The Views Of The Gay Rights Movement

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 According to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (2000), by 1999, the anti-sodomy laws of 32 states had been repealed, and in 1996 Vermont granted its gay citizens the right to same sex marriages.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.

The struggle for gay rights was not always publicized due to fear for being “ill” for thinking that way. The fight for rights was known in the mental health community as an illness. In the courts where same-sex couples would be denied the right to marry, from the Stonewall riots to the U.S. Supreme Court decision on June 26 of this year, the evolvement and difficulty of those fighting.

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.

Stonewall is known as the riot that kickstarted the movement for gay rights in America in 1969. Throughout the 1960’s the gay community was targeted for their homosexual activities because this went against the common beliefs of the people. Most of the population had the Christian belief that being interested in the same sex was against God’s will. This caused discrimination throughout the nation between members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender plus (LGBT+) community and the rest of the country. Due to this discrimination, many LGBT+ members felt like their rights were being violated by the government. On June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan, New York City, the community decided to fight back for their rights. They

There are certainly various points in history that can be construed as trailblazing for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. One event in particular, however, sparked awareness and a call to action that previously could never have been conceptualized in the United States. This unforgettable incident, the Stonewall riots of 1969, altered the public’s view of the gay community and arguably jumpstarted the next revolution in an entirely new civil rights movement.

club located in New York, known as the ‘Stonewall Inn’ turned violent. Outside, hundreds of protesters and sympathizers began rioting against the sudden police force. While the NYPD had been justified in closing down the club, the events which would follow over the next six days would go on to spark revolution, and establish the LGBT movement for gay civil rights. It is inevitably because of these protests that the LGBT community has the rights and freedom that they have today. However, the Stonewall Riots are not as recognized as a copious amount of protests and revolts, and are a severely underrated historical event, which resulted in the removal of

In 1969, a series of violent riots took place called the Stonewall riots. These riots are considered the most pivotal point leading to the gay liberation movement. During the 1950’s and 1960’s being openly gay was considered taboo, very few establishments welcomed those who were openly gay. The Stonewall Inn welcomed the vast variety of those in the LGBT community including drag queens, transgender, as well as the homeless youth. During the 1960’s there were police raids on gay bars, but the raids got out of hand at the Stonewall inn.

Throughout America’s history, many minority groups have been discriminated against, especially women., African Americans, and immigrants. Women started out having little to no power whatsoever in the home, and throughout the town. Therefore, in comparison to the rights of gay citizens, in the Equal Rights Amendment, it states in section one that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex” (The Equal Rights Amendment, ND, p. 1). Even though this amendment was originally introduced in 1923 by suffrage leader Alice Paul “as the next step in bringing "equal justice under law" to all citizens,” (The Equal Rights Amendment, ND, p. 1) it comes into relation with the battle that gay citizens are fighting. Their fight for equality is the same as women’s fight was to gain their rights. In

Until the last half of the 20th century, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals were victims of discrimination in American society and in statutory laws, which limited their basic rights. On the night of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, and arrested three drag queens by using excessive force. Bar patrons and spectators, tired of police oppression, stood up and fought back. This was the first major protest based on equal rights for homosexuals. The Stonewall Riots became a turning point for the homosexual community in the United States sparking the beginning of the gay rights movement, and encouraged lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual, or "LGBT," to fight for their rights.

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.

The United States’ has been an active battleground for the LGBTQ+ community—and that, in itself, is why it has been such a successful movement. Due to the constant rallies and demands for inclusion and acceptance, the gay rights movement helped define a major part of the new millennium and paved the way for later movements that were bound to come. The liberationist approach dominated the homophile movement and, paired with the results leaning in the movement’s favor, it showed that it was not merely enough to demand equal rights, but to demand that one did not need to assimilate to be accepted. It can be argued that such an approach was necessary as the LGBTQ+ community already had the same political rights as their straight counterparts,

One of the biggest issues going to debate throughout not only the U.S. but the world is the gay rights movement. The Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) community is being denied their basic rights as citizens just because of their sexual preference and the opinion of people throughout the country. Many Christians believe that homosexuality is wrong and that God is against it but others believe that God creates everything for a reason and that He loves everything equally. Even though many people believe that homosexuality is a sin and that it’s unnatural and wrong, homosexuals are ordinary people and they should be given their full rights regardless of their sexual orientation.

World War II ended. Many of them hid their “unusual” sexual orientation from the society out of shame and fear. Gays who lived in cities often formed close social networks with other gays while remaining a hidden subculture. During the 1940s and 1950s, LGBT Americans earned many freedoms they had not previously received. Their presence became more free-flowing but still not widely accepted. In the middle of 1950s, discrimination against LGBT individuals started to expand, they have been kicked out of their jobs because of their sexual orientation. Moreover, the homosexual lifestyle was considered as a threat to American security in the 1960s as gay and lesbian were being harassed or raided at that time. However, it was the turning point for the LGBT community in 1969 when the Stonewall riots broke out. The Stonewall

This paper explores the differing views on homosexual same-sex marriages coming from the views of our governments as opposed to religious groups’ views. It goes into detail to see which religions are opposed, which support and which have no official position on the topic of gay marriage. It also takes into account how the state governments have opposed and supported the legalization of same-sex marriage over the course of our history.

In March of 2009, at the Hotel Triangle in Kampala, Uganda, Scott Lively, an American attorney and activist and the president of Abiding Truth Ministries, a conservative Christian organization, delivered a speech that was to have a drastic effect on the human rights of gays and lesbians in Uganda. The speech, given at an anti-gay conference titled “Exposing the Truth behind Homosexuality and the Homosexual Agenda”, linked homosexuality with child molestation and the destruction of African families and laid the foundation for what was to become a virulently homophobic movement in Uganda. This religious crusade against the rights of gays and lesbians culminated in an oppressive law, passed in 2014 and recently struck down on a technicality by a Ugandan court that, in its original form, made homosexual acts punishable by death. This paper examines the roots and language of the law and the connection between its passage and American evangelical efforts in Uganda, as well as the distorting influence of Scott Lively and a lawsuit brought against him for human rights violations.