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Historical Perspectives

Historical Perspectives. Goal: Helping to make the lessons learned, and knowledge gained through LGBTQIA minority history more easily accessible for counselors, educators and students.

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Historical Perspectives

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  1. Historical Perspectives Goal: Helping to make the lessons learned, and knowledge gained through LGBTQIA minority history more easily accessible for counselors, educators and students.

  2. Kelsey HoffmanSmith College, Northampton MA. Class of 2012Majors: The Study of Women and Gender and Psychology Goal of This Presentation: I hope to help make the lessons learned, and knowledge gained through LGBTQIA minority history more easily accessible for counselors, educators and students.

  3. Terms: • LGBTQIA is the acronym for this presentation • Error on the side of inclusion! • Homosexual • Of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex • Heterosexual • Of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward the opposite sex • Homophile • Early term used by LGBTQIA rights organizers to self identify • Heteronormative • Considering heterosexuality to be the standard by which everything else is measured against • http://www.merriam-webster.com

  4. Why is LGBTQIA History Important for Counselors/Students? • By understanding this history, it is the hope that counselors will become more sensitive to the needs of LGBTQIA students and parents. • Academics • Social-personal development • Careers preparation for our students. • Helps to build students self-esteem, affirm LGBTQIA identities, it helps to normalize LGBTQIA students in the eyes of peers, affirms non-heternomative family structures.

  5. Who, What, When, Where and Why? • 1940-1980s • D’Emilio in Making and Unmaking Minorities • “The reason a Gay political movement did not exist before the post-World War II era was not because Gay men and Lesbians were slower to recognize injustice than were blacks or women, nor because the oppression was so severe that protest was too dangerous. Rather, the explanation lies in the fact that until the modern era, a Gay and Lesbian “minority” did not exist. Many contemporary American take for granted that sexual orientation is a fixed category that indicates an essential difference in human beings. Yet, in the mid-eighteenth century, or even mid-nineteenth century, American society did not label people as heterosexuals or Homosexuals.” • USA specific

  6. Activity: Break up into groups Pick cards out of the pile Take 5-10 minutes to place the cards on the time line using your best guess as to where they fit Feel free to talk it out with other people! No smart phones!!

  7. World War II • The banning of LGBTQIA people was seen as for “their own good” and to limit “psychiatric casualties” • Harry Sullivan was trying to help men like himself • “Psychiatrists wrote into military regulations lists of stereotyped signs that characterized Gay men and Lesbians as visibly different from the rest of the population” • “Lying to pass as heterosexual, even to the discerning psychiatrist for a period of five or ten minutes…came easily to men who had been successfully practicing concealment from families, employers, and friends for many years” • “We were not about to be deprived the privilege of serving our country in a time of great national emergency by virtue of some stupid regulation about being Gay” • The military helped set in motion a “coming into consciousness” for an entire generation of LGBTQIA people, many of whom assumed they were alone in their sexuality before being drafted • Allan Berube, Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two (New York: Free Press, 1990)

  8. WWII: Women’s Sexuality Founding of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps in 1943 “The double standard toward the screening of women and men combined with their history of invisibility enable Lesbians to enter the military undetected” “In the early days of the WACs female masculinity, unlike male effeminacy was not considered to be a disqualifying defect” • Allan Berube, Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two (New York: Free Press, 1990)

  9. Alfred Kinsey’s Research • Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948 • Sexual Behavior in the Human Female in 1953 • Revolutionized the way people thought about human sexuality

  10. Christine Jorgensen May 30, 1926 – May 3, 1989 • In 1951 Chris underwent affirmation surgery in Copenhagen and began living fulltime as Christine • Christine in a letter to her parents: “Nature made the mistake which I have corrected, and now I am your daughter.” • While recovering form surgery the media dubbed her story: “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty” • New York Daily News 1953: • #1 Story: Christine Jorgensen • #2 Story: The execution of The Rosenbergs “Impossible! That word was a challenge to me. How did anyone dare say it in the Atomic Age?” Joanne Meyerowitz, How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2002)

  11. James BaldwinAugust 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987 • “Although he spent a great deal of his life abroad, James Baldwin always remained a quintessentially American writer. Whether he was working in Paris or Istanbul, he never ceased to reflect on his experience as a black man in white America. In numerous essays, novels, plays, and public speeches, the eloquent voice of James Baldwin spoke of the pain and struggle of black Americans and the saving power of brotherhood.” • Publishes Go Tell It on the Mountain in 1953 • Publishes Giovanni’s Room, which dealt with issues of Homosexuality, in 1956 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/james-baldwin/about-the-author/59/

