A brief history of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr social movements

Contents:

• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• ‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT BEG GAY?: PERSPECTIV OM YOUTH
• IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?

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

Or even LGBTQIA+ History terms for the muny of people that enpass people who are lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer, tersex, and asexual are as broad as that muny self: As society’s unrstandg, regnn, and cln of diverse sexual inti and genr exprsns has grown, so has s acronym.

‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’

Over time, grew populary and was adopted by women who secretly, then proudly, loved other dawn of “homosexualy” and “bisexualy”Karl Herich Ulrichs, a 19th century German lawyer and wrer who may have intified as gay, was the first to try to label his own muny. In 1869, the Pssian ernment ntemplated addg language that forba male same-genr sexual activy to s rponse, Kertbeny wrote a passnate, anonymo open letter to the Pssian mister of jtice llg the proposed law “shockg nonsense” and g the word “homosexualy, ” which he had prevly ed a private letter to Ulrichs. “Transgenr” be part of LGBTIn the 1990s, the longstandg bonds between lbian, gay, and bisexual people both daily life and liberatn activism led to the wispread adoptn of the LGB acronym (lbian, gay and bisexual) took longer to ga acceptance for another term that is now part of the morn acronym: “transgenr.

THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS

However, throughout 150 years of homosexual social movements (roughly om the 1870s to today), lears and anizers stggled to addrs the very different ncerns and inty issu of gay men, women intifyg as lbians, and others intifyg as genr variant or nonbary.

Such eyewns acunts the era before other media were of urse riddled wh the bias of the (often) Wtern or Whe observer, and add to beliefs that homosexual practic were other, foreign, savage, a medil issue, or evince of a lower racial hierarchy.

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. The blu mic of Ain-Amerin women showsed varieti of lbian sire, stggle, and humor; the performanc, along wh male and female drag stars, troduced a gay unrworld to straight patrons durg Prohibn’s fiance of race and sex s speakeasy clubs.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

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.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT BEG GAY?: PERSPECTIV OM YOUTH

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. In the same era, one wg of the polil gay movement lled for an end to ary expulsn of gay, lbian, and bisexual soldiers, wh the high-profile se of Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer publicized through a ma-for-televisn movie, “Servg Silence.

IS A PERSON ‘BORN GAY’, OR IS BEG GAY A LEARNED BEHAVR?

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. You so obvly nnot be gay, was her implitn, bee this is good was 2006, a full five years before Lady Gaga would set the Born This Way argument atop s unassailable cultural perch, but even then the popular unrstandg of orientatn was that was somethg you were born wh, somethg you uldn’t change.