Brief overview of the GLBTI Community
I. History of lesbian, gay, and bisexual social movements
Most historians agree that there is evidence of homosexual activity and
same-sex love, whether such relationships were accepted or persecuted, in every
documented culture.
A. European history
There was little formal study of homosexuality before the 19th century,
however. Early efforts to understand the range of human sexual behavior came
from European doctors and scientists, including Sigmund Freud and Magnus
Hirschfield. Their writings were sympathetic to the concept of a homosexual or
bisexual orientation occurring naturally in an identifiable segment of
humankind, and Freud himself did not consider homosexuality an illness or a
crime. Hirschfield founded Berlin's Institute for Sexual Science, Europe's best
library archive of materials on gay cultural history. These efforts contrasted
with the backlash, in England, against gay and lesbian writers such as Oscar
Wilde and Radclyffe Hall. With the rise of Hitler's Third Reich, however, the
former tolerance demonstrated by Germany's Scientific Humanitarian Committee
vanished. Hirschfield's great library was destroyed and the books burnt by Nazis
on May 10, 1933.
B. United States history
In the United States, few attempts were made to create advocacy groups
supporting gay and lesbian relationships until after World War II, although
prewar gay life flourished in urban centers such as Greenwich Village and Harlem
during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. The disruptions of World War II
allowed formerly isolated gay men and women to meet as soldiers, war workers,
and other volunteers uprooted from small towns and posted worldwide. Greater
awareness, coupled with Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigation of homosexuals
holding government jobs during the early 1950s, led to the first American-based
political demands for fair treatment in mental health, public policy, and
employment.
1. Advances in the 1950s and 1960s
The primary organization acknowledging gay men as an oppressed cultural
minority was the Mattachine Society, founded in 1950 by Harry Hay and Chuck
Rowland. Other important homophile organizations on the West Coast included One,
Inc., founded in 1952, and the first lesbian support network, Daughters of
Bilitis, founded in 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. Through meetings and
publications, these groups offered information and outreach to thousands. These
first organizations soon found support from prominent sociologists and
psychologists. In 1951, Donald Webster Cory published The Homosexual in America
(Cory, 1951), asserting that gay men and lesbians were a legitimate minority
group, and in 1953, Dr. Evelyn Hooker won a grant from the National Institute of
Mental Health (NIMH) to study gay men. Her groundbreaking paper, presented in
1956, demonstrated that gay men were as well adjusted as heterosexual men, often
more so. But it would not be until 1973 that the American Psychiatric
Association removed homosexuality as an "illness" classification in its
diagnostic manuals. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, gay men and lesbians continued
to be at risk for psychiatric lockup and jail and for losing jobs or child
custody when courts and clinics defi ned gay love as sick, criminal, or
immoral.
2. The civil rights movement
In 1965, as the civil rights movement won new legislation outlawing racial
discrimination, the first gay rights demonstrations took place in Philadelphia
and Washington, DC, led by longtime activists Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings.
The turning point for gay liberation came on June 28, 1969, when patrons of the
popular Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village fought back against
ongoing police raids of their neighborhood bar. Stonewall is still considered a
watershed moment of gay pride and has been commemorated since the 1970s with
"pride marches" held every June across the United States. Recent scholarship has
called for better acknowledgement of the roles that drag performers, minorities,
and transgender patrons played in the Stonewall Riots.
3. The gay liberation movement
The gay liberation movement of the 1970s saw myriad political organizations
spring up, often at odds with one another. Frustrated with the male leadership
of most gay liberation groups, lesbians formed their own collectives, record
labels, music festivals, newspapers, bookstores, and publishing houses and
called for lesbian rights in mainstream feminist groups like the National
Organization for Women (NOW). Expanding religious acceptance for gay men and
women of faith, the first out gay minister was ordained by the United Church of
Christ in 1972. Other gay and lesbian church and synagogue congregations soon
followed. Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), formed in 1972,
offered family members greater support roles in the gay rights movement. And
political action exploded through the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the
Human Rights Campaign, the election of openly gay and lesbian representatives
like Elaine Noble and Barney Frank, and, in 1979, the first march on Washington
for gay rights.
4. 1980s through today
Through the 1980s, as the gay male community was decimated by the AIDS
epidemic, demands for compassion and medical funding led to renewed coalitions
between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups like AIDS
Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Nation. Enormous marches on
Washington drew as many as 1 million gay rights supporters in 1987 and again in
1993. A different wing of the political rights movement called for an end to
military expulsion of gay and lesbian soldiers, with the high-profile case of
Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer publicized through a made-for-television movie,
"Serving in Silence." The patriotism and service of gay men and lesbians in
uniform eventually resulted in the uncomfortable compromise "Don't Ask, Don't
Tell" as an alternative to decades of military witch hunts and dishonorable
discharges. Finally, in the last decade of the 20th century, millions of
Americans watched as actress Ellen DeGeneres came out on national television in
April 1997, heralding a new era of gay celebrity power and media visibility.
Celebrity performers, both gay and heterosexual, have been among the most vocal
activists, calling for tolerance and equal rights. As a result of hard work by
countless organizations and individuals, helped by Internet and direct-mail
campaign networking, the 21st century heralded new legal gains for gay and
lesbian couples. Same-sex civil unions were recognized under Vermont law in
2000, and Massachusetts became the first state to perform same-sex marriages in
2003. With the end of state sodomy laws (Lawrence v. Texas, 2003), gay Americans
were finally free from criminal classification. Gay marriage is now legal in the
Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Canada, although the recognition of gay
marriage by church and state continues to divide opinion
worldwide.
source - http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/history.aspx
Most historians agree that there is evidence of homosexual activity and
same-sex love, whether such relationships were accepted or persecuted, in every
documented culture.