  12. The Mattachine Society: Los Angeles 1951 • The first Gay men’s civil rights organization • Known as a Homophile organization • Set the movement in motion • Founded by Henry Hay • First meetings focused on identity development • Dale Jennings, a founding member, fell victim to police entrapment • Publicized the mistreatment of Gay people by LAPD • June 23rd 1952: “Jennings stood up in court and admitted that he was a Homosexual but denied that he was guilty of the charges against him. • Charges were dropped, GREAT VICTORY!” • 1953: ONE Supreme Court Case John D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984)

  13. Daughters of Bilitis: San Francisco 1955 • Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon co-founded the DOB as a private social group • Alternative to the Gay bar scene in San Francisco • The first national Lesbian society • According to the FBI: “The purpose of the DOB is to educate the public to accept the Lesbian Homosexual into society” • The DOB had their offices raided, though Lesbianism was not against the law in California Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991)

  14. Del Martin (May 5, 1921 – Aug. 27, 2008) Phyllis Lyon (Nov. 10, 1924) • Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon met in Seattle in 1949. In 1952, they began a formal relationship • In 1953, they moved to San Francisco, where they remained in the same house for the next fifty years. • “In 1972, Lyon and Martin published the book, Lesbian/Woman, which is an account of American Lesbian life in the twentieth century, ranging in its concerns from questions of sexuality to questions of psychological health.” • June 16, 2008, Del and Phyllis were legally wed in San Francisco. • “Mayor Newsom arranged for the couple to receive the first marriage license to be issued to a same-sex couple after the CA Supreme Court's decision became final.” "Her last act of activism was her most personal - marrying the love of her life" http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/28/MNGI12JDIS.DTL http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/lyon_p.html

  15. Barbara GittingsJuly 31, 1932 – Feb. 18, 2007 • In 1956 Barbara meet the founders of the SF Daughters of Bilitis and choose to form her own group in New York City. • Barbara became the lead editor of the DOB’s newsletter The Ladder and pushed for greater visibility • After Stonewall she helped to found the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force • Attended several APA conferences to present on Homosexuality http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/28/MNGI12JDIS.DTL http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/lyon_p.html

  16. Senator McCarthy and the 1950s • “Joseph McCarthy began a Senate investigation to find and fire Homosexuals and ‘other moral perverts’ in the civil service” • “LGBTQIA People were disallowed from holding federal jobs on April 27th, 1953. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, which ordered the firing of all federal employees guilty of ‘sexual perversion’ and stated that Homosexuals were unfit for federal employment.” • Kinsey’s book served “to magnify suddenly the proportions of the danger Homosexuals allegedly posed…the Homosexual wasn’t easily picked out of the crowd on the basis of a few telling mannerism. Suddenly the Homosexual, like the communist spy, could be anyone” • “Government officials believed that Gay people’s lack of ‘emotional stability’ and their ‘weakness of their moral fiber’ could pollute an entire government office.” • Gay people’s US Mail was searched, employers were then alerted that their employees were receiving Gay publications like The Ladder or ONE magazine. Joyce Murdock and Deb Price, Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court (New York: Basic Books, 2001)

  17. ONE Supreme Court Case 1958 • In October of 1954 600 copies of ONE were detained by the Post Office under the law that forbade the mailing of any “Obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy” publication. • March1956 a local court sided with the Postmaster General stating “The suggestion that Homosexuals should be reorganized as a segment of our people and be adorned special privilege as a class is rejected.” • “February 1957 the Ninth Circuit Court stated that ONE was ‘Morally depraving and debasing’ and declared ‘social standards are fixed by and for the great majority and not by or for a hardened or weakened minority.’” • 1958 the Supreme Court quietly choose to take the case • “On January 13th 1958 decreed in a one-sentence unsigned ruling in ONE vs. Olson ‘The petition for writ of certiorari is granted and the judgment of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is reversed’ ONE had won.” Joyce Murdock and Deb Price, Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court (New York: Basic Books, 2001)

