In honour of Pride, this is a short document which briefly outlines 600 years of LGBT history. The past features very dark times for the LGBT community, but this is an educational article that focuses on progress, without overlooking the oppression faced by many during these times. Hopefully whilst reading this, you may be able to appreciate the pain and suffering endured by people of the past who paved the way for the progress in the LGBT rights movement that we often take for granted today. Happy reading!

 

 

The Renaissance – printing, paintings, and … persecution??? 

We’ll start our 600 years of history in the Renaissance period, which marked the beginning of intense oppression towards the LGBT community from the Roman Catholic Church. The Italian theologian and philosopher, Thomas Acquinas, claimed that homosexual activity was second only to murder in the ranking of sins, so it’s safe to say that the Roman Catholic Church did NOT like the LGBT community in the Renaissance era. It soon became very clear that the Church had a serious dislike of “sodomites” and they were determined to make people suffer because of it.

In England, the influence from the Church resulted in Henry VIII’s Buggery Act of 1533, which made all male-male sexual activity punishable by death. The widespread condemnation of homosexuality caused several thousand Europeans to be persecuted, often becoming victims of violence, mutilation, imprisonment, and murder, for their “crimes”.

 

 

Did things change in the early modern period? And what on earth are “Molly Houses”???

I’m sure it’s not news to you that the oppression and persecution of LGBT people sadly continued for many centuries. What may be news though is that, by the 18th century, taverns known as “Molly Houses” began emerging throughout Britain. These were places where gay men could socialise and meet potential partners – essentially an early form of gay bars.

It seemed that small-scale progress in Europe was being made. Remarkably, in 1791, France became the first western European country to decriminalise homosexual activity between two consenting adults - Go France!!!

Although many LGBT Europeans were still oppressed, shunned from society, and no stranger to losing their lives because of who they loved, this French law marked the beginning of change in Europe. Don’t get too excited though, France was very much ahead of the game, and it took centuries for the other major European powers to follow suit.

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… Modernity updating…

The 19th century saw an increasing number of studies on the philosophy and psychology of homosexuality, and for the first time, this research was outside of biblical doctrine in England.

You may think that the reduced influence of the Church meant that LGBT people faced less oppression, right? WRONG. In reality, as people became more scientific, “experts” began condemning homosexuality as a behavioural disorder.

In Europe, these “experts” included Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Karl Ulrich, and Benedict Augustin Morel, who all wrote popular works which “proved” that homosexuality was psychopathic behaviour, and characteristic of “degeneracy”. This theory of degeneracy was widely accepted, and LGBT people had to continue enduring the oppression, discrimination, and persecution they had faced for many years.

There is some good(ish) news though. In England, at this time, “homosexuality” became coined as the popular term, rather than “sodomy”. Although it doesn’t seem like much, “homosexuality”, although a crime, was importantly not explicitly listed as a sin, unlike “sodomy”. So you could say that people began to have more modern views??? Sort of???

 

 

And what about in Germany? Especially during WW2?

Guess what? LGBT culture actually flourished in Germany in the early 20th century, with the increased presence of popular gay bars and newspapers. By the turn of the 20th century, the Germans had even set up “The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee, WhK)”. This Committee campaigned against the notorious "Paragraph 175" which made sexual activity between two men illegal.

After the First World War, the new and liberal Weimar Germans became even more open-minded, and the Committee grew to have branches in several other countries. Basically, it became the first international LGBT organisation, although on a small scale. The Committee worked to decriminalise homosexuality, and later sought social recognition of transgender men and women. So the Germans at the time really had their heads on straight… well maybe not straight but… you get my point...

History seems a big fan of the phrase “All good things must come to an end” though because as soon as the Nazis came to power, the LGBT community faced intense oppression in Germany. About 50,000 men were sentenced to concentration camps because of their homosexuality and thousands died there. At the camps, as well as in the streets, gay men were often beat up from their peers, because their pink triangle made them easily identifiable targets for others’ increasing homophobia. The Nazis also raided and shut down the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin; a clinic well known for its transgender clients.

 

 

 

Update - Modernity: 95% complete

Okay so WW2 is over and here’s where things get a little more busy. This modern era saw a lot of advancement in LGBT rights, and was characterised by lots of progressive legislation. So I’m going to make use of a handy little time line to explain it to you…

 

1951 Roberta Cowell is the first known British trans woman to undergo reassignment surgery. Her secret procedure meant she could get a new birth certificate to state she was “intersex”.

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1967 Homosexuality in England and Wales is finally decriminalised!! The Sexual Offences Act made sex between two men, over 21 and ‘in private’ legal. This was followed by decriminalisation in Scotland in 1980 and Northern Ireland in 1982. 

