genred clothg laws that began to appear the mid-19th century stayed on the books for s, makg variant genr exprsns who were charged wh a sex offense unr dranian laws like the uld lose everythg: profsnal licens, jobs and future prospects, and nnectns wh straight iends and the mid-1960s, thgs started to change the homophile movement.

As documented by D’E Sexual Polics, Sexual Communi, young homophile activists who had not been polilly active durg McCarthyism began to ph for Mattache to take a more ant, bative stance bee they were spired by Ain-Amerins who fied racist opprsn and a petn to the Supreme Court, Frank Kameny, founr of Mattache’s D. Arguably, the most important and largt homophile anizatn the untry was San Francis’s Society for Individual Rights, which anized mpaigns agast police entrapment, phed for anti-discrimatn laws, and spearhead buildg a gay muny 1966, San Francis saw s own precursor to the Stonewall nontatn, the Compton Cafeteria Rts.