Love Wins – How it Happened

When I was in first grade, I remember being at an after-school program. I was waiting for my grandma to pick me up so we could go see The Nutcracker at the Lensic.

I was bragging about it to some of my friends and they were all getting fairly tired of me talking about some ballet they’d never heard of. One of the older kids overheard us and pushed his way into the group.

“You are going to the ballet?” he asked.

“Yes!” I said proudly.

“Are you gay? Hey, everyone, this kid is gay!” he shouted.

That was the first time I had ever heard that word. I had no idea what he was talking about so I asked my parents. They were horrified that their little boy had received such an offensive insult.

But today that insult is rarely heard. So how did we get here? And how has America as a whole changed its views on homosexuality in the last century?

In 1924, Henry Gerber founded The Society for Human Rights in Chicago. According to PBS, this was the first documented gay rights organization. Gerber then published the first American publication on homosexuality, Friendship and Freedom. Soon after publication, the police raided Gerber’s home and all of his papers were taken. He was arrested on sight.

Jump to 1948 when Alfred Kinsey published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. The book discussed the idea that homosexuality was not exclusive to homosexual males. With statistics to back his claims, the book caused uproar because most psychologists and psychiatrists viewed homosexuality as an illness.

When the early 1950s rolled around, Congress began to question whether homosexuals should be allowed to work in the federal government. They thought that since homosexuality was a mental illness, it posed a security risk. They also thought “those who engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of a normal person.” So in 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower signed an executive order banning any homosexual from working for the federal government.

The ‘60s brought along the first state to decriminalize homosexuality — Illinois — along with several protests against the lack of civil rights for the LGBT community. One of the biggest events was the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York. This occurred when police tried to raid a popular gay bar to “clean up the community.” The riot lasted three days and is credited with reigniting the fire behind America’s LGBT rights movement.     The first gay pride parade was held in June 1970 in New York to commemorate the one year anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Over the next decade, the American Board of Psychiatric Association took homosexuality off the list of mental illnesses, Kathy Kozachenko became the first openly gay American to be elected into public office, and Harvey Milk won a seat on the San Francisco board of supervisors. Shortly after entering office, Milk introduced an ordinance to protect the LGBT community from being fired from their jobs. On Nov. 27, 1978, a former city supervisor assassinated Milk. According to PBS, though, his motives were more about jealousy and depression than homophobia. In 1979, an estimated 75,000 people participated in the national march on Washington for LGBT rights.

In 1980, the Democratic Party stated it would no longer discriminate against homosexuals. The first story on AIDS was published in the New York Times in 1981. The AIDS advocacy group known as ACT UP was formed in 1987 and in the same year there was a march on Washington that demanded President Reagan address the AIDS crisis. In 1988, the World Health Organization organized the first world AIDS Day to raise awareness.

Jumping forward to 1996, President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, a bill that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. The bill also said that states did not have to recognize a same-sex marriage. But two years later, Coretta Scott King, wife of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., began calling on civil rights organization to help fight homophobia, stating that it was no different from racism or anti-Semitism.

As we launched into the 2000’s, Vermont became the first state to legalize the civil union of same-sex couples. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage. Several states followed its lead.

In 2010, the US military’s policy of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was revoked, allowing openly gay people to serve in the military. In 2011, Obama stated that he wouldn’t support the Defense of Marriage Act, and New York became the largest state to legalize gay marriage.

Over the next four years there was a series of setbacks and wins for the right to marry. But on June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage would be legal throughout the country. Soon this saying accompanied that day: “Love wins.”