Homosexual Legal Rights

Report Outline
Activism on Legal and Social Issues
Public Attitudes Toward Homosexuals
Court Challenges to Discrimination
Special Focus

Activism on Legal and Social Issues

Fast Emergence of Gay Liberation Movement

The prevailing attitude toward homosexuals in the United States traditionally has been one of revulsion and hostility. This attitude is reflected in the nation's legal codes. In 42 states private homosexual acts entered into by consenting adults are punishable by long prison sentences. The person who appears homosexual or who acknowledges his—or her—homosexuality has trouble finding a job or a place to live. He is barred by the federal government from the Civil Service and Foreign Service, and from private employment requiring a security clearance. The homosexual encounters some form of discrimination almost daily, whether with or without a legal basis.

In recent years, however, many of these laws, rules and practices have been challenged in the courts and state legislatures. Leading the battle for full legal equality is a group of militant homosexuals rallying under the banner of the “Gay Liberation Movement.” The emergence of “Gay Lib” as a full-fledged social-protest movement is traced to June 27, 1969, when New York City policemen raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village catering to homosexuals. The bar patrons resisted arrest and brawled with the police for several hours that night, to the apparent surprise of both groups.

This turn of events—homosexuals openly fighting for their claim to civil rights—imparted a new sense of boldness to many other homosexuals. Within a month, the first Gay Liberation Front group was organized in New York City. By the second anniversary of the “Stonewall Rebellion” other militant homosexual organizations, including the Gay Activists Alliance, had sprung up all across the country. Gay Pride Week, commemorating the Stonewall incident, has become an annual event and homosexual-sponsored protest demonstrations are much a part of the American scene in 1974.