10.5: Gay Liberation Front: Program Platform Statement (1970)

A Guided Journey through Key Documents, 1865-present
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10.5 Gay Liberation Front: Program Platform Statement (1970)
Historical Context
Guiding Questions
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Abstract

From the nation’s founding, many American colonies (and later states) enacted laws targeting homosexual encounters. The result was thousands of individuals lived secret lives and often in fear of being exposed by people seeking to harm their reputations or destroy their lives. Immigration laws, like the Immigration Act of 1917--one of the srst intensely restrictive immigration policies in U.S. history--also reinforced homophobic attitudes by allowing agents at ports of entry to bar immigrants thought to be homosexual under the “mentally defective” provision. The idea that homosexuality was the result of some kind of mental desciency persisted well into the 20th century.

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