View source for LGBTQ movements

{{Short description|Social identity movements}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2025}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2022}}
{{redirect|LGBTQ rights activist|List of LGBTQ rights activists|List of LGBTQ rights activists}}
[[File:Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016.jpg|thumb|262px|alt=A color photograph of the Stonewall Inn, taken in the summer of 2016; the doorway and windows are decorated with rainbow flags|The [[Stonewall Inn]] in the [[gay village]] of [[Greenwich Village]], [[LGBTQ culture in New York City|Manhattan]], site of the June 1969 [[Stonewall riots]], a landmark event in the struggle for [[LGBTQ rights in the United States]], which opened the door for the advancement of LGBTQ movements worldwide.<ref name=GayGreenwichVillage1>{{cite web|url=https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/why-new-york-city-is-a-major-destination-for-lgbt-travelers/|title=Why New York City Is a Major Destination for LGBT Travelers|author=Julia Goicichea|publisher=The Culture Trip|date=August 16, 2017|access-date=February 2, 2019|archive-date=January 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102084000/https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/why-new-york-city-is-a-major-destination-for-lgbt-travelers/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=GayGreenwichVillage2>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/25/nyregion/stonewall-inn-named-national-monument-a-first-for-gay-rights-movement.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220102/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/25/nyregion/stonewall-inn-named-national-monument-a-first-for-gay-rights-movement.html |archive-date=January 2, 2022 |url-access=limited |url-status=live
|title=Stonewall Inn Named National Monument, a First for the Gay Rights Movement|author=Eli Rosenberg|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 24, 2016|access-date=June 25, 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name=GayGreenwichVillage3>{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/diversity/stonewall.htm |title=Workforce Diversity The Stonewall Inn, National Historic Landmark National Register Number: 99000562 |publisher=National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior |access-date=April 21, 2016 |archive-date=March 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306222059/http://www.nps.gov/diversity/stonewall.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
{{LGBTQ sidebar|history}}
'''Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender''' and '''queer''' ('''LGBTQ''') '''movements''' are [[social movements]] that advocate for the inclusion, recognition, and rights of [[LGBTQ people]] and other gender and sexual minorities.

While there is no overarching organization representing all LGBTQ people, numerous [[List of LGBTQ rights organizations|advocacy groups, grassroots networks, and community-based organizations]] work to advance related causes. The earliest known [[first homosexual movement|LGBTQ rights organization]] was the [[Scientific-Humanitarian Committee]], founded in Berlin in 1897.<ref>{{cite book |last = Whisnant |first = Clayton J. |author-link = Clayton J. Whisnant |title = Queer Identities and Politics in Germany: A History, 1880–1945 |date=2016 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-1-939594-10-5 |language=en |page=17}}</ref>

Common goals of LGBTQ movements is [[LGBT rights|equal rights]] for LGBTQ people. Specific goals include the decriminalization of homosexuality, [[same-sex marriage|legal recognition of same-sex relationships]], protections against [[discrimination]], and access to [[gender-affirming healthcare]]. Some branches of these movements also emphasize cultural visibility, community-building, and liberation from societal systems seen as oppressive, such as [[heteronormativity]] and [[cisnormativity]].

Modern LGBTQ movements encompass a wide range of strategies, including [[political lobbying]], [[Demonstration (people)|street marches and protests]], [[mutual aid]], academic research, and artistic expression. These movements are internally diverse, with ongoing debates over tactics, identity, inclusion, and the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and class.

== Overview ==
[[File:Kiss (19165072846).jpg|thumb|alt=Two men kissing in front of the US Supreme Court. One is wearing a t-shirt with the words, Legalize Gay|Marriage Equality Decision Day Rally in front of the US Supreme Court, Washington DC, 2015]]
[[File:Day of Kisses in Moscow.jpg|thumb|Russian LGBTQ activists protesting anti-gay law at the [[State Duma]] in Moscow were attacked, detained, 2013]]
{{Rights |By claimant}}

[[Sociologist]] Mary Bernstein writes: <blockquote><p>For the lesbian and gay movement, then, cultural goals include (but are not limited to) challenging dominant constructions of [[masculinity]] and [[femininity]], [[homophobia]], and the primacy of the gendered heterosexual [[nuclear family]] ([[heteronormativity]]). Political goals include changing laws and policies to gain new rights, benefits, and protections from harm.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bernstein |first1=Mary |title=Identities and Politics: Toward a Historical Understanding of the Lesbian and Gay Movement |journal=Social Science History |year=2002 |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=531–581 |jstor=40267789 |doi=10.1017/S0145553200013080 |s2cid=151848248 }}</ref></p></blockquote>Bernstein emphasizes that LGBTQ activists often pursue both cultural and political goals across the civil and legal spheres.

Like other social movements, LGBTQ movements experience internal conflict over strategy, representation, and direction—particularly regarding education reform and who speaks for the broader community.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kitchen |first1=Julian |last2=Bellini |first2=Christine |title=Addressing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Issues in Teacher Education: Teacher Candidates' Perceptions |journal=Alberta Journal of Educational Research |year=2012 |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=444–460 |doi=10.55016/ojs/ajer.v58i3.55632 |url=https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ajer/article/view/55632 |archive-date=September 4, 2022 |access-date=November 13, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220904051318/https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ajer/article/view/55632 |url-status=dead |url-access=subscription }}</ref> There is ongoing debate over how much common ground exists among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, [[intersex]], and other queer individuals, and whether they should pursue shared political goals.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gamson |first1=Joshua |title=Must Identity Movements Self-Destruct? A Queer Dilemma |journal=Social Problems |date=August 1995 |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=390–407 |doi=10.2307/3096854 |jstor=3096854 |url=https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/42/3/390/1639087?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=July 2, 2025}}</ref>

In the 1970s through the 1990s, leaders of the lesbian and gay rights movement sometimes downplayed or excluded masculine lesbians, feminine gay men, transgender people, and bisexuals, creating rifts within LGBTQ communities.<ref>Bull, C., and J. Gallagher (1996) Perfect Enemies: The Religious Right, the Gay Movement, and the Politics of the 1990s. New York: Crown.{{page needed|date=August 2020}}</ref> Research by Roffee and Waling (2016) found that LGBTQ individuals often face microaggressions and exclusionary behaviors from others within their own community. These tensions stem from misconceptions and differing beliefs about what constitutes LGBTQ identity.<ref name=AJPH>{{cite journal |last1=Parker |first1=Richard G. |title=Sexuality, Health, and Human Rights |journal=American Journal of Public Health |date=June 2007 |volume=97 |issue=6 |pages=972–973 |doi=10.2105/AJPH.2007.113365 |pmid=17463362 |pmc=1874191 }}</ref>

For example, transgender individuals have reported that other LGBTQ members may dismiss or misunderstand their specific needs, leading to harmful assumptions and potential health risks.<ref name=AJPH></ref> Similarly, bisexual people have often felt that their identities are invalidated by both straight and gay communities.<ref name="York Biphobia">{{cite web |last1=York |first1=Thomas |title='People erase my existence' |url=https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/people-erase-my-existence |website=bps.org.uk |access-date=June 28, 2025}}</ref> Even when individuals align with the broader values of LGBTQ advocacy, inconsistencies and internal prejudice can persist.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Roffee |first1=James A. |last2=Waling |first2=Andrea |title=Rethinking microaggressions and anti-social behaviour against LGBTIQ+ youth |journal=Safer Communities |date=October 10, 2016 |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=190–201 |doi=10.1108/SC-02-2016-0004 }}</ref>

Many LGBTQ movements have adopted forms of [[identity politics]] that position gay, bisexual, and transgender people as fixed minority groups.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Balsam |first1=Kimberly F. |last2=Molina |first2=Yamile |last3=Beadnell |first3=Blair |last4=Simoni |first4=Jane |last5=Walters |first5=Karina |title=Measuring multiple minority stress: The LGBT People of Color Microaggressions Scale |journal=Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology |date=April 2011 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=163–174 |doi=10.1037/a0023244 |pmid=21604840 |pmc=4059824 }}</ref> This approach has helped secure rights and visibility, but it has also drawn criticism from within the community. Critics within the queer movement argue that fixed categories such as gay and lesbian are restrictive and fail to reflect the fluidity of sexuality and gender.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Singh |first1=Aishwarya |title=The origin of the gay "closet" |url=https://medium.com/@aishwaryabookreviews/review-epistemology-of-the-closet-eve-kosofsky-sedgwick-6cb2bdf0d78c |website=Medium |access-date=July 2, 2025 |language=en |date=September 11, 2022}}</ref> These categories, they suggest, "reinforce rather than challenge a cultural system that always marks non-heterosexual identities as inferior."<ref>Bernstein (2002)</ref>

Despite differences in approach, many activists share liberal political goals of equality and freedom, seeking to integrate into the political mainstream alongside other marginalized groups.<ref>One example of this approach is: [[Sullivan, Andrew]] (1997). ''Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con''. New York: Vintage.{{page needed|date=August 2020}}</ref>  LGBTQ movements widely oppose "[[conversion therapy]]" efforts to change [[sexual orientation]] or [[gender identity]], emphasizing that these traits are innate and immutable.<ref>{{cite web |title=GLAAD Media Reference Guide – In Focus: "Conversion therapy" |url=https://glaad.org/reference/conversion-therapy/ |website=glaad |access-date=July 2, 2025 |date=February 21, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Lies and Dangers of Efforts to Change Sexual Orientation or… |url=https://www.hrc.org/resources/the-lies-and-dangers-of-reparative-therapy |website=HRC |access-date=July 2, 2025}}</ref> Such practices are often rooted in religious doctrines that view non-heterosexual activity as immoral. While religious institutions have historically condemned LGBTQ identities, opposition has never been universal. Attitudes vary widely between denominations, cultures, and eras.

Today, numerous religious communities and individual believers openly support LGBTQ rights.<ref name="GLAAD Religion">{{cite web |title=Religion and Faith |url=https://glaad.org/religion/ |website=glaad.org |access-date=June 28, 2025 |date=February 21, 2022}}</ref>

Historically, anticlerical sentiment in Catholic countries after the [[French Revolution]]—combined with the liberalizing effects of the [[Napoleonic Code]]—led to the repeal of sodomy laws in many areas.<ref name="Xtra Napoleonic Code" /> In contrast, [[Protestant]] countries, where church authority was less centralized, often retained religiously inspired statutes well into the 20th century.<ref name="LGBT Criminalization">{{cite web |title=A History of LGBT Criminalisation |url=https://www.humandignitytrust.org/lgbt-the-law/a-history-of-criminalisation/ |website=Human Dignity Trust |access-date=June 28, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> Some laws persist even today; for example, a 2008 court case in India was based on a 150-year-old colonial-era law criminalizing sodomy.<ref>{{cite web |title=This Alien Legacy |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/12/17/alien-legacy/origins-sodomy-laws-british-colonialism |publisher=Human Rights Watch |date=December 17, 2008 |access-date=February 13, 2020 |archive-date=June 14, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190614001741/https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/12/17/alien-legacy/origins-sodomy-laws-british-colonialism |url-status=live }}</ref>

== History ==
{{See also|Timeline of LGBTQ history}}
=== Enlightenment era ===
In [[Enlightenment era|eighteenth]]- and [[History of Europe#19th century|nineteenth-century Europe]], same-sex sexual behavior and [[cross-dressing]] were widely considered to be socially unacceptable, and were serious crimes under [[sodomy]] and [[sumptuary law]]s. There were, however, some exceptions. For example, in the 17th-century cross-dressing was common in plays, as evident in the content of many of [[William Shakespeare]]'s plays and by the actors in actual performance (since female roles in [[Elizabethan theater]] were always performed by males, usually [[prepubescent]] boys).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lee |first1=Selina |title=Shakespeare in Drag: The Gender-Bending Bard |url=https://truecolorsunited.org/shakespeare-in-drag/ |website=True Colors United |access-date=June 28, 2025 |date=April 23, 2016}}</ref>

[[Thomas Cannon (author)|Thomas Cannon]] wrote what may be the earliest published defense of homosexuality in English, ''Ancient and Modern [[Pederasty]] Investigated and Exemplify'd'' (1749). Although only fragments of his work have survived, it was a humorous anthology of homosexual advocacy, written with an obvious enthusiasm for its subject.<ref>{{cite book | title=Closeted writing and lesbian and gay literature: classical, early modern, eighteenth-century | first=David M. | last=Robinson | publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. | year=2006 | isbn=978-0-7546-5550-3 | page=38 }}</ref> It contains the argument: "Unnatural Desire is a Contradiction in Terms; downright Nonsense. Desire is an amatory Impulse of the inmost human Parts: Are not they, however, constructed, and consequently impelling Nature?"

[[File:Jeremy Bentham by Henry William Pickersgill.jpg|thumb|[[Jeremy Bentham]], an early advocate for the decriminalization of homosexuality]]
Social reformer [[Jeremy Bentham]] wrote the first known argument for homosexual law reform in England around 1785, at a time when the legal penalty for [[buggery]] was death by hanging.<ref name="Bentham Review">{{cite web |last1=Dabhoiwala |first1=Faramerz |title=Of Sexual Irregularities by Jeremy Bentham – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/26/sexual-irregularities-morality-jeremy-bentham-review |website=The Guardian |access-date=June 28, 2025 |date=June 26, 2014}}</ref> His advocacy stemmed from his [[utilitarianism|utilitarian philosophy]], in which the morality of an action is determined by the net consequence of that action on human well-being.

