Policing SSD Quizlet

Vito Russo and the Celluloid Closet

Vito Russo (1946-1990) was an American LGBT activist, film historian and author. He is best remembered as the author of the book The Celluloid Closet (1981), described in The New York Times as "an essential reference book" on homosexuality in the US film industry. Growing up Russo was disturbed by the stereotypical portrayals of gay people in media. He knew that the negative depiction of homosexuality in movies was wrong. After witnessing the Stonewall riot in 1969 and hearing about another raid the following year, Russo became avidly involved in the emerging Gay Activists Alliance. Russo's concern over how LGBT people were presented in the popular media led him to co-found the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a watchdog group that monitors LGBT representation in the mainstream media and presents the annual GLAAD Media Awards. The Vito Russo Award is named in his memory and is presented to an openly gay or lesbian member of the media community for their outstanding contribution in combating homophobia. Russo was also actively involved in the AIDS direct action group ACT UP. Russo passed of AIDS-related complications The Celluloid Closet is a 1995 American documentary film directed and written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The film is based on Vito Russo's book of the same name first published in 1981 and on lecture and film clip presentations he gave in 1972-1982. Russo had researched the history of how motion pictures, especially Hollywood films, had portrayed gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters. The documentary interviews various men and women connected to the Hollywood industry to comment on various film clips and their own personal experiences with the treatment of LGBT characters in film. From the sissy characters, to the censorship of the Hollywood Production Code, the coded gay characters and cruel stereotypes to the changes made in the early 1990s. Vito Russo wanted his book to be transformed into a documentary film and helped out on the project until he died in 1990. Some critics of the documentary noted that it was less political than the book and ended on a more positive note. However, Russo had wanted the documentary to be entertaining and to reflect the positive changes that had occurred up to 1990. The film was released at a dramatic time in gay history. It seemed like success was on the horizon when Bill Clinton was elected president. He had been the first major party presidential candidate to court and to promise openly to gay voters. However, the movement faced a huge public setback when "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was passed. In response to these obstacles, the LGBT-rights movement became increasingly media focused, realizing that the images projected into the world negatively affected perceptions of homosexuality. In 1994, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation was formed as a national organization. The Celluloid Closet came out in 1996, as marches and protests against homosexual representation in film and television grew. "Protests were aimed specifically at some of Hollywood's biggest and most prestigious films, including The Silence of the Lambs, which features a crazed transvestite who kills and flays women, and JFK, which has a scene in which gays alleged to be conspirators in the Kennedy assassination cavort in sadomasochistic fun and games". It was believed that these portrayals reflected "a perverse fear of AIDS or the rising intolerance that [had] caused an increase in hate crimes of all kinds. Still, Hollywood's treatment of gays [hadn't] helped. With few exceptions, the homosexual characters in films are creepy misfits or campy caricatures". The release of The Celluloid Closet further emphasized the twisted way homosexuals have been depicted throughout history. Addressing specific issues that were pertinent at the time, Russo exposes the existence of Hollywood homosexuals as well as the uncontrolled homophobia that keeps homosexuality in the closet on and off the screen. "Russo essentially did for film what ACT UP did for AIDS awareness ... he opened up a world and a culture that had almost never been discussed before under any circumstances, exposing prejudices and hurts".

Mattachine Society/Daughters of Bilitis

Mattachine Society: -One of the earliest American gay movement (or homophile) organizations -Founded in Los Angeles in the winter of 1950 -It was formed by Harry Hay, a leading gay activist and former Communist Party member, along with seven other gay men. -The name refers to the Société Mattachine, a French medieval masque group that allegedly traveled from village to village, using ballads and dramas to point out social injustice. The name was meant to symbolize the fact that "gays were a masked people, unknown and anonymous. -By sharing their personal experiences as gay men and analyzing homosexuals in the context of an oppressed cultural minority, the Mattachine founders attempted to redefine the meaning of being gay -In 1951, the Mattachine Society adopted a Statement of Missions and Purpose. This Statement stands out in the history of the gay liberation movement because it identified and incorporated two important themes. First, Mattachine called for a grassroots movement of gay people to challenge anti-gay discrimination; and second, the organization recognized the importance of building a gay community. -The Mattachine Society also began sponsoring discussion groups in 1951, providing lesbians and gay men an opportunity to share openly, often for the first time, their feelings and experiences. The meetings were frequently emotional and cathartic -From 1953 to 1968, a group within the Mattachine Society, ONE, Incorporated, produced the monthly periodical ONE Magazine, which at its peak achieved a circulation of 5,000 copies. Although formally independent of the society. In 1954, the Los Angeles, the postmaster seized and refused to mail copies of ONE on the grounds that the magazine was "obscene, lewd, lascivious and filthy." The seizure led to a lengthy court battle with significant consequences for the gay and lesbian movement, when in 1958 the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the mere discussion of homosexuality was not obscene. ONE continued publication until 1972. -In 1955, the San Francisco branch of the Society began a more scholarly, less confrontational journal, Mattachine Review, which they published until 1965. These periodicals reached previously isolated individuals and helped the Mattachine Society become better known nationally. -Post-1953, the Mattachine received new board members after facing social pressure about past leadership's Communist leanings, and this new leadership brought in the goal of finding support of psychological and psychiatric professionals, which they saw as the key to reform -Unfortunately, these changes had a devastating effect, drastically reducing the size of membership and eventually the organization faded away after the 1969 Stonewall Riots Daughters of Bilitis: The Daughters of Bilitis is considered to be the first lesbian rights organization in the United States. It was formed in San Francisco, California in 1955. The group was conceived as a social alternative to lesbian bars, which were considered illegal and thus subject to raids and police harassment. It lasted for fourteen years and became a tool of education for lesbians, gay men, researchers, and mental health professionals. The name of the newfound club was chosen in its second meeting. "Bilitis" is the name given to a fictional lesbian contemporary of Sappho, by the French poet Pierre Louÿs. As the DOB gained members, their focus shifted to providing support to women who were afraid to come out, by educating them about their rights and their history. Historian Lillian Faderman declared, "Its very establishment in the midst of witch-hunts and police harassment was an act of courage, since members always had to fear that they were under attack, not because of what they did, but merely because of who they were." Within a year of its creation, most of the original eight participants were no longer part of the group, but their numbers had grown to 16, and they decided they wanted to be more than only a social alternative to bars. "They recognized that many women felt shame about their sexual desires and were afraid to admit them. They knew that...without support to develop the self-confidence necessary to advocate for one's rights, no social change would be possible for lesbians" The Homophile Movement, as developed by the Mattachine Society sought to placate authorities as early as 1953, despite its early Communist activist roots in Harry Hay. The leadership of the Mattachine Society thought it more prudent and productive to convince heterosexual society at large that gays were not different from themselves, rather than agitate for change. The Daughters of Bilitis followed this model by encouraging its members to assimilate as much as possible into the prevailing heterosexual culture. *DOB's Ending*: Editing The Ladder was truly a full-time job. Longtime DOB member Helen Sandoz, who had taken over editing it after an interim period after Barbara Gittings left, was so burdened by the responsibilities that it was affecting her relationship. She passed it on to Barbara Grier in 1968, who had been contributing to the magazine as a book reviewer and poetry writer. Grier edited the magazine from Kansas City and was a relative newcomer to the workings of the DOB, despite contributing to the magazine since 1957. Grier removed "A Lesbian Review" from the cover, placed there in 1964, to attract more women readers. She doubled the size of the magazine, expanding every section, and devoted much of the space in the magazine to feminist ideals. She reported the first DOB chapter in Australia in 1969 as well as attempts to form chapters in New Zealand and Scandinavia. In 1970, convinced that the DOB was falling apart and The Ladder must be saved, Barbara Grier worked with DOB president Rita LaPorte to take the subscriber list from the DOB headquarters in San Francisco to Reno and expand the magazine further. There were only two copies of the list of subscribers; every year an assurance was printed in The Ladder to women nervous that their name on a list would be taken and used against them. Rita LaPorte took the list of 3,800 names from DOB headquarters and from the printers without telling anyone but Grier. When Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon discovered its loss, they assumed the police or FBI had confiscated it. Previous editors Martin, Lyon, Gittings, and Sandoz considered the act a theft. Because LaPorte took the list over state lines, pursuing it would have been a federal issue, and the Daughters did not have the resources to see it through. Grier severed ties with DOB leadership and in doing so took away the Daughters' primary method of communication from the national organization to its individual chapters. As a national organization, the Daughters of Bilitis folded in 1970, although some local chapters continued for many years after. Grier also effectively ended The Ladder, despite her plans for the magazine to run on advertising (something The Ladder had not previously had) and subscriptions, when the $3,000 US checks from "Pennsylvania", written to the DOB, stopped coming. By 1972, The Ladder had run out of funds and it folded. Dozens of other lesbian and feminist organizations were created in the wake of the Daughters of Bilitis. However, the impact of the fourteen-year run of the DOB on the lives of women was described by historian Martin Meeker: "The DOB succeeded in linking hundreds of lesbians across the country with one another and gathering them into a distinctly modern communication network that was mediated through print and, consequently, imagination, rather than sight, sound, smell, and touch.

