Why Are Both Public and Private Interests within Cities Becoming Increasingly Supporting of Creating a Gay Space?

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, society wasn’t the most accepting of places for people who were different from the “social norms”. Now I know, people today still struggle with trying to fit in and be “normal” but it was different. Being a gay man living in San Fransisco at the time, which had a large gay population, Richard Rodriguez had a hard time dealing with the discrimination he faced. Richard Rodriguez was an American journalist who wrote and published a memoir about his life as a gay man. In October of 1990, Rodriguez published his memoir “Late Victorians” in Harper’s Magazine, a critically acclaimed publication of the time. In his memoir, Rodriguez describes what it was like to realize he was gay and watch as the country changed to become a more accepting place. He does this by setting up how things can change and then explaining the actual ways things change for the gay population.

The history of the gay rights movement goes as far back as the late 19th century. More accurately, the quest by gays to search out others like themselves and foster a feeling of identity has been around since then. It is an innovative movement that seeks to change existing norms and gain acceptance within our culture. By 1915, one gay person said that the gay world was a "community, distinctly organized" (Milestones 1991), but kept mostly out of view because of social hostility. According to the Milestones article, after World War II, around 1940, many cities saw their first gay bars open as many homosexuals began to start a networking system. However, their newfound visibility only backfired on them, as

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?

Greenwich Village is a known territory for sizable homosexuals; gays and lesbians. The huge numbers of homosexuals in the region may be due to the influx of men and women who earlier served in the military. The increasing population of homosexuals in the region encouraged the New York City to pass laws against homosexuality

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.

This paper will continue on, researching the societal change/acceptance in the gay and lesbian community as no longer being unorthodox and with the stigma coming from the gay community itself.

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 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

Although marriage has a long history it has become a major facet in the social life of the nation.50 years ago almost every state criminalized homosexual activity. The federal government would not hire people who were openly gay. Many openly gay men couldn’t even be permitted in the military. Despite the fact that there were little to none gay originations in the early 1970s a burst of gay activism unleashed the stonewall riots in Greenwich Village. (Davies)” The Stonewall riots were inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize in support of

One of the minority groups that came into prominence during this tumultuous time were homophile activists who advocated for an assimilation of gays into society, and relied mostly on pacifist tactics. It wasn’t until the summer of 1969, in a Greenwich Village tavern, where a series of protests served as a catalyst to inspire gays to join together in the fight against inequality through more radical means; thus setting into motion the beginnings of modern American LGBT rights activism and Gay Pride.

In the recent years there has been a growing concern about the impact of homophobia. In the United States, few endeavors were made to make backing bunches supporting gay and lesbian connections until after World War II, albeit prewar gay life prospered in urban focuses, for example, Greenwich Village and Harlem amid the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. The interruptions of World War II permitted earlier detached gay men and ladies to meet as fighters, war laborers, and different volunteers evacuated from residential communities and posted around the world. More noteworthy mindfulness, combined with Senator Joseph McCarthy 's examination of gay people holding government occupations amid the mid 1950s, prompted the primary American-based political requests for reasonable treatment in psychological wellbeing, open strategy, and vocation. Until the passing of the Sexual Offences Bill in 1967, male homosexual activity was illegal. Gay men were frequently imprisoned for consensual sex with another man. Lesbianism was not illegal, but was similarly subject to public disapproval, or ignored.

Despite the dangers and difficulties involved, gay men and women were able to find places to meet. The Minorities Research Group (MRG) was formed in 1964, and provided isolated lesbians with resources and information about female homosexuality and the opportunity to meet other women” (Allan Horsfall 2014). “Through the 1980s, as the gay male community was decimated by the AIDS epidemic, demands

From miniscule protest to continental approval the LGBT community made a mark and changed america forever. In “ A glimpse into 1970’s Gay Activism” Rosen says “Edward Koch, then serving in congress became one of the first elected officials to publicly lobby on behalf of homosexuals of Greenwich Village”. This shows that the LGBT people were making a great impact to get one of their own in a congressional office position. They also presented great change when it came to discrimination. In the article “ Gay Rights Shaping Up Miami” Clarke writes“ On March 27, 1977 Dade County, Florida, passed an ordinance banning the discrimination of gay people in instances such as employment and housing”.

In this article, the authors argue that gay men experience greater psychological distress than heterosexual men. They cite research and statistics surrounding anxiety and depressive disorders as support. They also argue gay men tend to cope with this distress by using a sense of coherence, an outlook that life is predictable and meaningful. This might explain why gay nightlife and social life is centered around positivism and a lack of judgement. This sense of coherence, in which they feel they are valued, meaningful, and belong somewhere, can be embodied in these gay clubs, as they are all united in this. The

Thirdly, queers challenge the categories as well as binaries of sexual and gender by questioning the categories and binaries’ reasonability. Queer theorists concern about how and why the categories of gender and sexuality are shaped, thinking the main reason is to better control people so as to achieve political goals. As de Lauretis (1991) stated, the existing strategies of homosexual, which is created based on the existing categories of gender and sexuality, is to ensure the “ center” integrated. Moreover, they reject and question the usefulness of categories. According to

Years of protests, laws, and unity among the community helped to shape San Francisco’s identity, which in turn, influenced the many people living in it. Tension between politics and the people revealed the “heteronormative notions of society and a sexual rights movement struggling to reconcile its individual rights agenda with the racial, gendered, and class implications of their rights” (Bell.) Gay men and women wanted their civil rights represented in politics. They wanted to be accepted as members of society. They projected their image in politics by straying away from “questions of sex and relationships and onto the terrain of economic and civil rights” (Bell.)