He argued that homosexuality was a [[victimless crime]], and therefore not deserving of social approbation or criminal charges. He regarded popular negative attitudes against homosexuality as an irrational prejudice, fanned and perpetuated by religious teachings.<ref>{{cite journal |author=[[Jeremy Bentham|Bentham, Jeremy]] |title=Offences Against One's Self |journal=Journal of Homosexuality |volume=3 |issue=4 |year=1978 |access-date=May 13, 2021 |url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/exhibitions/sw25/bentham/index.html |archive-date=July 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712101957/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/exhibitions/sw25/bentham/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> However, he did not publicize his views as he feared reprisal; his essay was not published until 1978.<ref name="Bentham Review" />

The emerging currents of [[secular humanist]] thought that had inspired Bentham also informed the [[French Revolution]], and when the newly formed [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Constituent Assembly]] began drafting the policies and laws of the new republic in 1792, groups of militant "sodomite-citizens" in Paris petitioned the [[Assemblée nationale]], the governing body of the [[French Revolution]], for freedom and recognition.<ref name="blasius">Blasius, Mark and Phelan, Shane (eds.), 1997. "We Are Everywhere: A Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics", New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-90859-0}}</ref>

In 1791, France became the first nation to decriminalize homosexuality, probably thanks in part to [[Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès]], who was one of the authors of the [[Napoleonic Code]].<ref name="Xtra Napoleonic Code">{{cite web |last1=Rothon |first1=Robert |title=First Lady of the French empire |url=https://xtramagazine.com/power/first-lady-of-the-french-empire-24828 |website=xtramagazine.com |access-date=June 28, 2025 |language=en-CA |date=May 7, 2009}}</ref> With the introduction of the Napoleonic Code in 1808, the [[Duchy of Warsaw]] also decriminalized homosexuality.<ref name="vwdiou">{{cite web |url=http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/poland_S.pdf |title=Poland |publisher=GLBTQ |year=2015 |access-date=May 13, 2021 |archive-date=August 11, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811134534/http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/poland_S.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1830, the new Penal Code of the [[Brazilian Empire]] did not repeat the title XIII of the fifth book of the "Ordenações Philipinas", which made [[sodomy]] a crime.<ref name="Brazil LGBT History">{{cite web |last1=Caulfield |first1=Sueann |title=The Recent Supreme Court Ruling on Same-Sex Unions in Brazil: A Historical Perspective |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/i/iij/11645653.0001.103/--recent-supreme-court-ruling-on-same-sex-unions-in-brazil?rgn=main;view=fulltext |website=International Institute Journal |access-date=June 28, 2025 |date=Fall 2011 |archive-date=June 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240629071004/https://quod.lib.umich.edu/i/iij/11645653.0001.103/--recent-supreme-court-ruling-on-same-sex-unions-in-brazil?rgn=main;view=fulltext |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1833, an anonymous English-language writer wrote a poetic defense of Captain Nicholas Nicholls, who had been sentenced to death in London for sodomy:

<blockquote><poem>Whence spring these inclinations, rank and strong?
And harming no one, wherefore call them wrong?<ref name="blasius" /></poem></blockquote>

Three years later in Switzerland, [[Heinrich Hössli|Heinrich Hoessli]] published the first volume of ''Eros: Die Männerliebe der Griechen'' (English: "Eros: The Male Love of the Greeks"), another defense of same-sex love.<ref name="blasius" />

=== Emergence of LGBTQ movement ===
{{Main|First homosexual movement}}
[[File:Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (from Kennedy).jpg|thumb|[[Karl Heinrich Ulrichs]], German gay rights activist of the 1860s]]
<!-- It seems that the information regarding Karl Heinrich Ulrichs and Karl Maria Kertbeny was removed without any adequate replacement. -->
In many ways, social attitudes to homosexuality became more hostile during the late [[Victorian era]]. In 1885, the [[Labouchere Amendment]] was included in the [[Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885|Criminal Law Amendment Act]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-criminal-law-amendment-act-1885|access-date=October 27, 2021|website=The British Library|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101070618/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-criminal-law-amendment-act-1885 |archive-date= November 1, 2020 }}</ref> which criminalized 'any act of gross indecency with another male person'; a charge that was successfully invoked to convict playwright [[Oscar Wilde]] in 1895 with the most severe sentence possible under the Act.<ref name="Wilde Trials">{{cite web |title=The Trials of Oscar Wilde: An Account |url=https://famous-trials.com/wilde/327-home |website=famous-trials.com |access-date=June 28, 2025 |archive-date=February 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240229152358/https://famous-trials.com/wilde/327-home |url-status=live }}</ref>

The first person known to describe himself as a [[drag queen]] was [[William Dorsey Swann]], born enslaved in [[Hancock, Maryland]]. Swann was the first American on record who pursued legal and political action to defend the [[LGBTQ community]]'s [[right to assemble]].<ref name=":6">{{Cite news|last=Joseph|first=Channing Gerard|date=January 31, 2020|title=The First Drag Queen Was a Former Slave|journal=The Nation|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/drag-queen-slave-ball/|access-date=February 4, 2020|issn=0027-8378|archive-date=February 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210202152031/https://www.thenation.com/article/society/drag-queen-slave-ball/|url-status=live}}</ref> During the 1880s and 1890s, Swann organized a series of [[drag balls]] in Washington, D.C.<ref name="Smithsonian Swann">{{cite web |last1=Shane |first1=Cari |title=The First Self-Proclaimed Drag Queen Was a Formerly Enslaved Man |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-first-self-proclaimed-drag-queen-was-a-formerly-enslaved-man-180982311/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=June 28, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> Swann was arrested in police raids numerous times, including in the first documented case of arrests for female impersonation in the United States, on April 12, 1888.<ref name=Wood>{{cite web |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/picador-buys-extraordinary-tale-first-drag-queen-824311 |title='Extraordinary' tale of 'first' drag queen to Picador |author=Heloise Wood |date=July 9, 2018 |publisher=The Bookseller |access-date=February 8, 2020 |archive-date=February 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200209163233/https://www.thebookseller.com/news/picador-buys-extraordinary-tale-first-drag-queen-824311 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Karl Heinrich Ulrichs]] was one of the earliest men to publicly state their homosexuality. He wrote many essays defending homosexuality, establishing scientific terms and categories for the groups that now make up the LGBTQ+ community. Homosexual men were Urnings or Uranians, while homosexual women were Dionings. In 1867, he staged the first public gay rights protest.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jordan |first1=Marie |title=Karl Heinrich Ulrichs |url=https://hsp.org/blogs/fondly-pennsylvania/karl-heinrich-ulrichs |website=hsp.org |access-date=June 28, 2025 |archive-date=February 21, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250221091334/https://hsp.org/blogs/fondly-pennsylvania/karl-heinrich-ulrichs |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Uranians|Uranian]] poets and prose writers, who sought to rehabilitate the love between men and boys and in doing so often appealed to Ancient Greece, formed a rather cohesive group with a well-expressed philosophy.<ref name=Dynes>{{cite book|editor=Dynes, Wayne R.|title=The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. Volume II|year=2016|publisher=[[Routledge]]|place=Abingdon and New York|page=1353}}</ref>

A secret British society called the [[Order of Chaeronea]] campaigned for the legalization of homosexuality. The society was founded in 1897 by [[George Cecil Ives]], one of the earliest gay rights campaigners, who had been working for the end of oppression of homosexuals, what he called the "Cause".<ref name=":1" /> Members included [[Oscar Wilde]],<ref>McKenna, Neil (2003), "The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde: An Intimate Biography". (London: Century) {{ISBN|0-7126-6986-8}}</ref> [[Charles Kains Jackson]], [[Samuel Elsworth Cottam]], [[Montague Summers]], and [[John Gambril Nicholson]].

Ives met Wilde at the [[Authors' Club]] in London in 1892.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |url=https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00060/hrc-00060.html |title=George Cecil Ives: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center |last=Ives |first=George Cecil |website=[[Harry Ransom Center]] |access-date=January 15, 2019 |archive-date=January 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190112104119/https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00060/hrc-00060.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Wilde was taken by his boyish looks and persuaded him to shave off his mustache, and once kissed him passionately in the [[Travellers' Club]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} In 1893, [[Lord Alfred Douglas]], with whom he had a brief affair, introduced Ives to several Oxford poets whom Ives also tried to recruit.

[[John Addington Symonds]] was a poet and an early advocate of male love. In 1873, he wrote ''A Problem in Greek Ethics'', a work of what would later be called "[[gay history]]."<ref>{{cite book|author=Katz|title=Love Stories|pages=243–244}}</ref> Although the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' credits the medical writer [[Charles Gilbert Chaddock|C.G. Chaddock]] for introducing "homosexual" into the English language in 1892, Symonds had already used the word in ''A Problem in Greek Ethics''.<ref>DeJean, "Sex and Philology," p. 132, pointing to the phrase [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FJETAAAAQAAJ/page/n11 <!-- pg=2 quote="homosexual relations" inauthor:symonds. --> "homosexual relations"] (here as it appears in the later 1908 edition).</ref>

Symonds also translated classical poetry on homoerotic themes, and wrote poems drawing on ancient Greek imagery and language such as ''Eudiades'', which has been called "the most famous of his homoerotic poems".<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Aldrich|title=The Seduction of the Mediterranean: Writing, Art, and Homosexual Fantasy|url=https://archive.org/details/seductionofmedit0000aldr|url-access=registration|publisher=Routledge|year=1993|page=[https://archive.org/details/seductionofmedit0000aldr/page/78 78]|isbn=9780415093125}}</ref> While the taboos of Victorian England prevented Symonds from speaking openly about homosexuality, his works published for a general audience contained strong implications and some of the first direct references to male-male sexual love in English literature.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Daily |first1=Ruby Ray |title=Symonds's Facts, Our Future |url=https://www.publicbooks.org/symondss-facts-our-future/ |website=Public Books |access-date=June 28, 2025 |date=July 5, 2023}}</ref>

By the end of his life, Symonds' homosexuality had become an open secret in Victorian literary and cultural circles. In particular, Symonds' memoirs, written over a four-year period, from 1889 to 1893, form one of the earliest known works of self-conscious homosexual autobiography in English. The recently decoded autobiographies of Anne Lister are an earlier example in English.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Shannon |first1=Laurie |title=Anne Lister's Story |url=https://english.northwestern.edu/about/anne-lister-society/story.html |website=english.northwestern.edu |access-date=June 28, 2025 |language=en |archive-date=March 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314200703/https://english.northwestern.edu/about/anne-lister-society/story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Another friend of Ives was the English [[socialist]] poet [[Edward Carpenter]]. Carpenter thought that homosexuality was an innate and natural human characteristic and that it should not be regarded as a sin or a criminal offense.<ref name="Carpenter Bio">{{cite web |last1=Tatchell |first1=Peter |title=Edward Carpenter: socialist & LGBT+ rights pioneer 1844-1929 |url=https://www.petertatchellfoundation.org/edward-carpenter-socialist-lgbt-rights-pioneer-1844-1929/ |website=Peter Tatchell Foundation |access-date=June 28, 2025 |date=August 31, 2020}}</ref> In the 1890s, Carpenter began a concerted effort to campaign against discrimination on the grounds of [[sexual orientation]], possibly in response to the recent death of Symonds, whom he viewed as his campaigning inspiration. His 1908 book on the subject, ''[[The Intermediate Sex]]'', would become a foundational text of the LGBTQ movements of the 20th century.<ref name="ESP carpenter">{{cite web |title=Edward Carpenter (1844 – 1929) |url=https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/people/writers/edward_carpenter/ |website=Exploring Surrey's Past}}</ref> Scottish anarchist [[John Henry Mackay]] also wrote in defense of same-sex love and [[androgyny]].

English [[sexologist]] [[Havelock Ellis]] wrote the first objective scientific study of homosexuality in 1897, in which he treated it as a neutral sexual condition.<ref>{{cite web |last1=DuPoint |first1=Ellen |title=Henry Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) |url=https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/henry-havelock-ellis-1859-1939 |website=embryo.asu.edu |access-date=June 28, 2025}}</ref> Called ''Sexual Inversion'', it was first printed in German and then translated into English a year later. In the book, Ellis argued that same-sex relationships could not be characterized as a [[pathology]] or a crime and that its importance rose above the arbitrary restrictions imposed by society.<ref>''Das Konträre Geschlechtsgefühle''. Leipzig, 1896. See {{cite book|last=White|first=Chris|title=Nineteenth-Century Writings on Homosexuality|year=1999|publisher=CRC Press|page=66}}</ref>

He also studied what he called 'inter-generational relationships' and that these also broke societal [[taboo]]s on age difference in sexual relationships.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Popova |first1=Maria |title=Havelock Ellis on the Function of Taboos, Their Vital Role in Community, and How They Bolster the Discipline of Compassion |url=https://www.themarginalian.org/2016/02/26/havelock-ellis-love-sex-taboos/ |website=The Marginalian |access-date=June 28, 2025 |date=February 26, 2016 |archive-date=April 28, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250428184330/https://www.themarginalian.org/2016/02/26/havelock-ellis-love-sex-taboos/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The book was so controversial at the time that one bookseller was charged in court for holding copies of the work.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Bedborough Trial |url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2813894 |journal=JAMA |access-date=June 28, 2025 |pages=264 |doi=10.1001/jama.2023.18178 |date=January 16, 2024 |volume=331 |issue=3 |pmid=38227041 |archive-date=April 17, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250417144934/https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2813894 |url-status=live }}</ref> It is claimed that Ellis coined the term 'homosexual', but in fact he disliked the word due to its [[Hybrid word|conflation of Greek and Latin]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Aaron |first1=Kate |title=The queer life of Havelock Ellis |url=https://medium.com/gay-old-times/the-queer-life-of-havelock-ellis-2a345c75f94b |website=Gay Old Times |access-date=June 28, 2025 |language=en |date=September 17, 2020 |archive-date=January 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230109052827/https://medium.com/gay-old-times/the-queer-life-of-havelock-ellis-2a345c75f94b |url-status=live }}</ref>

These early proponents of LGBTQ rights, such as Carpenter, were often aligned with a broader socio-political movement known as '[[free love]]'; a critique of [[Victorian morality|Victorian sexual morality]] and the traditional institutions of family and marriage that were seen to enslave women.<ref name="Free Love Liberty">{{cite magazine |last1=Waxman |first1=Olivia B. |last2=Aneja |first2=Arpita |title=The 19th Century Advocate For 'Free Love' and Women's Liberty |url=https://time.com/6107025/victoria-woodhull-free-love-movement/ |magazine=TIME |access-date=June 28, 2025 |language=en |date=October 29, 2021}}</ref> Some advocates of free love in the early 20th century, including Russian anarchist and feminist [[Emma Goldman]], also spoke in defense of same-sex love and challenged repressive legislation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Emma Goldman |url=https://jwa.org/womenofvalor/goldman |website=Jewish Women's Archive |access-date=June 28, 2025 |language=en |archive-date=December 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111205044825/https://jwa.org/womenofvalor/goldman |url-status=live }}</ref>

An early LGBTQ movement also began in Germany at the turn of the 20th century, centering on the doctor and writer [[Magnus Hirschfeld]]. In 1897 he formed the [[Scientific-Humanitarian Committee]] campaign publicly against the notorious law "[[Paragraph 175]]", which made sex between men illegal.<ref name="trans clinic">{{cite web |last1=Schillace |first1=Brandy |title=The Forgotten History of the World's First Trans Clinic |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/ |website=Scientific American |access-date=June 28, 2025 |language=en |date=August 1, 2021 |archive-date=June 27, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250627021743/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Adolf Brand]] later broke away from the group, disagreeing with Hirschfeld's medical view of the "[[Third gender|intermediate sex]]", seeing male-male sex as merely an aspect of manly virility and male social bonding.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tatchell |first1=Peter |title=Magnus Hirschfeld 1868-1935: German LGBT pioneer |url=https://www.petertatchellfoundation.org/magnus-hirschfeld-1868-1935-german-lgbt-pioneer/ |website=Peter Tatchell Foundation |access-date=June 29, 2025 |date=February 21, 2018}}</ref> Brand was the first to use "[[outing]]" as a political strategy, claiming that German [[Chancellor of Germany (German Reich)|Chancellor]] [[Bernhard von Bülow]] engaged in homosexual activity.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Domeier|first=Norman|year=2014|title=The Homosexual Scare and the Masculinization of German Politics before World War I|journal=Central European History|volume=47|issue=4|pages=737–759|doi=10.1017/S0008938914001903|jstor=43965084|s2cid=146627960|issn=0008-9389}}</ref>