The Contendings of Horus and Set; Tomb of the Hairdressers; SSD in Ancient Egypt

"The Contendings of Horus and Set" is a mythological story from the 20th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt that centers on the battles between Horus and Set to determine who will succeed Osiris as king. -Set is trying to dominate Horus to prove that he deserves Osiris' crown -Set is described as having few companions and comparatively unpopular because of his behavior, so as a result he tries to chase away/kill Horus, eventually reverting to humiliating him -Set invites Horus to a party and gets him incredibly drunk; when lying in bed together, Set grabs Horus and rapes him -- but Horus had tricked Set and catches Set's semen in his hands and hides it -The resulting fight has a homosexual component -- intercrural (between the legs) -Horus plays the passive role; the engagement in a homosexual, the subversive -Horus runs to his mother Isis the following morning, and in response she cuts off Horus' hands and feeds Set his own lettuce mixed with semen -When presented to the divine judge, he orders for Seth's semen to emerge from the body of Horus, but instead Horus' comes from Set -- showing that he was ultimately the dominant force -Not a positive representation of homosexuality but rather a representation of power Tomb of the Hairdressers: -The Tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep at Saqqara in Egypt -Royal servants to King Nyuserre Ini, the sixth pharoah of the Fifth Dynasty (second half of 25th century BCE) -Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep are referred to as the Royal Manicurists: centers on the idea that the closer you are to a Pharaoh's body, the higher your rank -N&K believed to be the first recorded same-sex couple in history -Romantic relationship is based on depictions of the two men standing nose to nose and embracing; N's wife was almost erased in antiquity, and K occupies the position typically designated for a wife -No scripture has ever indicated a sexual relationship, and their intimate poses has generated a theory that they're twins SSD in Ancient Egypt -It remains unclear what exact view the Egyptians had towards SSD -Any documents and literature that actually contain SSD stories never name the nature of the sexual deeds, but instead use flowery phrases -The story of Horus and Set conveys negative views, but N&K's tomb may instead suggest that SSD was accepted

Matthew Shepard

-1978-1998 -Student at the University of Wyoming -Lured by two men who pretended to be gay -- beaten, tortured, and left for dead, dying 5 days later in a hospital -Family created the Shepard Foundation in response -Family was asked by Catholic Church to not seek the death penalty for his abusers/murderers, McKinney and Henderson -Dennis Shepard, father: "I give you life" -The prosecutor argued that McKinney's murder of Shepard was premeditated and driven by greed -- McKinney's defense counsel countered that he had intended only to rob Shepard but had killed him in a rage when Shepard made a sexual advance toward him -McKinney's girlfriend told police that he had been motivated by anti-gay sentiment but later recanted her statement, saying that she had lied because she thought it would help him. Both McKinney and Henderson were convicted of the murder, and each received two consecutive life sentences. Creation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act *507 stories about Shepard, 11 about Gunn The Model Victim: -Had Shepard not been a young, midwestern, white man, would coverage be the same? -If his parents weren't as eloquent, would responses be the same? Defenses: -"Gay panic" -Hidden identity/deception -Use of pronouns in coverage

Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)

1986 SCOTUS decision that upheld anti-sodomy laws based on Judeo-Christian views - major privacy case -Bowers house is entered by a cop, claiming arrest over a parking ticket, but is caught in the act of having sex with a man -- and is then arrested under GA sodomy laws -Argument of the 1st Amendment -Draws off of Griswold v. CT, but court majority opinion then argues that Bowers has nothing to do with privacy, it's about sodomy -Argument that allowing private homosexuality will lead to "permitting all banned sex acts" -- "victimless crimes do not escape just because they're done in the home" -"Ancient roots" of anti-homosexual views from Judeo-Christian and Roman laws -Dissent: just because old laws existed doesn't mean they should apply today; personal privacy should go against the ideas of public interest -Ruling upholds anti-sodomy laws, though there is no differentiating between homosexual and heterosexual sodomy -Case is later overturned in Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

Stonewall Riots (1969)

A key event strengthening the gay rights movement, this event took place on June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn. In many locations, openly homosexual conduct in public was a crime punishable by law. When police raided the bar, gay patrons resisted arrest, and quickly the location became a magnet for protest over the next few days. The event led to the creation of gay rights activist organizations, and rallied the LGBT community. Preceding the riots, LGBTQ Americans had been facing large amounts of anti-gay legislation and bias: -Early homophile groups sought for assimilation -Contention rose as social/political movements pushed for the ideas of liberation alongside the civil rights movement, anti-war movements, and counterculture of the 1960's Stonewall Inn: -At the time, was run by the Mafia -Catered to a large variety of LGBTQ members, including drag queens, trans people, butch-femmes, sex-workers, and homeless youth -Raids were common in NYC, but tensions were too high on the night of the Riot, leading to arrests erupting into protests -Catalyzed the organization of concrete efforts on establishing places for LGBTQ persons to exist in safety -it is thought that Storme DeLaverie threw the first punch Key players: -Drag queens, POC, trans people, etc -largely persons who didn't benefit from mainstream activism

ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), Larry Kramer

AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international direct action advocacy group working to impact the lives of people with AIDS (PWAs) and the AIDS pandemic to bring about legislation, medical research and treatment and policies to ultimately bring an end to the disease by mitigating loss of health and lives. ACT UP was effectively formed in March 1987 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York. Larry Kramer was asked to speak as part of a rotating speaker series, and his well-attended speech focused on action to fight AIDS. Kramer spoke out against the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), which he perceived as politically impotent. Kramer had co-founded the GMHC but had resigned from its board of directors in 1983. According to Douglas Crimp, Kramer posed a question to the audience: "Do we want to start a new organization devoted to political action?" The answer was "a resounding yes". Approximately 300 people met two days later to form ACT UP. ACT UP is known for staging a number of demonstrations and outing closeted individuals -Throwing ashes of AIDS victims at public officials -Influenced the access to AZT through the Wall Street demonstration -"Silence = Death" -Shutting down of FDA ACT UP, while extremely prolific and certainly effective at its peak, suffered from extreme internal pressures over the direction of the group and of the AIDS crisis. After the action at NIH, these tensions resulted in an effective severing of the Action Committee and the Treatment and Data Committee, which reformed itself as the Treatment Action Group (TAG). Several members describe this as a "severing of the dual nature of ACT UP".

