The 70s: Assassination

Anita Bryant
As the decade drew to a close several events worked against the progress gay activists had made. In 1977 Florida Beauty Queen Anita Bryant made it her duty to fight against a Dade County nondiscrimination bill protecting homosexuals. Bryant was a devoted member of the Northwest Baptist Church and felt that the new law "condones immorality and discriminates against my children's rights to grow up in a healthy, decent community." A group of like-minded political and religious leaders worked with Mrs. Bryant to form Save Our Children, Inc., an organization that slandered the name of homosexuals. Save Our Children used slogans and petitions to imply homosexuals were amoral and child molesters. Bryant soon published a book explaining her ideas titled "The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality. Bryant's tactics were effective, and soon pro-LGBT laws were struck down and the gay rights movement took two steps back.

Anita Bryant and Save Our Children represented the first organized enemy to the gay rights movement. However, despite Save Our Children's progress their efforts rattled the gay community to action. The pride parades of 1977 saw record numbers of participants-- with 250,000 marching in San Francisco alone.  Gays and lesbians also retaliated by boycotting Florida orange juice. 

Similar to Anita Bryant, senator John Briggs put together a referendum on whether homosexuals could teach in public schools. Briggs stated, "Homosexuals want your children. They don't have any children of their own. If they don't recruit children or very young people, they'd all die away. They have no means of replenishing. That's why they want to be teachers." Fortunately, the Briggs Initiative, Proposition 6, was defeated in November 1978. Meanwhile in Seattle a group named Save Our Moral Ethics Bryant-like attempt to repeal the city's gay rights laws was shot down. 

Harvey Milk

In November of 1978 gay city supervisor Harvey Milk found himself working along-side San Francisco resident and conservative Dan White. Ten days after White resigned his position he asked Mayor George Moscone to reinstate him. White's political enemies blocked the reappointment, and on a Monday morning in late November Dan White snuck into City Hall and shot both Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk dead.

The ensuing trial for Dan White was a joke: the jury selection was questionable, the prosecution did a poor job, and the defense argued that White's antisocial behavior was caused by eating lots of junk food. White was sentenced to a light seven years and eight months hard time. That night, May 21st, 197, thousands of angry protesters converged on City Hall and trashed a dozen police cars. The police struck back, thus hospitalizing sixty-one police officers and one hundred gays. This occurrence would come to be known as the "White Night Riots."

Both Anita Bryant and White's unjust behavior didn't last long. Bryant faced constant harassment from gay rights protesters, stopped receiving invitations to perform, and the Florida Citrus Commission decided that she was too controversial to keep on. Bryant eventually filed for bankruptcy. White got out of prison in 1985, however he was unable to find work and committed suicide within a year. In White's wake Harvey Milk's death had become a rallying symbol for the gay rights movement. In 1979 activists held the first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, drawing one hundred thousand participants. Randy Shilts published a biography of the "Mayor of Castro Street" in 1982, and in 1984 the documentary film The Life and Times of Harvey Milk won an academy award.

The 70s: American Psychiatric Association

Cured

In 1970 the American Psychiatric Association included a program on "Issues of Sexuality" at its annual conference in San Francisco. In the middle of the discussion several radical homosexual activists got up and demanded they be heard. The APA was flustered and in fear of future incidents offered gay rights activists the opportunity to participate in a panel. The 1971 panel went smoothly, but did not get the kind of attention activists had hoped for. Franklin Kameny and Barbara Gittings set up an exhibit on gay issues at the conference and soon found that there were many straight psychiatrists who agreed with their views of homosexuality, and even a group of closeted gay psychiatrists within the APA.

Gittings and Kameny figured that if they presented a gay psychiatrist at next year's panel they could convince the APA that they were wrong in their understanding of homosexuals. Finally one psychiatrist agreed to present himself as "Dr. Henry Anonymous." However, the doctor wore a mask and used a voice-distorting microphone to conceal his appearance. The anonymous presenter was extremely effective and by December of 1973 the Board of Trustees had voted in favor of homosexuality's reclassification.

Tragedy in New Orleans
In 1973 the local branch of the Metropolitan Community Church held its services in a gay bar called UpStairs in the French Quarter of New Orleans. During service someone set fire to the wooden stairs leading to the second-floor front door of the bar then that person rang the buzzer and made their escape. At least ten people jumped to their deaths, while some got stuck in the windows and burned to death. Fifteen people were sent to the hospital, and twenty-nine bodies were collected-- although a total of thirty-two people would eventually die from the fire.

The community was embarrassed by the event because it involved homosexuals. Therefore, no press or talk of the real reason behind this tragedy happened. The victims of the event were looked down on and ostracized in their community-- now that they had publicly been outed New Orleans would no longer support them or their well-being.

A Flurry of Progress:
Overall the 1970s showed much progress in the gay rights movement. Gay rights activists were finding more and more supporters among straight politicians, most notably New York City Congresswoman Bela Abzug and San Francisco's State Assemblyman Willie Brown. The Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club, a San Francisco gay political club, organized the gay voting bloc in the city and helped arrange speakers at the national Democratic convention in 1972. In 1973 the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force was formed as a truly national gay rights organization.

The NGLTF created much change for the American homosexual. They were instrumental in getting the U.S. Civil Service Commission to stop excluding homosexuals from federal employment in 1975, and it helped make gay rights an official priority of the Democratic Party during the 1976 and 1980 national conventions. Activists even nominated a gay vice presidential candidate, Melvin Boozer, for the Democratic Party at the 1980 convention. In 1975, Elaine Noble, elected to office in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, was the first openly homosexual legislator. In San Francisco a young gay camera shop owner named Harvey Milk won a seat on the Board of Supervisors in 1977. In March of that same year gay activists were invited for a meeting with President Jimmy Carter's public liaison, Midge Costanza.

