For the US gay rights movement, 1924 is the year when the first gay rights organization was established in Chicago. In 1948 the famous publication “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” was released, making homosexuality a socially known issue. One event that goes down in the gay history record as the “Stonewall riots” is the protest at the Stonewall Inn, NY Greenwich Village in 1969, when the gay rights movement made the spotlight. 1973 marked a social and medical education breakthrough when the APA (the American Psychiatric Association) removed homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders.
More breakthroughs followed in the early 90s when President Clinton enacted the “Don’t ask don’t tell” policy allowing gay people to join the military but prohibiting homosexual acts within the military. Initially hoped for as a major breakthrough, the policy became a very contentious issue that has allowed various abusers (homosexual or heterosexual) to invoke this policy as a reason to hide their abuses. The arrival of the 21st century brought about a new focus in the rights movement: pushing for legalizing same sex marriage.
Same sex marriage
In 2000 Vermont was the first state to legally recognize the civil union between same sex partners by entitling time to the same legal benefits and privileges as heterosexual spouses. Soon after that Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey legalized civil unions between same sex partners.
California has become the center battle for the same sex marriage rights agenda. In 2008 the California Supreme Court ruled that marriage is a constitutional right that same sex couples were entitled to. After this breakthrough decision more than 15,000 same sex couples married. The situation was reversed on November 4th 2008 when a ban on same sex marriage ( proposition 8 ) was passed by voters in California, Arizona and Florida. The trends have been revers by this month’s events. Iowa and Vermont rejected state laws that banned same sex marriage, Massachusetts and Connecticut soon followed.