Berdache/two spirit

Among certain Native American peoples, a person, usually a male, who assumes the gender identity and is granted the social status of the opposite sex. -Most portrayals are problematic because they were done by those against the Berdache -Colonials would try to interfere, making the Berdache cut their hair (which was seen as cursing the community) "Dance of the Berdache" -caricature of faces, ritualistic dance; ambiguity of people's reactions to the Berdache -Sensationalized portrayal of the Berdache Colonial Response: -Colonials "horrified by sodomical nature of native persons" -From Berdache photo, "sicked dogs on Sodomites", a blatant persecution against trans members -Two questions: do First Nations Persons have souls? Do they get saved? Intersex: -Photo evidence -- Native persons with long hair, jewelry, ornate dress, viewed as not being a man nor woman, but did ultimately identify as "buck" (man) -We Wha -- a Zuni Berdache

Brandon v. Richardson (2001) (Brandon Teena case), Sakia Gunn, Gwen Araujo

Brandon v. Richardson (2001): -Brandon Teena (December 12, 1972 - December 31, 1993) was an American trans man who was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska -During a Christmas party, Teena was assaulted by Nissen and Lotter, two associates -Convinced by his girlfriend Lambert, Teena filed a police report, but Nissen and Lotter threatened him not to or they would "silence him forever" -Teena did receive a standard rape kit, which was later lost -During police investigations, Sheriff Laux questioned Teena about the rape, but became transfixed on his transsexuality. He then decided to not arrest Nissen and Lotter due to lack of evidence -On December 31, Nissen and Lotter drove to Lambert's house and they proceeded to kill Teena, Lambert, and Phillip DeVine, who was dating a friend in the house. -Nissen and Lotter were both arrested and convicted of murder, but Teena's mother filed a case against Sheriff Laux and Richardson County for being an indirect cause of her son's death, winning close to $100,000 in compensation Sakia Gunn: -Gunn (May 26, 1987 - May 11, 2003) was a 15-year-old African American lesbian who was murdered in what has been deemed a hate crime in Newark, New Jersey -While waiting for transit in May, 2003, Gunn was harassed by two men and rejected their advances, stating she was a lesbian -In response, the men attacked her, stabbing Gunn in her chest -She later died at University Hospital -Richard McCullough, an African American man, was charged with her death and sentenced to 20 years in prison. -In 2008 a documentary was released about Gunn's murder, titled Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project -Should be noted: drastic difference in the amount of coverage Gunn's death received in contrast to Matthew Shepard's, who had died in 1998 -Her death lead to the creation of the Newark Pride Aliance Gwen Araujo: -1985-2002 -An American teenager who was murdered in Newark, California -She was killed by four men, two of whom she had been sexually intimate with, who beat and strangled her after discovering that she was transgender -Two of the defendants were convicted of second-degree murder, but not convicted on the requested hate crime enhancements. The other two defendants pleaded guilty or no contest to voluntary manslaughter -In at least one of the trials, a "trans panic defense"—an extension of the gay panic defense—was employed: "I can't be ****ing gay"

Jeremy Bentham: Offenses Against Oneself or On Paederasty (c. 1785)

British philosopher Jeremy Bentham lived from 1748 to 1832. Bentham worked with revolutionary leaders to write Constitutions, craft political theory, shape governments, and to change how leaders thought of the built world. His invention of the panopticon, a prison structure with a viewing tower in the middle of a semi-circular courtyard, with prison rooms in an array around the tower, applied the then-revolutionary idea of using the minimum amount of resources to exert authority over the maximum number of people. Both philosophically and physically, Bentham shaped the political and civil landscape of the western world. While Bentham published his political ideas widely, his personal papers found after his death contained hundreds of pages of writings on the issue of homosexuality, which remained unpublished for more than 140 years. Homosexuality, under British law, was defined as "buggery" and punishable by death in Britain, France, and much of Europe. The word "homosexual" itself was not used in eighteenth and early nineteenth century English; "paederast" was the preferred term. Under King Henry VIII, the Buggery Act of 1533 made homosexual activity punishable by hanging; this sentence was not changed until 1861. In France, following the 1789 revolution, the new government decriminalized sodomy in the Code Pénal of 1791; in 1810 the French government reaffirmed this position and that Penal Code became the basis for laws in other European countries such as Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. It was in this environment that Bentham wrote, over a period of fifty years, about "paederasty," working to reconcile the harsh British treatment of homosexuality with his own philosophical beliefs. Despite its language, this essay is the first known argument for homosexual law reform in England -Written c. 1785 -Bentham advocates the decriminalization of' sodomy, which in his day was punished by hanging. -He argues that homosexual acts do not "weaken" men, or threaten population or marriage, and documents their prevalence in ancient Greece and Rome. -Bentham opposes punishment on utilitarian grounds and attacks ascetic sexual morality -Only writes about old/young male relationships Argument between distinctions: -Things that are consensual are not rape and should not be charged as such, even if it's unorthodox for the time Defense from the Ancient World: -All these people kept engaging with SSD and were great warriors -Historical examples, including Tahiti, saying it's a natural society (that does not have laws), and yet there is no evidence of harm done unto the population Example with Beastiality: -States that both are legally treated the same way -Why need a penalty to prevent something that most people aren't even into? -Argues that priests/monks are more of a danger because they never marry and have children

Butch/Femme and bar scene

Butch/Femme bars: -Butch and femme are terms used in the lesbian subculture to ascribe masculine or feminine identity with associated traits, behavior, etc -If you were neither, you were designated as a kiki" (Stone Butch) -People like John Nathers argued that this wasn't as widely struct and largely reflected new roles of women in the labor force -Butch-femme dress codes date back to the beginning of the 20th century, with photographs providing evidence; but at the time, these persons were addressed as "transvestites" -Butch-femme dyads really began to rise in the 1940's, with the butch label ascribed to women who dressed feminine for work but would then "go butch" during the weekends -1950's saw a rise of butches who refused to live a double-life and turned to butch aesthetics full-time. The increased visibility + Lavender Scare lead to an increase on violent attacks against women -- which femmes also fought, but it became more of a role for butches to fill -Homophile organizations like the DOB often discouraged the butch-femme roles since they saw them as going against the assimilation movement Rise of niche bars: -Post-prohibition, government argued that bars who catered to LGBTQ members were unruly and wouldn't grant licenses -Bars began to be run by illegals (Mafia) -Rise of bar raids: names published in newspapers, which forced people out of jobs and homes -The rise of the Lavender Scare put a pause on the development of subcultures

Cross-dressing and social/legal penalties

Cross-dressing: -Distinction between cross-dressing and transgender -Phenom of cross-dressing was referred to in the Hebrew Bible -Terms to describe it change, with "cross-dresser" superseding "transvestite" -In early 20th century, cross-dressing was taken as a general indication of homosexuality History of cross-dressing: -Practiced throughout much of recorded history, including Greek, Norse, and Hindu mythology -Folklore and theatre of the Kabuki and Korean shamanism -British/European context, theatre groups were all-male with female parts taken by boys On passing: Some people who cross-dress may endeavor to project a complete impression of belonging to another gender, including mannerisms, speech patterns, and emulation of sexual characteristics. This is referred to as passing or "trying to pass" depending how successful the person is. An observer who sees through the cross-dresser's attempt to pass is said to have read or clocked them. There are videos, books, and magazines on how a man may look more like a woman. Others may choose to take a mixed approach, adopting some feminine traits and some masculine traits in their appearance. Legal codes: -Between 1848 and 1900, 34 cities passed prohibitions against cross-dressing, followed by 11 more in the years leading up to World War I. Charles/Chevalier d'Eon: -presented as a man in early life, but later as a women. -Post-mortem examination indicated that Beaumont might have been intersex. -Worked as a spy for the king Debrah Sampson: -Revolutionary war hero; Enlisted as Robert Shirtsman -Was shot in battle but did not want to be discovered as a cross-dresser, so she removed half of the bullets herself -Given an honorable discharge -Demanded money from congress, eventually given a partial pension

