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1940-45: First organised campaign against homosexuality

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1940-45: First organised campaign against homosexuality

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Homosexual men are categorised as undesirables by the Nazi regime. The Pink Triangle is used to differentiate homosexuals from other prisons in the concentration camps, with many subject to experiments such as electric shock therapy by Nazi physician SS Dr Carl Værnet. This creates the first concepts of conversion therapy and ‘curing’ homosexuality: The Nazi physician was not convicted and, according to Human Rights historian Peter Thatchell, much of his work was continued in Britain and later Argentina despite his capture in 1945. This treatment of homosexuality was continued in post-war Britain with the chemical castration of Alan Turing who cracked the Nazi Enigma codes in the early years of the War.

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Despite this, homosexual relationships in the military were generally more accepted. Shortages of fighting men meant rules and punishment of homosexuality, such as the death penalty, are rarely acted upon.

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February 12 1940, letters between ‘Mr Bradley’ and ‘Mr Bowsher’

My own darling boy,

There is nothing more than I desire in life but to have you with me constantly...

the rest of the world have no conception of what our love is - they do not know that it is love...

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Second World War: First ‘screenings’ for homosexuality put in place for soldiers enlisting in the army. It gave many LGBT men a shared identity under an umbrella term. Many congregated in cities after the war ended and the first unofficial ‘gay villages’ sprung up in urban areas.

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Communities begin to organise themselves into pressure groups to push for rights. These include the Mattachine Society (1950) and The Daughters of Bilitis (1955). Progress is slow, most of the protests are civil.

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Popular opinion is till against LGBT rights. The Lavender Scare begins as fear of homosexuality ‘spreading’ grows around the country. Consipiracys of gay people infiltrating the government grow.

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1960’s/70s: The Gay Liberation Front and Radicalism 

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1960’s/70s: The Gay Liberation Front and Radicalism 

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Same-sex activity is decriminalised in the UK by 1967. Major news outlets report this as a ‘sign of danger’ as acceptance of LGBT people is still very taboo.

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Police raids throughout the 1960s infiltrate LGBT communities in the big cities. In New York, police brutalisation accumulates in the Stonewall Riots in June 1969. The riots give platforms to activists such as Marsha P Johnson who begin to champion Trans rights. It also births the Gay Liberation Front and the first marches in favour of gay rights exactly a year later to mark the riots anniversary.

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Harvey Milk was one of the first and most influential LGBT politicians elected to public office. He served almost eleven months in office, during which he sponsored a bill banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment based on sexual orientation. Despite being assasianted after a short tenure in office, his memory has inspired LGBT politicians globally.

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1980’s: The AIDS Epidemic and Conservatism 

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1980’s: The AIDS Epidemic and Conservatism 

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The 80s opened with a wave of reports of an illness spreading among homosexual men in the US and Europe. Many brand it a ‘gay disease’ as the virus disproportionately effects gay men. Very little is known about the virus, and so mistruths of AIDS being natures response to LGBT people are easily believed.

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In 1979, an LGBT couple in California become the first to legally adopt a child. The fight for adoption rights moves into the 1980s, with New York becoming the first state to not reject gay adoption on the basis of being LGBT. By the end of the 1980s, a subsidiary of the Washington Post, Newsweek stated, “a new generation of gay parents has produced the first-ever ‘gayby boom’”

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In 1988, Margaret Thatcher enacts Section 28. The bill prevents openly LGBT people from teaching in schools and prohibits the promotion of homosexuality in schools.

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In 1990 the World Health Organisation removes homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. For the first time, homosexuality is no longer something to be cured.

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More public figures begin publicly coming out in the mid to late 90s. Diver Greg Louganis and Comedian Ellen DeGeneres cover magazines and release memoires about their experiences. Public opinion begins to change as stereotypes about LGBT people begin to change.

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A gay bar in the heart of Soho is targeted by a Neo-Nazi group who plant bombs across London. The community and owner of the bar Mark Taylor receive global support, claiming "We have received incredible support and letters from all over the world, from people who don't even know us”.

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Gay Marriage becomes legal in 2001 in the Netherlands. Soon, many countries such as South Africa and Canada follow suit. Gay Marriage becomes legal in the UK in March 2014.

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Important legislation begins to be passed in the UK, including:

·         2000 – LGBT people can serve in the armed forces.

·         2001 – the age of consent is equalised to that of heterosexual people.

·         2003 – section 28 is abolished.

·         2005- Gender Recognition Act grants legal status to Trans people.

The UK looks to rectify its treatment of LGBT people such as Alan Turing, who was posthumously pardoned. The Alan Turing Law pardoned all LGBT people convicted historically in 2017.

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In 2020, 15,000 people rally against violence facing the black transgender community in New York.  The march was organised partly by the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. Philadelphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs stated as a result of the march that “the murder of transgender people — especially those of color — is truly an epidemic, and a crisis that we cannot afford to allow to persist any further."

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It is sometimes hard to forget the world that we live in because of the acceptance LGBT face in western countries. However, LGBT people are still openly prosecuted in 70 countries, with many of those countries carrying life sentences and even the death penalty for promoting homosexuality.

As we move forward, the fight for LGBT rights is beginning to move towards those countries where LGBT lives are most in danger. For Britain, this is the 35 of the 54 members of the commonwealth, where anti-gay laws are still in place.

However, there is good news. Progress has been quick in over a century. In 2021, 81 countries had laws against discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation. At the turn of the century, this was less than 15.