History of lgbtq movement
A Summary History of LGBTQ+ Legislation and Representation within Congress
Last month, many across the country acknowledged Pride Month in recognition of the LGBTQ+ community and its growing acceptance in American community. As such, it’s important to regard the history of LGBTQ+ legislation and representation in Congress, which has largely mirrored popular opinion—both in support of the movement and against it.
The precise beginning of Federal anti-gay legislation is difficult to resolve. Many early laws and resolutions banned sodomy and “obscenities,” categories which included gay relationships without explicitly referencing homosexuality. One early measure, the Immigration Do of 1917, specifically restricted immigration by individuals who exhibit “constitutional psychopathic inferiority,” a legislative classification also used to discriminate based on sexual orientation. Despite ambiguities in language, there are many early accounts of citizens facing legal punishment for Homosexual relationships, beginning as early as the seventeenth century, when many New England colonial laws ascribed the death penalty for charges of sodomy.
The first appearances of the words “homosexual”
In the bustling city streets of San Francisco and beyond, the chant for LGBTQ+ equality reverberates as a testament to decades of resilience, perseverance, and progress.
The LGBTQ+ activism movement has been at the forefront of creating convert with individuals, organizations, and communities all working towards a common goal: equality for all.
But where did this movement begin?
We'll dive deep into the history of the LGBTQ+ rights movement, including San Francisco's pivotal role in moving forward the cause.
Origins of the LGBTQ+ Movement
A notable event in the modern-day LGBTQIA+ rights movement was the Stonewall riots in Brand-new York City in 1969. A police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village, sparked the uprising. This event was one of many that marked a turning gesture in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.
Leading up to this event was a series of others that played integral roles in the course of the LGBTQ+ movement.
Here are several of them:
Founding of the Mattachine Society (1950)
Harry Hay, along with a community of other LGBTQ+ activists, founded the Mattachine Community in Los Angeles in 1950. It was one of the earliest Diverse rights organ
Written by: Jim Downs, Connecticut College
By the end of this section, you will:
- Explain how and why various groups responded to calls for the expansion of civil rights from 1960 to 1980
After World War II, the civil rights movement had a profound impact on other groups demanding their rights. The feminist movement, the Black Power movement, the environmental movement, the Chicano movement, and the American Indian Movement sought equality, rights, and empowerment in American society. Gay people organized to resist oppression and insist just treatment, and they were especially galvanized after a New York Capital police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay prevent, sparked riots in 1969.
Around the matching time, biologist Alfred Kinsey began a massive study of human sexuality in the United States. Like Magnus Hirschfield and other scholars who studied sexuality, including Havelock Ellis, a prominent British scholar who published research on trans person psychology, Kinsey believed sexuality could be studied as a science. He interviewed more than 8,000 men and argued that sexuality existed on a spectrum, saying that it could not be confined to easy categories of lgbtq+ and heterosex
LGBTQ Rights Timeline in American History
This timeline is organized in units that are typically taught in middle school and high institution U.S. History classrooms and is consistent with the people and events listed in the new California History-Social Science Framework (2016). Our Family Coalition will be updating the timeline over time.
It is essential to note that there existed lesbian, gay, double attraction and transgender individuals, communities, and relationships long before these terms became commonplace. Gay and lesbian relationships existed in ancient Rome and Greece communities and are shown in a variety of art from that period. The years when familiar terms began to be used are listed first followed by important LGBTQ history events:
Lesbian – 1732 – the term homosexual woman first used by William King in his novel, The Toast, published in England which meant women who loved women.
Homosexual – 1869 – Hungarian news writer Karl-Maria Kertheny first used the term homosexual.
Bisexual – 1894/1967. 1872 – the pamphlet, “Psychopathia Sexualis” was translated from German and one of the first times the term bi is used. 1967: Sexual
During the nineteenth century, the first gay liberation thinkers laid the groundwork for a militant movement that demanded the end of the criminalization, pathologisation and social rejection of non-heterosexual sexuality. In 1836, the Swiss man Heinrich Hössli (1784-1864) published in German the first essay demanding recognition of the rights of those who followed what he called masculine love. Nearly three decades later, the German jurist Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) wrote twelve volumes between 1864 and 1879 as part of his “Research on the Mystery of Care for Between Men” (“Forschungen über das Räthsel der mannmännlichen Liebe”). He also circulated a manifesto to form a federation of Uranians (1865), a term which designated men who loved men. He was engaged in the struggle to repeal § 175 of the German penal code, which condemned “unnatural relations between men,” and in 1869 publicly declared he was a Uranist during a congress of German jurists. He died in exile in Italy before the birth of the liberation movement which he had called for.
A first queer liberation movement emerged in Berlin in 1897, revolving around the doctor Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935),co-f