Hirschfeld's work on Transvestites and Transvestism

Developed a system which categorized 64 possible types of sexual intermediary, ranging from masculine, heterosexual male to feminine, homosexual male, including those he described under the term transvestite, which he coined in 1910 to describe people who, in the 21st century, might be referred to as transgender or transsexual. Hirschfeld himself was not happy with the term: He believed that clothing was only an outward symbol chosen on the basis of various internal psychological situations. In fact, Hirschfeld helped people to achieve the very first name changes (legal given names were and are required to be gender-specific in Germany) and performed the first reported sexual reassignment surgery. Hirschfeld's transvestites therefore were, in today's terms, not only transvestites, but a variety of people from the transgender spectrum. Hirschfeld also noticed that sexual arousal was often associated with transvestism. In more recent terminology, this is sometimes called transvestic fetishism. Hirschfeld also clearly distinguished between transvestism as an expression of a person's "contra-sexual" (transgender) feelings and fetishistic behavior, even if the latter involved wearing clothes of the other sex. Hirschfeld offered trans persons shelter from abuse, performed surgeries, and gave otherwise unemployable transgender people jobs, albeit of a menial type, mostly as "maids"

Lesbian Feminism and the Lavender Menace

Division between feminist and LGBTQ movements: -Post-war feminism challenged by black feminists for being too white -Rise of new groups, including WITCH (Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell) -Split between feminist movement starts to heal when radical lesbians bring themselves to the center stage -Creation of the political lesbian: not interested in women sexually, but wanted to reject patriarchy -Class divisions within political lesbians and the butch-femme bar scene -(BAD) views of trans persons as being a patriarchal mockery of feminism: rise of transphobia within feminism; rejection of Sylvia Rivera at Christopher St. speeches Lavender Menace: -An informal group of lesbian radical feminists formed to protest the exclusion of lesbians from the feminist movement at the Second Congress to Unite women in NYC 1970 -Members were also part of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and National Organization for Women (NOW) -Phrase originates from Betty Friedan, president of NOW, in 1969 to describe the threat she believed lesbianism posed onto the emerging women's movements -Worried that "mannish" and "man-hating" lesbians would provide an easy way to dismiss the movement -Term was reclaimed by lesbian feminists -At the Second Congress, the group of women prepared a ten-paragraph manifesto entitled "The Woman-Identified Woman", wearing lavender shirts reading "Lavender Menace" for the entire group -This event + the publication of TWIW are widely remembered as the turning point for second-wave feminism and the creation of lesbian feminism, with the following year's delegation adopting a resolution calling for lesbian rights

Havelock Ellis: Sexual Inversion (1897)

Ellis was an English physician, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and inclinations, as well as on transgender psychology. He is credited with introducing the notions of narcissism and autoeroticism, later adopted by psychoanalysis. Ellis was among the pioneering investigators of psychedelic drugs and the author of one of the first written reports to the public about an experience with mescaline, which he conducted on himself in 1896. He supported eugenics and served as president of the Eugenics Society. Sexual Inversion: -was the first English medical textbook on homosexuality. -It describes the sexual relations of homosexual males, including men with boys. -Ellis wrote the first objective study of homosexuality, as he did not characterize it as a disease, immoral, or a crime. -The work assumes that same-sex love transcended age taboos as well as gender taboos. -In 1897 a bookseller was prosecuted for stocking Ellis's book. -Although the term homosexual is attributed to Ellis, he wrote in 1897, "'Homosexual' is a barbarously hybrid word, and I claim no responsibility for it." -Ellis's influence may have reached Radclyffe Hall, who would have been about 17 years old at the time Sexual Inversion was published. She later referred to herself as a sexual invert and wrote of female "sexual inverts" in Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself and The Well of Loneliness. When Ellis bowed out as the star witness in the trial of The Well of Loneliness on 14 May 1928, Norman Haire was set to replace him but no witnesses were called On lesbianism: -idea that women are un-showing of attraction -all stereotypes Ellis tries to give don't work, so he ultimately gives a catch-all definition -a step forward from the "burn them at the stake" mentality -does not propose conversion therapy -proposes the idea of a male soul trapped in a female body (and vice versa); first time people can ID themselves with this idea of "otherness"

Hirschfeld's Scientific Humanitarian Committee

Founded in Berlin on 15 May 1897, to campaign for social recognition of gay, bisexual and transgender men and women, and against their legal persecution -It was the first LGBT rights organization in history -At its peak, the SHC had about 500 members, and branches in approximately 25 cities in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. -The Committee was based in the Institute for Sexual Sciences in Berlin, until 1933 when it was destroyed by the Nazis, from which it took a great deal of scientific theories on human sexuality - such as the idea of a third sex between a man and a woman. -The initial focus of the Committee was to repeal Paragraph 175, an anti-gay piece of legislation of the Imperial Penal Code, which criminalized "coitus-like" acts between males, and the goal of this categorization of human sexuality was to demonstrate the innateness of homosexuality and thus make the criminal law against male-male gay sex in Germany at the time inapplicable. The Committee also assisted defendants in criminal trials, conducted public lectures, and gathered signatures on a petition for the repeal of the law. Signatories included Albert Einstein, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Leo Tolstoy. Petitions were submitted to parliament, in 1898, 1922 and 1925, but failed to gain the support of the parliament, and the law continued to criminalize all male-male sexual acts until 1969 and wasn't entirely removed in West Germany until four years after East and West Germany became one country, in 1994.

Romantic Friendship

Homoromanticism via intimate behaviors & love letters Highlights socially constructed nature of same-sex intimacies Commonly seen with woman "marrying as friends" -The introduction of women into the workplace created economic freedom for women, specifically lesbians -women wouldn't literally marry, but instead would live together -a.k.a. Boston Marriages -Ex: Emily Dickinson and her sister in law -Wilde's relationship with Douglas "claimed" to be romantic friendship In early 20th century, a split arose: -"romantic friendship" vs. "lesbian chic" -a split between those following the lesbian friendship idea of 19th century and those moving away from it -changes views on actual friendship; close women are now viewed as lesbians

Passions of the Cut Sleeve: Homosexuality and Lesbianism in ancient China

Homosexuality in China: -homosexuality was regarded as a normal facet of life in China, prior to the Western impact of 1840 onwards -Several early Chinese emperors are speculated to have had homosexual relationships accompanied by heterosexual ones -Opposition to SSD did not become firmly established in China until the 19th and 20th centuries, through the Westernization efforts of the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, though some opposition arose using the medieval Tang Dynasty, attributed to the influence of Christian and Islamic values -For most of the 20th century, homosexual sex was banned in the People's Republic of China until it was legalized in 1997. In 2001, homosexuality was removed from the official list of mental illnesses in China -Confucianism: being primarily a social and political philosophy, focused little on sexuality, whether homosexual or heterosexual. However, the ideology did emphasize male friendships, and some argued that the "closeness of the master-disciple bond it fostered may have subtly facilitated homosexuality" Gender Ambiguity: -Chinese has no gender, also seen with Arabic -- and genderless pronouns don't translate directly into English -Chinese poetry tends to be much more allusive Influence of Westernism: -Missionaries shocked at homosexuality; starts the crackdown on m/m relationships -Marxism: not interested in sexuality, but sees SSD (or sexuality in general) as a distraction from contributing to the labor force -Indirect penalties exist for homosexuality; trials for vagrancy, anti-socialist -Chinese orphans raised by Christians, taught a rule of no-sodomy -Marriage changes to being done for duty Overarching lack of info on women: -Men were concerned that women would enjoy their lives without men present Beauty: -Bias in the term "effeminate"; stereotype that robes, "over-cultured" background, etc are feminine traits -It was normal to get dressed up in the presence of the emperor -"Effeminacy" has an age bias; the effeminate is passive Symbolism: peaches and dragons Eunuchs, women concubines, and male lovers all compete for favoritism from the emperor

"The love that dare not speak its name"

Lord Alfred Douglas coined the phrase in his poem Two Loves, which was printed in the Chameleon in 1896: "I am the Love that dare not speak its name." Wilde's response was: "The Love that dare not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as the "Love that dare not speak its name," and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it." This was well received in court and he was eventually acquitted. Wilde was however later convicted on a second charge and sentenced to two years hard labour.

Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science

Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 - 14 May 1935) was a German physician and sexologist educated primarily in Germany; he based his practice in Berlin. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee. Historian Dustin Goltz characterized this group as having carried out "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights". "Hirschfeld's radical ideas changed the way Germans thought about sexuality. Under the more liberal atmosphere of the newly founded Weimar Republic, Hirschfeld purchased a villa not far from the Reichstag building in Berlin for his new Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute of Sexual Research), which opened on 6 July 1919. In Germany, the Reich government made laws, but the Länder governments enforced the laws, meaning it was up to the Länder governments to enforce Paragraph 175. Until the November Revolution of 1918, Prussia had a three-class voting system that effectively disfranchised most ordinary people, and allowed the Junkers to dominate Prussia. After the November Revolution, universal suffrage came to Prussia, which become a stronghold of the Social Democrats. The SPD believed in repealing Paragraph 175, and the Social Democratic Prussian government headed by Otto Braun ordered the Prussian police not to enforce Paragraph 175, making Prussia into a haven for homosexuals all over Germany. The Institute housed Hirschfeld's immense archives and library on sexuality and provided educational services and medical consultations. The Institute also housed the Museum of Sex, an educational resource for the public, which is reported to have been visited by school classes. The Nazi book burnings in Berlin included the archives of the Institute. After the Nazis gained control of Germany in the 1930s, the institute and its libraries were destroyed as part of a Nazi government censorship program by youth brigades, who burned its books and documents in the street

Radclyffe Hall, and The Well of Loneliness and trials

Marguerite Radclyffe Hall (12 August 1880 - 7 October 1943) was an English poet and author. She is best known for the novel The Well of Loneliness, a groundbreaking work in lesbian literature. Hall was a lesbian and described herself as a "congenital invert", a term taken from the writings of Havelock Ellis and other turn-of-the-century sexologists. Having reached adulthood without a vocation, she spent much of her twenties pursuing women she eventually lost to marriage. In 1907 at the Bad Homburg spa in Germany, Hall met Mabel Batten, a well-known amateur singer of lieder. Batten (nicknamed "Ladye") was 51 to Hall's 27, and was married with an adult daughter and grandchildren. They fell in love, and after Batten's husband died they set up residence together. Batten gave Hall the nickname John, which she used the rest of her life. In 1915 Hall fell in love with Mabel Batten's cousin Una Troubridge (1887-1963), a sculptor who was the wife of Vice-Admiral Ernest Troubridge, and the mother of a young daughter. When Batten died in 1916, Hall had Batten's corpse embalmed and a silver crucifix blessed by the pope laid on it. Hall, Batten and Troubridge were "undeterred by the Church's admonitions on same-sex relationships. Hall's Catholicism sat beside a life-long attachment to spiritualism and reincarnation." In 1917, Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge began living together until Hall's death in 1929 The Well of Loneliness: Hall's best-known work was The Well of Loneliness, the only one of her eight novels to have overt lesbian themes. Published in 1928, The Well of Loneliness deals with the life of Stephen Gordon, a masculine lesbian who, like Hall herself, identifies as an "invert". Although The Well of Loneliness is not sexually explicit, it was nevertheless the subject of an obscenity trial in the UK, which resulted in all copies of the novel being ordered destroyed. The United States allowed its publication only after a long court battle. Editor of the Sunday Express, a man named James Douglas, argued that it was not a work of art but immoral propaganda and wrote that he "would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a vial of prussic acid than this novel." Douglas launched a concerted campaign to suppress the book, which rose all the way up to Britain's Home Secretary — a man so conservative that, in addition to attempting to ban alcohol and nightclubs, he had opposed a revised version of The Book of Common Prayer. Despite an outcry by some of the era's most venerated writers and intellectuals, Douglas's tireless bullying pushed matters to court and a trial for obscenity began on November 9, 1928. Hall's publisher and his team mailed 160 letters to potential witnesses who would be willing to stand against the censorship. Many never responded. Some gave unimaginative pretexts for why they couldn't help. Among the courageous were fifty-seven esteemed writers and scientists, many of whom were ready to defend the novel's social and political function as a call for equality and freedom, despite doubting its literary merit. A week later, Sir Biron ruled that the novel was obscene, ordering that it be destroyed and that the defendants pay court costs. The decision was appealed in a second trial — in which Rudyard Kipling was summoned and never actually used as a witness — but after deliberating for only five minutes, the five new magistrates upheld the original decision. Across the Atlantic, Alfred A. Knopf, who had acquired the American rights, cowered from publishing a book censored by its country of origin.

Story of Mizi Xia

Mizi Xia is a semi-legendary figure from the Zhou dynasty Period of China. He was first recorded in the work Han Fei Zi, by Legalist philosopher Han Fei, as the companion of the historical figure Duke Ling of Wei. While Mizi Xia may have actually existed, nothing is known about him beyond this story. Mizi Xia was the favored courtier of Duke Ling because of his beauty. When Mizi Xia got news that his mother was ill, he forged an order from the Duke to use a ducal carriage to travel quickly to see her, and was praised for his filial piety. Another time, Mizi Xia bit into an especially delicious peach and gave the remainder to the Duke as a gift so he could taste it as well. Both acts ingratiated him further with the ruler. However, once Mizi Xia's looks faded, the Duke turned against him, claiming he stole the carriage and then insulted the Duke by offering him a half-eaten peach. Han Fei's primary goal in telling the story was to caution courtiers against getting too close to fickle rulers, but in later Chinese literature Mizi Xia became more alluded to for his beauty and his homosexuality. The phrase "bitten peach" became a byword for homosexuality and Mizi Xia became a byword for a young man desired as a sexual partner. Similar allusions would be later be applied to the "passion of the cut sleeve" and the Han dynasty courtier Dong Xian.

The Trials of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was a playwright, novelist, poet and celebrity in late nineteenth century London. His flamboyant dress, cutting wit and eccentric lifestyle often put him at odds with the social norms of Victorian England. Wilde, a homosexual, was put on trial for gross indecency in 1895 after the details of his affair with a British aristocrat were made public. Homosexuality was a criminal offense at this time in England. By the early 1890s, Wilde had become one of London's most popular playwrights. His most acclaimed plays include The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde was a proponent of the Aesthetic Movement in art and literature, which suggested these forms should focus on beauty rather than trying to convey a moral or political message. Wilde kept his homosexuality a secret. He married and had two sons. But in 1891, Wilde began an affair with *Lord Alfred Douglas*, aka Bosie, a young British poet and aristocrat 16 years his junior. Douglas' father, the Marquess of Queensberry, was outraged by the relationship and sought to expose Wilde. He left a calling card for Wilde with the porter at the private Albemarle Club in London. The card read: "For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite." This caused a public relations nightmare for Wilde. Homosexual acts were a criminal offense in England at the time under the Criminal Amendment Act and remained illegal there until the 1960s. Friends who knew of Wilde's sexual orientation urged him to flee to France until the storm subsided. Against their counsel, Wilde decided to sue the Marquess for defamation. He took the Marquess to court for criminal libel. First Trial: The trial went poorly for Oscar Wilde. His main problem was that Queensberry's allegations about his homosexuality were true, and therefore couldn't be judged defamatory. During the trial, Queensberry's defense accused Wilde of soliciting 12 other young men to commit sodomy. The defense also questioned Wilde about the premise of his controversial 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, suggesting that Wilde had used the novel's homoerotic themes to seduce Lord Alfred. In the novel, an older artist is attracted to the beauty of a younger man whose portrait he paints. After three days of court proceedings, Wilde's lawyer withdrew the lawsuit. The authorities saw this as a sign of implied guilt and issued a warrant for Wilde's arrest on indecency charges. Second/Third Trial: Friends again urged Wilde to flee to France, but he decided to stay and stand trial. Oscar Wilde was tried for homosexuality on April 26, 1895. He pleaded not guilty on 25 counts of gross indecency. At a preliminary bail hearing, hotel chambermaids and a housekeeper had testified that they had seen young men in Wilde's bed and found fecal stains on his sheets. During the trial, Wilde was questioned extensively about *"the love that dare not speak its name,"* a phrase from Lord Alfred Douglas' poem "Two Loves," published in 1894, that many interpreted as a euphemism for homosexuality. The trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict. Three weeks later, Wilde was retried. This time, Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and received two years of hard labor, the maximum sentence allowed for the crime.

