Gay Rights - Movement, Marriage & Flag | HISTORY

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• GAY RIGHTS
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• U.S. REPRENTATIVE BARNEY FRANK COM OUTBARNEY FRANK WAS FIRST ELECTED TO THE MASSACHETTS HOE OF REPRENTATIV 1972 AND SERVED UNTIL HIS ELECTN TO THE U.S. HOE OF REPRENTATIV 1980, BUT DID NOT YET PUBLICLY INTIFY AS LGBTQ. AAID THAT G OUT MIGHT HURT HIS REER, FRANK LGERED THE CLOSET UNTIL 1987, WHEN HE BEME THE FIRST MEMBER OF CONGRS TO VOLUNTARILY E OUT PUBLICLY AS LGBTQ+.“FOR MANY YEARS, I WAS ASHAMED OF MYSELF FOR HIDG MY MEMBERSHIP A UNIVERSALLY SPISED GROUP. I’D BEEN AAID OF EXPOSURE, AND ANGRY AT MYSELF FOR MY SELF-NIAL. I’D FELT SHAME AS I WATCHED YOUNGER GAY MEN AND LBIANS NONT THE BIGOTS OPENLY WH A URAGE THAT I LACKED. AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS, LYG TO PEOPLE WAS MUCH EASIER EMOTNALLY THAN FALLY ADMTG MY LIE,” FRANK WROTE POLI ON MARCH 12, 2015, AN EXCERPT OM HIS BOOK, FRANK: A LIFE POLICS OM THE GREAT SOCIETY TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE.BUT FRANK RECEIVED UNEXPECTED SUPPORT AND LUXURIATED BEG AN OUT GAY REPRENTATIVE. “I’M ED TO BEG A MORY. HEY, I’M A LEFT-HAND GAY JEW. I’VE NEVER FELT, TOMATILLY, A MEMBER OF ANY MAJORY,” FRANK SAID A NEW YORK TIM MAGAZE TERVIEW FEBARY 4, 1996. WHEN REPUBLIN HOE MAJORY LEAR DICK ARMEY REFERRED TO HIM AS “BARNEY FAG,” FRANK REFED TO ACCEPT THE RIGHT-WGER’S APOLOGY, AND THE SLUR REBOUND ON ARMEY. OVER TIME, FRANK WOULD BEE ONE OF THE MOST FLUENTIAL MEMBERS OF THE U.S. CONGRS, PLAYG A KEY ROLE AS CHAIR OF THE HOE FANCIAL SERVIC COMMTEE. HE WOULD BE REELECTED 12 TIM.‍JOHN LAIRD ELECTED ONE OF FIRST GAY MAYORS THE U.S.JOHN LAIRD’S LONG REER PUBLIC SERVICE BEGAN 1981 WH A SUCCSFUL RACE FOR THE SANTA CZ CY COUNCIL, WHERE HE SERVED UNTIL 1990. BUT HE WAS PUBLICLY CLOSETED UNTIL 1983, WHEN HE RPOND TO A REPORTER’S QUTN ABOUT HIS SEXUAL ORIENTATN BY TELLG THEM HE WAS GAY. LAIRD LATER TOLD “I SAID Y, AND EMBARKED ON AN UNPLANNED MEDIA ROLLER-ASTER RI. I WAS ON THE ONT PAGE OF MOST CALIFORNIA NEWSPAPERS AND MA THE PL HARVEY NEWS. SAN FRANCIS TELEVISN REPORTS REFERRED TO ME AS "AN AVOWED HOMOSEXUAL." AND I WAS VED TO SPEAK AT THE FIFTH MILK/MOSNE NDLELIGHT MARCH.”YET SHORTLY AFTER, FELLOW CY UNCILMEMBERS ELECTED HIM TO A ONE-YEAR TERM AS MAYOR, MAKG HIM ONE OF THE FIRST OUT LGBTQ+ MAYORS U.S. HISTORY. HE WOULD SERVE AGA AS MAYOR OM 1987 TO 1988. IN 2002, HE WAS ELECTED TO THE CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY AND SERVED UNTIL 2008. IN 2020, HE WAS ELECTED TO THE CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE, MAKG HIM ONE OF THE LONGT SERVG OUT LGBTQ+ ELECTED OFFICIALS.KEY WT MAK HISTORY ELECTG RICHARD HEYMAN
• HOW GAY ACTIVISTS CHALLENGED THE POLICS OF CIVILY
• A GLIMPSE INTO 1970S GAY ACTIVISM
• HOW GAY ACTIVISTS 1980S NYC RALLIED POLICE TO THEIR SI

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

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. 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. 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.

GAY RIGHTS

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.

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).

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

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. Army service World War I, Gerber was spired to create his anizatn by the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee, a “homosexual emancipatn” group ’s small group published a few issu of s newsletter “Friendship and Freedom, ” the untry’s first gay-tert newsletter.

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.