  18. Bayard RustinMar. 17, 1912 – Aug. 24, 1987 • 1944: Rustin was sentenced to prison for conscientious objection to WWII. When writing letters to his partner he was forced to use the code name ‘Marie,’ instead of Davis, to circumvent the prison censors. • Rustin was Martin Luther King’s top advisor and was responsible for King’s nonviolent tactics. • June 1960: King’s political opponent, Congressman Powell, publicly and privately blackmailed King. Stating that unless King dismissed Rustin, he would charge that Rustin and King were having an affair. Rustin offered to resign as King’s special assistant, King accepted the offer. • July 1963: To avoid further blackmailing Rustin was asked to serve as an assistant organizer for the March on Washington rather than serve as official Director of the march. • August 1963: Senator Thurmond of South Carolina tried to blackmail Rustin and King. Dependant on Rustin’s leadership and direction, Civil Rights organizers came to his defense. D'Emilio, J. (2003). Lost prophet: The life and times of Bayard Rustin. New York: Free Press.

  19. Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic 1965 • 1st Sex reassignment surgery clinic founded in USA • Within a year they performed 10 surgeries • “Before the clinic went public, they received over 100 referrals, but only had plans to evaluate 2 people every month and perform surgery on less than that” Joanne Meyerowitz, How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2002)

  20. 1st March on The White House • 1965: Homophile organizations staged the first LGBTQIA protest at The White House. • “On the largest day of picketing 65 people (an amazing number considering the threat of job loss) marched wearing professional business attire.” http://www.rainbowhistory.org/Pickets.htm

  21. Metropolitan Community Church • October 1968: Troy Perry officiates the first service of the MCC in Los Angeles. • Formed as an expressly LGBTQIA inclusive space John D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984)

  22. The Stonewall Inn • “June 27th 1969, shortly before midnight police attempted to raid a small mafia run bar in Greenwich Village.” • The police spent the next three nights waging a street battle against more than 2,000 angry, frustrated and unafraid protesters. • The Stonewall Riots sparked the beginning of what would be called the Gay Liberation Movement. • This new movement meant that organizations like the Mattachine Society quickly fell out of favor with the newly empower youth • New organizations were founded, like the Gay Liberation Front John D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984)

  23. Gay Liberation “In 1970 between 5,000-10,000 people marched from Greenwich Village to Central Park to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Stonewall.” “The 50 homophile organizations that existed before 1969 mushroomed into nearly 800 organizations within four years” By the end of the 1970s the number of organizations reached into the thousands. John D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984)

  24. Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade, New York 1970

  25. Homosexuality and the DSM • The Gay PA: • Gay people were not allowed to practice psychiatry. Members of the APA interested in changing the diagnosis were forced to keep their sexuality secret. • At the 1972 APA Convention: Dr. Fryer, unemployable due to the rumors of his Homosexuality, was recruited by activists to give a speech about the damaging effects of the DSM diagnosis. Dr. Fryer appeared as ‘Dr. Anonymous,’ and spoke with a special microphone to alter his voice. He received a standing ovation. • During the 1973 APA Conference the diagnoses for Homosexuality was rewritten: • “DSM II 302.0 Sexual orientation disturbance (Homosexuality): Homosexuality per se is one form of sexual behavior and, like other forms of sexual behavior which are not by themselves psychiatric disorders, is not listed in this nomenclature of mental disorders.” http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/204/81-Words http://www.mindofmodernity.com/not-sick-the-1973-removal-of-Homosexuality-from-the-dsm

  26. Homosexuality and the DSM

  27. Anita Bryant and the Briggs Initiative • 1977: Dade County, Florida, as part of a trend of anti-discrimination policies, passed an ordinance protecting people against discrimination based on sexual orientation. • Anita Bryant’s ‘Save Our Children’ campaign was successful in repealing the anti-discrimination ordinance by 69%. • “Later that year Bryant worked with California Republican state senator John Briggs to place a measure on the CA ballot:” • Prop 6 would have ban Gay people from teaching in public schools and allowed teachers to be fired for "advocating, imposing, encouraging or promoting" Homosexuality. • Activists, including Milk, formed a statewide group, "No on 6," that worked on fund-raising, grassroots mobilization, and voting registration. They were able to raise $1.3 million to fight Prop 6. • November 7, 1978, the measure failed 42% to 58% Haider-Markel, Donald P. 2006. “1978: Defeat of the Briggs Initiative.” In Great Events from History: GLBT Events. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press.

