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

THE HOMOPHILE eld (1940s-60s WWII, C of age(predicate) War, McCarthyism)1940s Growth in the urban subculture of comical hands and lesbians. Government and police harassment, persecution, and investigation of gays. 1950s-1960s The homophile achievement remained small and comparatively marginalized. End of 1960s Rise of activism + Gay is good Reformist goals decriminalization of homosexual acts, equal treatment and equal rights under the law, dissemination of accurate, indifferent information about crotchet. Achievements right to publish gay and lesbian magazines, beginning employment discrimination cases won, constraints on police harassment, dialogue opened in the scientific and religious communities, media visibility, organizational impulse, denunciation of how gays and lesbians are a mistreated, persecuted minority. Problems nightclubs hostility against homosexuals and the penalties attached to exposure. STONEWALL AND THE EMERGENCE OF RADICAL light LIBERA TION(1969-e1970s) June 1969 Stonewall Riot Symbol of a new militance. end point a radical mass movement. Early 1970s Gay departure Front (GLF) Radical gay and lesbian activism. Influences civil rights movement, Black function movement, white student movement, antiwar movement, and feminism. Goals Attack of the systemic oppression of gays and lesbians. Analysis of gay oppression and sexism. Making common cause with all the oppressed and loyalty to a larger project of political change. Public demonstrations and emphasis on visibility. Achievements New rhetoric of pride and affirmation. Political, social, and cultural organizations that helped build a movement and a community. Public affirmation of homosexual identity (coming out in public). Problems Employment discrimination, arrests, political conservatism, sparing entrenchment, and lack of attention to sexism and racism. A risible RIGHTS MOVEMENT (1970s) Reformative politics Rather than try to destroy the old i n order to build something new, they sought recognition and inclusion in American society. Gay Activist Alliance (GAA). From liberation to activism. Emphasis on coming out and gay rights. They expected and demanded acceptance for who they were. Militant and barbaric protests. Language of pride and self-affirmation rejection of mainstream cultural views of homosexuality. Single-issue organizations, completely gay-focused, with clearly specified structures and processes. Goals death 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, greater visibility, new economic opportunities for gay-oriented businesses (bars, bathhouses, discos, restaurants, etc.