Through the effective response to the epidemic, the movement achieved a high level of sophistication, influence, and permanence.
THE IMPACT OF AIDS (1980s – early 1990s):
Autonomous organizing efforts of lesbians and gays of color, who demanded inclusion in both representation and setting of agendas.
Collapse of the lesbian-separatist utopia because of economic recession.
The movement lacked the financial resources, the numbers, the influence, and the political sophistication to counter the threat.
Religious fundamentalism and new conservatism: The New Right’s crusade against homosexuality.
Ü self-defense schools and shelters for battered women. Ü magazines, newspapers, publishing companies, bookstores, film collectives, Ü Building institutions and creating lesbian-only spaces where a culture and a community could flourish. Ü Developing an ideology of lesbianism that challenged the invisibility of lesbianism, the new rhetoric of gay liberation, mainstream feminism, and heterosexuality. Thus, they formed their own autonomous lesbian groups, developing a separate lesbian-feminist movement where lesbians with experience in women’s liberation and women with experience in gay liberation converged.
Most gay men’s lack of understanding of institutionalized sexism forced lesbians to fight for political and action agendas that recognized their needs.
Ü new economic opportunities for gay-oriented businesses (bars, bathhouses, discos, restaurants, etc.) Ü 1973 ð the American Psychiatric Association eliminates homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.
Goals : ending job discrimination, media invisibility, church and military discrimination.
Single-issue organizations, completely gay-focused, with clearly specified structures and processes.
Language of pride and self-affirmation rejection of mainstream cultural views of homosexuality.
They expected and demanded acceptance for who they were.
Emphasis on coming out and gay rights.
Reformative politics : Rather than try to destroy the old in order to build something new, they sought recognition and inclusion in American society.
Problems : Employment discrimination, arrests, political conservatism, economic entrenchment, and lack of attention to sexism and racism.
Ü Public affirmation of homosexual identity (coming out in public). Ü Political, social, and cultural organizations that helped build a movement and a community. Ü Public demonstrations and emphasis on visibility. Ü Making common cause with “all the oppressed” and commitment to a larger project of political change. Ü Attack of the systemic oppression of gays and lesbians.
Influences : civil rights movement, Black Power movement, white student movement, antiwar movement, and feminism.
Gay Liberation Front (GLF): Radical gay and lesbian activism.
Stonewall Riot ð Symbol of a new militance.
Stonewall and the Emergence of Radical Gay Liberation
Problems : Society’s hostility against homosexuals and the penalties attached to exposure.
Ü denunciation of how gays and lesbians are a mistreated, persecuted minority.
Ü dialogue opened in the scientific and religious communities, Ü first employment discrimination cases won, Ü right to publish gay and lesbian magazines, Ü “unbiased” information about homosexuality. Ü equal treatment and equal rights under the law,
The homophile movement remained small and relatively marginalized.
Government and police harassment, persecution, and investigation of gays.
Growth in the urban subculture of gay men and lesbians.
The Homophile Years (1940s-60s – WWII, Cold War, McCarthyism ):