Chapter 6: The Fight for Equal Rights Before Stonewall

A Student's Guide to Essential Primary Sources

Table of Contents

https://doi.org/10.3735/9781961844353.book-part-058

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Abstract

The struggle for LGBTQ rights before the Stonewall Riots of 1969 revolved around efforts to decriminalize same-sex relationships and to overcome the prevailing societal prejudices against homosexuality in the United States. All states had laws against homosexual behavior or same-sex marriages as the nation entered the 1900s. The dominant social paradigm of the country generally regarded homosexuality as a disease or a form of mental illness well into the twentieth century. However, beginning in the late 1800s and accelerating in the 1900s, a growing number of people and groups challenged LGBTQ discrimination. Groups such as the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis emerged as leading proponents of the movement for equality.

Author(s): Tom Lansford, Te University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Park