Bisexuality In The 70's

To a certain degree, seeing how these matters have progressed since the 1960s gives a good vantage to predicting where they will go in the future. In conclusion, I will look at the future of change on these matters, by examining what seems to be the "avant garde" regarding matters of sex and gender, the phenomenon of transsexualism. I hope an examination of transsexualism will point out some of the contradictions that still continue to exist in American ideas about matters of sex.

“Sex was something mysterious which happened to married couples and Homosexuality was never mentioned; my mother told me my father did not believe it existed at all ‘until he joined the army’. As a child, I was warned about talking to ‘strange men’, without any real idea what this meant. I was left to find out for myself what it was all about.” Mike Newman, who was a child during the 1950s America recalls how homosexuality was perceived during the post-World War II era (F). This sexual oppression was not only in Newman’s household, but in almost everyone’s. While the civil rights movement began in the mid-1950s and ended late 1960s, the LGBT community started to come out of the closet slowly. The gay rights movement stemmed from the civil rights movement

In her book Queering the Color Line: Race and the Invention of Homosexuality in American Culture, Siobhan Somerville uses film and literature from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to demonstrate the ways in which early models of homosexuality were often embedded within discussions of race, specifically “the bifurcated constructions of ‘black’ and ‘white’ bodies” (175). Somerville notes that discussions of sexual orientations emerged at the same time Plessy v. Ferguson, the supreme court case that affirmed the government’s right to determine an individual’s racial identity, was settled. She contends that the development of sexual classifications alongside the U.S. governments “aggressive policing of the boundary between ‘black’ and ‘white’ bodies” was more than a coincidence in timing (3). Somerville argues that this new polarization of bodies and focus on sexual desires echoed a similar, simultaneous shift in racial thinking. During this shift, the cultural figure of the mulatto gave way to a new visualization of the races as natural opposites, and increasing numbers of legal and social devices were created to prevent people of different races from engaging in sexual activity with one another. Thus the materialization of new sexual categories paralleled, and was profoundly influenced by, the hardening of the "color line," the division of Americans into racially segregated categories.

Gender norms surround every person in every culture, even though they have variety in each culture, they are still real and still impact individuals who stand out from the norms. Leslie Feinberg's book “Stone Butch Blues” shows how hard it is to challenge gender in the 1960’s when homosexuality and the transgender movement was something that was just starting up. Leslie shows the reader that just by existing in a transphobic environment ze is challenging what it means to be a man or a woman, and more importantly, what’s in between. Leslie shows that gender isn’t just black and white, it’s a spectrum of colours.

Two Diaries, Donald Vining’s A Gay Diary Vol. Two and Martin Duberman’s Gay in the Fifties look into the everyday life of gay males in the post-World War II Era. While World War II increased freedom for men to sexually explore within the male community, post-World War II extended the freedom of exploration but also created a subsequent backlash against homosexual practices. Vining and Duberman’s diaries document an extension of gay freedoms in the post-World War II period. Although Vining and Duberman give contrasting accounts of their lives as gay males in the postwar period, common themes could be drawn in the form of friendships, sexual activity, relationships, and backlash by heteronormative society.

“[W]orking-classes people in the capital of black America were stunningly open about their homosexuality” as it was “evident in urban blues lyrics of the time,” but it was not accepted in the middle-class and upper-class communities (Russell 103, 105). Some influential, elite/upper- or middle-class people during the Harlem Renaissance, such as Claude McKay, George Chauncey, Alain Locke, and others were “extraordinarily open about homosexuality and about the repressive nature of heterosexual norms” (103). Even James Baldwin was open about his sexuality and “claimed to have felt accepted as a homosexual” in Harlem (108). However, this did not stop the elitists, middle- and upper-class individuals, and the media from having their say. Under government policy, “President Eisenhower banned homosexuals from federal jobs, prospective employees were required to undergo screenings of their sexual histories,

For New York’s gay and trans communities the 1960’s marks a turning point in their history; Sodomy had been reduced to a misdemeanour, with a maximum sentence of six months in prison, the anti-gay accommodation rules of the New York State Liquor Authority had been overturned, allowing homosexuals to congregate and be served alcoholic beverages in bars, The American Psychiatric Association reclassified

