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500 Years of Queers

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hazellazer
Captain

PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 1:59 pm


Woot! So Kevin Jennings gave a speech at the conference I was at today so I decided you guys should get a treat from my trip! So here are my notes from his speech

Berdache
-Transgender Native Americans
-Highly looked up to, seen as special because they saw the world differently
-One famous female berdache (she lived as a man) was called "She finds them and kills them" because she was such a fierce warrior.
-When the Spanish arrived they tried to force the berdache to wear the clothes of their biolgical sex and executed most of them.

1642
-Captital laws established in English Colonies
-9 Out of 13 offenses were sexual
-People would watch their neighbors through windows to make sure they were not sinning
-Sex was viewed only as between men so lesbianism was NEVER illegal

Thomas Jefferson
-When Virginia broke from England he was assigned to fix their old laws
-He tried to lower Sodomy offenses from punishable by death to punishable by castration but was rejected

Samuel Slater (1800s)
-Began building facotires in America
-Because of factories people no longer needed to have families on a farm and work to live
-Factories led to a rise in cities and independance from usual family structure and more gay relationships
-Women earned money and got an education and were able to live independantly of men so lesbians could start relationships (also called a Boston Marriage)

Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld
-Petitioned German parliament to repeal sodomy laws
-Einstein himself signed the petition

Henry Gerber
-Began the first gay rights group in 1924
-Homosexuality was now considered a disease but he said that all people, diseased or not, deserved their rights.
-However at this time it was illegal to send anything talking about homosexuality in the mail

WWII
-This was the first time that even having a homosexual feeling could get you kicked out of the army. (An interesting note, prior to that you had to be caught having sex with another man to get kicked out. From George Washington to Eisenhower 150 people were kicked out of the army for being gay. From then to the present 130,000 people have)
-40 million people were recruited
-People who lived in homophobic, rural areas, were now grouped with hundreds of people of the same sex and began to feel not alone and relationships formed.

Johnnie Phelps
-Leader of the highest medalled battalion of the Women's Auxiliary Corp
-Was asked for a list of lesbians in her battalion
-She said her name would be the first on the list and they withdrew the order

50s
-Mattachine society formed and got it legal to send things about homosexuality via mail
-Gay literature (especially about lesbians) became popular

Civil Right's movement
-MLK Jr's advisor was gay

1969
-Stonewall Riots! For the first time a group of Gays stood up to police busting up Gay Bars.
-"Save the Children" movement started (Historic trend note- conservative groups have claimed blacks, jews, gays, etc were after children)
-Gay Liberation Front formed

Reagan
-Endorsed the Moral Majority
-AIDS (Oridinally GRID Gay Related Immune Defiency) crisis began and he refused to give medical assistance.
-MSM term arose, because it was thought that only "gay" men got the disease the term Men who Sleep with Men came about, so that people could be "not gay" but sleep with men and in theory not get AIDS

Lawrence v Texas
-Two men were arrested for having gay sex in their home
-Courts struck down sodomy laws due to the right to privacy
PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 3:26 pm


Wow.. this was really interesting to read. I didn't really know much about past gay issues so this is quite a treat for me. whee

AkureiKnight


Tenaku

PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:12 am


Interesting, definitely interesting.
PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 7:50 pm


The berdache is an interesting topic and I have some more to add to that. Some men were forced into it to become a sex slave of sorts because women would become angered at them and remove their more private parts by force, or they would be a captive from another tribe and this would be their fate. But those circumstances were a bit more rare in occurance.

I just told my Mom about GRID, and she was intrigued. Kind of crazy. Wonder what the biology teacher would say... I think I might have to find out! lol

Saknika

The Committee Staff Gaian


ForgottenFocus

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:47 pm


Moveing to memrable threads...
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