Sappho and Lesbianism in ancient Greece, Sapphic poetry subjects, " To Anaktoria"

Our main literary evidence concerns the poet Sappho of Lesbos. She was the inspiration for the terms "Sapphic" (used in the nineteenth century) and the current term "Lesbian" which is derived from Sappho's birthplace, the island of Lesbos in the northeastern Aegean Sea. The use of "Lesbian" in ancient Greek is debatable. Plato in the Symposium uses the term hetairistriai to describe the attraction of woman to woman, a word not found elsewhere. The verb used in ancient Greek "to act as a Lesbian" (lesbiazein) either refers to a reputation for general sexual innovation or to the sexual practice of fellatio. The poet Anakreon (6th c. BCE) complains about his unrequited love for a young woman: "But she—for she comes from well-built Lesbos—finds fault with my hair, for it is white, and gapes after another girl". This (despite some objections from Dover) seems to refer not to a desire for fellatio but for another woman. If this text is interpreted correctly, it is the first use of the island of Lesbos to describe same-sex desire between women. Of the poet Sappho we have surprisingly little evidence about same-sex desire outside of her poetry itself. She was active in the early part of the sixth century BCE, in the city of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. We know from her poems that she was married and had a daughter (which of course would not limit same-sex desire any more than it would for males). Classical Athenian comedies about her focus on her relationships with male lovers, and Menander has her commit suicide out of unrequited love for an unusually handsome young man named Phaon, though this may be based on an incorrect reading of a ritual dirge for Phaon, a god of vegetation. Some of this pairing with men may be intended to conciliate patriarchal readers in Athens and elsewhere, or it may be that Sappho had male lovers as well as female ones. If so, however, these males are completely absent from her surviving poetry. By Roman times she was assumed to be an example of same-sex desire. Ovid in his Tristia wrote: "What did Sappho of Lesbos teach except love to her girl-friends?" (2.365, trans. Lind, p.45). In her poem to Anaktoria, Sappho rejects the warrior ideal and worldly glory in favor of her love for a woman (the verb eratai in Greek makes it clear that it is a female she loves): Some say cavalry and others claim infantry or a fleet of long oars is the supreme sight on the black earth. I say it is The one you love (hoto tis eratai). After describing how Aphrodite's power made Helen of Troy desert and forget her husband and children, she returns to thoughts of her beloved: These things remind me now of Anaktoria who is far, and I for one would rather see her warm supple step and the sparkle of her face—than watch all the dazzling chariots and armored hoplites of Lydia. This is a powerful statement of same-sex desire, and more striking to the ancients in its rejection of the entire warrior ethos of ancient Greek culture (which gains added shock effect by the mention of the Iliad). In this aspect, Sappho's same-sex desire, while expressed in language that is used by male erastai, challenges the model of the "army of lovers" composed of male erastai and eromenoi and used by the state of Thebes. The fragmentary poems that survive provide glimpses into same-sex desire between women, a sphere ignored by the male writers for whatever reason, and possibly hints of differences in the nature of the same-sex relationships between women.

Paragraph 175 in Germany and its amendments by the Nazis;"The Men with the Pink Triangle" and treatment of ssd during and after WWII in Germany

Paragraph 175: -Originally Prussian, but incorporated into German Code/society after unification -Equation of beastiality and homosexuality -Four separate categories of homosexual activities: seduction, coercion, public acts, etc -A person could be committed for homosexual thoughts -Not repealed after the war, kept until the 1960's as a means of keeping persons in prison In the Nazi Era: the Nazis strengthened Paragraph 175 by redefining the crime as a felony, increasing the maximum penalty from six months' to five years' imprisonment. They removed the longtime tradition that the law applied only to penetrative intercourse. A criminal offense would now exist if "objectively the general sense of shame was offended" and subjectively "the debauched intention was present to excite sexual desire in one of the two men, or a third". Mutual physical contact was no longer necessary A new Paragraph 175a was created, punishing "qualified cases" as "severe lewdness" with no less than one year and no more than ten years in the penitentiary. These included: -homosexual acts forced through violence or threats (male rape), -sexual relations with a subordinate or employee in a work situation, -homosexual acts with men under the age of 21, -male prostitution. "Unnatural fornication with a beast" was moved to Paragraph 175b. According to the official rationale, Paragraph 175 was amended in the interest of the moral health of the Volk - the German people - because "according to experience" homosexuality "inclines toward plague-like propagation" and exerts "a ruinous influence" on the "circles concerned". This aggravation of the severity of Paragraph 175 in 1935 increased the number of convictions tenfold, to 8,000 annually. Only about half of the prosecutions resulted from police work; about 40 percent resulted from private accusations by non-participating observers, and about 10 percent were denouncements by employers and institutions Nazi theories: -The existence of a gay gene that must be eradicated -"Curing" homosexuality -The use of lesbians for breeding: leads to lesbians going underground; "absence of lesbians before the law" -- included asocials, communists, vagrancies/prostitution -Outward persecution of homosexual males, social persecution of lesbian women -Joseph Kohaut (pseudonym of Hans Heger) *putting prisoners in charge of other prisoners* The Men with the Pink Triangle: -Written by Heinz Heger (and published by Joseph Kohaut), an Austrian Nazi concentration camp survivor -1972 book that gives one of very few first-hand accounts of the treatment of homosexuals in Nazi imprisonment. -It was the first testimony from a homosexual survivor of the concentration camps to be translated into English, and is regarded as the best known. Its publication helped to illuminate not just the suffering gay prisoners of the Nazi regime experienced, but the lack of recognition and compensation they received after the war's end.

Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government (1950)

Preface: The Lavender Scare -Round II of the Red Scare -- a witch hunt and the mass firings of homosexual people in the 1950's from the US government -Gay men and lesbians were said to be security risks and communist sympathizers, which led to the call to remove them from state employment -Order 10450: signed by Eisenhower in 1953, allowed for thousands of LGBTQ individuals to be fired -- stayed in effect until 1995 until Clinton rescinded the order and put in "Don't ask, don't tell" Terminology: -"sex pervert": chosen by government; "homosexual" seen as too psychological rather than physical, and "homophile" also disregarded -Freudian idea that "arrested development" left someone in the anal phase -- not viewed by Freud as a bad thing, but American psychiatric society viewed it as a mental illness Post WWII: -Burgeoning of LGBTQ persons in cities -Largely from being discharged during WWII -- couldn't go home, so they'd create sub-cultures Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government (1950): -"An investigation on a government-wide scale of homosexuality and other sexual perversion is unprecedented" -Primary objective of the subcommittee was to determine the extent of the employment of homosexuals and other "sex perverts" in Government, to consider reasons why their employment by the gov't is undesirable, and to examine into the efficacy of the methods used to deal with 'this problem' -consultation of physicians and psychiatrists and medical reviews -"The subcommittee, being well aware of the strong moral and social taboos attached to homosexuality and other forms of sex perversion, made every effort to protect individuals from unnecessary public ridicule and to prevent this inquiry from becoming a public spectacle. In carrying out this policy it was determined at the outset that all testimony would be taken by the subcommittee in executive session. Accordingly, all witnesses appearing before the subcommittee testified in executive hearings. In the conduct of this investigation the subcommittee tried to avoid the circus atmosphere which could attend an inquiry of this type and sought to make a thorough factual study of the problem at hand in an unbiased, objective manner." -"Most authorities believe that sex deviation results from psychological rather than physical causes, and in many cases there are no outward characteristics or physical traits that are positive as identifying marks of sex perversion. Contrary to a common belief, all homosexual males do not have feminine mannerisms, nor do all female homosexuals display masculine characteristics in their dress or actions. The fact is that many male homosexuals are very masculine in their physical appearance and general demeanor, and many female homosexuals have every appearance of femininity in their outward behavior." -"The authorities agree that most sex deviates respond to psychiatric treatment and can be cured if they have a genuine desire to be cured. However, many overt homosexuals have no real desire to abandon their way of life and in such cases cures are difficult, if not impossible" *Those charged with the responsibility of operating the agencies of Government must insist that Government employees meet acceptable standards of personal conduct. In the opinion of this subcommittee homosexuals and other sex perverts are not proper persons to be employed in Government for two reasons; first, they are generally unsuitable, and second, they constitute security risks.*

