LGBT History and the Movement for LGBT Rights
The Role of LGBT History in the Struggle for LGBT Rights and Liberation
Introduction
From the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, in effect finding state sodomy laws unconstitutional, to the ruling of the Connecticut Supreme Court that the state cannot constitutionally ban homosexuals from marrying, reference to LGBT and heterosexual history has played a major role.
Scholarly articles and books about LGBT history began to be published in the mid-1970s, as a direct result of the black liberation movement stressing the importance of recovering that group's history, the feminist movement stressing the importance of recovering women's history and the lesbian and gay movements' stress on finding these groups' previously hidden histories. Much earlier, references to the "famous queens of history" played a role in arguments for homosexuals' contributions to society.
Today, websites like OutHistory.org argue for their importance by pointing to the link between reliable work in LGBT history and the struggle for LGBT rights and liberation. Knowing the history of the present struggle for LGBT marriage and partnership rights, the history of the organized, political struggle against AIDS, and the history of the movement for LGBT legal reform, to cite several examples, makes today's activists more efficient in their work. Knowing the history of LGBT oppression and resistance helps to build group solidarity. Knowing the history of intragroup conflicts among lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people, helps activists learn to avoid such conflicts. This article begins to detail the role that LGBT history has played in the struggle for LGBT rights and liberation.
Chronology
Year, month, day: event.
Bibliography
Last name, first name. Title. Place of publication. Publisher, Date of publication.
