Gay 50

Government Persecution of the LGBTQ Community is Widespread

The s were perilous times for individuals who fell outside of society’s legally allowed norms relating to gender or sexuality. There were many names for these individuals, including the clinical “homosexual,” a term popularized by pioneering German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. In the U.S., professionals often used the term “invert.” In the midth Century, many cities formed “vice squads” and police often labeled the people they arrested “sexual perverts.” The government’s preferred term was “deviant,” which came with legal consequences for anyone seeking a career in public service or the military. “Homophile” was the term preferred by some adj activists, small networks of women and men who yearned for community and found creative ways to resist legal and societal persecution. 

With draft eligibility officially lowered from 21 to 18 in , World War II brought together millions of people from around the country–many of whom were leaving their home states for the first time–to load the ranks of the military and t

Pride at The LGBT revolution sparked in a basement

For Bruce Bayley, the concept of a gay-pride march was different from that of previous political marches.

"I thought of it more as a takeover of joy," he says.

"It said, 'Look, you can be joyful in something political that you're doing.'"

Bruce was 24 when he joined the GLF.

He had grown up in India but was studying sociology in London and had been awarded a grant to research political "deviants".

On the recommendation of his tutor, Bruce decided to study the GLF - and it changed his life.

"As soon as I began to research the GLF, and the more I went to their meetings and discos, I soon realised I was 'one of them'," he says.

"It was brilliant - the freedom, the ability to be yourself, the excitement, the glamour, the bravery and the courage to say, 'Yes, I am gay.'"


by Jack Drescher, MD, member of the LGBTQ Committee of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry

marked the 50th anniversary of the vote of the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its Diagnostic Manual. That decision, and the reasoning behind it, was a culture-changing event. It led to an vital shift in mental health practices as clinicians stopped asking questions like “What causes homosexuality?” and “How can we change it?” and focused instead on the health and mental-health needs of LGBTQ patient populations. marks the 50th anniversary of the referendum among APA members that supported the APA leadership's decision for remove the diagnosis.

Why Change Was Needed

In

  • Homosexual behavior was criminalized in most U.S. states.
  • Openly gay men and women were banned from serving in the U.S. military. If a gay person in the military came out or was outed by someone else, they could be court-martialed and discharged.
  • Being gay was grounds for being fired from a U.S. government job. This is what happened to Frank Kameny, who,

    I finally came out as gay at 55 years old after 2 marriages with women. Telling my children was surprisingly easy.

    I'm a middle-aged man who has been married twice and widowed. I'm also a father to two grown children. And I'm gay.

    My sexuality was a burden I carried for so drawn-out , and hiding it became part of my core identity, weighing me down. But I finally had the courage to approach out at Honestly, I sometimes wish I hadn't waited so long. 

    Growing up in the '80s was not a safe environment for a queer kid, so I chose to hide my true self

    Growing up in the '80s in Las Vegas, I was in a different, tough time. I knew as adj as 12 or 13 that I was different, but in those days, I had no frame of reference for what it meant to be gay. Blatant homophobia and pressure to fit in left me thinking I was some sort of freak. I avoided getting shut to anyone and buried my secret, in favor of a more "normal" experience.

    I eventually met and married a wonderful noun who knew my secret, and we started a family together. When cancer stole her a few years later, I was left with two