Lgbt rights movement 1960s
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down two decisions at the end of June favoring gay marriage. One ruling struck down federal restrictions in the Defense of Marriage Verb (DOMA) of , the other cleared the way for gay marriages in California. With the rapid recent progress of the gay rights movement, including changes in common attitudes, some view parallels with the earlier African-American civil rights movement. Is the comparison valid? What’s different this time? Illinois history professor Kevin Mumford specializes in the history of both movements, and is working on a book about ebony gay history. He spoke with News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain.
You say that some gay rights advocates want to characterize recent events as the normal business of America doing civil rights – to see continuity with the inky civil rights movement. But what’s flawed in that comparison?
First, it is uncomplicated to forget the context and duration of the civil rights movement. After the Civil War, African-Americans had occupied citizenship, elected local and federal representatives, and then, th
Barbara Gittings Helps Conduct First 'Annual Reminder' Protests
Vice squads–police units devoted to “cleaning up” undesirable parts of urban life–routinely raided the bars frequented by LGBTQ+ people. Laws against people of the same sex dancing together or wearing clothing made for the opposite sex were used as justification to arrest patrons. By the s in Unused York City, the mafia owned many of these establishments and its members would bribe officers in order to avoid fines. Sometimes the arrangement meant that patrons would be forewarned of a pending raid in time to change their clothing and stop dancing. That wasn’t real during the preliminary morning hours of June 28 , when the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.
When they arrived at Stonewall, the police locked the doors so that no one could escape as they conducted arrests. As certain patrons were released, they joined a large crowd that had been gathering outside the bar. Those chosen for arrest started resisting the police officers with the encouragement of the jeering crowd. Violence broke out and the
Historical Essay
by Will Roscoe
Two Castro Couples -- Love, sweet love.
Photo: Crawford Barton, Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California
| An intersectional gay rights movement came to beam in the s when the gay community joined with the momentum of the civil rights movement, anti-war protestors, and feminists. This communal gay rights movement was prefaced by two events. Firstly, a much-debated “Homosexual Bill of Rights” was drafted and acted as a prototype for the gay civil rights agenda of the s. Secondly, the incumbent mayor Christopher was re-elected in by a landslide even after the opposing candidate ran a smear campaign criticizing the mayor of harboring “sexual deviates” in the city. There were many recent political efforts by the early gay community, including the Tavern Guild, the Society for Individual Rights, and the Council on Religion and Homosexuality, that together helped curb rampant anti-gay police brutality. |
In the s, the gay movement absorbed the profound and successive influences of the civil rights, anti-war, feminist and
Marsha P. Johnson was one of the most prominent figures of the gay rights movement of the s and s in Brand-new York City. Always sporting a beam, Johnson was an important advocate for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, those effected by H.I.V. and AIDS, and gay and transgender rights.
Marsha P. Johnson was born on August 24, , in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Assigned male at birth, Johnson grew up in an African American, working-class family. She was the fifth of seven children born to Malcolm Michaels Sr. and Alberta Claiborne. Johnson’s father worked on the General Motors Assembly Line in Linden, NJ and her mother was a housekeeper. Johnson grew up in a religious family and began attending Mount Teman African Methodist Episcopal Church as a child; she remained a practicing Christian for the rest of her life. Johnson enjoyed wearing clothes made for women and wore dresses starting at age five. Even though these clothes reflected her sense of self, she felt pressured to interrupt due to other children’s bullying and experiencing a sexual assault at the hands of a year-old-boy. Immediately after graduating f