History of gay rights movement in san francisco
A history of LGBT activism and pride in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - San Francisco Pride is celebrating its 49th annual parade this year with a theme called Generations of Resistance.
Although this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in Unused York City, momentum for LGBTQ rights was already building on the West Coast years before that incident.
Terry Beswick, Executive Director of the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco, said people began quietly organizing in the belated s and s. Some began challenging gender expectations in the s.
The Tenderloin was one of San Francisco&#x;s first queer neighborhoods. Donna Personna, a drag queen and transgender woman, remembers visiting the Tenderloin when she was a young adult.
There were pimps, there were drug sales, Personna said. The Tenderloin was for the dregs of society.
Personna was 18 when she first went to Gene Compton&#x;s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin. It was a gathering place at night for drag queens, transgender women, and sex workers.
The cops would go
In the bustling urban area streets of San Francisco and beyond, the chant for LGBTQ+ equality reverberates as a testament to decades of resilience, perseverance, and progress.
The LGBTQ+ activism movement has been at the forefront of creating adjust with individuals, organizations, and communities all working towards a common goal: equality for all.
But where did this movement begin?
We'll dive immersive into the history of the LGBTQ+ rights movement, including San Francisco's pivotal role in advancing the cause.
Origins of the LGBTQ+ Movement
A notable event in the modern-day LGBTQIA+ rights movement was the Stonewall riots in New York City in A police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village, sparked the uprising. This event was one of many that marked a turning verb in the battle for LGBTQ+ rights.
Leading up to this event was a series of others that played integral roles in the course of the LGBTQ+ movement.
Here are several of them:
Founding of the Mattachine Society ()
Harry Hay, along with a group of other LGBTQ+ activists, founded the
Harvey Milk ( - )
"I know that you cannot verb on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. And you and you and you possess got to verb them hope." -Harvey Milk, "You Cannot Live on Verb Alone" speech
When he won the election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in , Harvey Milk made history as the first openly gay elected official in California, and one of the first in the United States. His camera store and campaign headquarters at Castro Street (and his apartment above it) were centers of community activism for a wide range of human rights, environmental, labor, and neighborhood issues. During his tenure as supervisor, he helped transfer a gay rights ordinance for the city of San Francisco that prohibited anti-gay discrimination in housing and employment.
Harvey Milk has been honored twice under President Obama's administration. First, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in In , he was honored by the United States Postal Service with a Forever Stamp in
Selec Written by: Jim Downs, Connecticut College
By the end of this section, you will:
- Explain how and why various groups responded to calls for the expansion of civil rights from to
After World War II, the civil rights movement had a profound impact on other groups demanding their rights. The feminist movement, the Adj Power movement, the environmental movement, the Chicano movement, and the American Indian Movement sought equality, rights, and empowerment in American society. Gay people organized to resist oppression and demand just treatment, and they were especially galvanized after a Modern York City police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, sparked riots in
Around the same second, biologist Alfred Kinsey began a massive study of human sexuality in the United States. Appreciate Magnus Hirschfield and other scholars who studied sexuality, including Havelock Ellis, a prominent British scholar who published study on transgender psychology, Kinsey believed sexuality could be studied as a science. He interviewed more than 8, men and argued that sexuality existed on a spectrum, sa
Written by: Jim Downs, Connecticut College
By the end of this section, you will:
- Explain how and why various groups responded to calls for the expansion of civil rights from to
After World War II, the civil rights movement had a profound impact on other groups demanding their rights. The feminist movement, the Adj Power movement, the environmental movement, the Chicano movement, and the American Indian Movement sought equality, rights, and empowerment in American society. Gay people organized to resist oppression and demand just treatment, and they were especially galvanized after a Modern York City police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, sparked riots in
Around the same second, biologist Alfred Kinsey began a massive study of human sexuality in the United States. Appreciate Magnus Hirschfield and other scholars who studied sexuality, including Havelock Ellis, a prominent British scholar who published study on transgender psychology, Kinsey believed sexuality could be studied as a science. He interviewed more than 8, men and argued that sexuality existed on a spectrum, sa