 

1969 - The Stonewall Riots                   

Perhaps the most famous part of LGBT history - The Stonewall riots take place in New York.

The 50s and 60s were unwelcoming and hostile towards the LGBT community, so gay bars flourished as safe spaces for people to socialise. However, police raids of these gay bars were common and detested.           

Suddenly, in the early hours of the 28th of June 1969, the police invaded the Stonewall Inn and carried out the routine procedure of raiding the gay bar. The police made 13 arrests, mainly of those who were not wearing the legally-required three articles of “gender-appropriate” clothing, The police were violent towards the patrons, and aggressively manhandled anyone who seemed hostile to their raid.

What was not routine procedure, however, was when the LGBT patrons began fighting back against police harassment. To the police’s surprise, some 400 angry queers began to rise up in protest, rioting, and eventually setting the bar on fire. The police were outnumbered and resorted to barricading themselves inside the bar. 

Although no-one is sure what caused this fight back, witnesses have identified drag queen Sylvia Rivera, and black trans woman Maratha P. Johnson as instigators of the uprising. Six days of rioting followed June 28th, and the Stonewall Riots became a memorable catalyst for the future advancement in the LGBT rights movement.

 

1970 One year after the Stonewall Riots, America sees its first Pride march, then known as “Christopher Street Liberation Day”.

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1972 The first Pride march is held in London, attracting around 2000 participants. For context, London Pride in 2019 attracted 1.5 million people, so the march in 1972 was pretty small, but nonetheless a momentous occasion. 

1974 Maureen Colquhoun came out as the Britain’s first lesbian MP - she becomes a prominent figure in the advancement of women’s rights and a key advocate for lesbian herstory, so she’s pretty cool.

 

1979 Founding of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, now the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

 

The AIDS Crisis of the 1980s 

At the beginning of the 1980s, things were looking bright for the LGBT community in the USA. By 1980, many states had repealed their laws against “sodomy” that made homosexual activity illegal. Activists were looking forward, hoping for further progressive legislation. Some even hoped that gay marriage would be legalised...

Unfortunately, the 1980s then became a time of tragedy for the American LGBT community and much of the progress made in earlier decades was lost due to the fear and devastation that the HIV and AIDS epidemics brought. 

According to the NHS website, HIV is a potentially fatal virus that damages your immune system. AIDS is the name used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening infections caused when your immune system has been severely damaged by HIV. The virus is transmitted by certain bodily fluids, but not saliva.

In the 80s, gay men seemed to be particularly affected by HIV, and the common belief was that they spread it through saliva and sexual activity. HIV was known as the “gay plague” and “GRID (gay-related immune deficiency)”. Since the virus affected people that were seen as “morally inferior” - gay men, drug users, the unfaithful - politicians did not wish to fund research into a cure. People with the disease were turned into punchlines and demonised, even by the US President Ronald Reagan. They would routinely lose their reputation, jobs, and even their homes. By the end of Reagan’s presidency, almost 90,000 Americans had died from HIV, and a large proportion were stigmatised gay men.

The LGBT community took matters into their own hands - they had no other choice, after being abandoned. Organisations such as the Gay Men’s Health Crisis were set up to raise money for research, provide legal aid, distribute health guidelines and provide a crisis hotline to share information. The GMHC still runs today. 

We can understand what it is like to live, fearing that you may catch a possibly fatal disease from coming into contact with someone carrying it. But unlike Covid-19, which has a lower death rate, HIV was thought of as an automatic death sentence. There is still no effective cure for HIV, but thankfully, there are antiretroviral medicines that allow HIV positive people to live long and healthy lives without spreading the virus today.

To get a sense of the overwhelming loss and the hurt suffered by the LGBT community, here is a quote from Larry Kramer, Gay Men’s Health Crisis co-founder and activist, in 1983:

“Can you imagine what it must be like if you had lost 20 of your friends in the last 18 months?"

 

1981 In the UK, a 49-year-old gay man becomes the first British AIDS case. He died in hospital within ten days of being admitted.

 

1983 Due to the common belief that AIDS was disease caused and spread by homosexual activity, the British government banned men who have sex with other men from donating blood to the AIDS crisis for life. This was one of many acts against gay men as they were blamed and shunned for the AIDS crisis.

 

1984 Chris Smith, Labour MP, becomes the first openly gay MP. This is ten years after the UK’s first lesbian MP comes out.

 

1987 The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) is founded to promote acceptance for transgender people. Amongst the three organisations for trans rights in the US, this was the first to have paid staff - well done IFGE!

