Gay lesbian bisexual transvestite youth in America

Introduction

Intimate desires and erotic feelings seem to belong so obviously to the domain of the private sphere of each human that recognizing sexuality as an important element of politics—that is, of public activity—has not been an untroubled process in American social, political, and economic histories. Indeed, sexuality continues to be one of the most contested issues in modern politics, so much so that it is almost impossible to talk about modern liberal democracy, with all its ideological baggage, claims to human rights, and individual freedoms and liberties, without addressing the issue of sexuality. Without doubt, one of the factors that enabled this shift was the rise of identity politics in the post-World War II world. As such, the rise of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) identity politics is part of wider structural shift in political organization of contemporary democracies (Kate, 66).

Histories of Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States

Gay Liberation and Lesbian Feminism

The opening up of another chapter in lesbian and gay politics is commonly ascribed to the riots around the Stonewall Inn drag and gay bar, in New York, in June 1969. This period is usually referred to as gay and lesbian liberation and characterized by such slogans as “Out of the closets and into the streets” or “Gay revolution now.”

The significant shift of this decade of lesbian and gay activism is a move away from the shame and pledge of similarity that dominated homophile politics and to stress instead difference, pride, and rage, which became characteristic of liberation movements of the time. Notably, the shift came on the wave of American counterculture, of which sexual revolution, second-wave feminism, blackpower liberation, and antiwar movements are prime examples (Salvatore, 201).

AIDS

The shift within lesbian and gay politics was also the effect of the social backlash that came in the 1980s with the appearance of HIV and AIDS, on the one hand, and the political hegemony of New Right conservatism, winning power in the United States and the United Kingdom, on the other. However, in retrospect, it can be said that these factors were also catalysts for the emergence of the radicalized HIV and AIDS movement and later queer politics. These, however, developed a different set of approaches in sexual politics. The first half of the 1980s brought about crystallization of identity politics, emphasizing gay identity as the key factor in social mobilization. However, governmental nonresponsiveness to the HIV and AIDS epidemic soon made clear that the gay rights approach, putting its trust into state-sanctioned channels of lobbying and pressurizing, was not enough.

The B and T in LGBT

The acronym LGBT points toward four gender and sexual identity categories: lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans. They are usually treated as having similar interests and belonging to the same universe. However, the relationship between lesbian and gay communities and movements, on the one hand, and bisexual and trans, on the other, was neither easy nor painless.

The Bisexual Movement

The beginnings of the organized bisexual movement can be ...