Word: legally
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Broken up into several sections, the book continues the discussion of the Stonewall riots with a quick overview of the prohibitions against homosexuality, including punishments and laws associated with such legal and religious condemnation, as well as an investigation into the origins of the term "homosexual" itself. Coined by a Hungarian author, the term was quickly adopted by doctors who, excited by concrete terminology, quickly proceeded to diagnose it as an illness to be treated. At the same time, however, the term could serve as a label, providing a disorganized group of individuals with an identity, a self-definition...
...power then led to the rise of an activist body to counter his political manipulations. Instead of trying to define and establish a unique and separate culture, gay activists decided to strive for assimilation by attempting to establish a niche in society for homosexuals. Queer groups began fighting serious legal battles in the '50s and '60s over the right to distribute homoerotic material and writings on gay topics through the mail, the lack of legal social spaces in which gay couples and singles could congregate, the exclusion of homosexuals from the military and the attempts to oust the supposedly subversive...
...process of organization and splintering followed the riots. As groups spring up with well-defined purposes, members leave to found their own societies with differing goals. The lesbian organizations branch off from gay groups and join up with feminism. Radical in-your-face activists split off from those seeking legal victories. With the slogan "Out of the closets and into the streets" queer groups made their presence and power known within society. Attempting to strike down anti-gay legislation, queer groups established powerful legal and educational networks. The strength of these networks, partly a result of Stonewall, was instrumental...
...Liebert wishes to focus on the "corrosive effects on the institution of marriage," well, I do not believe lesbianism is corrosive. If gay people choose to be married, I believe that should be their legal right. When he writes that "unions which do not produce virtuous citizens should not be accepted," is he implying that my husband and I should not be accepted? We produced our daughter, and she is a lesbian, but we do not believe that she is not a "virtuous citizen...
...important that I be at a bar at exactly midnight, when my ID both expired and made me legal. It was important for the same reason that watching the World Series as it happens--and not on video the next day--is important. These are livings that lose something in time lag. It is not that they lose their suspense or mystery. And it is not that the anticipation of their retelling many years from now demands an anecdotal "what I was doing as I turned 21." These times are special because they are urgent. They confound the order...