After years of progrs on gay rights, how did the US bee so anti-LGBTQ+? | US news | The Guardian

Contents:

• HOE PASS SWEEPG GAY AND TRANSGENR EQUALY LEGISLATN
• AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?
• GAY RIGHTS
• HOE APPROV SWEEPG BILL TO EXPAND GAY RIGHTS
• DO NEW YORK CY NEED A GAY RIGHTS LANDMARK?
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

HOE PASS SWEEPG GAY AND TRANSGENR EQUALY LEGISLATN

It was the send time the Democratic-led Hoe had passed the measure, known as the Equaly Act, which seeks to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to add explic bans on discrimatn agast lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people both public and private spac. Several Republins assailed the Equaly Act as dangero, leadg one top Democrat, Reprentative Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, to acce them of believg that gay and transgenr people “are morally ferr, and that firg should be permted.

AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?

”In a landmark cisn June, the Supreme Court led that the 1964 civil rights law protects gay and transgenr people om workplace discrimatn, and that the language of the law, which prohibs discrimatn on the basis of sex, also appli to discrimatn based on sexual orientatn and genr inty. That set off an tensive effort among a bipartisan group of proponents the Senate — boosted quietly by a aln of fluential Republin donors and operativ, some of them gay — to fd the at least 10 Republin vot necsary that chamber to move the Senate, the legislatn was revised to addrs ncerns among some Republins that would punish or rtrict the relig eedom of stutns that refe to regnize same-sex marriag. The unexpectedly high number of Hoe Republins supportg the bill July — nearly a quarter of them — propelled her bid to cut a bipartisan al the Senate, but she urged Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majory lear, to wa until after the electns to brg to a strategy drew the ire of some progrsiv who were eager to exact a polil price om Republin opponents of the measure, but yield the hoped for rult: The legislatn passed the Senate last month wh the support of 12 Republins, exceedg the 60-vote thrhold that has trated many a bipartisan the Hoe floor on Thursday, a para of Democrats — some of them gay, many of speakg about their own same-sex marriag — stood to make the se for the measure.

“Today, we will vote for equaly and agast discrimatn by fally overturng the homophobic Defense of Marriage Act and guaranteeg ccial protectns for same-sex and terracial marriag, ” Reprentative David Cicille, Democrat of Rho Island, said on Thursday the moments before , at a ceremony to celebrate and officially transm the legislatn to Mr. Pelosi, whose speakership ends the begng of January, said that signg the bill was a ftg pstone to her tenure the post, which began 2010 wh her signg legislatn to allow the repeal of the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy agast gay and bisexual people servg openly the Reprentative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachetts and one of the first openly gay members of Congrs, was on hand to celebrate what he scribed the mise of yet another ignom piece of policy, referrg to the Defense of Marriage Act by s ials. ”On his first day office, Bin signed an executive orr directg feral agenci to implement the Supreme Court’s Bostock lg and to enforce any regulatns banng sex discrimatn on the basis of sexual orientatn and genr inty, as last October, Bin told Philalphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal that passg the Equaly Act would ensure “no future print n ever aga roll back civil rights and protectns for LGBTQ+ dividuals.

A rash of laws ncerng the teachg of human sexualy school curricula, banng trans stunt athlet and strippg parents of the right to help their genr-variant children obta appropriate re have popped up numero red stat this same-sex marriage is now part of the fabric of Ameri, nservativ have chosen to explo Amerins’ unfaiary wh trans people and piggyback on parental anger over the perceived overreach of Covid-era school closur, nflatg wh an sid sense of “wokens”, the hop of fdg an electorally viable sluiceway for anti-LGBTQ+ most famo of the anti-LGBTQ+ laws is the piece of Florida legislatn banng stctn on sexual orientatn or genr inty schools between krgarten and third gra, the so-lled “don’t say gay” law. He was followed by Arizona’s ernor, Doug Ducey, who, after barrg mors om genr-affirmatn treatment, wouldn’t even state for the rerd that trans people were Florida lawmaker Michele Rayner-Goolsby, left, hugs her wife, Bian Goolsby, durg a march at cy hall St Petersburg agast the ‘don’t say gay’ bill.

