Watch Pose's Billy Porter give us a rundown on important political movements that have changed the course of LGBTQ+ history.
During Pride Month, we honor Pride's radical origins at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. But what we don't often hear about are the other political actions and uprisings that have advanced the LGBTQ+ rights movement from as far back as the 1920s through today. In this video (transcript below), our queero Billy Porter takes us through the LGBTQ+ history that doesn't get enough mainstream recognition, and reminds us to appreciate our queer legacies while we fight for our collective queer future.
You’re familiar with Stonewall, of course, but what about the activist movements throughout history that haven’t received as much attention? Groundbreaking queer political actions have been an active part of modern history, with almost 50 years’ worth before that fateful day in 1969. Today, in advance of this month’s Gay Pride celebrations, we’ll take a look at some of the more obscure political actions that have also changed the course of queer history.
1920s: The Society for Human Rights
When U.S. Army soldier Henry Gerber was stationed in Germany from 1920 to 1923, he saw the rise of homophile organizations, as gay rights groups were once called. Gerber was inspired by the work of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, founder of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, an organization dedicated to overturning Germany’s anti-homosexual rulings. Gerber believed there should be an organization like this in America, too, and upon returning to Chicago in 1924, he dedicated himself to developing one. The group came together in December 1924 as the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in America. They produced the first ever gay rights newsletter in the country, called “Freedom and Friendship.” Shortly after the newsletter was disseminated, Gerber’s home was raided by police. He was arrested, his papers were confiscated, he lost his job and life savings. The Society fell apart. Later, Gerber relocated to New York City and began writing activist works again, this time under the pen name “Parisex.” He continued his activism until his death in the 1970s.
1950s: The Mattachine Society
The Mattachine Society was formed in the early 1950s by Harry Hay. It started in Southern California but quickly spread across the state and the country, providing a space for gays and lesbians to gather and discuss their experiences as homosexuals. This was a radical concept at a time when few Americans were out and in some places it was illegal for homosexuals to gather at all. The organization would go on to declare that homosexuals were an oppressed minority, that developing a community was essential to overcoming oppression, and that anti-gay legislation in the U.S. needed to be overturned. However, in 1953, the group’s radical ideals were traded for more accomodationist ones, which stated that homosexuals should adapt to, not combat, heterosexual lifestyles in order to obtain equality. Historians today argue about the organization’s effectiveness after this, citing that it either flourished and helped make changes to legislation, or that membership declined leading to inefficiency. The Mattachines dissolved at the end of the 1960s, when gay rights activism became more aggressive.
1950s: The Daughters of Bilitis
The Daughters of Bilitis was formed in 1955 in San Francisco by Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. It was named after poet Pierre Louys’s The Songs of Bilitis, in which Bilitis was said to be a female lover of Greek poet Sappho. The Daughters of Bilitis was one of the first lesbian organizations ever established in the U.S. Chapters spread across the country and even Australia as the 50s went on. Originally assembled as a meeting place for lesbians, the group also held public forums to teach people about homosexuality and provided support to single and married lesbians as well as lesbian mothers. The group eventually evolved to promoting lesbian rights and lesbian feminist politics. The Daughters of Bilitis shut down in the early 1970s, but is known for its commitment to fostering understanding in and out of the lesbian community and setting a successful example for countless lesbian organizations to come.
1960s: Compton’s Cafeteria Riot
The riot at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood happened in August 1966. A policeman grabbed a drag queen in an attempt to arrest her and she threw a cup of coffee in his face. A riot began almost immediately, with glass windows smashed by thrown sugar shakers, tables flipped and cutlery thrown. These particular Compton’s customers had had enough. It was by no means unprovoked, either: cops had been arresting drag queens, gay hustlers, and transgender women at the 24-hour eatery regularly for cross-dressing, for obstructing the sidewalk, for any reason they could find to throw them in jail. It didn’t help that Compton’s owners preferred the queens, hustlers, and trans women leave and would call the cops to have them removed. After the incident, the diner banned trans women and the Tenderloin’s largely queer community rebelled, picketing the establishment and breaking its new windows. The Compton’s riot received no coverage at all in any of San Francisco’s publications, but today is recognized for its importance as one of the first queer uprisings against police brutality.
1970s: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence first emerged in 1979 when four gay men bored with the sameness of San Francisco’s Castro district put on retired nuns’ habits. Realizing their presence could bring joy and initiate social change, they formed an order of queer nuns, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Today, donning drag versions of nuns’ habits, they draw attention to queer discrimination and religious hypocrisy, promote safe sex and educate against the dangerous effects of drug use, all the while raising money for AIDS, LGBTQ+, and community-related causes. Chapters have since expanded across the globe.
1970s: Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR)
Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR, was organized by queer historical icons and self-described drag queens Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Both had been present at Stonewall and active in the GLF, and decided to organize homeless trans youth, drag queens, sex workers, immigrants, and low-income people in New York. Rivera and Johnson were homeless themselves, and saw STAR as a way to help and provide shelter for the people they knew as their children. They bought a building, fixed it up, provided shelter and clothes for the people who came through. STAR grew from New York to Chicago, California, and even England and lasted for approximately three years before it shut down.
While the riots at Stonewall are of course important, their story starts decades before and continues today. Thanks to people like Henry Gerber, Phyllis Lyon, Sylvia Rivera, Larry Kramer, and countless others, queer activism still has a loud and forceful voice in and out of the community. We owe so much to their legacy. We’ll continue to to speak out in honor of the strides they made for us, and the lives we hope to change in the future.
www.them.us/story/queer-history-beyond-stonewall
