How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
LGBTQ Revolution
From Pride to
Protest
LGBTQ Pride Month events
around the country are usually marked by celebratory
parades featuring floats, dancers, and celebrities. And
they've been especially joyous in recent years,
following the Supreme Court's decision to legalize
same-sex marriage. But, recently, the parades have
shifted from pride to protest.
"We've converted the
parade, floats, and fun to a march for civil rights,”
Said Brian Pendleton, a Resist March organizer.
The celebratory tone of
recent LGBTQ Pride marches from San Francisco to
Istanbul have been undergirded by an atmosphere of
political expression and protest.
"Vulnerable communities
are under attack right now, and they’re suffering
systemic oppression, including transphobia, homophobia,
and racism," said Natalie James, an organizer at the New
York City Pride march.
When parades and pride
marches become protest rallies, and allies and advocates
become activists, the message and tone evolve from
celebration to demonstration. The focus is on defending
LGBTQ rights and resisting efforts to take them away.
But, it can’t stop there.
As one protest organizer said, "When do we stop becoming
activists and when do we start becoming leaders?"
The leader of LA's Resist
March, Brian Pendleton, believes the event is taking a
page from LGBTQ history to face the future of American
politics. "This idea that we're getting back to our
roots as a protest organization rather than as a
parading organization feels right," he says. And
Pendleton hopes that when people participate in a march
to resist, they can walk away proud.
NPR: From Pride to Protest at LGBTQ Parades
NBC News: Pride March Turns Into Protest
Info: LGBTQ Activist Organizations
Chicago Tribune: Gay Pride Parades Across the Nation
LGBTQ Movements in the United States
Rainbow Riots: LGBTQ Voices From Uganda
ABC News: Pride Marches Marked by Protests
YouTube: New York City Pride Parade Highlights
Info: LGBTQ Pride Parades
Reuters: Washington DC Gay Pride Draws Thousands
LGBTQ Social Movements
Lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social movements are
activist efforts that advocate for the acceptance and
equality of LGBTQ people in society. In these social
justice movements, LGBTQ people and their allies have a
long history of campaigning for what is now generally
called LGBTQ rights, sometimes also called gay rights or
gay and lesbian rights. In the past, it was referred to
as gay liberation.
These protest are aimed
at institutions that discriminate against LGBTQ people.
The demonstrations can target individual companies or
organizations or they can, of course, target state or
federal government.
Although there is not a
primary or overarching central organization that
represents all LGBTQ people and their interests,
numerous LGBTQ rights organizations are active
worldwide. The earliest organizations to support LGBTQ
rights were formed in the 19th century.
A commonly stated goal
among these movements is social equality for LGBTQ
people. But there is still denial of full LGBTQ rights
and there is much work still to be done. Some have also
focused on building LGBTQ communities or worked towards
freedom for the broader society from biphobia,
homophobia, and transphobia. There is a struggle for
LGBTQ rights today. LGBTQ movements organized today are
made up of a wide range of political activism and
cultural activity, including lobbying, boycotts,
parades, street marches, protest rallies, social groups,
concerts, film, art, media, journalism, and research.
PFLAG Founder Dies
Jeanne Manford Raised the Flag for Intolerance
12 Year Old Mexican Boy Faces Down Protesters During
March
LGBTQ Revolution
I Wish I Could Have Been That Brave Kid
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
Protesting White Supremacists
Protesting Anti-LGBTQ Protesters with Conga Line
Stunning Photo of Courageous Boy
92 Year Old Woman Holds Same Sign for 30 Years
Zach Wahls' Speech to Iowa House of Rep
Dance Party Protest
Stand Up and Fight
“Burst down those closet
doors once and for all. And stand up and start to
fight.”
-Harvey Milk
"A right delayed is a
right denied."
-Martin Luther King Jr
“Protest beyond the law
is not a departure from democracy. It is absolutely
essential to it.”
-Howard Zinn
“When injustice becomes
the law, resistance becomes a duty.”
-Thomas Jefferson
"I believe in social
dislocation and creative trouble. We need, in every
community, a group of angelic troublemakers."
-Bayard Rustin
"Will we be extremists
for hate or will we be extremists for love? Will we be
extremists for the preservation of injustice? Or will we
be extremists for the cause of justice?"
-Martin Luther King Jr, Letter from Birmingham Jail
"By any measure, LGBTQ
people are targets of discrimination in employment,
housing, and public accommodations. More people are
being murdered because of their sexual orientation than
for any other bias reason. Our young people are still
routinely bullied in schools. The examples of injustices
in the area of partner and family recognition are too
many to list. America is in the midst of another ugly
chapter in its struggle with the forces of bigotry.
