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.
Contents:
- THE STONEWALL RTS DIDN’T START THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
- GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT SUMMARY
THE STONEWALL RTS DIDN’T START THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Des of pa and perseverance San Francis's gay muny fally led to vditn the Bay Area and across the natn. This is a timele of historil events. * gay rights movement in sf *
The California Supreme Court l that gays have the right to assemble, leadg to a proliferatn of gay bars and eventually the formatn of social and polil groups San Francis’s gay muny. While the Stonewall Inn New York's Greenwich village was the se of the 1969 rts that lnched the gay rights movement, the first rerd uprisg actually began three years earlier San Francis.
From 1942 to 1943, ary patrols known as the San Francis Moral Drive targeted and raid the gay bars of San Francis, claimg to be protectg servicemen om homosexuals. However, by the end of the 1940s, the gay bar scene was growg and queer bars beme not only a safe space for gay and lbian people, but also a statn for visors to the cy, who watched performanc and mgled wh the lols.
Many beat poets, cludg those who were openly gay such as Allen Gsberg, me to San Francis due to the more permissive environment and aligned themselv wh LGBTQ+ groups. The Dghters of Bilis, found 1955, was the first lbian-centred anisatn the USA, while the Mattache Society, one of the earlit gay rights anizatns the USA, beme headquartered San Francis 1956. It has bright neon rabow lights, vtage furnure, and huge wdows which display all the fun si, a tribute to beg the first gay bar to not have blackout wdows San Francis.
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
The Stonewall Rts, also lled the Stonewall Uprisg, took place on June 28, 1969, New York Cy, after police raid the Stonewall Inn, a lol gay club. The raid sparked a rt among bar patrons and neighborhood rints as police hled employe and patrons out of the bar, leadg to six days of protts and vlent clash. The Stonewall Rts served as a talyst for the gay rights movement. * gay rights movement in sf *
The story is well known: A route police raid of a mafia-owned gay bar New York Cy sparked three nights of rts and, wh them, the global gay rights movement.
But there were gay activists before that early morng of June 28, 1969, prev rebellns of LGBTQ people agast police, earlier lls for “gay power, ” and earlier rts.
The story of how this particular night and this particular bar me to signify global gay rebelln is a story of how llective memory works and how social movements anize to memorate their gas. Crage tail four prev police raids on gay bars ci across the Uned Stat that prompted activist rpons—and lol gas—but that eher fad om lol memory, did not spire memoratns that lasted, or did not motivate activists other ci.
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
* gay rights movement in sf *
For example, San Francis activists mobilized rponse to police raids on gay bars the early 1960s, which me to a head durg a raid on a New Year’s Eve ball 1965 that eventually brought down the police missner. The cy’s gay tablishment did not participate, however, and distanced themselv om the transgenr and street youths and their polil anizatn, Vanguard, behd the “vlent” prott.
C., LGBTQ veterans chose the Pentagon as their place to picket, makg onto natnal televisn wh signs readg, “Homosexual cizens want to serve their untry too. There was an annual monstratn for gay civil rights before Stonewall, however, and provis the bt example of how gay polics were growg and changg before the rts.
HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
The Castro, a televisn documentary, chronicl the dramatic saga of a muny that has bee an ternatnal symbol of gay liberatn. * gay rights movement in sf *
The “Annual Remrs” were the rult of ordatn by activists New York, Washgton, and Philalphia, evince of burgeong regnal operatn by gay rights activists the 1960s. The ordated march Los Angel, New York, and Chigo 1970 were the first gay pri paras, and sparked an ia that spread around the untry—to 116 ci the Uned Stat and 30 untri around the world. As Armstrong and Crage have wrten, “whout the existence of homophile anizatns elsewhere, many of them found only the late 1960s, a natnal event would have been unthkable.
” Stonewall was an “achievement of gay liberatn, ” and not s e, and an achievement of llective memory and llective actn, if not the first LGBTQ rt or prott. ” Unlike the Annual Remr, which addrsed the state assertg the siary of homosexuals wh heterosexual cizens, para participants celebrated their differenc and aimed to change mds, not laws. As activists memorate the Stonewall Rts 2019, perhaps they should also lay plans for next year, to remember the fiftieth anniversary of the first gay pri para 2020.
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT SUMMARY
The Gale Archiv of Sexualy and Genr nta rourc for rearch on the LGBT rights movement. Learn more about the gay rights movement history. * gay rights movement in sf *
The Stonewall Rts, also lled the Stonewall Uprisg, began the early hours of June 28, 1969 when New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay club loted Greenwich Village New York Cy. For stance, solicatn of same-sex relatns was illegal New York such reasons, LGBT dividuals flocked to gay bars and clubs, plac of refuge where they uld exprs themselv openly and socialize whout worry. However, the New York State Liquor Authory penalized and shut down tablishments that served alhol to known or spected LGBT dividuals, argug that the mere gatherg of homosexuals was “disorrly.
But engagg gay behavr public (holdg hands, kissg or dancg wh someone of the same sex) was still illegal, so police harassment of gay bars ntued and many bars still operated whout liquor licens— part bee they were owned by the Rights Before StonewallThe first documented U.
San Francis was the first cy to elect an openly gay man to public office. The Castro district gave birth to the LGBT civil rights movement. LGBT... * gay rights movement in sf *
Police raids forced them to disband 1925, but not before they had published several issu of their newsletter, “Friendship and Freedom, ” the untry’s first gay-tert newsletter. In 1966, three years before Stonewall, members of The Mattache Society, an anizatn dited to gay rights, staged a “sip-” where they openly clared their sexualy at taverns, darg staff to turn them away and sug tablishments who did.
The June 1969 Stonewall rts New York sparked the gay rights movement. But three years earlier, unrt San Francis marked the transgenr muny's public but the rights stggle. * gay rights movement in sf *
When The Commissn on Human Rights led that gay dividuals had the right to be served bars, police raids were temporarily Stonewall Inn The crime syndite saw prof terg to shunned gay clientele, and by the mid-1960s, the Genove crime fay ntrolled most Greenwich Village gay bars. And was one of the few—if not the only—gay bar left that allowed were still a fact of life, but ually rpt ps would tip off Mafia-n bars before they occurred, allowg owners to stash the alhol (sold whout a liquor license) and hi other illegal activi. Stonewall's LegacyThough the Stonewall uprisg didn’t start the gay rights movement, was a galvanizg force for LGBT polil activism, leadg to numero gay rights anizatns, cludg the Gay Liberatn Front, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD (formerly Gay and Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn), and PFLAG (formerly Parents, Fai and Friends of Lbians and Gays) the one-year anniversary of the rts on June 28, 1970, thoands of people marched the streets of Manhattan om the Stonewall Inn to Central Park what was then lled “Christopher Street Liberatn Day, ” Ameri’s first gay pri para.
”In 2016, then-Print Barack Obama signated the se of the rts—Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and the surroundg streets and siwalks—a natnal monument regnn of the area’s ntributn to gay Gallery The Stonewall Inn is a bar loted New York Cy’s Greenwich Village that served as a haven the 1960s for the cy’s gay, lbian and transgenr muny.
Most gay bars and clubs New York at the time were operated by the Mafia, who paid rptible police officers to look the other way and blackmailed wealthy gay patrons by threateng to “out” them.