The Modern Gay & Lesbian Civil Rights Movement in the United States

Abstract

Historians and classroom teachers have long avoided researching and teaching society about the modern Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Movement in the United States. This research examines parts of the movement and is divided into three parts. The first part involves examining the national movement beginning in 1950 with the establishment of homophile organizations to the period of Gay Liberation in the 1970s. Second, the movement is studied in Rochester, New York through the examination of issues between 1971 and 1975 of the gay and lesbian publication The Empty Closet. Lastly, the information and discoveries made in the first two parts are used in part 3 to show how gay and lesbian history can be taught effectively in a high school social studies classroom using several teaching strategies