A. European history
There was little formal study of homosexuality before the 19th century,
however. Early efforts to understand the range of human sexual behavior came
from European doctors and scientists, including Sigmund Freud and Magnus
Hirschfield. Their writings were sympathetic to the concept of a homosexual or
bisexual orientation occurring naturally in an identifiable segment of
humankind, and Freud himself did not consider homosexuality an illness or a
crime. Hirschfield founded Berlin's Institute for Sexual Science, Europe's best
library archive of materials on gay cultural history. These efforts contrasted
with the backlash, in England, against gay and lesbian writers such as Oscar
Wilde and Radclyffe Hall. With the rise of Hitler's Third Reich, however, the
former tolerance demonstrated by Germany's Scientific Humanitarian Committee
vanished. Hirschfield's great library was destroyed and the books burnt by Nazis
on May 10, 1933.
B. United States history
In the United States, few attempts were made to create advocacy groups
supporting gay and lesbian relationships until after World War II, although
prewar gay life flourished in urban centers such as Greenwich Village and Harlem
during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. The disruptions of World War II
allowed formerly isolated gay men and women to meet as soldiers, war workers,
and other volunteers uprooted from small towns and posted worldwide. Greater
awareness, coupled with Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigation of homosexuals
holding government jobs during the early 1950s, led to the first American-based
political demands for fair treatment in mental health, public policy, and
employment.
1. Advances in the 1950s and 1960s
The primary organization acknowledging gay men as an oppressed cultural
minority was the Mattachine Society, founded in 1950 by Harry Hay and Chuck
Rowland. Other important homophile organizations on the West Coast included One,
Inc., founded in 1952, and the first lesbian support network, Daughters of
Bilitis, founded in 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. Through meetings and
publications, these groups offered information and outreach to thousands. These
first organizations soon found support from prominent sociologists and
psychologists. In 1951, Donald Webster Cory published The Homosexual in America
(Cory, 1951), asserting that gay men and lesbians were a legitimate minority
group, and in 1953, Dr. Evelyn Hooker won a grant from the National Institute of
Mental Health (NIMH) to study gay men. Her groundbreaking paper, presented in
1956, demonstrated that gay men were as well adjusted as heterosexual men, often
more so. But it would not be until 1973 that the American Psychiatric
Association removed homosexuality as an "illness" classification in its
diagnostic manuals. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, gay men and lesbians continued
to be at risk for psychiatric lockup and jail and for losing jobs or child
custody when courts and clinics defi ned gay love as sick, criminal, or
immoral.
2. The civil rights movement
In 1965, as the civil rights movement won new legislation outlawing racial
discrimination, the first gay rights demonstrations took place in Philadelphia
and Washington, DC, led by longtime activists Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings.
The turning point for gay liberation came on June 28, 1969, when patrons of the
popular Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village fought back against
ongoing police raids of their neighborhood bar. Stonewall is still considered a
watershed moment of gay pride and has been commemorated since the 1970s with
"pride marches" held every June across the United States. Recent scholarship has
called for better acknowledgement of the roles that drag performers, minorities,
and transgender patrons played in the Stonewall Riots.
3. The gay liberation movement
The gay liberation movement of the 1970s saw myriad political organizations
spring up, often at odds with one another. Frustrated with the male leadership
of most gay liberation groups, lesbians formed their own collectives, record
labels, music festivals, newspapers, bookstores, and publishing houses and
called for lesbian rights in mainstream feminist groups like the National
Organization for Women (NOW). Expanding religious acceptance for gay men and
women of faith, the first out gay minister was ordained by the United Church of
Christ in 1972. Other gay and lesbian church and synagogue congregations soon
followed. Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), formed in 1972,
offered family members greater support roles in the gay rights movement. And
political action exploded through the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the
Human Rights Campaign, the election of openly gay and lesbian representatives
like Elaine Noble and Barney Frank, and, in 1979, the first march on Washington
for gay rights.
4. 1980s through today
Through the 1980s, as the gay male community was decimated by the AIDS
epidemic, demands for compassion and medical funding led to renewed coalitions
between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups like AIDS
Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Nation. Enormous marches on
Washington drew as many as 1 million gay rights supporters in 1987 and again in
1993. A different wing of the political rights movement called for an end to
military expulsion of gay and lesbian soldiers, with the high-profile case of
Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer publicized through a made-for-television movie,
"Serving in Silence." The patriotism and service of gay men and lesbians in
uniform eventually resulted in the uncomfortable compromise "Don't Ask, Don't
Tell" as an alternative to decades of military witch hunts and dishonorable
discharges. Finally, in the last decade of the 20th century, millions of
Americans watched as actress Ellen DeGeneres came out on national television in
April 1997, heralding a new era of gay celebrity power and media visibility.
Celebrity performers, both gay and heterosexual, have been among the most vocal
activists, calling for tolerance and equal rights. As a result of hard work by
countless organizations and individuals, helped by Internet and direct-mail
campaign networking, the 21st century heralded new legal gains for gay and
lesbian couples. Same-sex civil unions were recognized under Vermont law in
2000, and Massachusetts became the first state to perform same-sex marriages in
2003. With the end of state sodomy laws (Lawrence v. Texas, 2003), gay Americans
were finally free from criminal classification. Gay marriage is now legal in the
Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Canada, although the recognition of gay
marriage by church and state continues to divide opinion
worldwide.
source - http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/history.aspx