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LGBT movements is a collective term for a number of Social Movement s that share related goals of social acceptance of Homosexuality and/or Gender Variance . LGBT refers to Lesbian , Gay , Bisexual and Transgender people, and their movements include the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement, Gay Liberation , Lesbian Feminism , the Queer movement and Transgender Activism . A commonly stated goal is Social Equality for LGBT people; some currents within these movements have also focused on building LGBT communities, or worked towards Liberation for the broader society from Sexual Oppression . LGBT movements today are made up of a wide range of Political Activism and cultural activity, such as Lobbying and Street Marches ; social groups, support groups and community events; magazines, films and literature; academic research and writing; and even business activity. OPPOSITION AND INTERNAL TENSIONS LGBT movements are opposed by a variety of individuals and organizations. Studies have shown that people with negative Attitudes Towards Lesbians And Gays are more likely to be older, religious, less well educated, Politically Conservative , have little close personal contact with Out gay men and lesbians, and support traditional gender roles. needed They may have a deep personal, moral or religious objection to homosexuality. As with other social movements, there is also conflict within and between LGBT movements, especially about strategies for change and debates over exactly who comprises the constituency that these movements represent — for instance, to what extent do lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transpeople, intersexed people, and other queers share common interests and a need to work together? SOCIAL CHANGE Significant social, legal and political gains have been made by LGBT communities, especially in the Western World since the 1960s. Homosexual sex is no longer illegal in much of the world, although several countries still impose the death penalty for such acts. Some countries have anti-discrimination legislation in place, and in recent years, a few states have begun to recognise Same Sex Relationships . Many prominent medical authorities no longer treat homosexuality as a mental illness, although transsexuality is still viewed as such. Opponents of gay rights (such as NARTH ), however, say that these mainstream institutions have succumbed to political pressure rather than relying on a rational examination of the facts. An example that is often cited is the controversy over the removal of homosexuality from the DSM . In 1973, homosexuality was removed and replaced with "Sexual Orientation Disturbance" in the DSM-II; this was changed to "Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality" in the DSM-III and was removed entirely from the DSM-IV. GOALS Although there is a wide range of opinions within the various LGBT movements, most agree that all people deserve equal rights, equal respect and parity in law, regardless of their Sexual Orientation , Gender Identity or gender expression, and that prejudice ( Homophobia , Biphobia and Transphobia ) is dangerous, not just to gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people, but to all members of society. It is also commonly argued that Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity are innate and cannot be consciously changed, and Attempts To Alter Sexual Orientation are generally opposed in principle. HISTORY Before 1860 In who was one of the authors of the Napoleonic Code . In 1833, an anonymous English-language writer wrote a poetic defence of Captain Nicholas Nicholls, who had been sentenced to death in London for Sodomy : Whence spring these inclinations, rank and strong? And harming no one, wherefore call them wrong? Three years later in Switzerland, Heinrich Hoessli published the first volume of ''Eros: Die Mannerliebe der Griechen'' ("Eros: The Male-love of the Greeks"), another defence of same-sex love. Ibid . 1860 - 1944 ]] Modern historians usually look to German activist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs as the pioneer of the LGBT rights movement. Ulrichs Came Out publicly and began publishing books about same-sex love and gender variance in the 1860s , a few years before the term "homosexual" was first published in 1869 . Ulrichs' '' Uranian s'' were people with a range of gender expressions and same-sex desires; he considered himself "a female psyche in a male body". From the 1870s, social reformers in other countries had began to take up the Uranian cause, but their identites were kept secret for fear of reprisal. A secret British society called the " poet Edward Carpenter and Scottish Anarchist John Henry Mackay wrote in defense of same-sex love and Androgyny ; Carpenter and British homosexual rights advocate John Addington Symonds contributed to the development of Havelock Ellis 's groundbreaking book ''Sexual Inversion'', which called for tolerance towards "inverts" and was suppressed when first published in England. was a prominent German physician, Sexologist , and gay rights advocate.]] In Europe and America, a broader movement of " Free Love " was also emerging from the 1860s among First-wave Feminists and radicals of the Libertarian Left . They critiqued Victorian Sexual Morality and the traditional institutions of family and marriage that were seen to enslave women. Some advocates of free love in the early 20th century also spoke in defence of same-sex love and challenged repressive legislation, such as the Russian anarchist and feminist Emma Goldman . In 1898 , German doctor and writer Magnus Hirschfeld formed the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee to campaign publicly against the notorious law " Paragraph 175 ", which made sex between men illegal. Adolf Brand later broke away from the group, disagreeing with Hirschfeld's medical view of the " Intermediate Sex ", seeing male-male sex as merely an aspect of manly virility and male social bonding. Brand was the first to