After years of progrs on gay rights, how did the US bee so anti-LGBTQ+? | US news | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY
• I LIKE GUYS BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE GAY. HOW DO I STOP BEG GAY?
• AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?
• STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS
• HOW TO ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE GAY
• CAN PEOPLE STOP BEG GAY?
• 20 ROLUTNS FOR FIGHTG THE GAY AGENDA

GAY

Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a men's rtroom at the Mneapolis airport for allegedly lookg to engage gay sex wrote his June report that he "regnized a signal ed by persons wishg to engage lewd nduct.

Craig told reporters today that he did nothg appropriate and said his guilty plea was a plac like men's rtrooms, airports and tra statns, tck stops, universy librari and parks, have long been plac where gay and bisexual men, particularly those the closet, ngregate orr to meet for anonymo time, people faiar wh cisg told, gay men began g a dified system of signals to dite to others that they were terted sex. In an effort to curb lewd acts public — or as some gays argue, an effort to persecute gay men — unrver police began stg operatns plac known for sex solicg and employed the same s. Bee much of the signalg is self benign behavr, some gay rights activists and lawyers have admonished police partments for arrtg men who have done ltle more than tap their feet.

"Cizens have a right not to nont lewd activy public plac, " said Steve Sanrs, a lawyer and gay rights activist. "But if there is evince that a stg is motivated by anti-gay anim, that may reprent a more troublg issue. If a se like this went to trial, police officers would have to produce evince to say here is how we n say wh certaty this is was really a lewd act, " he plead guilty to the charg and therefore opted agast a, Craig nied beg gay and said he ma a mistake by pleadg officers, for the most part, only vtigate an area after members of the public have plaed about beg ed for sex, said Rich Gregson, executive director of the California Peace Officers Associatn.

I LIKE GUYS BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE GAY. HOW DO I STOP BEG GAY?

"Wh many other optns available for gay men to meet each other, Gershen Kfman, a profsor emer of psychology at Michigan State Universy and thor of the book "Comg Out of Shame, " said public cisg is practiced maly by eply closeted men. ) But if you are one of the gay/bi men out there, like many of , who don't get that same sh om Grdr that you do om furtive eye glanc the sna -- which turn to so much more -- then this article is for you: the 5 do's and 5 don'ts of gay cisg.

Don't take your Rolex or that rg your grandma gave you when she passed away to the gay sna. The age of nsent for gay men was 21, which meant the law was beg broken on a regular basis.

Sectn 28, wh which the Thatcher ernment outlawed the promotn of homosexualy schools, was jt around the rner. Every time he told me this story, my ey would fill wh ’s a monly held misnceptn that the 1967 act legalised male homosexualy.

AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?

In the years that followed, gay sexualy was policed more aggrsively than before and the number of men arrted for breachg those ndns actually rose nsirably. As rearch nducted by Peter Tatchell recently found, 1966 some 420 men were nvicted of the gay crime of gross cency. Policg the 80s and early 90s was vilently homophobic, whipped up by hysteria around Aids and gay-bag newspapers such as the Sun, Daily Mail and News of the World.

Manchter’s police chief, Jam Anrton, penned a tabloid lumn about Aids which he scribed gay men as “swirlg a human csp of their own makg”. I rell durg our bate about gay marriage, a Ukip uncilllor, who is a grown adult, an ted man, genuely said that if the UK legalised gay marriage, we would be “bet by natural disasters such as storms, disease, ptilence and war”. We mt stay vigilantI grew up the north of Ireland - at a time when, as I always say, was almost as difficult to be heterosexual as homosexual.

When I moved to London the mid-1970s, Gay Liberatn had begun, partly as a rult of the 1967 act. Now, 50 years after homosexualy was supposedly “legalised” I have a crimal rerd for a crime that no longer exists, wh no opportuny to apply for to be expunged.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS

I wore my disobedience and ristance to heterosexualy like a badge of between beg sacked om jobs, thrown out of pubs, beaten up, sexually asslted, and labelled a “eak” and “kiddy fiddler”, I was rmed by some gay men and heterosexuals that lbians were not opprsed bee we were “not illegal”. I wnsed women havg their children removed and placed the ctody of vlent ex-partners; beg raped by police officers as “punishment” when our clubs were raid on a pretext; and beg celly rejected by fai and childhood thor Mreen Duffy, now 83, was the first lbian the UK to e out pre-1967 and speak agast anti-gay discrimatn. When I terviewed Duffy she told me that her opn there has long been an assumptn that lbians have historilly not suffered as much direct prejudice as gay men bee the crimal law, until Sectn 28, targeted only men.

Crimal sanctns agast gay men are always terrible, but the punishment of women who transgrs and bee lbians – as wh any women who reject the harsh l of patriarchy – are, many ways worse. The ia that gay people the UK would be nied the right to marry seems antiquated – let alone the ia that they would be if the last few years of polil upheaval have tght anythg, is that the path to equaly is rarely a lear one.

Closer to home, Thera May has signed a aln wh the DUP, who feel margally ls warmly towards gay people than Taylor Swift do towards Katy Perry. Straight iends are shocked to learn that the UK there are still signifint rtrictns on gay men givg blood, or that there are still 29 US stat where is legal to fire somebody for beg gay (never md the untri where rri a ath penalty)’s not to ny how much posive change has occurred - there’s never been a better time to be gay the UK.

HOW TO ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE GAY

The rippl of homophobic legislatn are still beg felt by the gay muny, who are (pendg on the study) between two and 10 tim more likely than straight people to take their own liv.

Life was already impossibly hard for LGBTQ+ people the east Ain untry, where gay sex is illegal and punishable by life imprisonment.

CAN PEOPLE STOP BEG GAY?

Last month, 44 people, mostly gay men, were arrted at an LGBTQ+ shelter on the outskirts of Kampala and charged wh engagg activi likely to spread an fect disease.

20 ROLUTNS FOR FIGHTG THE GAY AGENDA

“That is what I’m dreamg of, ” he says, speakg via Zoom om his home of Sonzal Welfare Tst, a gay and transgenr rights NGO, Aijaz works wh some of the most margalised people this Mlim-majory regn of India. “They [village officials] are skippg the ho of lbians and gays livg together bee they are not nsired a hoehold, ” he says – even upl who have adopted panmic has also forced LGBTQ+ people back to fay hom marred by homophobia and stigma.