Sodom, Lot, Sodomy (in Bible and Qur'an)

Sodom and Gomorrah: -According to the Torah, Divine judgement was passed upon Sodom and Gomorrah and two neighboring cities which were 'consumed by fire and brimstone' because of their wickedness -Abraham pleads for the lives of any righteous people living their, especially of his nephew Lot, and his family. God agrees to spare the cities if 10 righteous people can be found (18:23-32). Two angels are sent to Lot in Sodom but are met with a wicked mob who are then struck blind by the angelic guests (19:1-11). Finding only Lot and his family as righteous among the inhabitants, the angels warn Lot to quickly evacuate the city and to not look back. As they flee the destruction, Lot's wife looks back upon the city and is turned into a pillar of salt (19:12-29). -The exact nature of the damning wickedness of the cities has been the subject of debate. Traditionally, Sodom and Gomorrah have been associated with homosexual acts. The mob of men that accosts the angels had demanded of Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them" (Genesis 19:5). This has long been interpreted as "carnal knowledge," and many believe that it is the widespread homosexuality of the inhabitants that earns their obliteration. Other biblical references to Sodom and Gomorrah, including Jude 1:7, which mentions sexual immorality and "unnatural lust," and the "abominable things" of Ezekiel 16:50, are seen as support for this view. -Modern scholarship, particularly in Judaism and certain branches of Christianity, has proposed that it is the inhabitants' lack of hospitality, not their homosexuality, that gives offence to God. According to this view, the mob's demands to rape the angelic guests reveals their deep-seated violence and inhospitality and is meant to stand in striking contrast to the gracious hospitality given by both Abraham and Lot to those same strangers. To further this claim, some cite the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:14-15: -*definition of 'to know'; to relate/understand vs sexual connotation, as we assumed with Lot Sodomy (in Bible and Qur'an) -The basic text of Islam is the Quran, believed by Muslims to represent the direct revelation of God to the prophet Muhammad. In terms of direct references in several places in the Qur'an, anal intercourse is identified with liwat, the "sin of Lot's people". Lot was commissioned as a prophet to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. His story is used to demonstrate Islam's disapproval of rape and homosexuality. He was commanded by God to preach to his people on monotheism and to stop them from their lustful and violent acts.

Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

State laws making sodomy (gay sex) a crime violate equal protection clause (fails rational basis test because only possible reason for law is homophobia) -1998, someone called cops, claiming there's "a black man with a gun" -Cops arrive and find two men having consensual sex -Arrested under Texas sodomy laws and charged with a misdemeanor -- both pleaded no contest and received a fine; lead to a filing by Lambda Legal -The Court struck down the sodomy law in Texas in a 6-3 decision and, by extension, invalidated sodomy laws in 13 other states, making same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state and territory -The Court, with a five-justice majority, overturned its previous ruling on the same issue in the 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick, where it upheld a challenged Georgia statute and did not find a constitutional protection of sexual privacy - The Court held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the 14th Amendment. Lawrence invalidated similar laws throughout the United States that criminalized sodomy between consenting adults acting in private, whatever the sex of the participants

Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson and STAR (Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries)

Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) was a gay, gender non-conforming and transgender street activist organization founded in 1970 by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, New York City drag queens of color. STAR was a radical political collective that also provided housing and support to homeless queer youth and sex workers in Lower Manhattan. STAR developed intersectional politics and supported some of the most vulnerable members of the community. Rivera and Johnson were the "mothers" of the household, and funded the organization largely through sex work. STAR is considered by many to be a groundbreaking organization in the queer liberation movement and a model for other organizations. Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002): -Latina LGBTQ activist and community member -Originally pushed out of the LGBTQ movement when trans was perceived as "just men wearing clothing"; she later became the face of the LGBTQ movement and was championed by Martha -Uncertainty as to whether she was at the Stonewall Riots -Sylvia's activism began during the Civil Rights Movement and continued through Vietnam and the second-wave feminist movements -Battled substance abuse and homelessness, becoming a member of the Christopher St. community -Focused her activism on "groups that mainstream society and assimilationist sectors of the LGBTQ communities were leaving behind" -Alongside Johnson, Rivera fought for SONDA (Sexual Orientation non-Discrimination Act) in New York, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, credit, and general civil rights -Died in 2002 of complications from liver cancer Marsha P. Johnson (1945-92): -"The P stands for 'pay it no mind'" -Street Queen -Came to NYC to escape her family who had denounced her -One of the founding members of the Gay Liberation Front, and a prominent figure in the Stonewall Riot of 1969 -Co-founded STAR -Modeled for Andy Warhol -Referred to as the "Mayor of Christopher Street" -Served as an AIDS activist with ACT UP from 1987-1992 -Her death was ruled a suicide -- found floating in the Hudson River, but friends and community members were adamant that she was murdered. Police were willing to do very little, claiming that the case was about a "gay black man" -Her ashes were marched down Seventh Ave and scattered in the river

Compton's Cafeteria Riot

The Compton's Cafeteria Riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. This incident was one of the first recorded LGBT-related riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City. It marked the beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco. Compton's Cafeteria was one of a chain of cafeterias, owned by Gene Compton, in San Francisco from the 1940s to the 1970s. The Tenderloin location of Compton's—open from 1954 to 1972—was one of the few places where transgender people, especially trans women who had spent a long evening hustling, could congregate publicly in the city, because they were unwelcome in gay bars due to transphobia. Compton's management and staff, in an effort to deter drag queens and trans women, would frequently call the police when they were present causing them to be harassed and arrested for a crime called "female impersonation." Because cross-dressing was illegal at the time, police could use the presence of transgender people in a bar as a pretext for making a raid and closing the bar. In the 1960s the Compton's Cafeteria staff began to call the police to crack down on transgender individuals, who would frequent the restaurant. Management felt that transgender customers were loitering and causing them to lose more desirable business. In response, they implemented a service fee directed at transgender individuals and blatantly harassed them in an attempt to get them to leave the restaurant. In response to police arrests, the transgender community launched a picket of Compton's Cafeteria. Although the picket was unsuccessful, it was one of the first demonstrations against police violence directed towards transgender people in San Francisco. On the first night of the riot, the management of Compton's called the police when some transgender customers became riled. When one of these known officers attempted to arrest one of the trans women, she threw her coffee in his face. According to the director of Screaming Queens, Susan Stryker, the cafeteria "erupted." At that point the riot began, dishes and furniture were thrown, and the restaurant's plate-glass windows were smashed. Police called for reinforcements as the fighting spilled into the street, where a police car had all its windows broken out and a sidewalk newsstand was burned down. Dozens of people fought back against the police who forced them into police cars. The next night, more trans people, hustlers, Tenderloin street people, and other members of the LGBT community joined in a picket of the cafeteria, which would not allow transgender people back in. The demonstration ended with the newly installed plate-glass windows being smashed again. The exact date of the riot is unknown because 1960 police records no longer exist and the riot was not covered by newspapers. Following the Compton's riot, a queer youth group by the name of Vanguard orchestrated some notable actions. The group —many transgender, many engaged in survival sex work and without stable housing—had formed as a social and political group beginning in 1965. They initially formed under the Glide Memorial Church, a radical offshoot of the United Methodist Church. Vanguard's politics highlighted "the issues facing gay and transgender youth in the 1960s produced radical insights into the connections between economic class, police violence, incarceration, and homophobia." In early Autumn of 1966, Vanguard hosted a historic "street sweep" in response to the events at Compton's. About fifty Vanguard members took to the streets of the Tenderloin with push brooms borrowed from the city. They did so in protest, a direct response to the routine practice of police "sweeping" the streets of known queer neighborhoods—such as the Tenderloin—to remove all the queer people. Many held handmade signs reading "Fall Clean Up: This Is a Vanguard Community Project", and "All trash is before the broom," pushing against the idea that they, as people, were in any way disposable or unworthy of human dignity. Vanguard symbolically called into question the fact that police were treating transgender and queer sex workers like "trash" to be "swept away," and instead reclaimed public space as their own.