GAY RIGHTS

Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/Zuma Wire/Rex/ShutterstockPolicians are supported the media by mentators like Tucker Carlson, who claimed “no one had heard of this trans thg four years ago”, or Charlie Kirk, channelg 1980s fears sayg “gays want to rpt your children” rejuvenated, the right wg is poised to make transphobia and homophobia rnerston of the midterms and 2024 electns, wh promis to liver “don’t say gay” legislatn stat cludg Michigan and New Perks, the print of the Fay Rearch Council, a nservative lobbyg group, veighed agast the ernors of Indiana and Utah for vetog legislatn banng trans women om participatg sports, llg the bills “timely, mastream protectns”. The Republin US reprentative Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed to troduce a feral “don’t say gay” bill if Republins w the Hoe this November, only to one-up herself days later by tweetg that for people to be pro-trans is to be pro-pedophilia.

”The bs-iendly wg of the GOP that would quietly team up wh Democrats to scuttle rabidly homophobic bills is now outnumbered, and legislators a dozen or more stat that lean even farther to the right than DeSantis are takg, the Natnal Center for Lbian Rights legal director, believ Florida is the tt se for a renewed ph for an aggrsive, Christian-natnalist program. “I’ve seen this movie before over the last 30 years: The right wg cid to target the LGBTQ muny, whether ’s around marriage or adoptn or trans kids playg sports or bathrooms, ” says the California state senator Stt Wiener, who is gay.

“I thought was really important to ph back on the policy level, and to send a clear signal that California and other stat really re about the kids, ” he believ that “don’t say gay” is “patently unnstutnal” but also ntends that relyg on the judicial system to protect human rights may no longer be a sound optn. Army service World War I, Gerber was spired to create his anizatn by the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee, a “homosexual emancipatn” group ’s small group published a few issu of s newsletter “Friendship and Freedom, ” the untry’s first gay-tert newsletter.

HOE APPROV SWEEPG BILL TO EXPAND GAY RIGHTS

Ernment signated Gerber’s Chigo hoe a Natnal Historic Pk TriangleCorbis/Getty ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, gay rights movement stagnated for the next few s, though LGBT dividuals around the world did e to the spotlight a few example, English poet and thor Radclyffe Hall stirred up ntroversy 1928 when she published her lbian-themed novel, The Well of Lonels. Addnally, 1948, his book Sexual Behavr the Human Male, Aled Ksey proposed that male sexual orientatn li on a ntuum between exclively homosexual to exclively Homophile Years In 1950, Harry Hay found the Mattache Foundatn, one of the natn’s first gay rights group.

”Though started off small, the foundatn, which sought to improve the liv of gay men through discsn groups and related activi, expand after foundg member Dale Jenngs was arrted 1952 for solicatn and then later set ee due to a adlocked the end of the year, Jenngs formed another anizatn lled One, Inc., which weled women and published ONE, the untry’s first pro-gay magaze.

DO NEW YORK CY NEED A GAY RIGHTS LANDMARK?

Post Office, which 1954 clared the magaze “obscene” and refed to liver Mattache Society Mattache Foundatn members rtctured the anizatn to form the Mattache Society, which had lol chapters other parts of the untry and 1955 began publishg the untry’s send gay publitn, The Mattache Review.

That same year, four lbian upl San Francis found an anizatn lled the Dghters of Bilis, which soon began publishg a newsletter lled The Ladr, the first lbian publitn of any early years of the movement also faced some notable setbacks: the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn listed homosexualy as a form of mental disorr followg year, Print Dwight D. ”In fear of beg shut down by thori, bartenrs would ny drks to patrons spected of beg gay or kick them out altogether; others would serve them drks but force them to s facg away om other ctomers to prevent them om 1966, members of the Mattache Society New York Cy staged a “sip-”—a twist on the “s-” protts of the 1960s— which they vised taverns, clared themselv gay, and waed to be turned away so they uld sue.

They were nied service at the Greenwich Village tavern Juli, rultg much publicy and the quick reversal of the anti-gay liquor Stonewall Inn A few years later, 1969, a now-famo event talyzed the gay rights movement: The Stonewall clanste gay club Stonewall Inn was an stutn Greenwich Village bee was large, cheap, allowed dancg and weled drag queens and homels the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

" This sign was wrten by the Mattache Society–an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay reportg the events, The New York Daily News rorted to homophobic slurs s tailed verage, nng the headle: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad. 1 / 12: NY Daily News Archive/Getty ImagChristopher Street Liberatn Day Shortly after the Stonewall uprisg, members of the Mattache Society spl off to form the Gay Liberatn Front, a radil group that lnched public monstratns, protts and nontatns wh polil officials. Siar groups followed, cludg the Gay Activists Alliance, Radilbians, and Street Transvt Actn Revolutnari (STAR) 1970, at the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, New York Cy muny members marched through lol streets memoratn of the event.