Although the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...

on June 28, 1969, are generally considered the impetus of the modern

gay liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoffman, 2007, pp.xi-xiii. ...

movement, a number of demonstrations of

civil resistance Civil resistance is political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: i ...

took place prior to that date. These actions, often organized by local

homophile Terms used to describe homosexuality have gone through many changes since the emergence of the first terms in the mid-19th century. In English, some terms in widespread use have been sodomite, Achillean, Sapphic, Uranian, homophile, lesbian, g ...

organizations but sometimes spontaneous, addressed concerns ranging from anti-gay discrimination in employment and public accommodations to the exclusion of homosexuals from the United States military to police harassment to the treatment of homosexuals in revolutionary Cuba. The early actions have been credited with preparing the gay community for Stonewall and contributing to the riots' symbolic power. A common technique of early activists was the

picket line A picket line is a horizontal rope along which horses are tied at intervals. The rope can be on the ground, at chest height (above the knees, below the neck) or overhead. The overhead form is usually called a high line. A variant of a high l ...

, especially for those actions organized by such Eastern groups as the

Mattachine Society The Mattachine Society (), founded in 1950, was an early national gay rights organization in the United States, perhaps preceded only by Chicago's Society for Human Rights. Communist and labor activist Harry Hay formed the group with a collection ...

of New York, the Mattachine Society of Washington, Philadelphia's

Janus Society The Janus Society was an early homophile organization founded in 1962 and based in Philadelphia. It is notable as the publisher of ''Drum'' magazine, one of the earliest gay publications in the United States and the one most widely circulated in ...

, and the New York chapter of

Daughters of Bilitis The Daughters of Bilitis , also called the DOB or the Daughters, was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. The organization, formed in San Francisco in 1955, was conceived as a social alternative to lesb ...

; these groups acted under the collective name

East Coast Homophile Organizations East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) was established in January 1962 in Philadelphia, to facilitate cooperation between homophile organizations and outside administrations. Its formative membership included the Mattachine Society chapters in ...

(ECHO).Loughery, p. 270 Organized pickets tended to be in large urban population centers because these centers were where the largest concentration of homophile activists were located. Picketers at ECHO-organized events were required to follow strict dress codes: men wore ties, preferably with a jacket, and women wore skirts. Because a common focus of was employment discrimination, Mattachine Society of Washington founder

Frank Kameny Franklin Edward Kameny (May 21, 1925 – October 11, 2011) was an American gay rights activist. He has been referred to as "one of the most significant figures" in the American gay rights movement. In 1957, Kameny was dismissed from his po ...

wanted to portray homosexuals as "presentable and 'employable'". Many of the participants in these early actions went on to become deeply involved in the gay liberation movement.Loughery, p. 272

Actions

Notes

References

* Allyn, David (2000). ''Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution, an Unfettered History''. Little, Brown and Company. . * Alwood, Edward (1996). ''Straight News: Gays, Lesbians, and the News Media''. Columbia University Press. . * Bérubé, Allan (1990). ''Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two''. New York, The Penguin Group. . * Bianco, David (1999). ''Gay Essentials: Facts For Your Queer Brain''. Los Angeles, Alyson Books. . * Campbell, J. Louis (2007). '' Jack Nichols, Gay Pioneer: "Have You Heard My Message?"''. Haworth Press. . * Carter, David (2005). ''Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution''. Macmillan. . * Cleninden, Dudley and Adam Nagourney (1999). ''Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America''. New York, Simon & Schuster. . * D'Emilio, John (1983). Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. . * Duberman, Martin (1993). ''Stonewall''. Penguin Books. . * Eisenbach, David (2006). ''Gay Power: An American Revolution''. Carroll & Graf Publishers. . * Faderman, Lillian and Stuart Timmons (2006). ''Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians''. Basic Books. . * Fletcher, Lynne Yamaguchi (1992). ''The First Gay Pope and Other Records''. Boston, Alyson Publications. . * Gallo, Marcia M. (2006). ''Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement''. Carroll & Graf Publishers. . * Hogan, Steve and Lee Hudson (1998). ''Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia''. New York, Henry Holt and Company. . * Loughery, John (1998). ''The Other Side of Silence – Men's Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth-Century History''. New York, Henry Holt and Company. . * Marks Ridinger, Robert B. (2004). ''Speaking For Our Lives: Historic Speeches and Rhetoric for Gay and Lesbian Rights (1892-2000)''. Haworth Press. . * Miller, Neil (1995). ''Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present''. New York, Vintage Books. . * Murray, Stephen O. (1996). ''American Gay''. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. . * Stryker, Susan and Jim Van Buskirk, with foreword by Armisted Maupin (1996). ''Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area''. San Francisco, Chronicle Press. . * Teal, Donn (1971, reissued 1995). ''The Gay Militants: How Gay Liberation Began in America, 1969–1971''. New York, St. Martin's Press. (1995 edition). * Timmons, Stuart (1990). ''The Trouble With Harry Hay''. Boston, Alyson Publications. . * Tobin, Kay and Randy Wicker (1972). ''The Gay Crusaders''. New York, Paperback Library, a division of Coronet Communications. . * Witt, Lynn, Sherry Thomas and Eric Marcus (eds.) (1995). ''Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America''. New York, Warner Books. .

External links

Resources on Regional Homophile/LGBT Organizations in the 1960s
from the papers of

{{Early U.S. gay rights movement Actions in the United States prior to the Stonewall riots LGBT actions prior to the Stonewall riots Actions in the United Stations prior to the Stonewall riots LGBT actions prior to the Stonewall riots LGBT actions in the United States prior to the Stonewall riots Actions prior to the Stonewall riots United States prior to the Stone wall riots Actions in the United Stations prior to the Stonewall riots LGBT actions prior to the Stonewall riots

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See also

Notes

References

External links