People of good will can either rise up to speak for
lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender Americans, or look
back upon themselves 20 years from now with deserved
shame."
-Matt
Foreman, NGLTF Executive Director
“When the power of love
overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”
-Jimi Hendrix
Gay Lesbian Straight
Education
Network
Parents & Friends of
Lesbians &
Gays
Gay Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation
Gay Lesbian Straight
Education
Network
National LGBTQ
Task Force
Human Rights Campaign
Southern Poverty
Law Center
Campus Pride
Trevor
Project
LGBTQ Activism
People who engage in
civil disobedience should understand the risks involved,
and most do. As a long-time political organizer from the
1960s onward, as an anti-war, LGBTQ, anti-racism, social
justice activist, I have studied the philosophies and
strategies of the abolitionist, suffrage and first-third
wave feminist, union workers, civil rights, and other
progressive movements.
For example, we in ACT UP
(AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) conducted highly
visible demonstrations, often involving acts of
nonviolent civil disobedience in which we on occasion
placed ourselves at risk for arrest and even injury. ACT
UP New York, as an early example, staged a sit-in on
Wall Street in 1987 during rush hour to protest price
gouging by pharmaceutical companies for antiviral drugs.
Our purpose was not to
make nice. It was, rather, to make people
uncomfortable and angry. We wanted to cause
inconvenience by waking people up to realities around
us. We challenged not only the status quo, but the
complacency and, yes, the collusion of the so-called
bystanders who would rather not have been
inconvenienced by having to face the injustices
surrounding them.
In our AIDS activism, we
not only challenged traditional means of scientific
knowledge dissemination, but more importantly, we
questioned the very mechanisms by which scientists
conducted research, and, therefore, we helped redefine
the very meaning of science.
The legislative tactics
used by an increasing number of states to discourage
nonviolent peaceful protest will have the reverse effect
since it will empower increasing numbers of people to
stand up to these injustices.
Joining together with my remarkable, dedicated, and
steadfast friends in acts of civil disobedience has
continually made real for me Margaret Mead’s insightful
and stirring statement: Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only
thing that ever has.
[Source: Warren J.
Blumenfeld, LGBTQ Nation]
NPR: From Pride to Protest at LGBTQ Parades
NBC News: Pride March Turns Into Protest
Chicago Tribune: Gay Pride Parades Across the Nation
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
Info: LGBTQ Pride Parades
ABC News: Pride Marches Marked by Protests
LGBTQ Movements in the United States
YouTube: New York City Pride Parade Highlights
Rainbow Riots: Freedom
Reuters: Washington DC Gay Pride Draws Thousands
Info: LGBTQ Activist Organizations
LGBTQ Revolution
Rainbow Riots: Equal Rights
Gay Liberation
On June 27, 1969, New
York's Stonewall Inn bar was raided by police, launching
the now-famous Stonewall Riots. This event is said to
have been the beginning of the movement for Gay Rights
or Gay Liberation.
The Gay Liberation
movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s urged
lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action,
and to counter societal shame with gay pride. In the
feminist spirit of the personal being political, the
most basic form of activism was an emphasis on coming
out to family, friends, and colleagues, and living life
as an openly lesbian or gay person. In this period,
annual political marches through major cities, usually
held in June (to commemorate the Stonewall uprising),
were still known as "Gay Liberation" marches.
It wasn't until later in
the seventies (in urban gay centers) and well into the
eighties in smaller communities, that the marches began
to be called "gay pride parades." The movement involved
the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer
communities in North America, South America, Western
Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Gay Liberation is also
known for its links to the counterculture of the time,
to groups like the Radical Faeries, and for the gay
liberationists' intent to transform or redefine
fundamental institutions of society such as gender and
the nuclear family. In general, the politics were very
radical. In order to achieve such liberation,
consciousness raising and direct action were employed.
While HIV/AIDS activism
and awareness (in groups such as ACT UP) radicalized a
new wave of lesbians and gay men in the 1980s, and
radical groups have continued to exist, by the early
1990s the radicalism of Gay Liberation was becoming
eclipsed in the mainstream by newly-out, assimilationist,
white gay men who stressed civil rights and mainstream
politics.
Wikipedia: Stonewall Riots (New York)
Stonewall Riots: Beginning of the LGBTQ
Movement
Things
You Missed in History: What Was the Compton’s Cafeteria
Riot?
