Background on Gay and Lesbian

Gay and lesbian citizens have been discriminated against, and still are today, ever since the term "homosexuality" was known. The early 2oth century was the era when gay and lesbian citizens began to "come out" and reveal their sexual orientation in public, mainly due to the fact that it was during a time when urbanization and migration was booming. The government, in response, took action and began to enforce restrictions against anyone who was considered to be gay. Police would charge into what was believed to be a "gay areas," and arrest those who they considered to be gay. I question how the police determined who was gay and who wasn't. It wasn't as though those people who were arrested were any different from the other men in society. It wasn't like their skin was of another color or their hair was styled in a specific way. Non-gays could've been in those bars too. I wonder how they had a way of knowing who was gay and who wasn't. Not only were gay people arrested, but denied privilages to take part in plays, movies, the military, and even attend local places like bars. Liquor, surprisingly, was also commonly denied to gay citizens. In the article, it said, "The licensing of the sale of alcohol and the following creation of police-like agencies to monitor the flow of liquor and 'morality' represented the state's most powerful weapon in limiting the presence of openly gay men in public life." Police would monitor which bars would serve liquor to gay men and then press charges against them because they weren't suppossed to be serving to them. One legal case that I read about involving liquor took place in the 1960s and was about an owner of a bar who's liquor license was taken away because he served alcohol to homosexuals. In the end, he ended up getting back his license after he fought for it in court. It shocked me to read that the government would go through so much trouble of monitoring local locations like bars just to prevent the gay citizens from threatening the country. After all, it was believed that homosexuality was a "social problem" that needed to be resolved because it was considered to be a "threat to the stability of American culture." The movement for gay and lesbians have come a long way since the 1960s. For example, in 1992, President Bill Clinton supported a proposal that was to allow gays and lesbians to serve in the military and in 2000, the state of Vermont became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. Still, there are over 30 million gay and lesbian citizens in the U.S. who are still trying to achieve recognition of social, economic, and political rights.

"gay rights." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2010. http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/.