The Counterculture Of The Early 1960 ' S

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.

Another huge social and cultural change during this time was the gay liberation movement. During the 1960’s, many groups decided to fight for their rights and equality. One of these groups was the gay and lesbian members of society. Many of these individuals were discriminated against and had no rights, but they decided enough was enough. In the 1960’s, gays decided to begin the fight for their own rights. One example of this was made after New York officers decided to raid the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York’s very own Greenwich Village on June 27, 1969. This type of raid was not unusual, being that many police officers made it a habit of raiding gay and lesbian bars. This became known as the “Stonewall Riot”, which many view as the starting point of the gay liberation movement. The gay liberation movement was the fight by gays and lesbians for equal rights, one of these rights being the right to not be discriminated against, and most importantly, to be able to openly “come out” to their family and friends. The gay liberation movement helped to impact our current times greatly. Today, a gay person has rights just like anyone else. A gay

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?

The early homosexual groups in the U.S. proved that gay people also play important roles in the society, and should not be humiliated whatsoever.

The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar in New York City and it was the starting place of the Gay Liberation Movement. In the 1970s gay men and lesbians started wanting equality because they faced lots of legal discrimination. They didn’t have equal rights because they couldn’t even have consensual sex with their partners and it was illegal in almost all states. So in 1969 police raided the Stonewall Inn and gay men fought the police and proclaimed “Gay Power.” This event caused riots between the New York City police and all the gay residents.

Before continuing onto an analysis of how the Stonewall Riots happened and what came of them, one must first take a closer look at the events and opinions that came before and brought upon the anger and frustration that many LGBT individuals felt on that fateful night. According to many historians, the years before Stonewall were considered a “dark age” for LGBT individuals, where their very existence was

"Liberation for gay people is to define ourselves how and with whom we live, instead of measuring our relationships by straight values… To be free territory, we must govern ourselves, set up our own institutions, defend ourselves, and use our own energies to improve our lives" (Wittman, 75). Carl Wittman's Refugees from Amerika: A Gay Manifesto, drew together many of the themes dealing with gay liberation. This quote demonstrates the goals of the gay and lesbian movement, a movement which many believe started with the Stonewall riots. The Stonewall riots proved to homosexuals that a sufficient amount of time had passed that they were persecuted and maltreated and it was time to speak up for their rights, resulting in the

The throng became raucous as the time passed; people began throwing bottles and bricks at the police and shouting “gay power!” The riots really started when a lesbian woman who has been described as “a typical New

The conditions faced by queer people leading up to the stonewall riots were appalling. Laws and Statutes made it legal to discriminate against LGBT+ individuals based on dress and behavior and to limit other basic freedoms as well. In the 50’s and 60’s, 49 of 50 states in the United States had some form of law that stated homosexuality was illegal and was punishable by fines or imprisonment (Staff). Up until 1987, homosexuality was considered a mental illness in the DSM (American Classification of Mental Disorders). In following, it was illegal to serve gay people alcohol in New York City up until 1966, thirty three years after prohibition was repealed (History). Under the statement that the gathering

The Stonewall Riots marked the start of the gay rights movement, and inspired members of the gay community to fight for their rights instead of being condemned for their

The riot that occurred during the early morning of June 28, 1969, as well as the riots that occurred as a result, dubbed the Stonewall Riots, are the beginning of the gay rights movement. Until the last quarter of the twentieth century, homosexuality, bisexuality, transvestism, and transgender sex changes were considered signs of mental illness. Painful electroshock therapy was often enforced upon those who displayed homosexual behavior. They were the objects of public suspicion, job discrimination, and outright violence. Gays, lesbians, and other sexual minority groups were stigmatized by society and harassed by law enforcement (“The Stonewall Riots”). The negative perception of homosexuality began to change in the 1940s as it gradually

The conditions of the 1960s primed the gay rights movement for an awakening. At this time, the “increased radicalism of the late-Sixties racial and antiwar movements was just manifesting

Gay rights movements in the US can be traced back to the Stonewall Riots that occurred following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York City at 3a.m on June 28th, 1969 (“Should Gay Marriage Be Legal?”). In the 1950’s and 1960’s, gay Americans were faced to a harsh anti gay legal system, thus taking away their rights for marriage. This resulted in the Stonewall Riots. Nowadays, 92 percent of the LGBT youth say they hear negative messages about the LGBT, their top sources being school, the internet, and their peers (Growing Up LGBT In America). American youth tends to have many hardships thrown at them by those who aren't like them creating a barrier between each other. F The hate against the LGBT is a major problem in america, stopping us from being a united

Unfortunately, although the Stonewall Riots and subsequent demonstrations helped to start a movement for the LGBTQ community, those who also additionally identified as belonging to an ethnic minority group found that their voices were lost in the crowd. The community in which the riots began housed a large population of New York’s African-Americans, especially those who also identified as LGBTQ, as the neighborhoods had become an established safe space for people of all kinds to express themselves (Farrow). The riots were no different from other protests in history that had broken out between white authority

Over the next two decades, half the states decriminalized homosexual behavior, and police harassment grew less frequent and obvious to the public. Also in 1975, it became legal for gays to hold federal jobs. However all this headway also made room for more opposition. In 1977, Anita Bryant was so successful at obtaining a repeal of a recent gay ordinance in her home state of Florida that by 1980, a league of anti gay clubs had come together to make a force, led in part by Jesse Helms. The AIDS scare that began in the eighties did not help the gay image either, but more citizens joined their ranks in order to combat the oppression and fund a search for the cure, so in the end it actually made the movement stronger. According to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (2000), by 1999, the anti-sodomy laws of 32 states had been repealed, and in 1996 Vermont granted its gay citizens the right to same sex marriages. Gay rights has come a long way as a social movement, and though it still has a long way to go, it makes a good topic to analyze the process of the social movement.