Gay rights movement in the 1960s
Timeline: Key moments in fight for male lover rights
June marks Self-acceptance Month for the LGBTQIA+ community. Many people celebrate and show their event with rainbow flags and parades.
But the quest for matching civil rights for the community has been fraught with strife and hostility. From bricks thrown at Stonewall to "Don't Say Gay" legislation, the battle for equality continues. Here is a look at some of the key moments in LGBTQIA+ history and the fight for matching rights.
Though police raids on gay bars were common in the '60s, on June 28, , patrons of Modern York's Stonewall Inn said "enough." They fought back, riots broke out and supporters poured into the West Village, igniting the homosexual rights movement in the U.S. Within six months, two gay activist organizations were formed in New York, and three newspapers were launched for gays and lesbians.
Harvey Milk became one of the first openly gay men elected to public office in the Joined States when he won a seat on the board of supervisors in An outspoken advocate for gay rights, he urged others
LGBTQ+ Living History: The Transformative ’60s and ’70s
In a six-part series, we highlight a scant of the moments, movements, and people that made their mark on Cal&#;s LGBTQ+ history. We advance through the decades, start in an era of secrecy and continuing through today.
The transformative &#;60s and &#;70s
The gay rights movement saw some forward motion in the s. Dr. John Oliver coined the term &#;transgender&#; in his book Sexual Hygiene and Pathology. Activism percolated. It exploded, in a meaning, in June with the Stonewall Riots in Brand-new York City—a response to a police raid that took place at the Greenwich Village bar The Stonewall Inn.
In , two groups formed on the UC Berkeley campus: Students for Gay Power and Gay Liberation Front. According to William Benemann ’71, M.L.S. ’75 (former Berkeley Law archivist, author, and founder of the Homosexual Bears Collection in the University Archives), the Queer Liberation Front was very radical for its day. &#;They were too &#;out&#; for me and most of us at that time,&#; he says. &#;Being in the closet is about controlling you
Gay Rights
One day after that landmark ruling, the Teen Scouts of America lifted its ban against openly gay leaders and employees. And in , it reversed a century-old forbid against transgender boys, finally catching up with the Girl Scouts of the USA, which had extended been inclusive of Queer leaders and children (the organization had accepted its first transgender Girl Scout in ).
In , the U.S. military lifted its ban on transgender people serving openly, a month after Eric Fanning became secretary of the Army and the first openly gay secretary of a U.S. military branch. In March , President Donald Trump announced a new trans policy for the military that again banned most transgender people from military service. On January 25, —his sixth day in office—President Biden signed an executive order overturning this ban.
Though LGBTQ+ Americans now have same-sex marriage rights and numerous other rights that seemed farfetched years ago, the work of advocates is far from over.
Universal workplace anti-discrimination laws for LGBTQ+ Americans is still lacking. Gay rights propo
Barbara Gittings Helps Lead First 'Annual Reminder' Protests
Vice squads–police units passionate 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 New 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 terminate dancing. That wasn’t true during the early 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