Erastes, Eromenos, Paiderasteia ("pederasty") and Greek Homosexuality

The Greeks did not have a system of sexuality that matched that of "heterosexual" and "homosexual" as defined in the aforementioned comparison (and still current in much of society today). On the other hand, they did not have a completely unregulated sexuality—ancient Greek society had its own rules and restrictions, though not based of course upon the Christian moral code assumed by the West since post-Classical times. Dover made the following generalizations, which have been questioned by others but remain a useful starting point: 1. Same-sex desire in ancient Greece was primarily between an older man and a youth or boy (a paederastic relationship, though we shall see the terms used create difficulties); 2. Such desire, as well as the sexual acts associated with it, was considered natural; 3. There were no penalties in Athenian law or society for such desire; and 4. Same-sex relationships were considered worthy of a citizen and honorable. To these I would add that same-sex desire did not rule out either marriage or desire for the other sex. First, there is the question of paiderasteia usually mistranslated as "pederasty" which involves "anal intercourse with a boy". The literal translation of paiderasteia is difficult, though it can be freely rendered as "love of boys." Eros does not necessarily mean "love" in the modern sense, but desire. The Greek term for "boy" is pais (plural paides) and refers to a vague time between the onset of puberty and the growth of the first beard, often estimated at between twelve and eighteen years old. The god Eros was usually depicted as a pais. Further complicating the question is the evidence that pais was also used more generally to describe the "beloved" (eromenos) or junior partner in same-sex desire. Dover says that this could include a youth of full height even after hair has begun to grow on his face but not a full beard, which divided the eromenos from the erastes. Another factor that influenced same-sex relations, and indeed all sexual acts, was class. One's choice of lover (or beloved) reflected social status. The terms themselves indicate an active (erastes) versus passive (eromenos) role—the grammatical form of eromenos is passive. Similarly, the verb "to have sex" (aphrodisiazein) is itself distinguished by an active versus passive form. Halperin describes this situation concisely: "an adult male citizen of Athens can have legitimate sexual relations only with statutory minors (his inferiors not in age but in social and political status): the proper targets of his sexual desire include, specifically, women, boys, foreigners, and slaves—all of them persons who do not enjoy the same legal and political rights and privileges that he does". He and others have made a persuasive argument that sexuality is part of the Athenian political and social structure. In consideration of this, it is not surprising that Aristophanes' insults (especially those directed at Kleisthenes) are sexual and political—he would not have recognized a distinction between "wrong" politics and "wrong" (i.e. outside Athenian social norms) sex. Kleisthenes, neither man, woman, nor boy, does not fit into the accepted Athenian political, social, and sexual system. Paides: -In American law, underage sexual partners -In Greek, 12-16 year old's; when one grows a beard -- "love of a younger boy" -Paiderastea associated with gymnastics and philosophy Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged romantic relationship between an adult male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually in his teens. It was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods. The influence of pederasty on Greek culture of these periods was so pervasive that it has been called "the principal cultural model for free relationships between citizens."

Edward Carpenter: The Intermediate Sex (1908)

The Intermediate Sex (full title: The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women) was a 1908 work by Edward Carpenter expressing his views on homosexuality. Carpenter argues that "uranism", as he terms homosexuality, was on the increase, marking a new age of sexual liberation. Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) is one of the best known of the English sexologists. He helped develop a positive sense of gay identity in the early twentieth century. At a time when Great Britain criminalized homosexual conduct, Carpenter portrayed gay men and lesbians as knowers, healers, and pioneers. He is one of the early leaders of the gay rights movement. A gay man and a socialist, Carpenter believed that romances that crossed class lines could break down the class barriers that plagued England. Carpenter lived with a series of working-class lovers until meeting his life partner, George Merrill, a young man from the Sheffield slums, in 1891. While he wrote widely on a range of subjects, his most influential work addressed the topic of homosexuality, especially Love's Coming-of-Age (1896) and The Intermediate Sex (1908). The Intermediate Sex introduced the topic of "homogenic love." He coined and preferred the term "homogenic" rather than "homosexual" because of the latter's bizarre half-Greek, half-Latin derivation. Homogenic love was a spiritualized and altruistic attachment that owed much in conception to ancient Greek platonic love with its subordination of passion into finer emotions. People who engaged in homogenic love pointed the way through sexuality to a free society. Carpenter saw the "intermediate sex" as a further state in human evolution. His conceptualization of the intermediate sex is derived from the idea of a third sex. Influenced by the "urning" (love between men with female souls) theories of German sexologist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs as well as the transgender figures of the berdache and shaman from Native American cultures, Carpenter identified some people as belonging to both genders. He argued that this double identity prepared such people to serve as reconcilers and interpreters between the two sexes.

Henry Gerber's Society for Human Rights

The Society for Human Rights was an American LGBT Rights organization established in Chicago in 1924. Society founder Henry Gerber was inspired to create it by the work of German doctor Magnus Hirschfeld and the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee. It was the first recognized gay rights organization in the United States, having received a charter from the state of Illinois, and produced the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom. A few months after being chartered, the group ceased to exist in the wake of the arrest of several of the Society's members. Despite its short existence and small size, the Society has been recognized as a precursor to the modern gay liberation movement. The society's newsletter, Friendship and Freedom, was the first gay-interest publication in the United States. However, few Society members were unwilling to receive mailings of the newsletter, fearing that postal inspectors would deem the publication obscene under the Comstock Act -- all gay-interest publications were deemed obscene until 1958 in One, Inc. v. Olesen. Two issues of Friendship and Freedom were written and produced, entirely by Gerber. No copies of the newsletter are known to exist Henry Gerber: -emigrated from Imperial Germany in 1913, settling with his family in Chicago because of its large German-speaking population. -Within a few years of his arrival he experienced discrimination based on his sexual orientation when he was temporarily committed to a mental institution in 1917 for being homosexual. -During his enlistment in WWI, Gerber learned about Magnus Hirschfeld and the work he and his Scientific-Humanitarian Committee were doing to reform anti-homosexual German law, especially Paragraph 175, which criminalized sex between men. Gerber traveled to Berlin, which supported a thriving gay subculture, on several occasions and subscribed to at least one homophile magazine

The Theban Band and Warrior culture of SSD

The Theban Band: a troop of select soldiers, consisting of 150 pairs of male lovers which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC. Its predominance began with its crucial role in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. It was annihilated by Philip II of Macedon in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. The Sacred Band of Thebes, or Theban Band, was a battalion composed entirely of friends and lovers; and forms a remarkable example of military comradeship. The references to it in later Greek literature are very numerous, and there seems no reason to doubt the general truth of the traditions concerning its formation and its complete annihilation by Philip of Macedon at the battle of Chaeronea (B.C. 338). Thebes was the last stronghold of Hellenic independence, and with the Theban Band Greek freedom perished. But the mere existence of this phalanx, and the fact of its renown, show to what an extent comradeship was recognized and prized as an institution among these peoples. -A single phalanx (group of men); unbeaten until Battle of Chaeronea (338 BCE) -A testament to how love (and pressure from a lover) ultimately produces better soldiers