Gay Rights History
A quick look at US gay rights history
Stonewall
The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising or the Stonewall rebellion) were a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn.
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Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an American gay liberation activist and self-identified drag queen (known as Marsha P Johnson). Known as an outspoken advocate for gay rights, Johnson was one of the prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969. Arriving after the riots had begun, he was known for having climbed a lamppost and dropped a heavy bag onto the hood of a police car, shattering the windshield.
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Stormé DeLarverie was an American woman known as the butch lesbian whose scuffle with police was the spark that ignited the Stonewall riots, spurring the crowd to action. The riots are widely considered a watershed event that transformed the gay liberation movement and the twentieth-century fight for gay rights in the United States.
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Gay Liberation Front
Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of a number of gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots.
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In early July 1969, due in large part to the Stonewall riots in June of that year, discussions in the gay community led to the formation of the Gay Liberation Front. According to scholar Henry Abelove, it was named GLF "in a provocative allusion to the Algerian National Liberation Front and the Vietnamese National Liberation Front. One of the GLF's first acts was to organize a march to continue the momentum of the Stonewall uprising, and to demand an end to the persecution of homosexuals.
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The UK Gay Liberation Front existed between 1970–1973. Its first meeting was held in the basement of the London School of Economics on 13 October 1970. Bob Mellors and Aubrey Walter had seen the effect of the GLF in the United States and created a parallel movement based on revolutionary politics.
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The First Gay Pride Parade
Martha Shelley of the lesbian civil rights group Daughters of Bilitis had first suggested a protest march be planned in commemoration of the uprising at a special meeting of the Mattachine Society in the days following the Stonewall riots.
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Most of the preparation work was done by Sargeant, GLF members Michael Brown and Marty Nixon and Mattachine Society member Foster Gunnison Jr., who acted as treasurer. They utilized the bookshop's mailing list to gather support and participants for the march and negotiated the details with over a dozen different gay advocacy groups. Sargeant marched at the front of the parade and as the only person there with a bullhorn, led the official chant: "Say it loud, gay is proud".
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On the first anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, now considered the first NYC Pride March, began with a few hundred participants in front of the Stonewall Inn. By the time it reached Sheep's Meadow in Central Park 50 blocks later, the marchers numbered in the thousands.
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Uniting During the AIDS Crisis
The AIDS epidemic, caused by HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), found its way to the United States as early as 1960, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981.
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Lesbian activists were prepared to give more than their time and care – they also gave their blood. In 1983, the ‘Women’s Caucus of the San Diego Democratic Club’ formed the ‘San Diego Blood Sisters’ and organized regular drives to ensure there was enough blood available to meet demand.
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Among the landmark legal cases in gay rights on the topic of AIDS is Braschi vs. Stahl. Litigant Miguel Braschi sued his landlord for the right to continue living in their rent controlled apartment after his gay partner Leslie Blanchard died of AIDS. The NY Court of Appeals became the first American appellate court to conclude that same-sex relationships are entitled to legal recognition.
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Marriage Equality
Civil rights campaigning in support of marriage without distinction as to sex or sexual orientation began in the 1970s. One couple, Jack Baker and Michael McConnel received their marriage license in 1971.
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The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, prevented same-sex couples – even those whose marriages were recognized by their home state – from receiving benefits available to married couples under federal law. On June 26, 2013 the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 vote that DOMA was unconstitutional.
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On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same-sex marriage, legalized it in all fifty states, and required states to honor out-of-state same-sex marriage licenses
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