GAY AND LESBIAN RIGHTS
The goal of full legal and social equality for gay
men and lesbians sought by the gay movement in
the United States and other Western countries.
The term gay originally derived from slang,
but it has gained wide acceptance in recent
years, and many people who are sexually
attracted to others of the same sex prefer it to
the older and more clinical term homosexual.
The drive for legal and social equality represents
one aspect of a broader gay and lesbian move-
ment that, since the late 1960s, has worked to
change attitudes toward homosexuality, develop
gay community institutions, and improve the
self-image of gay men and lesbians.
Although homosexuality has been recorded
in every historical period and culture, the gay
and lesbian rights movement developed only
with the emergence of a self-conscious, gay-
identified subculture that was willing to openly
assert its demands for equality. Until the 1960s,
virtually all lesbians and gay men were secretive
about their sexual orientation and frequently
shared the attitude of the general society that
homosexuality was sick, sinful, or both. The
phrase “in the closet” refers to gay men and les-
bians who hide their sexual orientation.
The first national gay organizations in the
United States were the Mattachine Society
(1951) and the Daughters of Bilitis (1956). The
emergence of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT of
the 1960s energized gay and lesbian groups, and
the development of the women’s movement of
the late 1960s made explicit the link between
political activities and personal identity.
The watershed moment for gay men and les-
bians occurred in 1969 when the patrons of the
Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s
Greenwich Village, forcefully resisted arrest by
city police officers who had raided the bar.
Stonewall became a symbol for a new set of atti-
tudes on the part of younger gay men and les-
bians who resisted discrimination and negative
stereotyping. As gay men and lesbians became
more open and decided to “come out of the
closet,” U.S. society was challenged to question