 

1988 Margaret Thatcher introduces the infamous Section 28 which forbids the discussion of same-sex relationships in schools; preventing students from coming out, and preventing the tackling of homophobic bullying. It is met with outrage and public coming-outs of many key figures in the media, and the founding of Stonewall UK.

 

1992 The World Health Organisation declassifies same-sex attraction as a mental illness - remember those “experts” from earlier? Who’s the “expert” now hm??

 

1994 Age of same-sex consent lowered to from 21 to 18 for men. Not quite equal with heterosexual relationships, but progress is progress.

 

1996 The landmark “P v. S and Cornwall County Council” case marks the first piece of legislation in the world which prevented employment discrimination of trans people. Nice!

 

1999 Trans Day of Remembrance is founded in the USA, and then later in the UK and worldwide, to memorialise those who have been murdered as a result of transphobia and to bring attention to the continued violence endured by the trans community.

 

2000 The UK Government lifts the ban on lesbians, gay men and bisexual people serving in the armed forces.

 

2001 The age of consent for gay men is finally lowered to 16!! This means an equal age of consent for both opposite-sex and same-sex relationships.

 

2002 Equal rights are granted to same-sex couples applying for adoption. A landmark piece of legislation allowing for LGBT people to build families. 

 

2003 Great news! Thatcher’s Section 28 is repealed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland!

2003 Employment Equality Regulations make it illegal to discriminate against people in the workplace based on their sexual orientation .

2003 section 11 of an 1885 statute criminalising "gross indecency (ie. not just sex, but anything deemed indecent)” between males is finally abolished. This 1885 statute had led to the punishment of 50,000-75,000 men in the UK, famously including Alan Turing.

 

2004 The Civil Partnership Act passes, granting civil partnership in the UK - important as same-sex marriage is not yet legalised.

2004 The Gender Recognition Act is passed, giving trans people full legal recognition in their appropriate gender. Hooray!! The Act allows trans people to acquire a new birth certificate, although gender options are still limited to ‘male’ or ‘female’, and we’re still waiting on non-binary people to acquire legal recognition today.

 

2010  The Equality Act 2010 officially adds gender reassignment as a protected characteristic.

 

2011 The Department of Health lifts the lifetime ban on men who have sexual relations with other men from donating blood, although a 12-month celibacy clause is still in place - not great, but I say again; progress is progress.

 

2013 Same-sex marriage is legalised in England and Wales!! This is 12 years after legalisation in The Netherlands; the first country to allow same-sex marriage.

 

2014 First same-sex marriages take place in England, Wales, and later Scotland. Beautiful.

 

2016 Orlando bar shooting. After many years of progress for LGBT rights, a horrifying act of homophobia and transphobia leads to the deaths of 49 people in a gay bar in Orlando. The atrocity is met with outrage world-wide. 

 

2017 Remember that 1885 statute criminalising “gross indecency” between men? Well a pardon to those punished under it was only passed in 2017. This law removed evidence of punishment from people’s records, and became known as the Alan Turing Law in honour of the English hero who suffered under Section 11 in 1952.

 

2020 On the 13th January, Northern Ireland legalises same-sex marriage. This is a momentous occasion after years of political struggle. Same-sex marriage is now officially legalised in the United Kingdom!!

2020 In June, the US Supreme Court rules that it is illegal to fire an employee on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity – a major step towards reducing employment discrimination and increasing equality.

 

Present Day

Today, the Western world is seen as a fairly accepting place for LGBT people, and the rights we have today would never have been possible without the heroes and victims of over 600 years of history. Unfortunately, however, only about 30 countries have legalised same-sex marriage. Over 70 countries still criminalise sexual activity between two men, and some still have a death penalty for same-sex intercourse. Today, whilst about 25 countries legally recognise “male” and “female” transgender identities, few offer safe and affordable methods of physically transitioning, and even fewer recognise the spectrum of gender that includes non-binary people. It is clear that we are lucky to live in a time and country where LGBT rights are established, but there is definitely a long way to go. 

 

If you have read this far, I’d like to thank you very much for spending your time educating yourself on important world issues and history, and would further encourage you to do your own research beyond what is in this document. If you can, donate to LGBT charities this pride month, as they are key advocates in the ongoing fight for equal rights. And finally, I leave you with a good old quote because Senator Tammy Baldwin has more of a way with words than myself:

 

“ [every LGBT person today] is living and writing the history of our movement. We are no more - and no less - heroic than the suffragists and abolitionists of the 19th century; and the labor organizers, Freedom Riders, Stonewall demonstrators, and environmentalists of the 20th century. We are ordinary people, trying our lives, and trying, as civil-rights activist Dorothy Cotton said, to “fix what ain’t right” in our society” 

 

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Document created by: Elaina Ough and Ellie Wee