History of LGBT Rights

1. History of LGBT Rights Social Issues

2. Journal • How do name calling and harassment affect not only the specific people targeted, but more broadly an entire school or community?

3. What is LBGT? • LGBT is an acronym that signifies an alliance between people who consider themselves lesbian, bi-sexual, gay, or transgender. • “Gay” is a word that originated before the 1600s and one meaning meant of “loose and immoral life”. • The epithet “fag” or “faggot” originated in the 1300s. • It meant a bundle of sticks used for burning. • One theory on why it is used to refer to homosexual people is that homosexuals were often burned alive for their lifestyle. • The epithet “dike” derives from the word hermaphrodite.

4. History of Gay Rights • Homosexual relationships have been recorded throughout history, one of the earliest stretches back to around 4,000 years ago. • In 342, the first law against gay marriage was instituted by Constantius II. • Throughout recorded history homosexuals have been blamed for everything from earthquakes to famines.

5. History of Gay Rights (cont.) • 1260: In France 1st offending “Sodomites” lost their testicles, 2nd offenders lost their penis, and the 3rd offenders were executed. Lesbians were also subject to mutilation and death. • 1483: The Spanish Inquisition, Sodomites were stoned, castrated, and burned. Between 1540 and 1700, more than 1,600 people were prosecuted for sodomy. • 1533: King Henry VIII passes the Buggery Act 1533 making all male-male sexual activity punishable by death. • 1791: Revolutionary France adopts a new penal code which no longer criminalizes sodomy. France thus becomes the first West European country to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults.

6. History of Gay Rights (cont.) • 1897: George Cecil Ives organizes the first homosexual rights group in England, the Order of Chaeronea. • 1933: The National Socialist German Workers Party bans homosexual groups. Homosexuals are sent to concentration camps. Nazis burn the library of Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Research, and destroy the Institute. • 1952: Christine Jorgensen becomes the first person to have sex reassignment surgery, in this case, male to female, creating a world-wide sensation. • Up until 1957, the American Psychiatric Association considered homosexuality a mental disorder.

7. History of Gay Rights • 1969, the Stonewall Riots occur in NYC. • 1978: San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone are assassinated by former Supervisor Dan White. The rainbow flag is first used as a symbol of homosexual pride. • 1979: The first national homosexual rights march on Washington, DC is held. • 1980: The Human Rights Campaign Fund is founded by Steve Endean; The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest LGBT civil rights organization working to achieve equality.

8. History of Gay Rights (cont.) • 1998: Matthew Shepard is murdered. • 1999 – Present: various U.S. states pass laws regarding same-sex marriages, unions, and partnerships. • 2008: Proposition 8 passes in California, banning gay marriage. • 2009: The Matthew Shepard Act was adopted as an amendment by a vote of 63-28 on July 15, 2009. • 2009: Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. Elected in Iceland; the first openly homosexual head of government in the world.

9. History of Gay Rights (cont.) • 2012: President Obama officially supports the right for gay couples to marry. • 2013: The United States Supreme Court agrees to hear two cases that have the possibility of overturning anti-gay marriage laws.