LGBT Politics in the United States

Abstract

The American lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) political movement has its roots in the post–World War II era. Through the 1950s and 1960s early LGBT groups focused on social mobilization and education, with limited observable political activities. Political activity increased in the 1960s and caught fire after the rioting that broke out in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New York City following a regular raid of the bar by police. A modern and diverse movement arose in the 1970s; early local victories on city ordinances banning employment discrimination based on sexual preference/sexual orientation generated an anti-LGBT backlash movement manifested in a series of ballot measures to repeal these laws and ban the adoption of similar laws. A chain of LGBT victories included the high-profile defeat of the Briggs Initiative in California. The decade also saw the political mobilization of the LGBT community at the ballot box and the election of openly lesbian and gay candidates for local and state offices. By the early 1980s, sizable local, state, and national LGBT groups gained footing just as the first cases of HIV/AIDS began to disproportionately appear among gay men. Although public attitudes had become more positive toward homosexually and LGBT rights, fear of AIDS generated a negative public and political backlash. However, by the late 1980s LGBT groups had built a political infrastructure for a series of legal, policy, and candidate victories throughout the 1990s. These achievements included state and local anti-discrimination protections, hate crime laws, a Supreme Court ruling that ended attempts to pass laws that prevented any LGBT antidiscrimination, and the start of a long national debate to end the ban on homosexuals serving in the military. The 1990s also saw the start of a broad-based effort to gain marriage equality and family protections for same-sex couples. Early legal victories in Hawaii helped to generate a negative backlash in Congress and most states throughout the decade, but some localities and states began to consider alternative recognition through civil unions. At the same time the number of openly LGBT public officials grew each election cycle. With the Supreme Court repeal of all standing anti-sodomy laws in 2003 and the Massachusetts judicial legalization of same-sex marriage later that fall, same-sex marriage again became a national issue and many states adopted constitutional amendments to ban its recognition. Unprecedented shifts in public opinion and legal victories paved a path toward the 2015 Supreme Court decision to effectively legalize same-sex marriage. In the wake of the victory LGBT activists have struggled to maintain political mobilization for antidiscrimination protections and long-ignored transgender issues.