History of the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement :: Gays and Lesbians in America

THE HOMOPHILE YEARS (1940s-60s WWII, Cold War, McCarthyism)1940s Growth in the urban subculture of merry men and lesbians. Government and police harassment, persecution, and investigation of gays. 1950s-1960s The homophile front line remained sm exclusively and relatively marginalized. End of 1960s Rise of activism + Gay is right Reformist goals decriminalization of homosexual acts, equal treatment and equal rights low the law, dissemination of accurate, unbiased information about homosexuality. Achievements right to publish gay and lesbian magazines, first employment discrimination cases won, constraints on police harassment, discourse opened in the scientific and religious communities, media visibility, organizational impulse, denunciation of how gays and lesbians atomic number 18 a mistreated, persecuted minority. Problems Societys hostility against homosexuals and the penalties attached to exposure. STONEWALL AND THE military issue OF RADICAL GAY LIBERAT ION(1969-e mid-seventies) June 1969 Stonewall Riot Symbol of a new militance. Result a radical mass movement. Early 1970s Gay Liberation Front (GLF) Radical gay and lesbian activism. Influences urbane rights movement, Black Power movement, white student movement, antiwar movement, and feminism. Goals Attack of the systemic subjugation of gays and lesbians. Analysis of gay oppression and sexism. Making common cause with all the oppressed and commitment to a larger project of political change. open demonstrations and emphasis on visibility. Achievements New rhetoric of pride and affirmation. Political, social, and cultural organizations that helped relieve oneself a movement and a community. Public affirmation of homosexual indistinguishability (coming out in public). Problems Employment discrimination, arrests, political conservatism, economic entrenchment, and lack of direction to sexism and racism. A GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT (1970s) Reformative politics Rather than discover to destroy the old in order to build something new, they sought acknowledgment and inclusion in American society. Gay Activist Alliance (GAA). From going to activism. Emphasis on coming out and gay rights. They expected and demanded acceptance for who they were. Militant and angry protests. Language of pride and self-affirmation rejection of mainstream cultural views of homosexuality. Single-issue organizations, completely gay-focused, with distinctly specified structures and processes. Goals ending job discrimination, media invisibility, church and military discrimination. Achievements 1973 the American psychiatric Association eliminates homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. less discrimination and harassment, great visibility, new economic opportunities for gay-oriented businesses (bars, bathhouses, discos, restaurants, etc.