U.S. REPRENTATIVE BARNEY FRANK COM OUTBARNEY FRANK WAS FIRST ELECTED TO THE MASSACHETTS HOE OF REPRENTATIV 1972 AND SERVED UNTIL HIS ELECTN TO THE U.S. HOE OF REPRENTATIV 1980, BUT DID NOT YET PUBLICLY INTIFY AS LGBTQ. AAID THAT G OUT MIGHT HURT HIS REER, FRANK LGERED THE CLOSET UNTIL 1987, WHEN HE BEME THE FIRST MEMBER OF CONGRS TO VOLUNTARILY E OUT PUBLICLY AS LGBTQ+.“FOR MANY YEARS, I WAS ASHAMED OF MYSELF FOR HIDG MY MEMBERSHIP A UNIVERSALLY SPISED GROUP. I’D BEEN AAID OF EXPOSURE, AND ANGRY AT MYSELF FOR MY SELF-NIAL. I’D FELT SHAME AS I WATCHED YOUNGER GAY MEN AND LBIANS NONT THE BIGOTS OPENLY WH A URAGE THAT I LACKED. AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS, LYG TO PEOPLE WAS MUCH EASIER EMOTNALLY THAN FALLY ADMTG MY LIE,” FRANK WROTE POLI ON MARCH 12, 2015, AN EXCERPT OM HIS BOOK, FRANK: A LIFE POLICS OM THE GREAT SOCIETY TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE.BUT FRANK RECEIVED UNEXPECTED SUPPORT AND LUXURIATED BEG AN OUT GAY REPRENTATIVE. “I’M ED TO BEG A MORY. HEY, I’M A LEFT-HAND GAY JEW. I’VE NEVER FELT, TOMATILLY, A MEMBER OF ANY MAJORY,” FRANK SAID A NEW YORK TIM MAGAZE TERVIEW FEBARY 4, 1996. WHEN REPUBLIN HOE MAJORY LEAR DICK ARMEY REFERRED TO HIM AS “BARNEY FAG,” FRANK REFED TO ACCEPT THE RIGHT-WGER’S APOLOGY, AND THE SLUR REBOUND ON ARMEY. OVER TIME, FRANK WOULD BEE ONE OF THE MOST FLUENTIAL MEMBERS OF THE U.S. CONGRS, PLAYG A KEY ROLE AS CHAIR OF THE HOE FANCIAL SERVIC COMMTEE. HE WOULD BE REELECTED 12 TIM.‍JOHN LAIRD ELECTED ONE OF FIRST GAY MAYORS THE U.S.JOHN LAIRD’S LONG REER PUBLIC SERVICE BEGAN 1981 WH A SUCCSFUL RACE FOR THE SANTA CZ CY COUNCIL, WHERE HE SERVED UNTIL 1990. BUT HE WAS PUBLICLY CLOSETED UNTIL 1983, WHEN HE RPOND TO A REPORTER’S QUTN ABOUT HIS SEXUAL ORIENTATN BY TELLG THEM HE WAS GAY. LAIRD LATER TOLD “I SAID Y, AND EMBARKED ON AN UNPLANNED MEDIA ROLLER-ASTER RI. I WAS ON THE ONT PAGE OF MOST CALIFORNIA NEWSPAPERS AND MA THE PL HARVEY NEWS. SAN FRANCIS TELEVISN REPORTS REFERRED TO ME AS "AN AVOWED HOMOSEXUAL." AND I WAS VED TO SPEAK AT THE FIFTH MILK/MOSNE NDLELIGHT MARCH.”YET SHORTLY AFTER, FELLOW CY UNCILMEMBERS ELECTED HIM TO A ONE-YEAR TERM AS MAYOR, MAKG HIM ONE OF THE FIRST OUT LGBTQ+ MAYORS U.S. HISTORY. HE WOULD SERVE AGA AS MAYOR OM 1987 TO 1988. IN 2002, HE WAS ELECTED TO THE CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY AND SERVED UNTIL 2008. IN 2020, HE WAS ELECTED TO THE CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE, MAKG HIM ONE OF THE LONGT SERVG OUT LGBTQ+ ELECTED OFFICIALS.KEY WT MAK HISTORY ELECTG RICHARD HEYMAN

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. " This sign was wrten by the Mattache Society–an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay reportg the events, The New York Daily News rorted to homophobic slurs s tailed verage, nng the headle: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad. 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.

Siar groups followed, cludg the Gay Activists Alliance, Radilbians, and Street Transvt Actn Revolutnari (STAR) 1970, at the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, New York Cy muny members marched through lol streets memoratn of the event. 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.

HOW GAY ACTIVISTS CHALLENGED THE POLICS OF CIVILY

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.

A GLIMPSE INTO 1970S GAY ACTIVISM

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. 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.

The European powers enforced their own crimal s agast what was lled sodomy the New World: the first known se of homosexual activy receivg a ath sentence North Ameri occurred 1566, when the Spanish executed a Frenchman Florida.

HOW GAY ACTIVISTS 1980S NYC RALLIED POLICE TO THEIR SI

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. 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.

And polil actn explod through the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign, the electn of openly gay and lbian reprentativ like Elae Noble and Barney Frank, and, 1979, the first march on Washgton for gay rights. 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.