The First Gay Rights Movement
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| Members of the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis |
Berlin, Germany, 1860s
The first gay and lesbian rights movement can be recorded back to the 1960s in Berlin, Germany, where the term “homosexuality” was first used and show in print. This was very progressive for the time, as it would take until 1969 for Germany to decriminalise homosexual behaviour.
In the 1920s, the Gay Movement in Berlin was thriving, with almost around 100 recorded gay and lesbian bars and cafes for people to meet. It was slowly becoming a place of tolerance, with films depicting gay characters in a sympathetic light, and protests took place for the depiction of homosexuality in the media to be less offensive. Berlin also opened the Institute of Sexual Research and coined the term “transexual” in 1919.
Due to how open the LGBT community had become in the 20s, it paved the downfall in the 30s, as anti-gay rights people would take issue, magazines printed about how “obscene” the movement was, for example.
The Society for Human Rights - Illinois, USA, 1920s
Another gay rights movement developed later: The Society for Human Rights. Henry Gerber founded the organisation in Chicago, Ilinois, USA, on November 10th, 1924. The movement managed to publish a gay magazine entitled Friendship and Freedom, but ultimately, Gerber was arrested for sexual perversion. Ultimately, Gerber’s charged were dropped but, for a fine of $10, he was charged for disorderly conduct.
Homosexuality would later be decriminalised in Illinois in 1961. It was the first state to do so.
Mattachine Society - California, USA, 1950s
It wouldn’t be until 1955 that a lesbian group would form in America, but, before that, there was the gay men’s Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, on November 11 in Los Angeles, California, by Harry Hay.
The society endured despite how homsexuality was diagnosed as a “sociopathic personality disturbance” by the American Psychiatric Association in April of 1952. In 1953, President Eisenhower banned homosexuals from working for the federal government. They were seen as a “security risk.”
Daughters of Bilitis - California, USA, 1950s
Finally, a Lesbian organisation formed, called the Daughters of Bilitis, so named due to a poem by Pierre Louys in his collection The Songs of Billitis(1894). It was founded in San Francisco, California, by Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin in 1955 on September 21st. This group held a conference in New York City, even, to protest the idea that homosexuality was a disease, a popular opinion of doctors and the public at the time, in June 1964.
Homosexuality became decriminalised across the US by 2003. The UK were more successful, having made homosexuality legal in 1967. However, lesbianism had never been criminalised in the UK. Queen Victoria apparently thought that sort of activity was impossible between two women… if only she were around today.
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