Ivy-Faye Johnson
The Rise of LGBTQ+ Rights in the US
Ivy-Faye Johnson
HST 104: World History
March 11, 2021 1
LGBTQ+ rights in the United States have come a long way in the past few decades. In
2003, Lawrence v. Texas decided that criminalizing gay or lesbian sex was unconstitutional,
“...interfering with with the liberty to maintain one’s privacy within the home, both physically and figuratively”.1 In 2015, Obergefell v. Hodges legalizes gay marriage in all states.2 But these
Supreme Court cases didn’t come from a vacuum; they came from years of hard work and protest, violent and non-violent by countless numbers of advocates. Though people have been fighting for LGBT rights for centuries, it didn’t hit the public eye until the mid 1900s. People like Marsha P. Johnson and Harvey Milk (elaborated on further down) made a massive difference, both directly and indirectly.
In any rights dispute, there are two major ways that the people can make their voices heard: peaceful protests and non-peaceful protests. Though nowadays most remember the violent riots, there were many non-violent events that are not often brought up. One such example is the
Julius’ Bar Sip-in. All bars in New York City during the 60s were subject to being shut down if the police had suspicions that people in the bar were being “disorderly.” Being disorderly included “one man buying another man a drink, or chatting him up in a flirtatious manner.”3 On
April 21, 1966, Craig Rodwell, John Timmons, and Dick Leitsch, three men from the Mattachine
Society (a gay and lesbian rights activist group,) had a “sip-in” at Julius’ Bar in New York City.
The three men hoped to be denied service so that they could fight the interpretation of the law that kept gay men from being served drinks. Though the bartender wanted no trouble, he agreed to play along after Leitsch assured him that he would help with any legal issues that came up
1 Sterling, Elizabeth L. "Lawrence v. Texas." The Urban Lawyer 35, no. 3 (2003): 562-63. Accessed March 5, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27895452. 2 Murray, Melissa. "Obergefell v. Hodges and Nonmarriage Inequality." California Law Review 104, no. 5 (2016): 1207-258. Accessed March 5, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24915742. 3 "The "Sip-In" at Julius' Bar in 1966 (U.S. National Park Service)." National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/julius-bar-1966.htm. 2 from this. After the New York Times made a story on the event, the court ruled the next year that
“same-sex cruising” was not enough to be considered disorderly, and that gay men and women could legally drink in bars. However, his did not change the fact that it was notoriously hard for openly gay bars to get liquor licenses or stay in business.
Another important peaceful protest was the Dyke March in Washington, D.C., 1993.4
Women from LA and Philadelphia created banners and a 3D model of a large vagina, both of which were carried through Washington D.C. “The [New York] Avengers handed out 8,000 flyers telling Dykes to meet at Dupont Circle at 5 PM on the evening of April 24th, 1993, for a
Dyke March to the White House. More than 20,000 lesbians showed up and marched all the way to the National Mall.”5 Now every year, on the Saturday before the NYC Lesbian and Gay Pride
Parade, thousands of lesbians march through D.C. The march has never had a permit, as they are protected by the first amendment, stating that “it is our First Amendment right to protest, and until we are truly liberated, the New York City Dyke March is a protest march.”6
Not all protests are as peaceful, though. Sometimes something enraging happens that pushes people over the edge, and they feel the only way things can be brought to justice is through violence. One such time was the White Night Riots. Harvey Milk, after being “other than honorably” discharged from the U.S. Navy for having sexual relations with other enlisted men, eventually gets a seat on San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in 1977. This makes him the first openly gay elected official in the U.S.7 But only a year later, Milk was assassinated, along with San Francisco mayor George Mascone, by former city supervisor Dan White. White’s attorney argued that “his judgment had been impaired by a prolonged period of clinical
4 It’s important to note that though the word dyke was and is still considered a derogatory term for lesbians, it sometimes used by the lesbian community to refer to more masculine lesbians. 5 "Herstory." NYC Dyke March. https://www.nycdykemarch.com/herstory. 6 Ibid. 7 "Harvey Milk." Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harvey-Milk. 3 depression, one symptom of which was the former health enthusiast’s consumption of junk food.” This defense has since been nicknamed the “twinkie-defense,” which is a common nickname for claiming that intoxication caused someone to act out of their right mind.8 He was sentenced to 7 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. This led to 500-1500 people marching through the San Francisco Castro District, chanting “no justice, no peace!” Though it started as a peaceful march, there was an uproar once they reached the City Hall, when the crowd that had grown to 5000 people “broke the windows and bars of City Hall, set police cars on fire, pelted the cops with rocks, and ripped parking meters off the sidewalks, leaving 59 officers and 124 protestors injured in three hours.”9
A few years after the Julius’ Bar Sip-In, just a few blocks away, there was a tavern called the Stonewall Inn. Run by the mafia, it was a popular gay bar in the Greenwich, New York area.
However, the establishment did not have a liquor license, as it was almost impossible for an openly gay bar to gain one. On June 28, 1969, police officers began pushing the patrons of
Stonewall Inn into police vehicles. Instead of dispersing, the patrons who were not being shoved began cheering the ones who were. “The crowd of onlookers swelled as tourists and neighborhood residents stopped to investigate. Then, according to multiple accounts, a lesbian who was fighting attempts to haul her into a squad car cried out, ‘Why don’t you guys do something!”’10
LGBT rights have made immense progress in the past few decades. And though most people only remember the violent protests, peaceful ones were just as important to getting where
8 Twinkie Defense 9 "10 Facts About the White Night Riots." Mental Floss. August 14, 2020. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/627028/white-night-riots-facts. 10 Walsh, Colleen. "Harvard Scholars Reflect on the History and Legacy of the Stonewall Riots." Harvard Gazette. July 01, 2019. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/06/harvard-scholars-reflect-on-the-history-and-legacy-of-the-stonewall- riots/. 4 we are now. Between the Sip-In making it legal to be openly gay in a bar, the Dyke March bringing awareness to the White House, the White Night Riots outcrying about a man not brought to justice, and the Stonewall Riots unifying the community, and the hundreds of other protests throughout history, it all made their voices be heard. It made the government understand that they were just people that wanted to love who they love and be who they are. 5
Bibliography
"The "Sip-In" at Julius' Bar in 1966 (U.S. National Park Service)." National Parks
Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/julius-bar-1966.htm.
"10 Facts About the White Night Riots." Mental Floss. August 14, 2020.
https://www.mentalfoss.com/article/627028/white-night-riots-facts.
"Harvey Milk." Encyclopædia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harvey-Milk.
"Herstory." NYC Dyke March. https://www.nycdykemarch.com/herstory.
Murray, Melissa. "Obergefell v. Hodges and Nonmarriage Inequality." California Law
Review 104, no. 5 (2016): 1207-258. Accessed March 5, 2021.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24915742.
Sterling, Elizabeth L. "Lawrence v. Texas." The Urban Lawyer 35, no. 3 (2003): 562-63.
Accessed March 5, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27895452.
"Twinkie Defense." Legal Information Institute.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/twinkie_defense.
Walsh, Colleen. "Harvard Scholars Refect on the History and Legacy of the Stonewall
Riots." Harvard Gazette. July 01, 2019.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/06/harvard-scholars-refect-on-the-
history-and-legacy-of-the-stonewall-riots/.