The 1960’s was a decade of great change in America, from civil rights for African Americans to equal rights for women, the American people were rising up and discovering that their voice in the political discourse was just as important as those they elected to office. One other such group that awakened and challenged the existing status quo that kept them silent and scared were the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities across the country. From the first large-scale associations of LGBT individuals that formed in San Francisco in the 1950’s to the political and social groups that came to be following the Stonewall Riots of 1969, they would speak out and not allow themselves to be kept down anymore. The aim of this paper is to establish the events and opinions that led up to the uprising at the Stonewall Inn such as perceived and real discrimination by police, medical professionals, and society itself, what actually happened at Stonewall, and how they sparked the modern LGBT movement in the United States over the next half century to the present day.

George Chauncey’s Gay New York Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940, goes where no other historian had gone before, and that is into the world of homosexuality before World War II. Chauncey’s 1994 critically acclaimed book was a gender history breakthrough that gave light to a homosexual subculture in New York City. The author argues against the idea that homosexual men lived hidden away from the world. Chauncey’s book exposes an abundant culture throughout the United States, especially in New York. In this book Chauncey not only shows how the gay population existed, but “uncovers three widespread myths about the history of gay life before the rise of the gay movement which was isolation, invisibility, and internalization.” Chauncey argues against these theories that in the years 1890-1940, America had in fact a large gay culture. Chauncey book is impactful in the uncovering of a lost culture, but also works as an urban pre-World War II history giving an inside view of life in the city through sexuality and class.

Despite the dearth of available literature due to censorship and the passage of time, this period was characterized by flourishing deviant—and provisionally—queer sexuality. The unstable times, cultural changes, and political turmoil all lent themselves to a shift in discussions and understandings of sexuality. The Civil War remains a period of incredible upheaval that profoundly shaped culture and society. This period saw the reshaping of gender and sexuality norms while also instigating the codifying of existing gender-based oppression and violences (Bronsky, 81). While the lexicon of sexuality has changed in the intervening years, the Civil War (and the circumstances it produced) remains a condition of emergence of queer pre-history, as well as a crucial site for interpreting and reclaiming historical

Profane and shocking word choice helps drive Wittman’s confrontational and liberationist stance on LGBT+ issues. As authors Madeline Davis and Elizabeth Kennedy support in “Oral History and the Study of Sexuality in the Lesbian Community,” American queer rights movements became more critical and liberationist in the 70s (426). Wittman’s piece provides clear evidence of this tone change. By describing topics such as “exclusive heterosexuality” and interactions between males and females as “fucked up,” Wittman unabashedly confronts heteronormative culture and endorses queer peoples’ liberation from

The working-class man who preferred sexual activity with other men fared better than the elites did. George Chauncey reveals the most visible gay world in the early twentieth-century “was a working class world … centered in African American” neighborhoods. Queer social spaces were formed within these neighborhoods. Gender nonconforming people of color could freely express their sexuality or identity without too much hassle from

During the 1960’s to be gay in the United States was essentially a crime. It was the time of the “Lavender Scare,” in which thousands of people were fired from the federal government for no other reason than their sexuality. The fear stemmed from Cold War concerns that homosexuals would be a “security risk,” exploitable by communists (Sherouse) (Sears). Dozens of anti-gay legislation was in existence, specifically prohibiting employment of “homosexuals and other sex perverts” in civil service positions, and subsequently creating a president of discrimination throughout the country (Sears).

The climate of the 1960s was turbulent. This decade was marked by many political movements, which reflected support for non-establishment themes. During this time the “sexual liberation movement” became a popular cause. This intensified social and political interest helped many disadvantaged groups to receive support and attention that previously had never been received. As part of the nation’s desire for sexual political liberation, gay liberation became visible.

Throughout centuries of generations, there have been many changes that have influenced sexual tolerance. Sexual tolerance is defined as “the acceptance of multiple sexual orientations and lifestyles, generally accompanied by the appropriate legal and civil rights” (Urban Dictionary, 2009). Though there have been improvements in tolerance, there are still many different views on the recent policies, laws or social trends occurring towards sexual and gender orientation. Every aspect of society, from the Department of Defense to local school departments, are beginning to adapt to this growth in gender identity and orientation. An article published by the New York Times (Rosenberg, 2016) addresses an uprising policy on the acceptance of