Gay rights activists 1960s
Intersectionality has always played a huge part in driving the LGBT and jet movement forward, finding community and solidarity in belonging to a minority group. With racial and sexual discrimination being most prominent in the ss, with it came many inspirational activists advocating for justice and equality. To celebrate Pride month, we think of just a handful of black activists that progressed the LGBT+ and civil rights movement.
Bayard Rustin
Born in , Bayard Rustin was best known for his work as advisor to Martin Luther King JR through the s and s. His brawl for equality involved preliminary civil rights protests and being heavily involved in pacifist groups, while continuing to be Martin Luther King JR’s key advisor. Rustin also served on many humanitarian missions, including aiding refugees from Communist Vietnam and Cambodia. Despite being arrested multiple times for his open homosexuality and civil disobedience at the time, he continued fighting for equality and civil rights until his death in
Stormé DeLarverie
Gay rights activist and drag performer, Stormé De
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 Act (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 public attitudes, some see 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 active on a book about black gay history. He spoke with News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain.
You say that some gay rights advocates crave to characterize recent events as the normal business of America doing civil rights – to watch continuity with the dark civil rights movement. But what’s flawed in that comparison?
First, it is manageable to forget the context and duration of the civil rights movement. After the Civil War, African-Americans had full citizenship, elected local and federal representatives, and then, th
During the nineteenth century, the first gay liberation thinkers laid the groundwork for a militant movement that demanded the end of the criminalization, pathologisation and social rejection of non-heterosexual sexuality. In , the Swiss man Heinrich Hössli () published in German the first essay demanding recognition of the rights of those who followed what he called masculine love. Nearly three decades later, the German jurist Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs () wrote twelve volumes between and as part of his “Research on the Mystery of Love Between Men” (“Forschungen über das Räthsel der mannmännlichen Liebe”). He also circulated a manifesto to create a federation of Uranians (), a term which designated men who loved men. He was engaged in the struggle to repeal § of the German penal code, which condemned “unnatural relations between men,” and in publicly declared he was a Uranist during a congress of German jurists. He died in exile in Italy before the birth of the liberation movement which he had called for.
A first gay liberation movement emerged in Berlin in , revolving
Barbara Gittings Helps Lead 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 New York Noun, 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 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