[[File:Lesbiche - 1928 - D- Die freundin 1928.jpg|thumb|May 14, 1928, issue of German lesbian periodical ''Die Freundin'' (''The Girlfriend'')]]

The 1901 book ''Sind es Frauen? Roman über das Dritte Geschlecht'' (English: ''Are These Women? Novel about the Third Sex'') by Aimée Duc was as much a political [[treatise]] as a novel, criticizing pathological theories of homosexuality and gender inversion in women.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Breger |first1=Claudia |title=Feminine Masculinities: Scientific and Literary Representations of 'Female Inversion' at the Turn of the Twentieth Century |journal=Journal of the History of Sexuality |year=2005 |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=76–106 |doi=10.1353/sex.2006.0004 |s2cid=142942952 }}</ref> [[Anna Rüling]], delivering a public speech in 1904 at the request of Hirschfeld, became the first female [[Uranian (sexology)|Uranian]] activist. Rüling, who also saw "men, women, and homosexuals" as three distinct genders, called for an alliance between the women's and sexual reform movements, but this speech is her only known contribution to the cause.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rüling |first1=Anna |title=Sexuality - Rüling |url=https://speakingwhilefemale.co/sexuality-ruling/ |website=Speaking While Female Speech Bank |access-date=June 29, 2025}}</ref>

Women only began to join the previously male-dominated sexual reform movement around 1910 when the German government tried to expand Paragraph 175 to outlaw sex between women. Heterosexual feminist leader [[Helene Stöcker]] became a prominent figure in the movement.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Robinson |first1=CL |title=LGBTQIA+ Organization |url=https://vocal.media/pride/lgbtqia-organization |website=Pride |access-date=June 29, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> [[Friedrich Radszuweit]] published LGBTQ literature and magazines in [[Berlin]] (e.g., ''Die Freundin'').<ref>{{cite web |last1=Suarez |first1=Nic |title=LGBTQ+ Stories from Nazi Germany: Friedrich Radszuweit |url=https://www.pinktrianglelegacies.org/radszuweit |website=Pink Triangle LP |access-date=June 29, 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

Hirschfeld, whose life was dedicated to social progress for people who were transsexual, transvestite and homosexual, formed the [[Institut für Sexualwissenschaft]] (Institute for Sexology) in 1919. The institute conducted an enormous amount of research, saw thousands of transgender and homosexual clients at consultations, and championed a broad range of sexual reforms including sex education, contraception and women's rights.<ref name="trans clinic"/> However, the gains made in Germany would soon be [[History of Gays during the Holocaust|drastically reversed]] with the rise of [[Nazism]], and the institute and its library were destroyed in 1933.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tracey |first1=Liz |title=90 Years On: The Destruction of the Institute of Sexual Science |url=https://daily.jstor.org/90-years-on-the-destruction-of-the-institute-of-sexual-science/ |website=JSTOR Daily |access-date=June 29, 2025 |date=May 31, 2023 |archive-date=June 10, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250610210350/https://daily.jstor.org/90-years-on-the-destruction-of-the-institute-of-sexual-science/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Swiss journal [[Der Kreis]] was the only part of the movement to continue through the Nazi era.<ref>{{cite web |title=Der Kreis |url=https://skeivtarkiv.no/en/skeivopedia/der-kreis |website=Skeivt Arkiv |access-date=June 29, 2025 |date=April 6, 2020 |archive-date=March 23, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250323142609/https://skeivtarkiv.no/en/skeivopedia/der-kreis |url-status=live }}</ref>

USSR's Criminal Code of 1922 decriminalized homosexuality.<ref name="Healey2001">{{cite book|author=Dan Healey|title=Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia: The Regulation of Sexual and Gender Dissent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k_Et9nlFT2YC|access-date=October 27, 2012|date=October 15, 2001|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-32233-9|page=3}}</ref> This was a remarkable step in the USSR at the time – which was very backward economically and socially, and where many conservative attitudes towards sexuality prevailed. This step was part of a larger project of freeing sexual relationships and expanding women's rights – including legalizing abortion, granting divorce on demand, equal rights for women, and attempts to socialize housework.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Farrell |first1=Jenny |title=Alexandra Kollontai: International Communist leader and fighter for women's liberation Communist leader and fighter for women's liberation |url=https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/alexandra-kollontai-international-communist-leader-and-fighter-for-womens-liberation/ |website=People's World |access-date=June 29, 2025 |date=March 31, 2023 |archive-date=February 6, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250206163017/https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/alexandra-kollontai-international-communist-leader-and-fighter-for-womens-liberation/ |url-status=live }}</ref> During Stalin's era, however, USSR reverted all these progressive measures – re-criminalizing homosexuality and imprisoning gay men and banning abortion.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Baker |first1=Michael |title=Queer life in the Soviet Union |url=https://workersliberty.org/story/2023-08-25/queer-life-soviet-union |website=Worker's Liberty |access-date=June 29, 2025}}</ref>

In 1928, English writer [[Radclyffe Hall]] published a novel titled ''[[The Well of Loneliness]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Anderson |first1=Hepzibah |title=The Well of Loneliness: The book that could corrupt a nation |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20221121-the-well-of-loneliness-the-most-corrosive-book-ever |website=www.bbc.com |access-date=June 29, 2025 |date=November 22, 2022}}</ref> Its plot centers on Stephen Gordon, a woman who identifies herself as an invert after reading Krafft-Ebing's ''[[Psychopathia Sexualis]]'', and lives within the homosexual subculture of Paris. The novel included a foreword by Havelock Ellis and was intended to be a call for tolerance for inverts by publicizing their disadvantages and accidents of being born inverted.<ref>Faderman (1981), p. 320.</ref> Hall subscribed to Ellis and Krafft-Ebing's theories and rejected (conservatively understood version of) Freud's theory that [[same-sex attraction]] was caused by childhood trauma and was curable.<ref>Doan, p. XIII.</ref>

In the United States, several secret or semi-secret groups were formed explicitly to advance the rights of homosexuals as early as the turn of the 20th century, but little is known about them.<ref>Norton, Rictor, (2005), "[http://rictornorton.co.uk/suppress.htm The Suppression of Lesbian and Gay History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170317054905/http://rictornorton.co.uk/suppress.htm |date=March 17, 2017 }}"</ref> A better documented group is [[Henry Gerber]]'s [[Society for Human Rights]] formed in Chicago in 1924, which was quickly suppressed.<ref name="when">Bullough, Vern, "[http://hnn.us/articles/11316.html When Did the Gay Rights Movement Begin?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412103055/http://hnn.us/articles/11316.html |date=April 12, 2020 }}", April 18, 2005</ref>

=== Homophile movement (1945–1969) ===
{{Main|Homophile movement}}
[[File:The Ladder, October 1957.jpg|thumb|upright 0.75|Cover of U.S. lesbian publication ''[[The Ladder (magazine)|The Ladder]]'' from October 1957. The motif of masks and unmasking was prevalent in the [[homophile movement|homophile]] era, prefiguring the political strategy of [[coming out]] and giving the [[Mattachine Society]] its name.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mattachine Society |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/mattachine-society.htm |website=www.nps.gov |access-date=June 30, 2025 |language=en}}</ref>]]

Immediately following [[World War II]], a number of homosexual rights groups came into being or were revived across the Western world, in Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries and the United States.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fenerty |first1=Becky |title=LibGuides: Resources in LGBTQ History in the United States: 1900 to 2019 (November 2019): Post-War to 1969 |url=https://ala-choice.libguides.com/c.php?g=974968&p=7048613 |website=ala-choice.libguides.com |access-date=June 30, 2025 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Cold War, Lavender Scare, and LGB Activism (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/cold-war-lavender-scare-and-lgbtq-activism.htm |website=www.nps.gov |access-date=June 30, 2025 |language=en |archive-date=January 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102015735/https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/cold-war-lavender-scare-and-lgbtq-activism.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> These groups usually preferred the term ''homophile'' to ''homosexual'', emphasizing love over sex.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Homophile Movement |url=https://info.umkc.edu/makinghistory/the-homophile-movement/ |website=Making History |publisher=University of Missouri-Kansas |access-date=June 30, 2025 |archive-date=February 12, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250212042632/https://info.umkc.edu/makinghistory/the-homophile-movement/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The homophile movement began in the late 1940s with groups in the Netherlands and Denmark, and continued throughout the 1950s and 1960s with groups in Sweden, Norway, the United States, [[Arcadie (French homophile organization)|France]], Britain and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shield |first1=Andrew D J |title=The Legacies of the Stonewall Riots in Denmark and the Netherlands |journal=History Workshop Journal |date=April 1, 2020 |volume=89 |issue=Spring 2020 |pages=193–206 |doi=10.1093/hwj/dbz051/5709478 |doi-broken-date=July 1, 2025 }}</ref> [[ONE, Inc.]], the first public homosexual organization in the U.S.,<ref name="before">Percy, William A. & William Edward Glover, 2005, [http://williamapercy.com/pub-Comments-PercyGlover.htm Before Stonewall], November 5, 2005 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080621122142/http://williamapercy.com/pub-Comments-PercyGlover.htm |date=June 21, 2008 }}</ref> was bankrolled by the wealthy transsexual man [[Reed Erickson]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Reed Erickson and the Erickson Educational Foundation |url=https://www.uvic.ca/transgenderarchives/collections/reed-erickson/index.php |website=UVic.ca |access-date=June 30, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> A U.S. transgender rights journal, ''Transvestia: The Journal of the American Society for Equality in Dress'', also published two issues in 1952.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Waters |first1=Michael |title=Crossing Boundaries |url=https://magazine.pomona.edu/2022/spring/crossing-boundaries/ |website=Pomona |access-date=June 30, 2025}}</ref>

The homophile movement lobbied to establish a prominent influence in political systems of social acceptability. Radicals of the 1970s would later disparage the homophile groups for being [[assimilationist]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Esposito |first1=Veronica |title=In the '70s, Gay Rights Activists Abandoned Their Trans Siblings |url=https://www.kqed.org/arts/13976295/1970s-gay-transgender-rights-movement-san-francisco-pride |website=www.kqed.org |access-date=June 30, 2025 |language=en |date=June 13, 2025}}</ref> Any demonstrations were orderly and polite.<ref name="matzner">Matzner, 2004, "[http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/stonewall_riots.html Stonewall Riots] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060116051051/http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/stonewall_riots.html |date=January 16, 2006 }}"</ref> By 1969, there were dozens of homophile organizations and publications in the U.S.,<ref>Percy, 2005, "[http://williamapercy.com/BeforeStonewallReview.htm Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights]" {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827185054/http://williamapercy.com/BeforeStonewallReview.htm |date=August 27, 2008 }}</ref> and a national organization had been formed, but they were largely ignored by the media.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pride Month 2024: Origins, Parades & Dates |url=https://www.history.com/articles/pride-month |website=HISTORY |access-date=June 30, 2025 |language=en |date=May 8, 2023}}</ref>

A 1965 gay march held in front of [[Independence Hall]] in Philadelphia, according to some historians, marked the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dipasquale |first1=Laura |title=Historic Spotlight: Independence Hall and Early Protests for LGBTQ Civil Rights, 1965-1969 |url=https://www.phila.gov/2021-06-23-historic-spotlight-independence-hall-and-early-protests-for-lgbtq-civil-rights-1965-1969/ |website=City of Philadelphia |access-date=June 30, 2025 |language=en |date=June 23, 2021}}</ref> Meanwhile, in San Francisco, the LGBTQ youth organization Vanguard was formed by Adrian Ravarour to demonstrate for equality, and Vanguard members protested for equal rights during the months of April–July 1966, followed by the August 1966 Compton's riot, where transgender street prostitutes in the poor neighborhood of [[Tenderloin, San Francisco, California|Tenderloin]] rioted against police harassment at a popular all-night restaurant, [[Compton's Cafeteria riot|Gene Compton's Cafeteria.]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bernadicou |first1=August |title=Adrian Ravarour |url=https://www.augustnation.com/adrian-ravarour |website=August Nation |publisher=The LGBTQ History Project |access-date=June 27, 2019 |archive-date=June 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627121016/https://www.augustnation.com/adrian-ravarour |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[Wolfenden Report]] was published in Britain on September 4, 1957, after publicized convictions for homosexuality of well-known men, including [[Edward Montagu-Scott, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu]]. Disregarding the conventional ideas of the day, the committee recommended that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence".<ref>{{cite web |title=Wolfenden Report, 'Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution in Great Britain' |url=https://www.humandignitytrust.org/resources/wolfenden-report-report-of-the-departmental-committee-on-homosexual-offences-and-prostitution-in-great-britain/ |website=Human Dignity Trust |access-date=June 30, 2025 |language=en |date=September 4, 1957}}</ref>

All but James Adair were in favor of this and, contrary to some medical and psychiatric witnesses' evidence at that time, found that "homosexuality cannot legitimately be regarded as a disease, because in many cases it is the only symptom and is compatible with full mental health in other respects." The report added, "The law's function is to preserve public order and decency, to protect the citizen from what is offensive or injurious, and to provide sufficient safeguards against exploitation and corruption of others ... It is not, in our view, the function of the law to intervene in the private life of citizens, or to seek to enforce any particular pattern of behavior."<ref>{{cite web |title=Easier laws for homosexuals |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/1957/sep/05/leadersandreply.mainsection |website=The Guardian |access-date=June 30, 2025 |date=September 5, 1957}}</ref>

The report eventually led to the introduction of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967|Sexual Offences Bill 1967]] supported by [[labour Party (UK)|Labour]] MP [[Roy Jenkins]], then the Labour [[Home Secretary]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Sexual Offences Act 1967 |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections1/sexual-offences-act-1967/sexual-offences-act-1967/ |website=www.parliament.uk |access-date=June 30, 2025 |language=en |archive-date=June 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630172343/https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections1/sexual-offences-act-1967/sexual-offences-act-1967/ |url-status=live }}</ref> When passed, the [[Sexual Offenses Act]] decriminalized homosexual acts between two men over 21 years of age ''in private'' in England and [[Wales]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Iglikowski-Broad |first1=Vicky |title=The passing of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act |url=https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/sexual-offences-act/ |website=The National Archives |access-date=June 30, 2025 |date=July 24, 2017}}</ref> The seemingly innocuous phrase 'in private' led to the prosecution of participants in sex acts involving three or more men, e.g. the [[Bolton 7]] who were so convicted as recently as 1998.<ref name="guardian.co.uk">[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/02/tories-out-in-force-gay-pride "Pride 2010: From section 28 to Home Office float, Tories come out in force"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180805142937/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/02/tories-out-in-force-gay-pride |date=August 5, 2018 }}, Helen Pidd, ''The Guardian'', London, July 3, 2010.</ref>

