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Gay Rights Through the Decades

Freedom and the principle that all men are created equal are the foundations of what the United States of America was founded upon. Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the founding fathers of our nation wanted a nation that everyone is free and equal. Almost 300 years later, slow progression has been made to reach towards these goals. A recent issue that has been put on the table pertaining to equality is rights and equality of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) citizens. The LGBT community has been striving for their rights and equality while others are striving to prevent the LGBT rights. Various events and milestones in LGBT history have shaped the landscape of the U.S. and continues to shape it.

The issue of gay rights has been a talked about in the country for almost a century. History of the movement had a rocky start when the country had many issues going on at the end of the beginning of the 20th century. At the time, gay rights was not a discussed topic and many individuals that identified as gay kept their identity a secret and did not talk about it. Henry Gerber, and immigrant from Germany, thought that the way that sexual identity was treated in America was wrong compared to his homeland. Arriving to America, he was institutionalized for his orientation. After inspiration from a German doctor about anti-gay discrimination, Gerber established the first American gay rights organization in Chicago in 1924 called the Society for Human Rights. The group had a publication called Friendship and Freedom to distribute, but only had two issues distributed. Gerber had a hard time finding members and allies that would support his organization. Professionals in the medical and psychology field wanted to support the organization, but they believed that supporting the organization would damage their reputations in their fields. The group had a short life due to political pressure and a series of arrests in the summer of 1925, causing the group to eventually disband.

In the 1950s, the United States was a conservative time when the ideals of McCarthyism was in the air and the there was a fear of the spread of communism throughout the world. The decade was a time when homosexuality was misunderstood to the extreme. In April of 1950, the American Psychological Association deemed homosexuality as a mental illness under sociopathic personality disturbance. Since deemed as a mental disorder, a Senate Report was issued stating that individuals that identified as gay were a security risk to the government, believing they are mentally unstable and engage acted that were perverted. As a result of the report, around 500 people that worked for the government were fired and there around 4,400 military discharges believing that they were gay and became known as the ‘Lavender Scare’. Following the report, in 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, which banned homosexuals from working in federal government position and with private contractors. Even though these laws were enacted pushing out gay rights out of the picture, there were still individuals that were pursuing for rights and equality among the gay community. In 1950, Harry Hay and other men founded the Mattachine Society, which is considered the first modern gay rights organization. Some of their priorities were to redefine what the term gay meant and to establish a comprehensive program for cultural and political liberation. In 1951, they started to hold discussion group to let individuals express their thoughts and feelings as a gay individual. The same year they added a mission statement to their organization to have the vision of gay liberation become a reality and stand out in history by two themes: first is to challenge anti-gay discrimination and two to build a community of support. The organization started to grow and had a membership of over 5,000 at its largest. Soon enough an article about the organization made the organization look like it was linked to communism. This caused a scare among the members. Conventions occurred to show that the group was not part of communism ideals or was not enacting it, but these attempts failed. Due to the failure, many feared that an investigation by the government and expose its member to the public. This resulted in the founders leaving and caused the attendance of the groups to fall and eventually end.

The Mattachine Society was not the only group to start out during this time. The Daughters of Bilitis, founded in 1955, was the first support and advocate group for lesbian women. It was founded Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, who wanted a safe space for lesbian women to be able to socialize with other lesbian women. The group’s statement of purpose was to educate how to adjust and adapt to gradually win acceptance through education. They invited individuals from the medical field to speak at their meetings, but backfired a lot because the professionals wanted to the members as clients of theirs. Despite this issue, the group started to spread rapidly due to their magazine ,The Ladder, which lasted from 1956 – 1972. Due to the changing cultural and political landscape in the 1960’s and the rise of the feminist movement, the group started to decline. The demise of the magazine signaled the end of the group, with the last chapter closing in 1978.

The 1960s brought a lot of changes to the country and many movements was on the rise. In 1969, the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Bronx, was raided by police to arrest bar patrons. The patrons had enough and people fought back and evolved into a three day riot. This event was called the Stonewall Riots and is considered to have started the gay rights movement. The one year anniversary of the riots was a march through New York City, called the Christopher St. Liberation Day March, is considered the first gay pride in the Unites States.

Jeanne Manford was with her son, Morty, at the march and walked with her son and many people came up to her and asked her for help with coming out to their parents. She came up with the idea of starting a support group. She held the first meeting of her support group in 1973 with an attendance of 20 people. Groups similar to Manford’s started to form around the country. The group grew and became the nation’s largest organization to support gays and lesbians. The organization is known as Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, commonly known as PFLAG. The organization has had an impact with helping distribute information to local communities and schools and has helped with the government to have laws passed to protect LGBT individuals.

The gay rights movement started to gain momentum towards the end of the 20th century. In 1973, the American Psychological Association voted to remove homosexuality from being a mental illness. More support groups started to right and education started to rise, but there were still people who were against homosexuality. Celebrity Anita Bryant started an anti-gay campaign called ‘Save Our Children’ to repeal the gay rights ordinance in Dade county Florida. She was met with severe backlash, being publicly pied in the face and losing many supporters.

During the 1990s and the 2000s the gay rights movement started to become a common topic as far as marriage and military service. In 1993, the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was enacted that prevented open gays and lesbians from serving in the military. 1996 brought Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal benefits to married same sex couples. This did not stop the gay rights movement, it started to push harder. Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same sex marriage. The early 2010s brought many historical movements. The Don’t Ask Don’t tell policy was repealed and allowed openly gays and lesbians to serve in the military. Proposition 8, a law passed in 2008 that banned same sex marriage in California, was found unconstitutional in 2010 and ended in 2013. A historical victory in the gay rights movement was the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing same sex marriage nationwide.

The gay rights movement has been a major part of American history. It has brought to the light that everyone is equal and should be treated equal. Every advancement of the movement is one step closer to achieve equality and exercise these rights with obligations that America was founded upon.

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