LGBT Rights in America: Past, Present, and Future

     While the nature of specific issues facing gay communities in America today differ from the ones addressed by the gay liberation movement during the last four decades of the previous century, the gay rights movement has made significant progress since the 1980s, and continues to strive for sexual equality in American society in the 21st century. The events that took place during the second half of the 20th century had a huge impact on homosexual communities across the country. Neil Miller, author of Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History, describes the time period between the 1960s and the 1980s as the era of “gay liberation” because of an explosion of progressive action in the fight for gay rights took place during those twenty years. While Miller was correct in saying that the era of gay liberation began in the 1960s, before which homosexuality was almost universally disapproved of, the era of gay liberation did not end with the start of the “gay moment” in the 1980s, as he suggests. The gay rights movement has continued to make significant progress since the 1980s though many issues, such as those surrounding same sex marriage, persist because of contemporary America’s inflexibility with regard to altering established institutions and their preexisting norms.

      Prior to the 1960s, the homosexual community in the US lacked an organized agenda for liberation. Their main concern was to keep a low profile within a homophobic society. During the 19th century, Oscar Wilde, one of London’s most popular playwrights, was imprisoned based on charges of gross indecency with men. One of his lovers, Lord Alfred Douglas, described homosexuality as “the love that dare not speak its name”, depicting it as form of expression that must remain hidden and secret from the others out of pure fear. Attitudes of fearful silence around homosexuality remained in vogue until the 20th century. Most homosexuals found it necessary to keep their sexual orientation secret from their employers lest risk their jobs. In 1953, President Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450 stating, “sexual perversion was sufficient and necessary grounds for exclusion from federal employment”, and by 1960, the State Department had fired approximately 1,000 suspected homosexuals (Miller 238). Students also faced similar pressures regarding their sexual orientation. An individual called B.D.H. was expelled from the University of     Illinois for making a pass at another student and was subsequently harassed by FBI agents seeking the names of fellow homosexual peers (Miller 239). This process mirrored the black-listing process undertaken by the government during the anti-communist era of McCarthyism during the Cold War. For homosexuals living in America during this time period, it was in their best interest to keep their sexuality hidden from the public so as to avoid a disadvantaged lifestyle. 

      The Stonewall riots in New York marked the beginning of what Miller describes as the era of “gay liberation” because they catalyzed a paradigm shift in the way many regarded homosexuality and homosexuals. The events of Stonewall fostered a new kind of homosexual, “…the new homosexual of the Seventies, an unfettered, guiltless male child of the new morality in a Zapata mustache and an outlaw hat, who couldn’t care less for Establishment approval” (Miller 337). The Stonewall riots mark a watershed in the history of gay rights because it was the first time the gay community fought back as a unified movement. One of the most important distinctions between pre-Stonewall and post-Stonewall attitudes was the importance of visibility. Declaring one’s homosexuality was no longer a death-sentence; instead, it could be seen as a means of empowerment. The buzz phrase of the decade was “come out”, individuals were encouraged to “celebrate [their] sexuality” (Miller 340). Through the success of organizations like the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance, the homosexual community gained visibility and popularity. Organizations like these became well recognized through the press and by hosting events and conferences where they would have notable guest speakers attend. This eventually led to the establishment of the National Gay Task Force, which essentially propelled homosexuality into American politics. By the 1970s, society’s view on homosexuality was clearly evolving - at least in the liberal state of California, when the openly gay American politician Harvey Milk was elected to public office, ushering in a historic moment in American politics. 

        With the eruption of AIDS in the 1980s, the dynamic within the gay community began to shift. Homosexuality was likened with promiscuity and “the struggle to stop the spread of AIDS became a struggle over sex” (Miller 411). The reaction towards AIDS within the gay community was avant-garde. Sex was no longer the sole foundation of a homosexual individual’s identity. By reducing the number of sexual partners and abstaining from high-risk sexual escapades, a new sense of community manifested that embraced a more conservative lifestyle (Miller 419). The supporters of gay rights coalesced into an organized, social movement and made immense progress within the time period that Miller characterizes as the gay liberation decades. By the end of the 1980s, the gay community played a significant role in society as a strong and determined force. While homosexuals were able to shed some of the stigma commonly associated with their sexual orientation, daunting issues still faced the gay community – and still do so today. Among them, the specter of AIDS, the struggle to legalize same-sex marriage and gain associated benefits, and the battle against prejudice, hate crimes, and homophobia loom large. While the culmination of the 1980s did not represent the end of the era of gay liberation, it was impressive and significant because the movement collectively achieved so much progress within a relatively short span of time. 