Bisexual activism became more visible toward the end of the 1960s in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Farrow |first1=Harrie |title=The Bisexual Warriors of the "Gay" Movement |url=https://bi.org/en/articles/the-bisexual-warriors-of-the-gay-movement |website=Bi.org |access-date=June 30, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> In 1966 bisexual activist [[Stephen Donaldson (activist)|Robert A. Martin (also known as Donny the Punk)]] founded the Student Homophile League at Columbia University and New York University. In 1967 Columbia University officially recognized this group, thus making them the first college in the United States to officially recognize a gay student group.<ref name="binetusa">{{cite web|url=http://www.binetusa.org/bihealth.html|title=Timeline: the bisexual health movement in the US|publisher=BiNetUSA|access-date=October 18, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207185405/http://www.binetusa.org/bihealth.html|archive-date=February 7, 2019}}</ref>

Activism on behalf of bisexuals in particular also began to grow, especially in San Francisco. One of the earliest organizations for bisexuals, the Sexual Freedom League in San Francisco, was facilitated by Margo Rila and Frank Esposito beginning in 1967.<ref name="binetusa" /> Two years later, during a staff meeting at a San Francisco mental health facility serving LGBTQ people, nurse Maggi Rubenstein came out as bisexual. Due to this, bisexuals began to be included in the facility's programs for the first time.<ref name="binetusa" />

=== Gay Liberation movement (1969–1974) ===
{{Main|Gay Liberation}}
{{See also|1970s in LGBTQ rights}}

The [[new social movements]] of the sixties, such as the [[Black Power]] and [[anti-Vietnam war]] movements in the US, the May 1968 insurrection in France, and [[Feminist movement|Women's Liberation]] throughout the Western world, inspired many LGBTQ activists to become more radical,<ref name="matzner" /> and the [[Gay Liberation]] movement emerged towards the end of the decade. This new radicalism is often attributed to the [[Stonewall riots]] of 1969, when a group of gay men, lesbians, drag queens and transgender women at a bar in New York City resisted a police raid.<ref name="when" />

Immediately after Stonewall, such groups as the [[Gay Liberation Front]] (GLF) and the [[Gay Activists' Alliance]] (GAA) were formed. Their use of the word ''gay'' represented a new unapologetic defiance—as an antonym for ''straight'' ("respectable sexual behavior"), it encompassed a range of non-normative sexuality and sought ultimately to free the bisexual potential in everyone, rendering obsolete the categories of homosexual and heterosexual.<ref>[[Dennis Altman|Altman, D.]] (1971). ''Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation''. New York: Outerbridge & Dienstfrey.</ref><ref>Adam, B. D. (1987). ''The rise of a gay and lesbian movement''. Boston: Twayne Publishers.</ref>

According to Gay Lib writer [[Toby Marotta]], "their Gay political outlooks were not homophile but liberationist".<ref>{{cite book|last = Marotta|first = Toby|title =The Politics of Homosexuality|location = Boston|page = 68|publisher = Houghton Mifflin|date = 1981|isbn = 9780395294772}}</ref> "Out, loud and proud," they engaged in colorful [[street theater]].<ref>{{cite news|last1= Gallagher|first1= John|last2= Bull|first2= Chris|year= 1996|url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/perfectenemies.htm|title= Perfect Enemies|newspaper= The Washington Post|archive-date= October 3, 2018|access-date= September 2, 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181003180659/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/perfectenemies.htm|url-status= live}}</ref> The GLF's "A Gay Manifesto" set out the aims for the fledgling gay liberation movement, and influential intellectual [[Paul Goodman]] published "[[The Politics of Being Queer]]" (1969). Chapters of the GLF were established across the U.S. and in other parts of the Western world. The [[Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire]] was formed in 1971 by lesbians who split from the [[Mouvement Homophile de France]].

[[File:Nu gay lib demo 03.jpg|thumb|Gay liberation demonstration in Washington, D.C., in the early 1970s]]The [[Gay liberation]] movement overall, like the gay community generally and historically, has had varying degrees of gender nonconformity and assimilationist platforms among its members. Early marches by the Mattachine society and Daughters of Bilitis stressed looking "respectable" and mainstream, and after the Stonewall Uprising the Mattachine Society posted a sign in the window of the club calling for peace. Gender nonconformity has always been a primary way of signaling homosexuality and bisexuality, and by the late 1960s and mainstream fashion was increasingly incorporating what by the 1970s would be considered "unisex" fashions.

In 1970, the [[drag queen]] caucus of the GLF, including [[Marsha P. Johnson]] and [[Sylvia Rivera]], formed the group [[Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries]] (STAR), which focused on providing support for gay prisoners, housing for homeless gay youth and street people, especially other young "street queens".<ref name=ACTUP>Shepard, Benjamin Heim and Ronald Hayduk (2002) ''From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization''. Verso. pp.156–160 {{ISBN|978-1859-8435-67}}</ref><ref name=feinberg>{{cite web |url=http://www.workers.org/2006/us/lavender-red-73/ |title=Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries |work=[[Workers World Party]] |quote="Stonewall combatants Sylvia Rivera and Marsha "Pay It No Mind" Johnson ... Both were self-identified drag queens." |author=Feinberg, Leslie |date=September 24, 2006 |access-date=August 21, 2018 |archive-date=June 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609215825/https://www.workers.org/2006/us/lavender-red-73/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Stryker 2018 68, 77, 110">{{Cite book|title=Transgender History: the roots of today's revolution|last=Stryker|first=Susan|publisher=Seal Press|year=2018|isbn=9781580056892|edition= Second |location=New York, NY|pages=68, 77, 110|oclc=990183211}}</ref> In 1969, [[Lee Brewster]] and Bunny Eisenhower formed the [[Queens Liberation Front]] (QLF), partially in protest to the treatment of the drag queens at the first [[Christopher Street Liberation Day|Christopher Street Liberation Day March]].<ref name="Stryker 2018 68, 77, 110"/>

One of the values of the movement was [[gay pride]]. Within weeks of the Stonewall Riots, [[Craig Rodwell]], proprietor of the [[Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop]] in lower Manhattan, persuaded the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) to replace the Fourth of July Annual Reminder at Independence Hall in Philadelphia with a first commemoration of the Stonewall Riots. Liberation groups, including the Gay Liberation Front, Queens, the Gay Activists Alliance, [[Radicalesbians]], and Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR) all took part in the first Gay Pride Week. Los Angeles held a big parade on the first Gay Pride Day. Smaller demonstrations were held in San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Waters|first=Michael|title=The First Pride Marches, in Photos|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-pride-marches-photos-1-180972379/|access-date=April 27, 2021|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Kaufman|first=David|date=June 16, 2020|title=How the Pride March Made History|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/us/gay-lgbt-pride-march-history.html|access-date=April 27, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

[[File:Ink glf cover.jpg|thumb|upright 0.75|The 1971 [[Gay Liberation Front]] cover version of ''Ink'' magazine, printed in London]]

In the United Kingdom the GLF had its first meeting in the basement of the [[London School of Economics]] on October 13, 1970. [[Bob Mellors]] and Aubrey Walter had seen the effect of the GLF in the United States and created a parallel movement based on revolutionary politics and alternative lifestyle.<ref name=Lucas98>{{citation | last=Lucas | first=Ian | year=1998 | title=OutRage!: an oral history | publisher=Cassell | isbn=978-0-304-33358-5 |pages=2–3}}</ref>

By 1971, the UK GLF was recognized as a political movement in the national press, holding weekly meetings of 200 to 300 people.<ref>{{cite news|title=An Alternative to Sexual Shame: Impact of the new militancy among homosexual groups|newspaper=The Times|author=Victoria Brittain|date=August 28, 1971|page=12}}</ref> The GLF Manifesto was published, and a series of high-profile direct actions, were carried out.<ref name=DANGO>{{cite web |url=http://www.dango.bham.ac.uk/record_details.asp?id=2896&recordType=ngo |title=Gay Liberation Front (GLF) |publisher=Database of Archives of Non-Government Organisations |access-date=November 20, 2009 |archive-date=March 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090316060527/http://www.dango.bham.ac.uk/record_details.asp?id=2896&recordType=ngo }}</ref>

The disruption of the opening of the 1971 [[Nationwide Festival of Light|Festival of Light]] was the best organized of [[UK Gay Liberation Front 1971 Festival of Light action|GLF action]]. The Festival of Light, whose leading figures included [[Mary Whitehouse]], met at [[Methodist Central Hall]]. Groups of GLF members in [[Drag (clothing)|drag]] invaded and spontaneously kissed each other; others released mice, sounded horns, and unveiled banners, and a contingent dressed as workmen obtained access to the basement and shut off the lights.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Times|title=Uproar at Central Hall as demonstrators threaten to halt Festival of Light|date=September 10, 1971|page=14|first=Basil|last=Gingell}}</ref>

In 1972, Sweden became the first country in the world to allow people who were transsexual by legislation to surgically change their sex and provide free [[hormone replacement therapy (male-to-female)|hormone replacement therapy]]. Sweden also permitted the age of consent for same-sex partners to be at age 15, making it equal to heterosexual couples.<ref name=RFSU>{{cite web|author=Hanna Jedvik |url=http://www.rfsu.se/lagen_om_konsbyte_ska_utredas.asp |title=Lagen om könsbyte ska utredas |publisher=RFSU |access-date=June 24, 2007 |date=March 5, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012000954/http://www.rfsu.se/lagen_om_konsbyte_ska_utredas.asp |archive-date=October 12, 2007 }}</ref>

[[Bisexual American history|Bisexuals]] became more visible in the LGBTQ rights movement in the 1970s. In 1972 a Quaker group, the Committee of Friends on Bisexuality, issued the "Ithaca Statement on Bisexuality" supporting bisexuals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bimedia.org/1984/june-1972-the-ithaca-statement/ |website=BiMedia |title = June 1972: The Ithaca Statement |access-date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015231948/http://bimedia.org/1984/june-1972-the-ithaca-statement/ |archive-date=October 15, 2015 |date=February 10, 2012|url-status = live }}</ref> {{Blockquote|The Statement, which may have been "the first public declaration of the bisexual movement" and "was certainly the first statement on bisexuality issued by an American religious assembly," appeared in the Quaker ''[[Friends Journal]]'' and ''[[The Advocate (LGBT magazine)|The Advocate]]'' in 1972.<ref name= donaldson>{{cite book | last = Donaldson | first = Stephen | year = 1995 | contribution = The Bisexual Movement's Beginnings in the 70s: A Personal Retrospective | pages = [https://archive.org/details/bisexualpolitics00tuck/page/31 31–45] | editor-last = Tucker | editor-first = Naomi | title = Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, & Visions | place = New York | publisher = Harrington Park Press | isbn = 978-1-56023-869-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/bisexualpolitics00tuck/page/31 }}</ref><ref name=highleyman>{{cite news|url=http://www.camprehoboth.com/issue07_11_03/pastout.htm |title=PAST Out: What is the history of the bisexual movement? |access-date=March 18, 2008 |last=Highleyman |first=Liz |date=July 11, 2003 |work=LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |volume=13 |number=8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531051440/http://www.camprehoboth.com/issue07_11_03/pastout.htm |archive-date=May 31, 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Martin|first=Robert|title=Quakers 'come out' at conference|journal=The Advocate|date=August 2, 1972|issue=91|page=8}}</ref> }} In that same year the [[National Bisexual Liberation Group]] formed in New York.<ref name="ucc.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.ucc.org/lgbt/lgbt-history-timeline.html|title=LGBT History Timeline|work=United Church of Christ|access-date=June 7, 2015|archive-date=December 18, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218100001/http://www.ucc.org/lgbt/lgbt-history-timeline.html}}</ref> In 1976 the San Francisco Bisexual Center opened.<ref name="ucc.org" />tzerland started with [[Rosa von Praunheim]]s movie [[It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives]].

Easter 1972 saw the Gay Lib annual conference held in the Guild of Undergraduates Union (students union) building at the [[University of Birmingham]].<ref name="gaybrum">{{cite web|url=http://gaybirminghamremembered.co.uk/topics/GLF%20National%20Conference|title=Gay Birmingham Remembered – The Gay Birmingham History Project|publisher=[[Birmingham LGBT Community Trust]]|access-date=October 3, 2012|quote=Birmingham hosted the Gay Liberation Front annual conference in 1972, at the chaplaincy at Birmingham University Guild of Students.|archive-date=March 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303081707/http://gaybirminghamremembered.co.uk/topics/GLF%20National%20Conference|url-status=live}}</ref>

In May 1974 the [[American Psychiatric Association]], after years of [[LGBT protests against the American Psychiatric Association|pressure from activists]], changed the wording concerning homosexuality in the [[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders#Seventh printing of the DSM-II (1974)|Sixth printing]] of the [[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]] from a "mental disorder" to that of a "[[sexual orientation disturbance]]", which took gay people out of the category of being automatically considered mentally ill simply for their sexual orientation.<ref name=DSM>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=drBejRLWkHkC&pg=PA76 |chapter=The Transformation of Mental Disorders in the 1980s: The DSM-III, Managed Care, and "Cosmetic Psychopharmacology" |page=76 |title=Medicating Children: ADHD and Pediatric Mental Health |first1=Rick |last1=Mayes |first2=Catherine |last2=Bagwell |first3=Jennifer L. |last3=Erkulwater |publisher=Harvard University Press |date= 2009 |access-date=December 3, 2013 |isbn=978-0-674-03163-0 }}</ref><ref name=Spitzer>{{cite journal | last1 = Spitzer | first1 = R.L. | year = 1981 | title = The diagnostic status of homosexuality in DSM-III: a reformulation of the issues | journal = Am J Psychiatry | volume = 138 | issue = 2| pages = 210–215 | pmid = 7457641 | doi=10.1176/ajp.138.2.210}}</ref>

By 1974, internal disagreements had led to the movement's splintering. Organizations that spun off from the movement included the [[London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard]], ''[[Gay News]]'', and [[Gay's the Word (bookshop)|Icebreakers]]. The GLF Information Service continued for a few further years providing gay related resources.<ref name=Lucas98/>

GLF branches had been set up in some provincial British towns (e.g., Bradford, Bristol, Leeds, and Leicester) and some survived for a few years longer. The Leicester group founded by Jeff Martin was noted for its involvement in the setting up of the local "Gayline", which is still active today and has received funding from the [[National Lottery (United Kingdom)|National Lottery]]. They also carried out a high-profile campaign against the local paper, the ''[[Leicester Mercury]]'', which refused to advertise Gayline's services at the time.<ref>''Gay News'' (1978) No. 135; ''Peace News'' (January 13, 1978)</ref>

In Japan, LGBTQ groups were established in the 1970s.<ref>「オトコノコのためのボーイフレンド」(1986)</ref><ref>[[:ja:LGBTの社会運動#日本におけるLGBTの社会運動|LGBT social movements in Japan]]</ref> In 1971, [[:ja:東郷健|Ken Togo]] ran for the Upper House election.

