gay | Time

Contents:

• FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL IS PART OF THE STATE'S LONG, SHAMEFUL HISTORY
• GAY PEOPLE WHO E OUT LATER LIFE FACE UNIQUE OBSTACL
• HOW TIME’S REPORTG ON GAY LIFE AMERI SHAPED—AND SKEWED—A GENERATN’S ATTUS
• GAY

FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL IS PART OF THE STATE'S LONG, SHAMEFUL HISTORY

As the gay marriage movement gas momentum and even the Print is on board wh the ia of , more and more people are able to walk proudly to their sexual out happens no matter your age, race or cultural herage. Now that I'm 50 and encroachg 51 jt a few weeks, I n't help but wonr what would have happened if I'd waed even longer to stake my claim and live my tth as a gay than drown myself prsg thoughts about what uld have been, I'd rather share what I see happeng wh men my practice who are 50+; men jt begng their trek out of the and foremost, I appld the men. Anyone n fd sex for a night, but tak a termed gay man to fd love that lasts longer than a sgle often than not, gay men who e out later life are leavg behd a wife, kids, grandkids, gaful employment and stabily.

If you allow assumptns about your worth on the gay market to monopolize your thoughts then you'll fall to the GGWDID Syndrome: Good Grief What Did I Do! Crics of what they ll the “Don’t Say Gay” bill fear that will end the teachg of LGBTQ history Florida’s public schools and expose the schools to a flood of lawsus.

Disney officials have publicly opposed the new law, argug that “ uld be ed to unfairly target gay, lbian, non-bary and transgenr kds and fai, ” and lled for the urts to validate . In tryg to unrstand why a purple state like Florida fds self the current prediment, very ltle has been said about the state’s long history as Ameri’s breedg ground for toxic anti-gay polics and how this history may have rmed the parental rights bill. Florida’s renown for homophobic attacks go back to the now-fotten Florida Legislative Invtigatns Commtee, also known as the Johns Commtee, a wch hunt rooted racism, homophobia, and anti-munism.

GAY PEOPLE WHO E OUT LATER LIFE FACE UNIQUE OBSTACL

Named after fluential state senator and former Florida ernor Charley Johns, this ignoble body spent the years of 1957 through 1963 outg, persecutg, and timidatg people spected of beg gay at Florida’s state universi. This effort culmated wh the release 1964 of the report “Homosexualy and Cizenship Florida, ” also known as “The Purple Pamphlet” bee of s lurid ntent. Des after the Johns Commtee me Save Our Children, a 1977 anti-gay rights csa led by Ana Bryant, a untry mic sger and nner up to the Miss Ameri tle.

Wily-regnized as the first anized opposn to gay rights the Uned Stat, this notor extravaganza of li, sults, and nspiracy theori about homosexuals succsfully st gay men as pedophil and predators overturng an ordance enacted by Da County banng discrimatn hog, employment and public acmodatn on the basis of sexual orientatn. Throughout the repeal mpaign Bryant routely referred to homosexuals as “human garbage, ” while cricizg the ordance “as an attempt to legimize homosexuals and their recment of our children. ” In ads nng Da County newspapers Bryant ntend that “the recment of our children is absolutely necsary for the survival and growth of homosexualy—for sce homosexuals nnot reproduce, they mt rec, mt hen their ranks.

The csa prompted Florida’s legislature to enact the natn’s first ban on gay adoptns, even though at the time no gay adoptn had taken place anywhere Florida.

HOW TIME’S REPORTG ON GAY LIFE AMERI SHAPED—AND SKEWED—A GENERATN’S ATTUS

It also ntributed to Florida beg one of the last stat to legalize homosexual sex; only did so 2003 when the Supreme Court overturned the state’s banng sodomy, alongsi the sodomy laws of 13 other stat, the Lawrence v. Bryant’s tactics were also emulated across the Uned Stat, ocsng a wave of gay-rights feats other stat, cludg rtorg Arkansas’ anti-sodomy law and banng gays and lbians om teachg public schools Oklahoma.

GAY

Bryant’s anti-gay csa also help give rise to the Christian Right by herg the Moral Majory, whose founr, televangelist Jerry Falwell, famoly issued a “claratn of war on homosexualy” 1979. ” Wh the 2016 bloody massacre at the gay nightclub Pulse, the cy of Orlando, Florida gaed a reputatn for homophobic lethal vlence. LGBTQ Amerins are still wag for an acknowledgement om the Lavenr Sre, a mid-century wch hunt of feral workers spected of beg homosexual triggered by Print Dwight Eisenhower’s 1953 Executive Orr 10450 banng “perverts” om workg the feral employment.

It rulted thoands of homosexuals or spected homosexuals losg their reers the feral ernment, wh some nfed to mental stutns, pecially Washgton DC’s St. There also has been no acknowledgement for “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, ” the Clton-era policy that allowed gay men and women to serve the ary as long as they kept their sexual orientatn a secret. Endg the amnia surroundg anti-gay reprsn and vlence has recent years emerged as a new ont gay activism, and this offers hope for rtorg the historil memory of attempts by Florida and other loli to systemilly opprs LGBTQ people.