BP2- Minority rights. Flashcards
Give some context around the reasons gay people decided to protest.
They were not part of a visible racial group however that did not stop discrimination. Some restaurants or bars would not serve them or hotels would not put them up. Their invisibility made people fearful just as they feared communism.
Legislation around gay people was a state matter and not a federal matter.
What ran alongside the red scare to accuse people of homosexuality?
A lavender scare.
In the 1950s, what did Congress say about homosexuality?
That it was a mental illness.
On what grounds did gay rights campaigners campaign on?
They argued that the 1964 Civil rights Act which said no discrimination on the basis of race or gender also applied to gay people.
Context of the Stonewall Inn incident.
New York in 1969.
Police raided the bar, supposedly due to breaking liquor licenses but actually it was because it was known for being a gay bar. People who went to the bar were used to this but that night something snapped when a policeman was too rough with one of the customers. About 400 people began to fight back by throwing things and yelling at the police. For several nights, there were protests and clashes with the police in the area around the bar and over the next few weeks the issue of Gay rights exploded.
Impact of stonewall.
The issue of gay rights exploded
The gay liberation front was set up and large peaceful protests were organised now there were enough members to do so.
What caused the gay rights movement to expand rapidly in the late 1960s and early 70s?
The stonewall inn incident
The liberal climate
Public support
Polls as early as 1970 showed that __% of the population believed in equal rights for gay people.
50%.
Who was Kathy kozachenko?
The first openly gay candidate elected to public office.
Who was Harvey Milk?
An openly gay man who was elected to office in san fransisco and spoke out agaisnt proposition 6.
What was proposition 6?
a law proposed in california in 1978 to ban gay people, lesbians and supporters of their rights from working in state-funded schools.
When was Harvey Milk assasinated?
1979
What happened to Harvey Milk’s killer?
Only received 7 years in prison most likely due to the fact that Milk was gay.
What happened after Harvey Milk’s death?
5,000 marched on San Fransisco.
When did the American Psychiatric association remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses?
1973.