=== LGBTQ rights movement (1974–present) ===
[[File:Gay stituation in Europe 1900-2021.gif|thumb|Legalization of LGBTQ sex, civil unions and marriages in Europe from 1900 to 2021]]
{{multiple image
| align = right
| image1 =
| width1 = 160
| alt1 =
| caption1 =
| image2 =
| width2 = 170
| alt2 =
| caption2 =
| footer = [[Marsha P. Johnson]] and [[Sylvia Rivera]].
}}

==== 1974–1986 ====

From the radical Gay Liberation movement of the early 1970s arose a more [[reformist]] and single-issue Gay Rights movement, which portrayed gays and lesbians as a [[minority group]] and used the language of civil rights—in many respects continuing the work of the homophile period.<ref>Epstein, S. (1999). ''Gay and lesbian movements in the United States: Dilemmas of identity, diversity, and political strategy''. in B. D. Adam, J. Duyvendak, & A. Krouwel (Eds.), "The global emergence of gay and lesbian politics" (pp. 30–90). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.</ref> In Berlin, for example, the radical {{Interlanguage link|Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin|lt=Homosexual Action West Berlin|de||WD=}} was eclipsed by the {{Interlanguage link|Allgemeine Homosexuelle Arbeitsgemeinschaft|lt=General Homosexual Working Group|de||WD=}}.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hekman |first1=Gert |last2=Oosterhuis |first2=Harry |last3=Steakley |first3=James |year=1995 |title=Leftist Sexual Politics and Homosexuality: A Historical Overview |journal=Journal of Homosexuality |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=1–40 |doi=10.1300/J082v29n02_01|pmid=8666751 }}</ref>

Gay and lesbian rights advocates argued that one's sexual orientation does not reflect on one's gender; that is, "you can be a man and desire a man... without any implications for your gender identity as a man," and the same is true if you are a woman.<ref>David Valentine, "'I Know What I Am': The Category 'Transgender' in the Construction of Contemporary U.S. American Conceptions of Gender and Sexuality" (PhD diss., New York University, 2000), p. 190.</ref>

Gays and lesbians were presented as identical to heterosexuals in all ways but private sexual practices, and butch "bar dykes" and flamboyant "street queens" were seen as negative stereotypes of lesbians and gays. Veteran activists such as [[Sylvia Rivera]] and [[Beth Elliott|Beth Elliot]] were sidelined or expelled because they were transgender.

In 1974, [[Maureen Colquhoun]] came out as the first Lesbian [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in the UK. When elected she was married in a heterosexual marriage.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.totalpolitics.com/print/1783/where-are-they-now-maureen-colquhoun.thtml |title=Where are they now: Maureen Colquhoun |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214160313/http://www.totalpolitics.com/print/1783/where-are-they-now-maureen-colquhoun.thtml |archive-date=December 14, 2013 }}</ref>

In 1975, the groundbreaking film portraying homosexual gay icon [[Quentin Crisp]]'s life, [[The Naked Civil Servant (film)|''The Naked Civil Servant'']], was transmitted by [[Thames Television]] for the British Television channel [[ITV (TV channel)|ITV]]. The British journal ''[[Gay Left]]'' also began publication.<ref name="Knitting Circle">[http://knittingcircle.org.uk/gayleftcollective.html The Knitting Circle] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070114112010/http://knittingcircle.org.uk/gayleftcollective.html |date=January 14, 2007 }} – 'Gay Left Collective'</ref> After [[British Home Stores]] sacked an openly gay trainee Tony Whitehead, a national campaign subsequently picketed their stores in protest.

In 1977, [[Harvey Milk]] was elected to the [[San Francisco Board of Supervisors]] becoming the first openly gay man in the State of California to be elected to public office.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-12-11/the-first-openly-gay-person-to-win-an-election-in-america-was-not-harvey-milk|title=The First Openly Gay Person to Win an Election in America Was Not Harvey Milk|website=bloomberg.com|access-date=|first=Steve|last=Friess|date=December 11, 2015|archive-date=January 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109032404/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-12-11/the-first-openly-gay-person-to-win-an-election-in-america-was-not-harvey-milk|url-status=live}}</ref> Milk was assassinated by a former city supervisor [[Dan White]] in 1978.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/10/22/dan-white-commits-suicide/590322ca-f461-4a98-9c5f-348648f7ac66/?noredirect=on|title=Dan White Commits Suicide|date=October 22, 1985|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=January 28, 2019|archive-date=March 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306050405/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/10/22/dan-white-commits-suicide/590322ca-f461-4a98-9c5f-348648f7ac66/?noredirect=on|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1977, a former Miss America contestant and orange juice spokesperson, [[Anita Bryant]], began a campaign "Save Our Children",<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://timeline.com/anita-bryant-anti-gay-dade-county-christian-conservative-video-history-e026fd5bfad8|title=Watch: The singer who helped launch the anti-gay rights movement|date=December 14, 2017|website=Timeline|access-date=|archive-date=May 22, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522032654/https://timeline.com/anita-bryant-anti-gay-dade-county-christian-conservative-video-history-e026fd5bfad8|url-status=dead}}</ref> in Dade County, Florida (greater Miami), which proved to be a major setback in the Gay Liberation movement. Essentially, she established an organization which put forth an amendment to the laws of the county which resulted in the firing of many public school teachers on the suspicion that they were homosexual.

In 1979, a number of people in Sweden called in sick with a case of ''being homosexual,'' in protest of homosexuality being classified as an illness. This was followed by an activist occupation of the main office of the [[National Board of Health and Welfare]]. Within a few months, Sweden became the first country in the world to remove homosexuality as an illness.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.quistbergh.se/view/514 |language=sv |title=Jag känner mig lite homosexuell idag |trans-title=I feel a little gay today |access-date=December 12, 2009 |year=2001 |first=Frederick Quist |last=Bergh}}</ref>

Between 1980 and 1988, the international gay community rallied behind [[Eliane Morissens]], a Belgian lesbian who had been fired from her teaching post for coming out on television and bringing attention to employment discrimination.<ref name=Council>{{cite book |last1=Council of Europe Staff |author-link=Council of Europe |title=Yearbook of the European Convention on Human Rights, 1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PfL_u79Pl2QC |date=1992 |publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]] |location=Dordrecht, The Netherlands |chapter=Case-law of the Commission: 2. Application No. 11389/85 Eliane Morissens v. Belgium |pages=40–45 |isbn=978-0-7923-1787-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Belgian High Court Backs Teacher's Firing |journal=[[The Body Politic]] |date=March 1985 |issue=112 |page=18 |url=https://archive.org/details/bodypolitic112toro/page/18/mode/1up |access-date=June 2, 2022 |publisher=[[Pink Triangle Press]] |location=Toronto, Ontario |issn=0315-3606}}</ref> The case prompted protests, articles, and fundraising events throughout Europe and the Americas.<ref name=Pastre>{{cite journal |last1=Pastre |first1=Geneviève |author1-link=Geneviève Pastre |title=L'affaire Éliane Morissens, mise a la retraite d'office pour homosexualité |journal=Masques |date=Spring 1982 |issue=13 |pages=104–105 |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5324513v/f106.item.r=%22Eliane%20Morissens%22 |access-date=June 3, 2022 |trans-title=The Éliane Morissens Case: Automatically Retired for Homosexuality |publisher=Association Masques |location=Paris |language=French |issn=0981-9614 |via=[[Bibliothèque nationale de France#Gallica|Gallica]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Lesbienne krijgt steun |url=https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ABCDDD:010847037:mpeg21:a0168 |access-date=June 3, 2022 |work=[[Het Parool]] |issue=11348 |date=January 22, 1982 |location=Amsterdam, the Netherlands |page=7 |language=Dutch |trans-title=Lesbian Gets Support}}</ref>

Articles were carried in Toronto's ''[[The Body Politic]]'',<ref>{{cite journal |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Belgian Teacher Ends 38-Day Hunger Strike |journal=[[The Body Politic]] |date=April 1982 |issue=82 |page=20 |url=https://archive.org/details/bodypolitic82toro/page/20/mode/1up |access-date=June 2, 2022 |publisher=[[Pink Triangle Press]] |location=Toronto, Ontario |issn=0315-3606}}</ref> the ''[[Gay Community News (Boston)|Gay Community News]]'' of Boston;<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Belgian Socialist Statement Tells Stand on Morrissens |url=https://archive.org/details/gaycommunitynews0938gayc/page/n2/mode/1up |access-date=June 2, 2022 |work=[[Gay Community News (Boston)|Gay Community News]] |issue=38 |volume=9 |date=April 17, 1982 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=1}}</ref> and the ''[[San Francisco Sentinel]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lester |first1=David |title=Pickets Support Fired Belgian Teacher |url=https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/sfbagals/Sentinal/1982_SFS_Vol09_No07_Feb_18.pdf |access-date=June 2, 2022 |work=[[San Francisco Sentinel|The Sentinel]] |issue=7 |volume=9 |date=February 18, 1982 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190213053801/https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/sfbagals/Sentinal/1982_SFS_Vol09_No07_Feb_18.pdf |archive-date=February 13, 2019 |location=San Francisco, California |page=1 |url-status=live}}</ref> The French magazine ''[[Gai pied]]'' created a support network to organize demonstrations and launched a petition drive for subscribers and members of the [[International Gay Association]] (IGA) to call on the [[Council of Europe]] to renounce discrimination against homosexuals.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pinhas |first1=Luc |title=es ambivalences d'une entreprise de presse gaie: le périodique Gai Pied, de l'engagement au consumérisme |journal=Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture |date=Fall 2011 |volume=3 |issue=1 |doi=10.7202/1007576ar |url=https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/memoires/2011-v3-n1-memoires1830163/1007576ar.pdf |access-date=June 3, 2022 |trans-title=The Ambivalences of a Gay Media Company: The Periodical ''Gai Pied'', from Commitment to Consumerism |publisher=Groupe de recherches et d'études sur le livre au Québec |location=Sherbrooke, Quebec |s2cid=194089355 |language=French |issn=1920-602X |oclc=4894564457}}</ref> The [[International Lesbian Information Service]] (ILIS) published information in their newsletter about letter-writing campaigns, and organized fund-raisers and solidarity protests to help pay for Morissens' legal and personal expenses and bring attention to the case.<ref name=Wilson>{{cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=Ann Marie |title=Dutch Women and the Lesbian International |journal=[[Women's History Review]] |date=January 2022 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=126–153 |doi=10.1080/09612025.2021.1954338 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Abingdon, Oxfordshire |s2cid=240520862 |issn=0961-2025 |oclc=9405931614|doi-access=free }}</ref> Both ILIS and IGA lobbied European teachers' unions in support of Morissens.<ref name=Wilson /><ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=The 1982 Congress of the International Gay Association adjourned... |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/04/12/The-1982-Congress-of-the-International-Gay-Association-adjourned/7611387435600/ |access-date=June 3, 2022 |work=[[United Press International]] |date=April 12, 1982 |location=Boca Raton, Florida}}</ref>

Though Morissens appealed the school board decision to the local council; the highest court in Belgium, [[Council of State (Belgium)|Council of State]]; and the [[European Court of Human Rights]], her termination was upheld at every level.<ref name=Council /> The LGBTQ community was disappointed in the outcome because each court of appeal refused to recognize or examine whether employment discrimination had occurred, accepting the employer's version of events, and narrowly examining freedom of expression.<ref name=Pastre /><ref name=Borghs>{{cite journal |last1=Borghs |first1=Paul |title=The Gay and Lesbian Movement in Belgium from the 1950s to the Present |journal=QED |date=Fall 2016 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=29–70 |doi=10.14321/qed.3.3.0029 |publisher=[[Michigan State University Press]] |location=East Lansing, Michigan |jstor=10.14321/qed.3.3.0029 |s2cid=151750557 |issn=2327-1574 |oclc=6951977288}}</ref>

[[Lesbian feminism]], which was most influential from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, encouraged women to direct their energies toward other women rather than men, and advocated lesbianism as the logical result of feminism.<ref>[[Adrienne Rich|Rich, A]]. (1980). ''[[Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence]]''. Signs, 5, 631–660.</ref> As with Gay Liberation, this understanding of the lesbian potential in all women was at odds with the minority-rights framework of the Gay Rights movement.

Many women of the Gay Liberation movement felt frustrated at the domination of the movement by men and formed separate organisations; some who felt gender differences between men and women could not be resolved developed "[[lesbian separatism]]," influenced by writings such as [[Jill Johnston]]'s 1973 book ''Lesbian Nation''. Organizers at the time focused on this issue. [[Diane Felix]], also known as DJ Chili D in the Bay Area club scene, is a Latino American lesbian once joined the Latino American queer organization GALA. She was known for creating entertainment spaces specifically for queer women, especially in Latino American community.

These places included gay bars in San Francisco such as A Little More and Colors.<ref>Cassell, Heather. "Music's the life for Chili D." Bay Area Reporter. BAR Media Inc.</ref> Disagreements between different political philosophies were, at times, extremely heated, and became known as the [[lesbian sex wars]],<ref>[http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/lesbian_sex_wars.html Lesbian Sex Wars] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060321044928/http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/lesbian_sex_wars.html |date=March 21, 2006 }}, article by Elise Chenier from GLBTQ encyclopedia.</ref> clashing in particular over views on [[sadomasochism]], prostitution and [[transsexuality]]. The term "gay" came to be more strongly associated with homosexual males.

