LGBT social movements

When students arrive to Rutgers the resource center provide a Welcome Week packed with events and programs to familiarize students with the University, their peers, and the center. Past Welcome Weeks have included a Movie Night, Queer Club Fair and Social, where students are able to meet some of the many LGBTQA organizations on campus. The week continues with a LGBTQA International Student Brunch where students enjoy a complimentary breakfast and engage in discussion about the Resource center…

This past summer, the United States took a monumental step for LGBT rights by allowing same-sex couples to marry in all fifty states; however, there’s still a long way to go for LGBT equality. One struggle same-sex couples face today is adoption. Since same-sex couples cannot conceive on their own, many couples look to adoption to create families, which is no easy task. When trying to adopt in the United States, same-sex couples face prejudice and legal barriers in the court system based only on…

There has arguably never been a better time to be LGBT. The youth of today are experiencing a wave of acceptance that was not felt in our grandparents, or even our parents, generation. Everywhere you look people are talking about it; the “It Gets Better” project, Caitlin Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair, the historic Supreme Court ruling in which it was decided 5-4 that individual states must recognize the marriages of same-sex couples, and even in sociology. Sociologists studying…

In the United States the gay rights movement has undergone huge advances within the last century. These advances range from a variety of social topics including the legalization of gay marriage, allowing individuals to openly serve in the military, and even gain the basic right to lead and volunteer for a boy scout troop. In fact, most of these advances stem from legislation and social protest/movements within the past twenty years. With all of these monumental and speedy advances with gay…

Social progression would not be possible without the doing of individuals coming together to take necessary stands in order to improve living circumstances for those who are or were oppressed. Homosexuality was not an idea that was popularly accepted and grew to be controversial when it first surfaced society. Many of those who characterized themselves faced tremendous discrimination solely because of the fact they went against societal norms. In the year 1969 of June, a group of LGBTQ…

Discrimination has become painfully familiar in our society. There are many issues that threaten our society and many problems we face on a daily basis, and some when addressed, can lead to great social advances. Some people would argue that homosexuality threatens us as a society, and unfortunately, these feelings have not ended with just civilians, some people insisting that homosexuals serving openly in the military threaten unit cohesion and military effectiveness. Although it has been…

In 1985, a passionate group of individuals grew weary of the social system that oppressed them and founded the Austin Latina/Latino Lesbian and Gay Organization, ALLGO. This team realized that intersectionalism instigated their disadvantages in life and corrupted the very movements that were supposed to be supporting them. They saw “on one side, mainstream gay activists whose agendas ignored farm workers, police brutality, and racism; and on the other side, mainstream Latino activists whose…

. HIV/AIDS was ironically the main catalyst that basically started the equality movement. When gays were turned away from the hospitals as their partner were dying, they began to ask why they weren 't considered a spouse. If they shared property, money, and everything else then why couldn 't they? They began to seek change and as with…

I had cut myself off from the gay community for so long and RPDR brought me an entrance into the world I had found foreign. I watched Paris is Burning, a staple for the LGBT community lexicon, educated myself on the social movements of gay activists, and I even started interacting with other fans on the internet. The connections I made online helped me assimilate into my own gay community in real life. My boarding school, the Louisiana School for Math…

brought a new wave of progress and radical black movement. This historical Jazz Age was essentially an emergence of new life within Harlem and the gay community. One aspect of the Harlem Renaissance that was crucial to its upbringing of progressive “New Negroes” is the black lesbian subculture that began to arise. This subculture intertwined with Afro-American jazz and the blues, working as both outlets for sexual and emotional expression and social awareness. These music genres, their…