use " Outing " as a political strategy, claming that German Chancellor Bernhard Von Bülow engaged in homosexual activity. The 1901 book ''Sind es Frauen? Roman über das dritte Geschlecht'' (Are These Women? Novel about the Third Sex) by , delivering a public speech in 1904 at the request of Hirschfeld, became the first female Uranian activist. Rüling, who also saw "men, women, and homosexuals" as three distinct genders, called for an alliance between the women's and sexual reform movements, but this speech is her only known contribution to the cause. Women only began to join the previously male-dominated sexual reform movement around 1910 when the German government tried to expand Paragraph 175 to outlaw sex between women. Heterosexual feminist leader Helene Stöcker became a prominent figure in the movement. Hirschfeld, whose life was dedicated to social progress for homosexual and transgender people, formed the Institut Für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexology) in 1919. The institute conducted an enormous amount of research, saw thousands of transgender and homosexual clients at consultations, and championed a broad range of sexual reforms including sex education, contraception and women's rights. However, the gains made in Germany would soon be Drastically Reversed with the rise of Nazism , and the institute and its library were destoyed in 1933 . The Swiss journal Der Kreis was the only part of the movement to continue through the Nazi era. In the United States, several secret or semi-secret groups were formed explicitly to advance the rights of homosexuals as early as the turn of the twentieth century, but little is known about them Norton 2005 . A better documented group is Henry Gerber’s Society for Human Rights formed in Chicago in 1924), which was quickly suppressed. Bullough 2005 ' from October 1957. The motif of masks and unmasking was prevalent in the Homophile era, prefiguring the political strategy of Coming Out and giving the Mattachine Society its name.]] 1945 - 1968 See Also: Homophile Immediately following . A U.S. transgender-rights journal, ''Transvestia: The Journal of the American Society for Equality in Dress'', also published two issues in 1952. The homophile movement lobbied within established political systems for social acceptability; radicals of the 1970s would later disparage the homophile groups for being rioted against police harassment at a popular all-night restaurant, Compton's Cafeteria. 1969 - 1974 See Also: Gay Liberation 's links with the counterculture are also evident.]] The emerged towards the end of the decade. The English-speaking world marks the birth of the new radicalism at the Stonewall Riots of 1969 , when a group of transgender, lesbian and gay male patrons at a bar in New York resisted a police raid. Bullough, Vern, “When did the Gay Right Movement Begin?” , April 18, 2005. Accessed on December 30, 2005. http://hnn.us/articles/11316.html Immediately after Stonewall, such groups as the published “The Politics of Being Queer” (1969). Chapters of the GLF were established across the US and in other parts of the Western world. The Front Homosexuel D'Action Révolutionnaire was formed in 1971 by lesbians who split from the Mouvement Homophile De France in 1971. One of the values of the movement was Gay Pride . Organized by an early GLF leader Brenda Howard , the Stonewall riots were commemorated by annual marches that became known as Pride Parade s. , symbol of the LGBT rights movement]] 1975 - 1986 From the anarchistic Gay Liberation Movement of the early 1970s arose a more conservative and institutionalized "Gay Rights Movement", which portayed gays and lesbians much like an ethnic minority and used the language of civil rights — in many repsects continuing the work of the homophile period.Epstein, S. (1999). ''Gay and lesbian movements in the United States: Dilemmas of identity, diversity, and political strategy.'' in B. D. Adam, J. Duyvendak, & A. Krouwel (Eds.), "The global emergence of gay and lesbian politics" (pp. 30-90). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. This also represented a shift away from transgender issues, and butch bar dykes and flamboyant street queens came to be seen as negative stereotypes of lesbians and gays. Veteran activists such as Sylvia Rivera and Beth Elliot were sidelined or expelled because they were transsexual. During this period, the International Lesbian And Gay Association (ILGA) was formed (1978), and it continues to campaign for lesbian and gay Human Rights with the United Nations and individual national governments. and Transsexuality . The term "gay" came to be more strongly associated with homosexual males. 1987 - present Some historians consider that a new epoch of the gay rights movement began in the 1980s with the advent of groups like ACT UP (formed in 1987), and its offshoots Queer Nation (1990) and the Lesbian Avengers (1992). Some younger activists, seeing "gay and lesbian" as increasingly normative and politically conservative, began using the word Queer as a defiant statement of all Sexual Minorities and gender variant people — just as the earlier liberationists had done with the word "gay". Less confrontational terms that attempt to reunite the interests of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transpeople also became prominent, including various Acronym s like LGBT , LGBTQ, and LGBTI. As Of 2006 , these acronyms have become commonplace descriptors used by organisations that once described themselves as "gay rights" groups. In the 1990s, organisations began to spring up in non-western countries, such as Progay Philippines , which was founded in 1993 and organised the first Gay Pride march in Asia on June 26, 1994. In many countries, LGBT organisations remain illegal ( As Of 2006 ) and transgender and homosexual activists face extreme opposition from the state. The 1990s also saw a rapid expansion of uals, with the founding of the Intersex Society Of North America by Cheryl Chase . SEE ALSO Articles
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