In Canada, the coming into effect of [[Section Fifteen of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms|Section 15]] of the [[Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms]] in 1985 saw a shift in the gay rights movement in Canada, as Canadian gays and lesbians moved from liberation to litigious strategies. Premised on Charter protections and on the notion of the immutability of homosexuality, judicial rulings rapidly advanced rights, including those that compelled the Canadian government to legalize same-sex marriage. It has been argued that while this strategy was extremely effective in advancing the safety, dignity and equality of Canadian homosexuals, its emphasis of sameness came at the expense of difference and may have undermined opportunities for more meaningful change.<ref>Lehman, M.  (2005). ''Getting Gay Rights Straight''.</ref>

[[Mark Segal]], often referred to as the dean of American gay journalism, disrupted the CBS evening news with [[Walter Cronkite]] in 1973,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.queerty.com/the-time-gay-activists-interrupted-walter-cronkite-on-the-cbs-evening-news-20120605|title=The Time Gay Activists Interrupted Walter Cronkite On The CBS Evening News|last=Avery|first=Dan|date=June 5, 2012|website=queerty.com|access-date=January 28, 2019}}</ref> an event covered in newspapers across the country and viewed by 60% of American households, many seeing or hearing about homosexuality for the first time.

Another setback in the United States occurred in 1986, when the [[US Supreme Court]] upheld a Georgia anti-sodomy law in the case ''[[Bowers v. Hardwick]]''. (This ruling would be overturned two decades later in "[[Lawrence v. Texas]]").

==== 1987–2000 ====
[[File:Gay flag.svg|thumb|The [[Rainbow flag (gay movement)|rainbow flag]]]]

===== AIDS pandemic =====
{{main|AIDS pandemic|AIDS activism}}
Some historians posit that a new era of the gay rights movement began in the 1980s with the emergence of AIDS. As gay men became seriously ill and died in ever-increasing numbers, and many lesbian activists became their caregivers, the leadership of many organizations was decimated. Other organizations shifted their energies to focus their efforts on AIDS.<ref name="before" />

This era saw a resurgence of militancy with [[direct action]] groups like [[AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power]] (ACT UP), formed in 1987, as well as its offshoots [[Queer Nation]] (1990) and the [[Lesbian Avengers]] (1992). Some younger activists, seeing ''gay and lesbian'' as increasingly normative and politically conservative, began using ''[[queer]]'' as a defiant statement of all [[sexual minorities]] and [[gender variant]] people—just as the earlier liberationists had done with ''gay''. Less confrontational terms that attempt to reunite the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people also became prominent, including various [[acronyms]] like ''[[LGBT]]'', ''[[LGBTQ]]'', and ''[[LGBTI]]'', where the ''Q'' and ''I'' stand for ''[[queer]]'' or ''[[Questioning (sexuality and gender)|questioning]]'' and ''[[intersex]]'', respectively.

===== Warrenton "War Conference" =====
A "War Conference" of 200 gay leaders was held in Warrenton, Virginia, in 1988.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/02/27/Gay-rights-leaders-gather-in-Virginia/5403572936400/?spt=su |work=United Press International |title=Gay rights leaders gather in Virginia |date=February 27, 1988 |archive-date=September 12, 2017 |access-date=October 3, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912234519/http://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/02/27/Gay-rights-leaders-gather-in-Virginia/5403572936400/?spt=su |url-status=live }}</ref> The closing statement of the conference set out a plan for a media campaign:<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/09/19/gay-activists-divided-on-whether-to-bring-out-politicians/5ddd8954-c65b-4c3e-8e99-c1b46f8b154a/ |date=September 19, 1989 |newspaper=The Washington Post |author=Weiser, Benjamin |title=Gay Activists Divided on Whether to 'Bring Out' Politicians |archive-date=September 13, 2017 |access-date=October 3, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913020349/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/09/19/gay-activists-divided-on-whether-to-bring-out-politicians/5ddd8954-c65b-4c3e-8e99-c1b46f8b154a/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="warrentonpaper">{{cite web |url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/HRC/exhibition/stage/REX023_164.pdf |title=Final Statement of the War Conference, Airlie House, Warrenton, VA |date=February 28, 1988 |website=Cornell University Library}}</ref>{{Blockquote |First, we recommend a nation-wide media campaign to promote a positive image of gays and lesbians. Every —national, state, and local—must accept the responsibility. We must consider the media in every project we undertake. We must, in addition, take every advantage we can to include public service announcements and paid advertisements, and to cultivate reporters and editors of newspapers, radio, and television. To help facilitate this we need national media workshops to train our leaders. And we must encourage our gay and lesbian press to increase coverage of the national process. Our media efforts are fundamental to the full acceptance of us in American life. But they are also a way for us to increase the funding of our movement. A media campaign costs money, but ultimately it may be one of our most successful fund-raising devices.|title=|source=}}
The statement also called for an annual planning conference "to help set and modify our national agenda."<ref name="warrentonpaper"/> The [[Human Rights Campaign]] lists this event as a milestone in gay history and identifies it as where [[National Coming Out Day]] originated.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hrc.org/resources/the-history-of-coming-out | publisher=Human Rights Campaign | title=The History of Coming Out | date=September 26, 2017 | access-date=October 3, 2017 | archive-date=June 4, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604021926/https://www.hrc.org/resources/the-history-of-coming-out }}</ref>

On June 24, 1994, the first Gay Pride march was celebrated in Asia in the Philippines.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fridae.asia/gay-news/2009/06/08/8419.the-first-gay-pride-march-in-asia|title=The first gay pride march in Asia|website=fridae.asia|language=en|access-date=January 15, 2019}}</ref> In the Middle East, LGBTQ organizations remain illegal, and LGBTQ rights activists face extreme opposition from the state.<ref>{{cite news |last1=AL |title=How homosexuality became a crime in the Middle East |url=https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/06/06/how-homosexuality-became-a-crime-in-the-middle-east |newspaper=The Economist |date=June 6, 2018 |archive-date=July 3, 2019 |access-date=January 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703034324/https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/06/06/how-homosexuality-became-a-crime-in-the-middle-east |url-status=live }}</ref> The 1990s also saw the emergence of many LGBTQ youth movements and organizations such as LGBTQ youth centers, [[gay–straight alliance]]s in high schools, and youth-specific activism, such as the [[National Day of Silence]]. Colleges also became places of LGBTQ activism and support for activists and LGBTQ people in general, with many colleges opening LGBTQ centers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collegeequalityindex.org/list-colleges-lgbt-center |title=List of Colleges with a LGBT Center |website=College Equality Index |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726161842/http://www.collegeequalityindex.org/list-colleges-lgbt-center |archive-date=July 26, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The 1990s also saw a rapid push of the [[transgender]] movement, while at the same time a "sidelining of the identity of those who are transsexual." In the English-speaking world, [[Leslie Feinberg]] published ''Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come'' in 1992.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.workers.org/book/transgender-liberation-a-movement-whose-time-has-come/|title=Transgender Liberation: A movement whose time has come|last=Feinberg|first=Leslie|website=Workers World|language=en-US|access-date=January 28, 2019}}</ref> Gender-variant peoples across the globe also formed minority rights movements. [[Hijra (South Asia)|Hijra]] activists campaigned for recognition as a [[third sex]] in India and [[Travesti (gender identity)|Travesti]] groups began to organize against police brutality across Latin America while activists in the United States formed direct-confrontation groups such as the [[Transexual Menace]].

==== 21st century ====

===== Same-sex marriage =====
[[File:Discussions at the same sex marriage vote in the Minnesota Senate (8737747090).jpg|thumb|left|Demonstrations at the [[Minnesota State Capitol]] during debate on a same sex marriage bill]]{{World homosexuality laws map|align=right|size=350px}}
[[File:Laws concerning gender identity-expression by country or territory.svg|thumb|right|350px|'''Laws concerning gender identity-expression by country or territory''', {{Circa|2015}}
{{legend|#800080|Legal identity change, surgery not required}}
{{legend|#ff00ff|Legal identity change, surgery required}}
{{legend|#FF0000|No legal identity change}}
{{legend|#CCCCCC|Unknown/Ambiguous}}]]
{{as of|2025}}, same-sex marriages are recognized in [[Same-sex marriage in Andorra|Andorra]], [[Same-sex marriage in Argentina|Argentina]], [[Same-sex marriage in Australia|Australia]], [[Same-sex marriage in Austria|Austria]], [[Same-sex marriage in Belgium|Belgium]], [[Same-sex marriage in Brazil|Brazil]], [[Same-sex marriage in Canada|Canada]], [[Same-sex marriage in Chile|Chile]], [[Same-sex marriage in Colombia|Colombia]], [[Same-sex marriage in Costa Rica|Costa Rica]], [[Same-sex marriage in Cuba|Cuba]], [[Same-sex marriage in Denmark|Denmark]], [[Same-sex marriage in Ecuador|Ecuador]], [[Same-sex marriage in Estonia|Estonia]], [[Same-sex marriage in Finland|Finland]], [[Same-sex marriage in France|France]], [[Same-sex marriage in Germany|Germany]], [[Same-sex marriage in Greece|Greece]], [[Same-sex marriage in Iceland|Iceland]], [[Same-sex marriage in Ireland|Ireland]], [[Same-sex marriage in Liechtenstein|Liechtenstein]], [[Same-sex marriage in Luxembourg|Luxembourg]], [[Same-sex marriage in Malta|Malta]], [[Same-sex marriage in Mexico|Mexico]], [[Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands|the Netherlands]], [[Same-sex marriage in New Zealand|New Zealand]], [[Same-sex marriage in Norway|Norway]], [[Same-sex marriage in Portugal|Portugal]], [[Same-sex marriage in Slovenia|Slovenia]], [[Same-sex marriage in South Africa|South Africa]], [[Same-sex marriage in Spain|Spain]], [[Same-sex marriage in Sweden|Sweden]], [[Same-sex marriage in Switzerland|Switzerland]], [[Same-sex marriage in Taiwan|Taiwan]], [[Same-sex marriage in Thailand|Thailand]], [[Same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom|the United Kingdom]], [[Same-sex marriage in the United States|the United States]], and [[Same-sex marriage in Uruguay|Uruguay]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Marriage Equality Around the World |url=https://www.hrc.org/resources/marriage-equality-around-the-world |website=Human Rights Campaign |access-date=August 23, 2023 |archive-date=February 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205222310/https://www.hrc.org/resources/marriage-equality-around-the-world |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Netherlands was the first country to allow [[same-sex marriage]] in 2001. Following with Belgium in 2003 and Spain and Canada in 2005.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/same-sex-marriage-in-canada/|title=Same-Sex Marriage in Canada|first=Margrit|last=Eichler|access-date=June 14, 2017|archive-date=April 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190424004959/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/same-sex-marriage-in-canada|url-status=live}}</ref> South Africa became the first African nation to legalize same-sex marriage in 2006, and is currently the only African nation where same-sex marriage is legal.<ref name="ESFFoundingRelease">{{cite web |url=http://www.empoweringspirits.org/PRDocServer/Passage_of_NH_Marriage_Equality_Bill_060309.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722160745/http://www.empoweringspirits.org/PRDocServer/Passage_of_NH_Marriage_Equality_Bill_060309.pdf |archive-date=July 22, 2011 |title=Empowering Spirits Foundation Applauds Passage of NH Marriage Equality Bill |publisher=Empowering Spirits Foundation Press Release |date=June 3, 2009 |access-date=June 4, 2009 }}</ref><ref name="toesland2017">{{cite magazine|last1=Toesland |first1=Finbarr |title=Fighting for LGBT Rights in Nigeria |url=https://pocketmags.com/us/diva-magazine/april-2017/articles/89420/fighting-for-lgbt-rights-in-nigeria |access-date=November 12, 2018 |magazine=DIVA Magazine |date=April 2017}}</ref>

Despite this uptick in tolerance of the LGBTQ community in South Africa, so-called corrective rapes have become prevalent in response, primarily targeting the poorer women who live in townships and those who have no recourse in responding to the crimes because of the notable lack of police presence and prejudice they may face for reporting assaults.<ref name="toesland2017"/>

On October 22, 2009, the assembly of the [[Church of Sweden]], voted strongly in favour of giving its blessing to homosexual couples,<ref>{{cite news|title=Synod opened on same-sex marriages |url=http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/kyrkomotet-oppnade-for-homovigslar-1.979744 |newspaper=[[Dagens Nyheter]] |date=October 22, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091226085746/http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/kyrkomotet-oppnade-for-homovigslar-1.979744 |archive-date=December 26, 2009 }}</ref> including the use of the term marriage, ("matrimony").

[[Iceland]] became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through a unanimous vote: 49–0, on June 11, 2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/06/11/icelands-parliament-unanimously-approves-gay-marriage/|title=Iceland's parliament unanimously approves gay marriage|work=PinkNews|access-date=June 7, 2015|date=June 11, 2010|archive-date=May 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501234436/https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/06/11/icelands-parliament-unanimously-approves-gay-marriage/|url-status=live}}</ref> A month later, [[Argentina]] became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage.

On June 26, 2015, in ''[[Obergefell v. Hodges]]'', the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-to-4 that the Constitution requires that same-sex couples be allowed to marry no matter where they live in the United States.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gay-marriage-and-other-major-rulings-at-the-supreme-court/2015/06/25/ef75a120-1b6d-11e5-bd7f-4611a60dd8e5_story.html | title=Supreme Court rules gay couples nationwide have a right to marry | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=June 26, 2015 | access-date=July 10, 2016 | author=Barnes, Robert | archive-date=July 28, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210728140430/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gay-marriage-and-other-major-rulings-at-the-supreme-court/2015/06/25/ef75a120-1b6d-11e5-bd7f-4611a60dd8e5_story.html | url-status=live }}</ref> With this ruling, the United States became the 17th country to legalize same-sex marriages entirely.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/06/26/what-was-the-first-country-to-legalize-gay-marriage/ | title=What was the first country to legalize gay marriage? | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=June 26, 2015 | access-date=July 10, 2016 | author=Taylor, Adam | archive-date=May 4, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504022441/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/06/26/what-was-the-first-country-to-legalize-gay-marriage/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

Between September 12 and November 7, 2017, Australia held a [[Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey|national survey]] on the subject of same sex marriage; 61.6% of respondents supported legally recognizing same-sex marriage nationwide.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Baidawi |first1=Adam |last2=Cave |first2=Damien |title=Australia Votes for Gay Marriage, Clearing Path to Legalization |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/world/australia/yes-same-sex-marriage-gay.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220102/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/world/australia/yes-same-sex-marriage-gay.html |archive-date=January 2, 2022 |url-access=limited |url-status=live |work=The New York Times |date=November 14, 2017 }}{{cbignore}}</ref> This cleared the way for a private member's bill to be debated in the federal parliament.

