Gay american history
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: a Documentary History
"This ground-breaking work is the primary sourcebook for an accurate, fascinating, historical account of American lesbians and gay men. The flag consisted of eight stripes; Baker assigned specific meaning to each of the colors: hot pink: sexuality; red: life; orange: healing; yellow: sunlight green: nature; turquoise: magic/art; indigo/blue: serenity/harmony; violet: spirit.
After the November 27, 1978, assassination of openly gay San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, demand for the rainbow flag greatly increased.
It flew in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978. The scene eventually exploded into a full-blown riot, with subsequent protests that lasted for five more days.
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In 1979 the flag was modified again. Here are reprints of rare and hard-to-find documents that represent over four hundred years of oppression, conflict, and struggle in the New World.Changing the flag design to one with an even number of stripes was the easiest way to rectify this, so the turquoise stripe was dropped, which resulted in a six stripe version of the flag.
In 1988, the rainbow flag came to nationwide attention in the United States after John Stout sued his landlords
and won when they attempted to prohibit him from displaying the flag from his West Hollywood, California, apartment balcony.
It has been suggested that Baker was inspired by Judy Garland's singing Over the Rainbow.
(Sources: Britannica.com; SFTravel.com)
Gay Rights
The gay rights movement saw some early progress In the 1960s.
As Baker ramped up production of his version of the flag, he dropped the hot pink stripe because of the unavailability of hot-pink fabric. Now with a new preface and an updated bibliography, the collection remains the most complete and authoritative reference work of the homosexual experience in the United States. When hung vertically from
the lamp posts of San Francisco’s Market Street, the center stripe was obscured by the post itself.
Impeccably researched and covering American history from the earliest European settlers and Native Americans to contemporary times, this volume is both a superb history and a deeply moving work." --Back cover
The original gay-pride flag was hand-dyed by Gilbert Baker. In fact, gay men and women in New York City could not be served alcohol in public due to liquor laws that considered the gathering of homosexuals to be “disorderly.”
In fear of being shut down by authorities, bartenders would deny drinks to patrons suspected of being gay or kick them out altogether; others would serve them drinks but force them to sit facing away from other customers to prevent them from socializing.
In 1966, members of the Mattachine Society in New York City staged a “sip-in”—a twist on the “sit-in” protests of the 1960s—in which they visited taverns, declared themselves gay, and waited to be turned away so they could sue.
They were denied service at the Greenwich Village tavern Julius, resulting in much publicity and the quick reversal of the anti-gay liquor laws.
The Stonewall Inn
A few years later, in 1969, a now-famous event catalyzed the gay rights movement: The Stonewall Riots.
The clandestine gay club Stonewall Inn was an institution in Greenwich Village because it was large, cheap, allowed dancing and welcomed drag queens and homeless youths.
But in the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn.
Fed up with years of police harassment, patrons and neighborhood residents began throwing objects at police as they loaded the arrested into police vans. In 1961, Illinois became the first state to do away with its anti-sodomy laws, effectively decriminalizing homosexuality, and a local TV station in California aired the first documentary about homosexuality, called The Rejected.
In 1965, Dr.
John Oliven, in his book Sexual Hygiene and Pathology, coined the term “transgender” to describe someone who was born in the body of the incorrect sex.
But more than 10 years earlier, transgender individuals entered the American consciousness when Christine Jorgensen came out as a trans woman, following gender confirmation surgery.
Despite this progress, LGBTQ+ individuals lived in a kind of urban subculture and were routinely subjected to harassment and persecution, such as in bars and restaurants.
Among its wealth of provocative material are an 1891 photograph of male-male dancing in the Old West; a 1974 interview with a male homosexual victim of shock treatment; a 1629 journal account of 'sodomitical activity' among the first American colonists; and an account of lesbianism in the life of blues singer Bessie Smith.