The Sexual Revolution & the Gay Community

Paper Summary:

This paper studies the sexual revolution of the 1960s, which laid the groundwork for changes that were to influence fundamental ideas about intimate behavior in the late 20th century. Yet, while delivering the message of "sexual freedom," the Revolution failed to address specifically homosexual concerns, and thus failed to include a whole portion of the sexually active population of America. The author also studies the simultaneous political organizing of the gay and lesbian communities in America and Australia. The paper conclude that the rights of gays and lesbians were not protected until the 1970s, when laws began to change.

From the Paper:

"The organizations had their roots in the 1950s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy carried out the most famous modern witch-hunt in America. McCarthy strove to persecute homosexuals since many of the gay civil rights' founders were formerly Communist radicals - notably Harry Hay, who was a Communist Party leader of 20 years and who made the first call for a gay civil rights movement in 1948. [Heidendry, 103] In response to the climate of persecution, in 1950 Hay founded the "Mattachine Society" in Los Angeles, and in 1953 W. Dorr Legg founded "One, Inc." Both these groups were determined to "aid in the social integration and rehabilitation of the sexual variant" - fancy parlance for making homosexuality acceptable in the eyes of most Americans. [ibid, 103] In 1955, the first lesbian activist group, "the Daughters of Bilitis," was founded in San Francisco by Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. [ibid., 105] The FBI harassed all three groups and accused them of being communist fronts, while the Post Office was barred from circulating the literature of "One, Inc." by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. [ibid., 104]"

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