  28. Harvey Milk May 22, 1930 – Nov. 27, 1978 “In 1977 voters elected Harvey Milk to the Board of Supervisors, San Francisco’s City Council, making him the first openly Gay politician elected to public office in California. Milk took office on January 8th 1978” “Senator Briggs crafted the California ballot initiative “Prop 6”, which would ban openly Gay people from working in the public school system. Harvey tirelessly debated Briggs across the state, he ultimately exposed Briggs as misinformed.” Three weeks after Prop 6 failed Harvey Milk was assassinated in City Hall. “November 27, 1978, Dianne Feinstein, President of the Board of Supervisors, read over the radio, in a shaking voice: ‘Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot . . . and killed. The suspect is Supervisor Dan White.’” Today Milk is remembered as a hero, for his activism and leadership http://www.tellingpictures.com/milk/?page_id=16 http://thecastro.net/street/memoriespage/nicoletta/milk04.html

  29. The National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights 1979 http://www.rainbowhistory.org/mowprogram.pdf Program of march Ghaziani, Amin. 2008. "The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington". The University of Chicago Press. • 1st National March. Between 75,000 & 125,000 people attended • The five demands presented at the march: • Pass a comprehensive Lesbian/Gay rights bill in Congress • Issue a presidential executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal government, the military, and federally contracted private employment • Repeal all anti-Lesbian/Gay laws • End discrimination in Lesbian-mother and Gay-father custody cases • Protect Lesbian and Gay youth from any laws which are used to discriminate, oppress, and/or harass them in their homes, schools, jobs, and social environments

  30. HIV/AIDS Activism • AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP), formed in March 1987 • The AIDS Memorial Quilt was founded in 1987 • The Quilt was conceived in November of 1985 by long-time San Francisco Gay rights activist, and friend of Milk, Cleve Jones • Goals: • Provide a creative means for remembrance and healing. • Effectively illustrate the enormity of the AIDS epidemic. • Increase the general public's awareness of HIV and AIDS. • Assist others with HIV infection-prevention education. • Raise funds for community-based AIDS service organizations. • http://www.actupny.org/ • http://www.aidsquilt.org/history.htm

  31. Closing activity: Please take a minute to rearrange the cards on the timeline!

  32. Questions and Comments If you think of anything in the future please e-mail me! khoffman@smith.edu hoffmankelsey@gmail.com www.Kelseyhoffman.com

  33. Resources • San Diego’s LGBTQIA Archive: http://www.lambdaarchives.org/ • National /San Diego’s Gay Lesbian Straight Educaiton Network (GLSEN) • http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/home/index.html • http://chapters.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/sandiegocounty/home.html • LGBTQIA Historical Documentary • http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/booklink/record/1507.html • http://www.glbthistory.org/ • http://www.lgbthistory.org/ • http://www.glbtq.com/

  34. Special Thanks To • Thank you to GLSEN San Diego for making my attendance here possible! • Thank you to Dr. Daniel Rivers, Professor at Smith College, who helped in the crafting of this presentation. • Thank you for YOUR support!!

  35. Sources Cited Cont. http://www.merriam-webster.com Allan Berube, Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two (New York: Free Press, 1990) D'Emilio, J. (1992). Making trouble: Essays on Gay history, politics, and the university. New York: Routledge. D'Emilio, J. (2003). Lost prophet: The life and times of Bayard Rustin. New York: Free Press. Ghaziani, Amin. 2008. "The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington". The University of Chicago Press. Haider-Markel, Donald P. 2006. “1978: Defeat of the Briggs Initiative.” In Great Events from History: GLBT Events. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press. http://thecastro.net/street/memoriespage/nicoletta/milk04.html http://www.actupny.org/ http://www.aidsquilt.org/history.htm http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/lyon_p.html http://www.mindofmodernity.com/not-sick-the-1973-removal-of-Homosexuality-from-the-dsm

  36. Sources Cited http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/james-baldwin/about-the-author/59/ http://www.rainbowhistory.org/mowprogram.pdf Program of march http://www.rainbowhistory.org/Pickets.htm http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/28/MNGI12JDIS.DTL http://www.tellingpictures.com/milk/?page_id=16 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/204/81-Words Joanne Meyerowitz, How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2002) John D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984) Joyce Murdock and Deb Price, Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court (New York: Basic Books, 2001) Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991) Out of the past: Gay and lesbian history from 1869 to the present.

  37. Thank you!

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