Gay and lesbian rights

Summary

During the 1960s, there emerged within the United States a revolutionary movement that would change the way people thought about homosexuality. Driven by such powerful events as the Stonewall riots and Frank Kameny’s Washington, D.C. picket, and fronted by such influential leaders as Reed Erickson, Phillis Lyon and Del Martin, the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender movement sought to redefine social equality and pushed for equal treatment for homosexuals. Also emphasized within the G/L/B/T movement was an openness foreign to the timid “homophile” movement popular among gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people during the 50s. Although no single person or group can accurately be said to have “lead” the massive push for change that was the G/L/B/T movement, most groups and organizations at the forefront of the movement can be said to have shared a similar set of goals and aspirations: equality, and the freedom to be openly gay.

Important People

Although the G/L/B/T movement owes many victories to the men and women – young, old, and middle-aged, who stood behind organizations, marches and one another during a time in which homosexuality was largely scorned by both the public and the law, a handful of these bold crusaders stands out as the engines that kicked the movement into life, propelling it into to a higher level of intensity and recognition with their drive to secure change.

Frank Kameny

A brilliant and goal-oriented, opportunistic young man , Franklin Kameny was fired from a career in the army in 1957 for being openly gay . Unable to return to his job, Frank began a vigorous legal battle that would garner national attention, and lead him into the life of one of the G/L/B/T movement’s most powerful, and determined, advocates . After having his case rejected by the Supreme Court in 1961 , Kameny, fed up with society’s rejection of homosexuality, founded the Mattachine Society of Washington, commonly known as the Mattachine Society. Franklin’s new organization grouped both gays and their heterosexual supporters under the word, “homophile,” a term designed to promote the idea of romantic, rather than physical, homosexual love . Breaking away from the hushed integration favored by gays and lesbians in the 1950s , Kameny fought society’s rejection of the gay community at a primarily legal level – distributing pamphlets, giving legal aid to homosexuals who were treated unfairly by the law, and challenging antigay legislation on both a state and a national level . However, Kameny’s picket marches are also famed for their impact on the gay community, as well as on society as a whole . Kameny also won renown within the G/L/B/T movement when he began a public relations campaign to force psychiatrists to reconsider their position on homosexuality as a mental disorder . The campaign was largely successful, culminating in a takeover of a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in 1971 , and ending with the removal of homosexuality from the Association’s list of mental illnesses in 1973 . As a whole, Frank Kameny’s impact on the push for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights was massive. He secured countless legal victories for gays in both Washington and at large, and fired the gay community to greater levels of indignant-ness at its current situation, inspiring countless other groups and organizations dedicated to securing equality and gay rights, while at the same time maintaining a positive public image of homosexuality with his unique approach, and pushing public perceptions of gay men and women in a new direction. During the ‘70s, Franklin Kameny’s influence began to fade from the G/L/B/T movement , but the lasting impact of his ideas and actions can still be felt today, within both the gay community and society at large.

Reed Erickson

A lesbian who, after a series of surgical procedures, became a transsexual man , Reed Erickson was the founder of several organizations dedicated to the well-being of the homosexual in America . After Erickson had successfully begun his own company, he received a massive inheritance from his father , and immediately put his combined wealth toward the betterment of homosexuals’ general situation . Through a handful of well-funded, powerful organizations, Erickson was able to reach out to both the gay community and the society surrounding it, breaking through misconceptions while empowering a separate gays culture, and fostering a sense of identity among gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender men and women . The Erickson Educational Foundation was one of these organizations . Dedicated mostly to helping other prospective transsexuals receive reconstructive surgery and other procedures, the EEF was also a vessel for the advancement of gay rights . ONE Institute in Los Angeles, became the nation’s first formal research institution dedicated exclusively to the study of homosexuality and related behaviors . A scientific beacon in the struggle for equality, ONE attacked antigay perspectives from a scholarly angle, producing research and creating college courses that both studied and supported homosexuality , synthesizing academia with a positive, pro-equality outlook. Erickson’s contribution to gay rights was huge, and he became well known as an important contributor to the ongoing struggle for equality.

Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin

A lesbian couple living in San Francisco , Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin became instrumental in helping fellow equality-seeking lesbians find a voice through which they could express their desire for equal rights. Their main tool through which this was accomplished was the organization/club The Daughters of Bilitis, an exclusively lesbian group dedicated to providing both a means to equality and grounds for socializing for women who wanted to aid the fight for social justice, and to simply “meet other lesbians.” Another product of the couple’s passion for civil rights was the Ladder, a magazine for lesbians that reported on civil rights issues, as well as issues within the gay community . The Ladder, along with the Daughters of Bilitis, was a vehicle for gay women to express their sentiments about their social status, and other issues that confronted many gays during the 1960s .

Important Events

Just as much as the people and organizations that drove the G/L/B/T movement, the events that it encountered and took part in helped to shape the direction and nature of the rising civil rights movement among gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people.

The Stonewall Riots

Perhaps one the single most momentous happenings of the gay rights movement in the United States, the Stonewall Riots marked the pinnacle of tension between the “underground” gay community and the law that was to define that part of the gay community’s relationship with police and with the law throughout the sixties. By the time of the riot’s occurrence, violent confrontations between gay nightclub-goers and police were frequent . Armed police raids, complete with billy clubs and arrests, often took place at the numerous secret gay nightclubs and bars scattered around New York City and other major cities (such as Los Angeles) . “You could get arrested for dancing,” affirms one former frequenter of such secret clubs, including the Stonewall Inn. However, on the night of the raid on the Stonewall, violence escalated to an unusual level , for reasons that remain unclear. Soon, a full-fledged riot was under way, as the nightclub-goers responded to police violence with an intensity of their own. Several accounts depict two furious transvestites using a parking meter as a battering ram to knock down the door of the nightclub , while all around the outside of the club, angered onlookers were “rioting, throwing things, trying to break inside.” . The scale of the riot was huge, and the scale of its impact was nothing less than the same. On the day following the riot, a crowd of protesters lined the streets of Greenwich village . Taunted and threatened by both onlookers and policemen alike , they voiced the sentiments that had been kept dormant within the gay community for so long . Membership to the Mattachine society skyrocketed in the days, weeks, months and years following the riot , and several new gay activist organizations sprang into being  ; among them several new branches of the previously existing Gay Liberation Front . The Gay Activists Alliance was later formed in 1965 as a result of the riot . The Stonewall riots were not the genesis of the G/L/B/T movement; nor were they its predecessor. But they did act as a sort of spark to light the wick of a long-latent gunpowder barrel of frustrations and pent-up feelings amassed within the gay community during previous eras. The Stonewall riots were, in short, an important catalyst that helped to kick off a more radical, intense approach to gay activism, and built on previous efforts to radicalize the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender movement.

The Picket Marches

Between 1965 and 1969, Frank Kameny helped organize and lead annual marches for gay rights in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Kameny’s marches helped bring gays and lesbians into a national spotlight that they had never before had the chance to occupy . Awestruck, the nation watched as gay couples marched together through the streets of these major cities, timidly holding hands or raising picket signs in silent protest against the injustice they faced daily as homosexuals in America . Kameny’s marches not only helped garner national attention for the G/L/B/T movement, but they also had a direct impact on the gay community itself, as well as on individual gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people across the United States. Seeing gay men and women like themselves, unafraid, and openly displaying their sexuality in newspapers and on television was empowering for many homosexuals, who had, until then, lived out their romantic lives in secret, fearing retribution from friends, neighbors, family, and the law . The marches were also extremely effective from a public relations point of view: they were consistently nonviolent, well-organized, and neatly conducted Many protestors arrived at the marches wearing suits and ties This helped provide the public with a fresh perspective on homosexuality, which until the rise of the G/L/B/T movement in the sixties had been largely viewed as unclean or socially miscreant . The picket marches were an essential and effective part of Frank Kameny’s plan to achieve social equilibrium within the U.S. during the 1960s, and enabled many hopeful gays and lesbians to feel that equality was feasible .