Unfortunately all this progress would not increase. Towards the end of the decade the gay rights movement lost its fervor. Many attribute this laziness about political action among gays and lesbians as being attributed to the general dissipation of the Left and the end of the antiwar movement. Thus the gay culture became enveloped in partying and discos. Though this highly stereotypical image of homosexuals as party-goers did allow them to be more openly discussed in mainstream media, the image created for the culture became one of comic-relief for straight eyes. 

The 70s: Feminists and Lesbians Unite

Feminists and Lesbians Unite
Despite the growing number of organizations such as GAA and GLF, lesbians were severely underrepresented in homophile groups. Many lesbians had focused their efforts on the women's rights movement, rather than that of the gay rights movement. Some straight women in the women's rights movement feared the growing number of their members who were lesbian. Author of The Feminist Mystique and founder of the National Organization of Women (NOW), Betty Friedan, described lesbians as a "lavender menace" that she believed was threatening the movement.

In 1970 a group of lesbians sought to fight against this discrimination within their own gender. In may of that year at the Congress to Unite Women, seventeen women took control of the stage (and therefore the conference) wearing T-shirts declaring themselves the "Lavender Menace." The stunt proved successful and women's rights groups quickly passed resolution in support of lesbians. However, some feminists remained suspicious of lesbian support.

Following the Congress to Unite Women, the Lavender Menaces formed Radicalesbians. Radical lesbians were 'women-identified-women' who put women first in everything. Unfortunately this caused many radical feminists to declare themselves "political lesbians" but not women who pursue homosexual relationships. This sought to undermine homosexuality by deeming it a choice. 

The new lesbian-feminist rejected both the upper/middle-class lesbian identity of a sensible, skirt-wearing woman as well as the butch/femme roles of the working-class bars. Instead lesbian-feminists soon developed for themselves an androgynous, slightly butch appearance. Some lesbian-feminists tried to create communities solely for women-- a community in which male social standards were completely removed. Music also became incredibly important within the radical lesbian-feminist community. Women's music became known for its political, angry, and affirmative lyrics about women's/lesbians' value. 

By the end of the 1970s most lesbian-feminist groups had died out due to interpersonal conflicts and the difficulty in being politically correct in everything. However, the short-lived lesbian-feminist movement set an example for all lesbians to feel pride and demand more from a nation which had historically ignored their rights. Also, because lesbian separatist groups were so extreme, mainstream society was much more willing to consider appeals of less radical LGBTQ groups.

Talks of Marriage

In January of 1971 homosexual couple Jack Baker and J. Michael McConnell were featured as part of Look magazine's "The American Family" issue. The couple were presented as a traditional alternative to the assumed stereotype of gay men as sex-crazed and pathological. In May of 1970 the couple had applied for a marriage license, however it was denied and the ensuing media coverage caused McConnell to lose his job offer at a university.

Soon the couple was battling the city and the university for discrimination. Baker was president of the campus gay group FREE (Fight Repression of Erotic Expression) and he used the media coverage from this event to run for student body president. His campaign featured campy posters that won him the election in April 1971. Unfortunately, the couple lost both of their legal cases under appeal. 

The 70s: The New Left Movement

The New Left Movement
Influenced by radical changes in black and women's rights, New York Mattachine's Dick Leitsch started up the Mattachine Action Committee to appease new radical activists. Using this committee Leitsch reinforced that education, not violence, was the key to equality for LGBTQ individuals. However, members of the committee disagreed with Leitsch's peaceful tactics. One member in particular, Jim Fouratt, was so angered by this call for peace that he organized a more radical organization titled the Gay Liberation Front. GLF approached the gay rights movement with a radical perspective very different than the Mattachine's. GLF spent much of its time holding large marches and discussion on homosexuality as a parallel to gender and/or racial discrimination.

Though more generalized in its intentions, the GLF influenced many points of change in gay rights. The Los Angeles GLF's first public action targeted a restaurant in West Hollywood called Barney's Beanery. The restaurant hosted a sign above its entrance that stated (incorrect spelling included), "Fagots Stay Out." In January 1970 GLF members led by Rev. Troy Perry of the LGBT-oriented Metropolitan Community Church began to protest outside the Beanery. Within weeks the protesters had swelled to over one hundred and fifty. Finally after months of protesting the Beanery took down its sign.

In December 1969 New York activists who were frustrated with the unorganized activities of the GLF formed the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), an organization solely dedicated to homosexual rights. This new group, unlike former ones, had strict rules and procedures. The goal of the GAA was to secure gay rights by using confrontational, militant tactics that went beyond the methods of the homophile radicals of the late 60s. 

The most successful method used by the GAA was the 'media zap'. GAA cofounder Marty Robinson believed that the best way to get support was to pressure supposedly liberal politicians. Thus politicians were accosted on the streets and made to answer on opinions of homosexuality and political equality.Such occurrences were largely dramatized and used for media purposes yet proved remarkably effective. Zapping ended up swaying the opinions of several politicians including New York Mayor John V. Lindsay and City Councilwoman Carol Greitzer. 

In 1970 the GAA led New York City's first pride parade, and soon after the GAA became so large it formed a headquarters in an abandoned firehouse in the SoHo area of downtown New York. 

Parents Get Called In

In 1972 Jeanne Manford wrote a letter to the New York post complaining about how the police didn't intervene to protect her son in a gay protest. Soon enough Jeanne was appearing on television shows as a real life gay parents. In 1972 Jeanne marched with her son in the third annual Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade carrying a poster that read: "Parents of Gays: Unite in Support of Our Children." This was what sparked the creation of PFLAG National-- Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. Chapters began popping up all over America to give support to parents and family coming to terms with their children's sexual orientation.