       Same-sex marriage remains an issue in today’s society because of America’s reluctance to accept a contemporary view on a traditional institution. The history of marriage in America marks a trail slowly arcing from the very conservative to the more liberal. Although the contemporary American observes marriage much differently today than they would have prior to the 1950s and the “era of gay liberation”, the current ban on same sex marriage speaks to the lengths of progress still yet to be made by our society.  

       

        By maintaining the ban on same-sex marriage, society basically endorses gender intolerance. As Derrick Green accurately mentions in his paper, “the legitimacy of same-sex marriage is currently being scrutinized due to the heteronormative ideals that have become widely accepted [in our society]” (Green paper). The gender binary, a heteronormative ideal, has been ingrained into our culture as something we must apply to our everyday lives, and we do this willingly, sometimes mindlessly. Marriage is used as a tool to maintain the gender binary by clearly delineating the hegemonic and subaltern halves of the spectrum and thus perpetuating gender inequality. This reflects upon the historic concept of coverture, in which a woman is subsumed under her husband’s authority upon marriage. Although unfair and seemingly stilted within today’s evolving society, these traditional standards still very much define the legal structure of marriage in America. The plaintiff from the Supreme Court case Baehr v Lewin, in which a gay couple argued that same-sex marriage was discrimination under Hawaii’s law, used the tautological argument that “the right of persons of the same sex to marry one another does not exist because marriage, by definition and usage, means a special relationship between a man and a woman” (Eskridge 811). Contemporary Americans continue to hold the orthodox definition of marriage, therefore remaining closed minded to the expansion of marriage rights to those of the same gender. 

        Although we have continued to advance since the 1990s, the rate of progress has evidently slowed, as some of the same challenges that arose for the first time in the 20th century remain the bone of contention in politics and society today. We often find that intractable issues surrounding gay rights lie at the center of religion and politics and resurface in every political argument. By extension, the future of legally challenged issues that are more distant from fervently religious debates, such as prejudice in the workplace versus the right to same-sex marriage, looks more promising. 

         American society is already chipping away at the issues of prejudice in the workplace. Progressive companies such as Google have altered their policies to actively create a gay-friendly workplace. This year, Google began adjusting only their gay and lesbian employees’ paychecks to compensate for this tax since heterosexual employees have the option of marrying to avoid the tax and homosexual employees do not have that choice. As a highly regarded and successful technology, Google’s move to place same-sex couples and heterosexual employees on par could galvanize other corporations and organizations to follow suit. Because Google is such an influential company, decisions they make to enhance the company’s management and culture will be recognized globally and may set a standard of successful business practices. In a world in which information spreads faster than ever before, organizations and businesses will not want to partake of discriminatory behavior if only for reasons to do with their public image – ignoring for a moment that no employer should discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or national origin. Hopefully Google’s business strategies will have a ripple effect, stimulating businesses in the US and worldwide to take steps that towards ultimately eliminating discrimination against all homosexual employees. 

        It is evident that today’s society has been positively influenced by the LGBT movement more so now than ever before in the history of the United States. While some tragic incidents and hate crimes targeted at the LGBT community have continued, the country continues to rally around trying to prevent these instances from happening again. Just this year Tyler Clementi, a homosexual freshman at Rutgers University, jumped off the George Washington Bridge after being exposed to millions on the Internet by his roommate. News of Tyler Clementi’s tragic death spread rapidly, shocking the nation and galvanizing a huge response that proved the movement is still very much alive and making progress. We live in an era of instant news and interconnectedness that lends itself to making progress and moving forward. Organized efforts continue to further the movement and honor victims, like Tyler Clementi, to senseless tragedies. Americans are becoming less and less tolerant of these kinds of horrifically insensitive and prejudicial behaviors. The era of gay liberation is not yet over, as Miller may suggest, but will continue making progress, as it is now, until society wholly embraces and accepts all sexual orientations.