Gay+Rights+-+Persecution+and+Political+Struggles



The colors represent... RED= life ORANGE= healing YELLOW= sun GREEN= nature BLUE= harmony VIOLET= spirit BLACK= adding a black strip is for when there is victory over AIDS.

This is an image of a gay pride flag. The flags colors represents different meanings. The flag doesn't always have all the colors, it sometimes depends on the events and things that are going on at the time. A little background information on the flag is that it was created in 1978, in San Fransico during the gay and lesbian freedom day parade. The flag was created and designed by Gilbert Barker. Having this flag and showing it off, shows you have gay pride!

The history of gay rights dates back to the early 1900's. It started out very small, it was called the homophile organization. Since then, many other groups have emerged against discrimination against gays. One of the major events that boosted the gay rights movement was the incident at the Stonewall bar. Police heard that there were gay people at the bar and they went and stormed the bar and that brought up a lot of controversy. After that, many gay rights groups have spoke out against discrimination against gays.

Only 12 states now protect gay's civil rights, but all the others don't. So when a discriminating act happens in one of those other states there is nothing to prove this is against there civil rights. Gay Rights have started to progress throughout the years now, but there is still much discrimination. There is also many political struggles that have happened surrounding gay rights. Many court cases have been held to try to grow in the movement. Some of them have progressed and some haven't yet. One big issue now is still gay marriage.

Some of the gay right Court Cases that benefited them and didn't are... 1958- Ruled homosexual publication is legal. 1967- Immigration and nationality act banded homosexuals from coming to join them and to protest. 1986- Brown V. Hardwick made homosexuals have no right to their privacy. 1996- Romer V. Evans made it so individual states couldn't provide any gay rights for them or against them in certain states. 1998- Oncale V. Sundowner Offshore Services, banded laws from on-job sexual harassment. 2000- Ruled that Boyscouts of the U.S. wouldn't except homosexuals to join. 2003- Lawrence V. Texas stated that homosexuality would not break the law or be harassed.



In the army, there is a "Don't ask, Don't tell" policy. That means that the army wont ask if your gay, if you don't tell anybody. If you do tell anybody, then you have reason to be discharged. In the 80's, the National Gay Task Force tried to get homosexuals in the armed services. One of the biggest cases of being homosexual in the army was when officer Keith Meinhold was almost discharged because he announced that he was gay on live television. They later decided that as long as he did not perform homosexual conduct.

A piece of the gay rights timeline (from [|Infoplease.com]) is: ---1924• the earliest known gay rights organization is The Society for Human Rights in Chicago. ---1948• Alfred Kinsey wrote the book: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. The book told people that homosexuality is more common then you might think. ---1950• The Mattachine Society was founded ---1958• Ruled homosexual publication is legal. ---1962• The Daughters of Bilitis, a lesbian organization, is founded. ---1967• Immigration and nationality act banded homosexuals from coming to join them and to protest. ---1969• police raided a gay bar in Stonewall. This started 3 days of riots. It also made the gay rights movement into a large widespread protest for equal rights for all. ---1973• The American Psychiatric Association takes homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. ---1979• The Radical Faeries was founded. ---1982• The first state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is Wisconsin. ---1986• Brown V. Hardwick made homosexuals have no right to their privacy. ---1993• The “Don't ask, Don't tell” policy went into effect. (This lead to many discharges) ---1996• The Romer v. Evans denied gay and lesbians protection for discrimination. The supreme court called it “special rights.” ---1998• Oncale V. Sundowner Offshore Services, banded laws from on-job sexual harassment. ---2000• Ruled that Boyscouts of the U.S. wouldn't except homosexuals to join. ---2003• In the Lawrence v. Texas case the supreme court rules that sodomy acts are unconstitutional. ---2004• gay and lesbian marriage in Mass. became legal. (on May 17) ---2005• In October 2005 in Connecticut, civil unions became legal ---2006• In December in New Jersey civil unions became legal.

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