LGBT Politicians in the US

This prejudice evoked me to discover what people are doing to fight the discrimination associated with homosexuality. I was optimistic, at first, about finding people who want to change societal prejudice directed at homosexuals, since there had to be some souls who wished to change their community for the better. But, in my search, I found relatively few such people; one of them is Jonas Slonaker, a gay resident of Laramie.

In 1977, the first American gay politician, Harvey Milk, gave a speech entitled “The Hope Speech”. In the speech, Milk spoke about his passion for young gay American’s to be able to feel that they were part of the community. He mentions the story of how a politician said that God said the drought in California was because of the gays and that the day Milk was elected in San Francisco, it started to rain. Harvey Milk spoke with passion about how gay people were ‘slandered’ and ‘accused of pornogrophy and child molestation’. That as long as non homosexuals could understand that Milk and other gay people were just as human, that the society would be a better place.

Homosexual people have been misrepresented and refuted their basic civil rights in America over the years, especially during the late 1970s. During this time, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California, was one of the most prominent spokesman on the issues surrounding gay rights. In 1978 he gave a speech impacting the gay citizens of San Francisco and America, the anti-gay right wing movement supporters, straight allies of the gay movement, and politicians in general. His speech known as the “Hope Speech” resonates with people even today as Milk attempted to address gay rights and the importance of electing gay officials in office, using various rhetorical strategies such as pathos, logos, and elevated diction.

In the 65-year history of LGBTQ activism in the United States, the present moment stands out on the basis of gay marriage being legalized. At no other time would an observer have imagined that the LGBTQ movement was likely to succeed in such a manner that any gender can marry any other gender with the permission by the law (Stewart-winter

This investigation assesses the New York City Stonewall Riots of 1969, concerning their influence on the rise of the modern gay rights movement, specifically regarding political emergence, social unity, and demographic shifts. The investigation will attempt to answer the following question: To what extent were the Stonewall Riots of 1969 a catalyst for the LGBT social movement in America?

Fifty years ago, in the early sixties, being gay was illegal in every providence in Canada, and in every single state in the United States. In the 1950’s, many gay individuals saw the men who had devoted their lives to being out and they knew what a horrible life that made for those men. This caused many gay men to “pass,” or live their entire lives in the closet. They would marry women for the soul purpose of protecting their secret. Before the stonewall riots, many Americans did not even believe gay people existed. Due to the lack of education and bigotry amongst Americans, being gay was very dangerous. Sexual acts in the gay community were commonly done in unsafe places and in public because they simply had nowhere else to go. Homosexuality was not just criminalized it was medicalized (Bawer). If you were gay, you could be subject to go into hospitals and were viewed by society as having a disability and a disease. In April of 1965, the very first gay protest took place in Washington DC. This protest was revolutionary and it began to pave the way for the future of gay men and women and reshape gay culture. In 1969, not long after the first gay protests of 1965, Canada decriminalized homosexual sexual acts in the privacy of one’s own home (Guerre). This was groundbreaking and gave the gay community hope that change was coming. Also, taking place in 1969 were the historic stonewall

In today's era, one of the most progressive civil rights movements is that of the LGBT+ community. For many decades, gays, transgenders, and other queers have been under fire for who they love and who they are. On June 28th, 1969, a group of queers subjected to police brutality took a chance to stand up for themselves. Thus starting one of the most widely revered LGBT+ movements: the Stone Wall Riots. This group of courageous men and women (and those in between) were pioneers in the United States gay rights activism, and can even be considered the spark to LGBT+ rights.

Both the LGBT movement and the Religious Right movement attempted to make their mark by having someone run for public office. These politicians were in the

America’s people were seemingly divided into many different ways- the most obvious of them would be the liberals, or “New Left”(the phrase coined by C. Wright Mills (1916–62) in Letter to the New Left) versus the older conservatives, or “Silent Majority”(coined by President Richard Nixon in his November 3, 1969 speech), the former arguing for peace, love, and rebellion against conformity and institutions, while the latter arguing for logic, tradition, and security. By June of 1969, many people of the New Left were accustomed to rebellion against the Silent Majority, with each minority accepting their own time slot- their own moment in time to make history and to voice their opinions which were subdued for so long. The members of the LGBT community were no anomaly to this concept.

“This was the Rosa Parks moment, the time that gay people stood up and said no. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble”. (The Stonewall Uprising) Homosexuals were tired of being made fun of and discriminated for their way of life. “Something snapped. It's like, this is not right”. (The Stonewall Uprising) People were sick of the treatment, the weird looks, the removal of work, the feeling of someone refusing to be next to them, and the constant advice to change or they will end up ruining their lives. So, on June 28th, 1969, around 11:00 at night, in Greenwich Village, New York City, gay people decided to do something. The decided to say no, we aren’t doing this;

During the mid 1900’s, New York City’s queer citizens were discriminated against and faced an anti-gay system. The Stonewall Uprisings were a set of raids and riots in the 1960’s that took place for six days involving thousands of people in Greenwich Village. They were the result of hundreds of years of discrimination and violence against gay and transgender people in America as well as the influence of new thinkers like the writers of the “Beat Generation” who were trying to express their individuality and unconventional thinking. Because of this movement, gay liberation and the fight for modern LGBT rights in the United States changed. Activist groups formed and were inspired to find safe places for them to express their sexual orientation

The words spoken by Barack Obama in his second inaugural address, “we, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths - that all of us are created equal - is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall” were a call for full equality. He mentions the origin, the root, the genesis, of movements that became the most influential and crucial elements of reforming our society: For women’s suffrage it was Seneca Falls: For the Civil Rights Movement it was Selma: For the Gay Right Movement it was Stonewall. But what made Stonewall the explosive event it was? What led to the final push, the one that drove gay

Debates about gay marriage continue to simmer within American public discourse, though much of the more heated rhetoric has calmed since the earliest efforts to legalize same-sex marriage succeeded in numerous states. These debates have spanned many topics, ranging from religion to politics and beyond. Andrew Sullivan, a prominent gay and self-described conservative political commentator, addressed one angle of the issue in his July 19, 2011 Newsweek Magazine article “Why Gay Marriage is Good for America.” Through a mixture of personal reflection, social commentary, and political argumentation, Sullivan’s article is less a defense of gay marriage than it is a defense of the idea that gay marriage is compatible with conservative political values. Although Sullivan makes a good case for his position in the article, his argument is ultimately under-developed; the lengthy personal reflections serve to reinforce a relatively minor point in the context of the larger argument, shifting focus away from the more relevant portions of the argument.

Professor Johnson’s lecture sparked conversation about whether or not the Supreme Court ruling accomplished enough for the LGBT community. At the time, I was unaware of how the ruling could be something that wasn’t an all-around win for the community, but after being introduced to queer politics

There have also been several gay sex scandals involving politicians with consistently homophobic voting records. One former California State Representative, Roy Ashburn, was arrested for DUI with another man who accompanied him after leaving a gay bar. Ashburn had actively opposed various homosexual rights issues and even organized a rally against same sex marriage. Obviously, he was confronted about his lengthy anti-gay voting record afterward and he deflected that criticism by noting that those policies were “the wishes of the people in my district.” Certainly, that was a defense mechanism, but those words also cut to the deeper truth of how sexually repressed policies are often purely politics. Ashburn is now openly gay and out of office, but he acknowledges how it would have been next to impossible to get elected on the Republican ticket otherwise. That really emphasizes the need for the Libertarian Party to gain more of a political footing as there is no reason that someone should have to align themselves with the Republicans’ firmly anti-gay agenda simply because they are economically conservative.