In 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to allow same-sex marriage.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48305708|title=Taiwan gay marriage: Parliament legalises same-sex unions|date=May 17, 2019|publisher=BBC|access-date=May 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517061353/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48305708|archive-date=May 17, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/17/asia/taiwan-same-sex-marriage-intl/index.html|title=Taiwan legalizes same-sex marriage in historic first for Asia|date=May 17, 2019|publisher=CNN|access-date=May 17, 2019|archive-date=May 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517064652/https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/17/asia/taiwan-same-sex-marriage-intl/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Steger |first=Isabella |title=In a first for Asia, Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage—with caveats |work=Quartz |date=May 17, 2019 |url=https://qz.com/1621783/taiwan-becomes-first-country-in-asia-to-legalize-same-sex-marriage/ |access-date=May 31, 2021 |archive-date=June 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606212917/https://qz.com/1621783/taiwan-becomes-first-country-in-asia-to-legalize-same-sex-marriage/ |url-status=live }}</ref> There has been a legal movement attempting to recognise [[Recognition of same-sex unions in Japan|marriage equality in Japan]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=McCurry |first1=Justin |title=Japan court falls short of calling same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/08/japan-court-falls-short-of-calling-same-sex-marriage-ban-unconstitutional |website=The Guardian |date=June 8, 2023 |access-date=August 21, 2023 |archive-date=August 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230802133229/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/08/japan-court-falls-short-of-calling-same-sex-marriage-ban-unconstitutional |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2021/03/17/978148301/in-landmark-ruling-court-says-japans-ban-on-same-sex-marriage-is-unconstitutiona|title=In Landmark Ruling, Court Says Japan's Ban On Same-Sex Marriage Is Unconstitutional|publisher=NPR|date=March 17, 2021}}</ref>

===== Other rights =====
In 2003, in the case ''[[Lawrence v. Texas]]'', the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] struck down [[sodomy laws]] in fourteen states, making consensual homosexual sex legal in all 50 states, a significant step forward in LGBTQ activism and one that had been fought for by activists since the inception of modern LGBTQ social movements.<ref>Cordova, Jeanne, ''When We Were Outlaws'' (2011) p 51–56.</ref>

From November 6 to 9, 2006, [[The Yogyakarta Principles]] on application of [[international human rights law]] in relation to [[sexual orientation]] and [[gender identity]] was adopted by an international meeting of 29 specialists in [[Yogyakarta]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fhr.org.za/about/our-work/small-grants-project/right-equality-non-disc/right-equality-and-non-discrimination-law/|title=Foundation for Human Rights :: The Right to Equality and Non-discrimination – the Law|website=fhr.org.za|access-date=January 21, 2019|archive-date=April 19, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150419022841/http://www.fhr.org.za/about/our-work/small-grants-project/right-equality-non-disc/right-equality-and-non-discrimination-law/}}</ref> the [[International Commission of Jurists]] and the [[International Service for Human Rights]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.icj.org/yogyakarta-principles/|title=Yogyakarta Principles {{!}} International Commission of Jurists|date=March 2007|language=en-US|access-date=January 21, 2019|archive-date=January 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190121232431/https://www.icj.org/yogyakarta-principles/|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Cologne Germany Cologne-Gay-Pride-2015 Parade-17b.jpg|thumb|LGBT activists at [[Cologne Pride]] in 2015 carrying a banner with the flags of 70 countries where [[LGBT rights by country or territory|homosexuality is illegal]]]]

During this same period, some municipalities have been enacting laws against homosexuality. For example, [[Rhea County, Tennessee]], unsuccessfully tried to "ban homosexuals" in 2006.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tenn-county-reverses-on-gay-ban/|title=Tenn. County Reverses On Gay Ban|publisher=[[CBS News]]|date=March 18, 2004|access-date=June 7, 2015|archive-date=May 13, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513215336/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/18/national/main607050.shtml}}</ref>

The 1993 "Don't ask, don't tell" law, forbidding homosexual people from serving openly in the United States military, was repealed in 2010.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/19/bill-clinton-dont-ask-dont-tell_n_3623245.html|title=On This Day In 1993, Bill Clinton Announced 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'|last=Klapper|first=Ethan|date=July 19, 2013|work=HuffPost|access-date=January 28, 2019|language=en-US}}</ref> This meant that gays and lesbians could now serve openly in the military without any fear of being discharged because of their sexual orientation. In 2012, the [[United States Department of Housing and Urban Development]]'s [[Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity]] issued a regulation to prohibit discrimination in federally-assisted housing programs. The new regulations ensure that the department's core housing programs are open to all eligible persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The [[UN declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity]] gathered 66 signatures in the [[United Nations General Assembly]] on December 13, 2008.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-homosexuality-idUSTRE4BH7EW20081218|title=U.N. divided over gay rights declaration|date=December 18, 2008|work=Reuters|access-date=January 21, 2019|language=en|archive-date=March 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321154112/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-homosexuality-idUSTRE4BH7EW20081218|url-status=live}}</ref>
In early 2014 a series of protests organized by [[Add The Words, Idaho]], and former state senator [[Nicole LeFavour]], some including [[civil disobedience]] and concomitant arrests,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ktvb.com/home/Lawyers-donating-their-time-to-defend-Add-the-Words-protesters-243617221.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140228004629/http://www.ktvb.com/home/Lawyers-donating-their-time-to-defend-Add-the-Words-protesters-243617221.html |archive-date=February 28, 2014 |title=Lawyers donating their time to defend 'Add the Words' protesters |author=KTVB, KTVB.COM |date=February 4, 2014 |publisher=KTVB |access-date=June 7, 2015 }}</ref> took place in [[Boise, Idaho]], which advocated adding the words "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the state's Human Rights act.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/03/gay-rights-activists-arrested/5186171/|title=Dozens of gay rights activists arrested in Idaho|agency=Associated Press|date=February 3, 2014|work=USA Today|access-date=June 7, 2015|archive-date=September 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903230311/http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/03/gay-rights-activists-arrested/5186171/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/02/23/3045530/idaho-gay-friendly-anti-gay-neutral.html|title=Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell news by Idaho Statesman|access-date=June 7, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/02/04/3008121/popkey-dignified-and-resolute.html|title=Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell news by Idaho Statesman|access-date=June 7, 2015|archive-date=February 5, 2014|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140205033708/http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/02/04/3008121/popkey-dignified-and-resolute.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On September 6, 2018, consensual gay sex was legalized in India by their Supreme Court.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rajagopal |first1=Krishnadas |title=SC decriminalises homosexuality, says history owes LGBTQ community an apology |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sc-de-criminalises-homosexuality-says-history-owes-lgbtq-community-an-apology/article24881549.ece |work=The Hindu |date=September 6, 2018 }}</ref>

In June 2020, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act could protect gay and transgender people from workplace discrimination. The Bostock v. Clayton County decision found that protections guaranteed on the basis of sex could extend to sexual orientation and identity in areas like housing and employment.<ref name="NPR">{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/06/15/863498848/supreme-court-delivers-major-victory-to-lgbtq-employees |title=Supreme Court Delivers Major Victory To LGBTQ Employees |last=Totenberg |first=Nina |date=June 15, 2020 |publisher=NPR |access-date=February 21, 2022}}</ref> Democrats such as then-presidential candidate Joe Biden praised the decision.<ref name="NPR" />{{Blockquote|text=Today, by affirming that sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination are prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Supreme Court has confirmed the simple but profoundly American idea that every human being should be treated with respect and dignity.}} Due to a lack of federal protections, discrimination against LGBTQ people in public accommodation or the sale of goods and services by private businesses remains legal, leaving vulnerable those in more than half the states in the U.S.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-trends-analysis/population/tools/160000/0/ | title=Idaho vs. United States &#124; Population Trends over 1958-2021 | access-date=January 13, 2023 | archive-date=January 13, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113040453/https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-trends-analysis/population/tools/160000/0/ | url-status=dead }}</ref>

In October 2020, the Council of Europe's Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Unit, along with the [[European Court of Human Rights]], held a conference to mark the 70th anniversary of the [[European Convention on Human Rights]] on October 8, 2020. The entity announced launching an event called "A 'Living Instrument' for Everyone: The Role of the European Convention on Human Rights in Advancing Equality for LGBTI persons", focused on the progress achieved in equality for LGBTQ persons in Europe through the European Convention mechanism.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/how-the-european-convention-on-human-rights-is-advancing-equality-for-lgbti-people|title=  How the European Convention on Human Rights is advancing equality for LGBTI people  |access-date=October 7, 2020|website=Council Of Europe}}</ref>

President Biden signed an executive order barring LGBTQ discrimination on his first day in office.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-preventing-and-combating-discrimination-on-basis-of-gender-identity-or-sexual-orientation/ |title=Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation |author-link=Joe Biden |date=January 20, 2021 |website=[[White House]] |access-date=February 21, 2022 |archive-date=February 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213111322/https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-preventing-and-combating-discrimination-on-basis-of-gender-identity-or-sexual-orientation/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Later the same year, Biden reversed a [[Trump]]-era policy of banning transgender people from the military, authorized embassies to fly the pride flag, and officially recognized June as Pride Month.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-formally-recognizes-june-as-lgbtq-pride-month-2021-6 |title=Biden formally recognizes LGBTQ Pride Month, restarting a tradition that Trump abandoned |last=Seddiq |first=Oma |date=June 1, 2021 |website=Business Insider |access-date=February 21, 2022 |archive-date=February 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221081210/https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-formally-recognizes-june-as-lgbtq-pride-month-2021-6 |url-status=live }}</ref>

== LGBTQ and human rights ==
Some people worry that gay rights conflict with individuals' freedom of speech,<ref>{{cite news
|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/michael_gove/article805241.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080918211024/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/michael_gove/article805241.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 18, 2008|newspaper=The Times |title=I'd like to say this, but it might land me in prison|date=December 24, 2002 |first=Michael |last=Gove |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/christian-group-likens-tory-candidate-review-to-witch-hunt-1.644299
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071130205234/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/christian-group-likens-tory-candidate-review-to-witch-hunt-1.644299|archive-date=November 30, 2007|title=Christian group likens Tory candidate review to witch hunt
|date=November 28, 2007 |publisher=CBC News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=431535&p=2 |title=Conduct unbecoming a free society |date=April 9, 2008 |last=Kempling |first=Chris |newspaper=National Post }}{{dead link|date=October 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> religious freedoms in the workplace,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1193735028038
|title=Employer's Dilemma: When Religious Expression and Gay Rights Cross|first=Judith |last=Moldover |newspaper=New York Law Journal|date=October 31, 2007 |access-date=May 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080928053154/http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1193735028038 |archive-date=September 28, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_1_68/ai_n24944645 |title=Collision of religious and gay rights in the workplace |publisher=Humanist |date=January–February 2008 |first=Bob |last=Ritter |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305210524/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_1_68/ai_n24944645/ |archive-date=March 5, 2012 }}</ref> and the ability to run churches,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6904057.stm |title=Bishop loses gay employment case |date=July 18, 2007 |work=BBC News |archive-date=September 30, 2017 |access-date=June 18, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930123030/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6904057.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> charitable organizations<ref>{{cite news
|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2080669/Catholic-adoption-service-stops-over-gay-rights.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2080669/Catholic-adoption-service-stops-over-gay-rights.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Catholic adoption service stops over gay rights |date=June 5, 2008|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |first=Martin |last=Beckford | location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/03/10/catholic_charities_to_halt_adoptions_over_issue_involving_gays/ |title=Catholic Charities to halt adoptions over issue involving gays |date=March 10, 2006 |last=LeBlanc |first=Steve |newspaper=Boston Globe |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207112006/http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/03/10/catholic_charities_to_halt_adoptions_over_issue_involving_gays/ |archive-date=February 7, 2009 }}</ref> and other religious organizations<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/341201|date=April 24, 2008|first=Greg|last=Mercer|publisher=The Record|title=Christian Horizons rebuked: Employer ordered to compensate fired gay worker, abolish code of conduct|access-date=July 7, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706173512/http://news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/341201|archive-date=July 6, 2008}}</ref> that hold opposing social and cultural views to LGBTQ rights. There is also concern that religious organizations might be forced to accept and perform [[same-sex marriage]]s or risk losing their tax-exempt status.<ref name=BannedBoston>{{cite news|url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/191kgwgh.asp|title=Banned in Boston:The coming conflict between same-sex marriage and religious liberty|first=Maggie|last=Gallagher|date=May 15, 2006|volume=011|issue=33|access-date=June 18, 2008|archive-date=May 16, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060516000949/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/191kgwgh.asp}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/nyregion/14civil.html |date=August 14, 2007 |title=Church Group Complains of Civil Union Pressure |first=Jill |last=Capuzzo |newspaper=The New York Times |archive-date=June 30, 2017 |access-date=February 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630114638/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/nyregion/14civil.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/nyregion/18grove.html|title=Group Loses Tax Break Over Gay Union Issue|first=Jill|last=Capuzzo|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 18, 2007|access-date=May 7, 2010|archive-date=June 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628033942/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/nyregion/18grove.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700226242,00.html
|title=LDS Church expresses disappointment in California gay marriage decision |date=May 15, 2008 |first=Carrie |last=Moore |newspaper=[[Deseret News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601193325/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1%2C5143%2C700226242%2C00.html |archive-date=June 1, 2009 }}</ref>

[[Freedom of religion]] may, however, also protect LGBTQ people. As pointed out at the [[United Nations Human Rights Council]] in the 2023 formal report of the [[United Nations Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity]] on the basis of the explanation in a 2020 article by human rights expert [[Dag Øistein Endsjø]], adherents of denominations and belief systems who embrace LGBTQ-equality "can claim that anti-LGBT manifestations of religion (such as criminalization and discrimination) not only impinge upon the right of LGBT people to be free from violence and discrimination based on SOGI [sexual orientation and gender identity], but also violate the [pro-LGBTQ] denominations' own rights of freedom of religion".

