Toward Liberation – Key Exam Notes

Pathologization & Early Sexology

In the late $19^{th}$ century, Western sexologists (Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs, Havelock Ellis, Magnus Hirschfeld) shifted discussion of homosexuality from “sin/crime” to “pathology.” This new medical lens classified same-sex desire as deviant but opened space for self-description and eventual activism. Freud echoed a non-criminal, non-illness stance, describing homosexuality as a developmental “variation.”

Women’s Higher Education & Backlash

Women’s colleges (e.g., Smith, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr) founded between $1865$ and $1888$ fostered independence and singlehood; over $50\%$ of Bryn Mawr alumnae $1889$ – $1908$ remained unmarried. Eugenicists and some physicians labeled educated, unmarried women “degenerates,” fueling early “lesbian-baiting.”

Medicalization, Essentialism & “Cures”

Twentieth-century psychiatry framed homosexuality as illness needing cure. Treatments included shock therapy, lobotomy, castration, hormones, aversion conditioning, and forced hospitalization. Essentialist arguments (“born this way”) were strategically used by activists, though fears of detection and “conversion” persisted. Search for a “gay gene” (e.g., Dean Hamer) has produced no conclusive proof.

Transsexual Medicine

First U.S. female-to-male mastectomy occurred $1917$ ; Germany performed male-to-female surgeries in the $1930s$ . Harry Benjamin’s $1979$ Standards of Care required psychotherapy & psychiatric letters before surgery, leaving trans people dependent on medical gatekeepers.

Urban Cultures before WWII

Queer social space flourished in big-city circles: Harlem Renaissance (Ma Rainey, Alain Locke, Claude McKay), Paris salons (Stein/Toklas, Barney), & London’s Bloomsbury group. These communities offered relative safety yet remained vulnerable to racial bias and legal persecution.

Nazi & U.S. Wartime Policies

German Paragraph $175$ criminalized male homosexuality; $100\,000$ men were arrested $1933$ – $1945$ , marked by pink triangles—now reclaimed as a liberation symbol. In the U.S., WWII spurred blue discharges for suspected homosexuals; military psychiatrists screened recruits, asserting gay men threatened “morale.” Lesbian WAC stories (e.g., Johnnie Phelps) show both need and resistance.

McCarthy Era “Purge of Perverts”

Senator McCarthy’s $1950$ Red Scare equated homosexuality with communism. Eisenhower’s Executive Order $10450$ ( $1953$ ) banned "sexual perversion" from federal employment. Thousands lost jobs. Yet Evelyn Hooker’s studies (mid- $1950s$ ) and Kinsey’s reports ( $1948$ male, $1953$ female) demonstrated no inherent psychopathology, undermining the medical model.

Homophile Movement ( $1950s$ –mid- $1960s$ )

Groups such as Mattachine Society (Harry Hay, $1950$ ) and Daughters of Bilitis (Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon, $1955$ ) pursued cautious assimilation: suits, skirts, respectability, newsletters (One, The Ladder) and legal aid groups addressed arrests, employment, housing bias.

Stonewall & Gay Liberation

Police raid on Stonewall Inn ( $28$ June $1969$ ) sparked riots and birthed the Gay Liberation Front. GLF linked queer struggle to anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist politics and demanded decriminalization, job protection, and an end to police brutality. Annual June Pride events commemorate Stonewall worldwide.

Lesbian Feminism & Separatism

Post-Stonewall, lesbian feminism argued male-centered movements were sexist. Slogans like “Feminism is the theory, lesbianism is the practice” (Ti-Grace Atkinson) emerged. Groups (Radicalesbians, The Furies) coined “Lavender Menace,” promoted women-only culture (music festivals, presses), and debated separatism; Combahee River Collective rejected racial and class blindness.

1970s Politics, Violence & Conservative Pushback

• Harvey Milk, first openly gay elected official in California, was assassinated $27$ Nov $1978$ ; lenient verdict on killer Dan White triggered White Night Riots.
• Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” repeal campaign ( $1977$ ) linked gay rights to child endangerment, energizing the religious right.
• National March on Washington for Lesbian & Gay Rights ( $14$ Oct $1979$ ) drew ~ $10^{5}$ participants, signaling national movement cohesion.

Key Themes for Review

Shift from moral/criminal frames to medical models and, ultimately, civil-rights discourse.
Interplay of science (pathology vs. variation), law (sodomy statutes, Executive Order $10450$ ), and activism (homophile, liberation, feminist).
Cycles of tolerance and backlash: Harlem openness → Depression/Nazi repression; post-war conservatism → Stonewall liberation → religious-right counter-movement.
Intersectionality: gender, race, class, and imperialism continually shaped queer politics and community strategies.