Wikipedia: Compton’s Cafeteria Riot (San Francisco)
Before the Riot at Stonewall, There Was a Sit In at
Dewey's
Stonewall Riots
The Stonewall riots were
a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by
members of the LGBTQ community against a police raid
that took place in the early morning hours of June 28,
1969, at the Stonewall Inn, located in the Greenwich
Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. They
are widely considered to constitute the single most
important event leading to the gay liberation movement
and the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United
States.
Gay Americans in the
1950s and 1960s faced an anti-gay legal system. Early
homophile groups in the US sought to prove that gay
people could be assimilated into society, and they
favored non-confrontational education for homosexuals
and heterosexuals alike. The last years of the 1960s,
however, were very contentious, as many social movements
were active, including the African American Civil Rights
Movement, the Counterculture of the 1960s, and antiwar
demonstrations. These influences, along with the liberal
environment of Greenwich Village, served as catalysts
for the Stonewall Riots.
Very few establishments
welcomed openly gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. Those
that did were often bars, although bar owners and
managers were rarely gay. At the time, the Stonewall Inn
was owned by the Mafia. It catered to an assortment of
patrons and was known to be popular among the poorest
and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag
queens, transgender people, effeminate young men, butch
lesbians, male prostitutes, and homeless youth. Police
raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but
officers quickly lost control of the situation at the
Stonewall Inn. They attracted a crowd that was incited
to riot. Tensions between New York City police and gay
residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more
protests the next evening, and again several nights
later. Within weeks, Village residents quickly organized
into activist groups to concentrate efforts on
establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open
about their sexual orientation without fear of being
arrested.
After the Stonewall
Riots, gays and lesbians in New York City faced gender,
race, class, and generational obstacles to becoming a
cohesive community. Within six months, two gay activist
organizations were formed in New York, concentrating on
confrontational tactics, and three newspapers were
established to promote rights for gays and lesbians.
Within a few years, gay rights organizations were
founded across the US and the world. On June 28, 1970,
the first Gay Pride marches took place in New York, Los
Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago commemorating the
anniversary of the riots. Similar marches were organized
in other cities. Today, Gay Pride events are held
annually throughout the world toward the end of June to
mark the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
PFLAG Founder Dies
Jeanne Manford Raised the Flag for Intolerance
12 Year Old Mexican Boy Faces Down Protesters During
March
I Wish I Could Have Been That Brave Kid
Stunning Photo of Courageous Boy
92 Year Old Woman Holds Same Sign for 30 Years
Zach Wahls' Speech to Iowa House of Rep
Dance Party Protest
Remembering the
Early Pioneers
Photo Left: PFLAG Moms, Mrs. Elizabeth Montgomery and
Mrs. Jean Manford, show their support during the 1974
Pride Day Parade in New York City. Photo Right: PFLAG
Dad, Dick Ashworth, a founding member of Parents and
Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG,) marching on June
3, 1974.
In 1972,
Morton Manford was physically attacked at a gay rights
demonstration in New York. Morty’s parents, Jeanne and
Jules Manford, saw the attack on a local newscast and
witnessed the failure of the police to intervene. Their
outrage turned them into activists. The concept of PFLAG
began in 1972 when Jeanne Manford marched with her gay
son in New York’s Pride Day parade. After many gay men
and lesbians ran up to Jeanne during the parade and
begged her to talk to their parents, Jeanne decided to
begin a support group. Approximately 20 people attended
the first formal meeting held in March 1973 at a local
church.
In the
next years, through word of mouth and in response to
community need, similar groups sprung up around the
country, offering “safe havens” and mutual support for
parents with gay and lesbian children. Following the
1979 National March for Gay and Lesbian Rights,
representatives from these support groups met for the
first time in Washington, DC. In 1981, members decided
to launch a national organization. The first PFLAG
office was established in Los Angeles under founding
President Adele Starr.
In 1982,
the Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and
Gays (PFLAG), then comprising some 20 groups, changed
from a federation to a membership-based organization and
was incorporated in California and granted non-profit,
tax-exempt status. In 1990, following a period of
enormous growth, PFLAG hired an Executive Director,
expanded its staff, and consolidated operations in
Washington, DC. In 1993, the word “Families” was added
to the name.
LGBTQ Social Movements
NPR: From Pride to Protest at LGBTQ Parades
LGBTQ Revolution
Info: LGBTQ Activist Organizations
APA: History of LGBTQ Social Movements
Gay Pride Signs
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
NBC News: Pride March Turns Into Protest
Info: LGBTQ Pride Parades
LGBTQ
Nation: Protest News
Life Lessons I've Learned From an LGBTQ Activist
Is Pride a Protest or a Party?
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