As pointed out in this article, freedom of religion also generally protects LGBTQ people against religious oppression, as freedom of religion also protects the "freedom ... not to hold religious beliefs and ... not to practise a religion".<ref>[[United Nations Human Rights Council]] ''[https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5337-report-independent-expert-protection-against-violence-and|A/HRC/53/37 Freedom of religion or belief, and freedom from violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity: Report of the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity]'', June 7, 2023, § 162; {{cite journal |doi=10.1080/13642987.2020.1763961 |title=The other way around? How freedom of religion may protect LGBT rights |date=2020 |last1=Endsjø |first1=Dag Øistein |author-link=Dag Øistein Endsjø |journal=The International Journal of Human Rights |volume=24 |issue=10 |pages=1681–1700 }}; Buscarini and Others v. San Marino (1999), 24645/94, European Court of Human Rights, §&nbsp;34; cf. United Nation Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 22, 1993, 2.</ref> As the [[United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief]] noted in 2017, "in certain States where religion has been given 'official' or privileged status, other fundamental rights of individuals – especially women, religious minorities and members of the LGBTI community – are disproportionately restricted or vitiated under threat of sanctions as a result of obligatory observation of State-imposed religious orthodoxy."<ref>United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, ''Report of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief'', A/HRC/34/50, January 17, 2017, § 45.</ref>

== Public opinion ==
{{See also|Societal attitudes toward homosexuality|LGBT rights opposition}}
[[File:Our 37th straight year (9179641399).jpg|thumb|37th Annual "Straights For Gay Rights" in Berkeley, California, in 2013]]
LGBTQ movements are opposed by a variety of individuals and organizations.<ref>Strauss, Lehman, Litt.D., F.R.G.S. [http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=1302 "Homosexuality: The Christian Perspective"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070415203635/http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=1302 |date=April 15, 2007 }}.</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20170317054718/http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_rom.htm "Roman Catholics and Homosexuality"]}}, Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (2006)</ref><ref>[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/family?lang=eng "Teaching about Procreation and Chastity: Homosexuality"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524174202/http://www.lds.org/hf/fhe/welcome/0,16785,4210-1,00.html |date=May 24, 2013 }}, The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints. Home & Family.</ref><ref>Shafran, Rabbi Avi. [http://www.jlaw.com/Commentary/maritalprob.html "Jewish Law: Marital Problems"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006153527/http://www.jlaw.com/Commentary/maritalprob.html |date=October 6, 2016 }}. Jewish Law Commentary: Examining Halacha, Jewish Issues, and Secular Law.</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20170317055607/http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_isla1.htm "Islam and Homosexuality"]}}, Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (2005).</ref> They may have a personal, political or religious prejudice to gay rights, homosexual relations or gay people. Opponents say same-sex relationships are not marriages,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.savemarriageny.org/The%20Case%20Against%20Same-Sex%20Marriage%20and%20Civil%20Unions.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217232402/http://www.savemarriageny.org/The%20Case%20Against%20Same-Sex%20Marriage%20and%20Civil%20Unions.pdf|archive-date=December 17, 2008|title=THE CASE AGAINST SAME-SEX "MARRIAGE" AND CIVILUNIONS |date=January 2008 |publisher=COALITION TO SAVE MARRIAGE IN NEW YORK }}</ref> that legalization of same-sex marriage will open the door for the legalization of polygamy,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationformarriage.org/atf/cf/%7B39D8B5C1-F9FE-48C0-ABE6-1029BA77854C%7D/CatholicEnglish.pdf|title=Why Marriage Matters|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624205429/http://www.nationformarriage.org/atf/cf/%7B39D8B5C1-F9FE-48C0-ABE6-1029BA77854C%7D/CatholicEnglish.pdf|archive-date=June 24, 2008}}</ref> that it is unnatural<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE0DE1731F937A35753C1A964958260 |title=Anti-Gay Backlashes Are on 3 States' Ballots |date=October 4, 1992 |access-date=June 6, 2008 |newspaper=The New York Times | first=Timothy | last=Egan}}</ref> and that it encourages unhealthy behavior.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.balancedpolitics.org/same_sex_marriages.htm|title=BalancedPolitics.org – Same Sex Marriages (Pros & Cons, Arguments For and Against, Advantages & Disadvantages)|author=Joe Messerli|access-date=June 7, 2015|archive-date=October 9, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009145616/http://www.balancedpolitics.org/same_sex_marriages.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.apacny.net/The%20Christian%20Case%20Against%20Same-Sex%20Marriage.pdf | title=A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE ON SAME-SEX "MARRIAGE" AND CIVIL UNIONS | publisher=The Association of Politically Active Christians |year=2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409072704/http://www.apacny.net/The%20Christian%20Case%20Against%20Same-Sex%20Marriage.pdf | archive-date=April 9, 2008}}</ref>

Some social conservatives believe that all sexual relationships with people other than an opposite-sex spouse undermines the traditional family<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=a1312e636369f010VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527022204/http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=a1312e636369f010VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD|title=First Presidency Message on Same-Gender Marriage|archive-date=May 27, 2010}}</ref> and that children should be reared in homes with both a father and a mother.<ref name = DMD>{{cite magazine |last=Brownback |first=Sam |title=Defining Marriage Down&nbsp;— We need to protect marriage. |magazine=[[National Review]]  |date=July 9, 2004 |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/brownback200407090921.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040710092937/http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/brownback200407090921.asp |archive-date=July 10, 2004 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/family-proclamation "The Family: A Proclamation to the World"], lds.org.</ref> As society in some countries (mostly in Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Taiwan) has become more accepting of homosexuality, there therefore has also been the emergence of many groups that desire to end homosexuality; during the 1990s, one of the best known groups that was established with this goal is the [[ex-gay]] movement.

[[File:2008 Anti-gay protestors in San Francisco.jpg|thumb|Anti-gay protestors in San Francisco in 2008]]

[[Eric Rofes]], author of the book ''A Radical Rethinking of Sexuality and Schooling: Status Quo or Status Queer?'', argues that the inclusion of teachings on homosexuality in public schools will play an important role in transforming public ideas about lesbian and gay individuals.<ref name="Rofes">Rofes, Eric E. "Chapter 2: Candy from Strangers: Queer Teachers and the (Im)Moral Development of Children." A Radical Rethinking of Sexuality and Schooling: Status Quo or Status Queer. Ed. Eric E. Rofes. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005. 15–37. Print.</ref> As a former teacher in the public school system, Rofes recounts how he was fired from his teaching position after making the decision to come out as gay. As a result of the stigma that he faced as a gay teacher he emphasizes the necessity of the public to take [[political radicalism|radical]] approaches to making significant changes in public attitudes about homosexuality.<ref name="Rofes" /> According to Rofes, radical approaches are grounded in the belief that "something fundamental needs to be transformed for authentic and sweeping changes to occur. "The radical approaches proposed by Rofes have been met with strong opposition from [[Opposition to LGBTQ rights|anti-gay rights]] activists such as [[John Briggs (politician)|John Briggs]]. Former California senator, John Briggs proposed [[Briggs Initiative|Proposition 6]], a [[ballot initiative]] that would require that all California state public schools fire any gay or lesbian teachers or counselors, along with any faculty that displayed support for gay rights in an effort to prevent what he believe to be "the corruption of the children's minds".<ref name="Fetner">Fetner, Tina. 2008. How the Religious Rights Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism. University of Minnesota Press.</ref>

The exclusion of homosexuality from the sexual education curriculum, in addition to the absence of sexual counseling programs in public schools, has resulted in increased feelings of isolation and alienation for gay and lesbian students who desire to have gay counseling programs that will help them come to terms with their sexual orientation.<ref name="Rofes" /> Eric Rofes founder of youth homosexual programs, such as [[Out There (youth program)|Out There]] and [[Committee for Gay Youth]], stresses the importance of having support programs that help youth learn to identify with their sexual orientation.

David Campos, author of the book, ''Sex, Youth, and Sex Education: A Reference Handbook'', illuminates the argument proposed by proponents of sexual education programs in public schools.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A1247C|title=Sex, Youth, and Sex Education|website=abc-clio.com|language=en-US|access-date=January 28, 2019}}</ref> Many gay rights supporters argue that teachings about the diverse sexual orientations that exist outside of [[heterosexuality]] are pertinent to creating students that are well informed about the world around them.

However, Campos also acknowledges that the sex education curriculum alone cannot teach youth about factors associated with sexual orientation but instead he suggests that schools implement policies that create safe school learning environments and foster support for LGBTQ youth.<ref name="Campos">{{cite book|author=Campos, David|title=Sex, Youth, and Sex Education: A Reference Handbook|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=Library of Congress Cataloging|year=2002|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FKmVUwbUlGgC|isbn=978-1-57607-776-4|archive-date=October 1, 2024|access-date=May 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241001011245/https://books.google.com/books?id=FKmVUwbUlGgC|url-status=live}}</ref> It is his belief that schools that provide unbiased, factual information about sexual orientation, along with supportive counseling programs for these homosexual youth will transform the way society treats homosexuality.<ref name="Campos" />

Many opponents of LGBTQ social movements have attributed their indifference toward homosexuality as being a result of the immoral values that it may instill in children who are exposed to homosexual individuals.<ref name="Fetner" /> In opposition to this claim, many proponents of increased education about homosexuality suggest that educators should refrain from teaching about [[sexuality]] in schools entirely.

In her book entitled "Gay and Lesbian Movement," [[Margaret Cruikshank]] provides statistical data from the [[Harris Insights & Analytics|Harris and Yankelovich polls]] which confirmed that over 80% of American adults believe that students should be educated about sexuality within their public school. In addition, the poll also found that 75% of parents believe that homosexuality and abortion should be included in the curriculum as well. An assessment conducted on California public school systems discovered that only 2% of all parents actually disapproved of their child being taught about sexuality in school.<ref name="Darder">{{cite book|editor1=Darder, Antoninia|editor2=Marta Baltodano|editor3=Raldolfo Torres|name-list-style=amp|title=The Critical Pedagogy Reader|location=New York, NY|publisher=Routledge Falmer|year=2003|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a2bvKJ6S-L8C&pg=PA496|isbn=978-0-415-92261-6|archive-date=October 1, 2024|access-date=October 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241001011220/https://books.google.com/books?id=a2bvKJ6S-L8C&pg=PA496|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Warszawa.ParadaRówności2006.5407.jpg|thumb|Anti-gay demonstrators in [[Poland]] in 2006]]
It had been suggested that education has a positive impact on support for same sex marriage. African Americans statistically have lower rates of educational achievement; however, the education level of African Americans does not have as much significance on their attitude towards [[same-sex marriage]] as it does on white attitudes.

Educational attainment among whites has a significant positive effect on support for same-sex marriage, whereas the direct effect of education among African Americans is less significant. The income levels of whites have a direct and positive correlation with support for same-sex marriage, but African American income level is not significantly associated with attitudes toward same-sex marriage.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite journal |last1=Sherkat |first1=Darren E. |last2=de Vries |first2=Kylan Mattias |last3=Creek |first3=Stacia |title=Race, Religion, and Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage |journal=Social Science Quarterly |date=March 2010 |volume=91 |issue=1 |pages=80–98 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00682.x |url=https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/ps_wp/5 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=September 18, 2020 |access-date=August 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918180619/https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/ps_wp/5/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Parada Równości 2018 01.jpg|thumb|[[Parada Równości]] 2018, [[Warsaw]], Poland]]
Location also affects ideas towards same-sex marriage; residents of rural and southern areas are significantly more opposed to same-sex marriage in comparison to residents elsewhere. Gays and lesbians that live in rural areas face many challenges, including: sparse populations and the traditional culture held closely by the small population of most rural areas, generally hostile social climates towards gays relative to urban areas, and less social and institution support and access compared to urban areas.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1080/00918369.2013.806166 | title=Does Place of Residence Matter? Rural–Urban Differences and the Wellbeing of Gay Men and Lesbians | date=2013 | last1=Wienke | first1=Chris | last2=Hill | first2=Gretchen J. | journal=Journal of Homosexuality | volume=60 | issue=9 | pages=1256–1279 | pmid=23952922 }}</ref>

In order to combat this problem that the LGBTQ community faces, social networks and apps such as Moovs have been created for "LGBT individuals with like-minds" that are "enabled to connect, share, and feel the heartbeat of the community as one."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.linkedin.com/|title=LinkedIn Login, Sign in|website=LinkedIn|access-date=September 23, 2017|archive-date=May 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519071322/https://www.linkedin.com/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/moovz-gay-social-network_n_4681259.html|title='Moovz,' Gay Social Network, Launched By Interacting Technology|last=Nichols|first=JamesMichael|date=January 28, 2014|work=HuffPost|access-date=September 25, 2017|language=en-US}}</ref>

In a study conducted by Darren E. Sherkat, Kylan M. de Vries, and Stacia Creek at the [[Southern Illinois University Carbondale]], researchers found that women tend to be more consistently supportive of LGBTQ rights than men and that individuals that are divorced or have never married are also more likely to grant marital rights to same-sex couples than married or widowed individuals.

They also claimed that white women are significantly more supportive than white men, but there are no gender discrepancies among African Americans. The year in which one was born was also found to be a strong indicator of attitude towards same-sex marriage—generations born after 1946 are considerably more supportive of same-sex marriage than older generations. Finally, the study reported that statistically African Americans are more opposed to same-sex marriage than any other ethnicity.<ref name="autogenerated1" />

Studies show that Non-Protestant Christians are much more likely to support same-sex unions than [[Protestants]]; 63% of African Americans claim that they are [[Black church|Baptist]] or Protestant, whereas only 30% of white Americans are. Religion, as measured by individuals' religious affiliations, behaviors, and beliefs, has a lot of influence in structuring same-sex union attitudes and consistently influences opinions about homosexuality.

The most liberal attitudes are generally reflected by Jews, liberal Protestants, and people who are not affiliated with religion. This is because many of their religious traditions have not "systematically condemned homosexual behaviors" in recent years. Moderate and tolerant attitudes are generally reflected by Catholics and moderate Protestants. And lastly, the most conservative views are held by [[Evangelicalism in the United States|Evangelical Protestants]].

Moreover, it is a tendency for one to be less tolerant of homosexuality if their social network is strongly tied to a religious congregation. Organized religion, especially Protestant and Baptist affiliations, espouse conservative views which traditionally denounce same-sex unions. Therefore, these congregations are more likely to hear messages of this nature. Polls have also indicated that the amount and level of personal contact that individuals have with homosexual individuals and traditional morality affects attitudes of same-sex marriage and homosexuality.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Olson |first1=Laura R. |last2=Cadge |first2=Wendy |last3=Harrison |first3=James T. |title=Religion and Public Opinion about Same-Sex Marriage* |journal=Social Science Quarterly |date=June 2006 |volume=87 |issue=2 |pages=340–360 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6237.2006.00384.x }}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{Wikiquote|LGBT rights}}
{{Commons category|LGBT rights movement}}
* [[Robert Aldrich (historian)|Robert Aldrich]], (ed.) ''Gay Life and Culture: A World History''. London: Thames & Hudson, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0500251300}}
* {{cite book |last1=Belmonte |first1=Laura A. |title=The International LGBT Rights Movement: A History |date=2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-4725-1147-8 |language=en}}
* [[Neil Miller (writer)|Neil Miller]]. ''Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian history from 1869 to the present''. New York: Alyson Books; 2006. {{ISBN|978-1-55583-870-6}}

{{LGBT |state=uncollapsed |selected=history}}
{{Early U.S. gay rights movement}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Egalitarianism]]
[[Category:LGBTQ history]]
[[Category:LGBTQ rights movement| ]]
[[Category:LGBTQ rights| ]]
[[Category:Movements for civil rights]]
[[Category:Political ideologies]]
[[Category:Political neologisms]]
[[Category:Queer theory]]
[[Category:Subcultures]]