Groups

The groups and organizations that propelled the gay rights movement into the forefront of America’s social conscious were varied in both goals and approaches. However, they all shared the basic desire to attain equality for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people.

The Mattachine Society

Founded in the 1950s , the Mattachine Society evolved from a vessel of hushed integration into a beacon of liberation and pride during the 1960s . Under Frank Kameny, the Washington chapter of the Mattachine Society worked heavily within the legal system to change laws, guarantee equality, and to aid gays suffering under the unjust antigay laws in place at the time . Frank Kameny’s Washington chapter also organized annual picket marches (described above) to thrust homosexuality into the spotlight of American media and social conscious .

The Daughters of Bilitis

Founded by lesbian partners Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin , the Daughters of Belitis grew from a small gathering of women seeking opportunities to socialize with other lesbians to a prominent organization dedicated to not only providing lesbians with the means to socialize, organize, and interact, but also to securing equality for gays and lesbians both locally and on a national scale . Soon after its founding, the Daughters of Belitis put out a magazine for lesbians, named The Ladder . The Ladder focused on issues within the gay community, as well as civil rights challenges it had to confront. The Daughters of Belitis grew to become a shelter for lesbians seeking social acceptance, and a star of hope for all those who sought equality for gay women within the larger social network .

Gay Liberation Front (GLF)

An extremist branch of the G/L/B/T movement, the Gay Liberation Front was concerned mostly with radical action . Claiming that the “current system” in place in the United States at the time “denied [homosexuals] [their] basic humanity,” the GLF became involved with other radical, New Left-affiliated movements and organizations, supporting other, similarly aligned groups like the Black Panthers . The GLF tended to demonize the United States as a whole, using blanket terms like “authoritarian,” and “uptight” to justify their claims . In this way, the GLF resembled a communist party, even borrowing names from previous communist movements to add spice to their endeavours – “The Gay Manifesto,” written by Carl Wittman is one example of this  ; and, indeed, many subgroups within the GLF (which was largely unorganized and only loosely cohesive) aligned themselves with socialist values, linking the oppression of homosexuals to morals propagated by a capitalist culture . The GLF, although largely un-influential in terms of lasting impact or substantial change, did perfect one public relations technique that garnered a fair amount of attention from the media – the “zap.” A “zap” involved a number of GLF members attending the public appearance of some sort of prominent political figure, such as a judge or a congressman, then pressuring that figure into publicly advocating gay rights . Although unorthodox and somewhat extreme, the “zap” method of garnering public attention earned the gay community significant renown, and many straight Americans began to reconsider their positions on homosexuality after seeing a favored political figure supporting gay rights in public .

Gay Activists Alliance (GAA)

Perhaps the most potent political, social, and cultural mechanism of gay rights promotion , the Gay Activists Alliance was, at its core, a neatly structured, elegantly branched quadruple entente between its four leaders, Jim Owles, Arthur Bell, Arthur Evans, and Marty Robinson . The GAA sought to organize homosexuals in America into a solid, self-contained cohesive unit that contained its own culture, beliefs, and lifestyle . A well-balanced activism machine, the GAA maintained deep and fruitful connections to the press, politics, and the public . While embracing – and even emphasizing – youth culture and the right to be different, the GAA remained precise and direct in its actions, and avoided extremism . It even outlined its basic principles in its own constitution. The GAA’s toolset was focused around highlighting, and dramatizing opposition to the G/B/L/T movement, so as to inspire gays and lesbians to act independently in their struggle for equal rights . “Zapping” was very popular within the GAA, and it zapped with an effectiveness that rivaled even its radical counterpart, the GLF . The GAA was primarily interested in securing a separate, but equal society and culture for homosexuals. It promoted a new gay culture which it saw as distinct from heterosexual society, although founded on the same basic principles – such as the idea of marital love . The GAA was an extremely important part of the G/L/B/T movement, and with its cunning public relations techniques and political clout, it managed a significant impact on American society as a whole.