ABSTRACT
For most people in the United States the tiny signals of sexual discontent and struggles of sexual repression were intermittent and far away. A critical element in the rise of the gay liberation movement for lesbians and gay men was the growth of what might be called "full-service" communities in many of the large cities of the United States. After the early 1970s the gay and lesbian movement became self-determining, interested in recruiting sympathetic nongay allies who might be helpful in various ways, but leaving the intellectual and organizational heavy lifting to be undertaken by new cadres of gays and lesbians. The social bonds and cultural beliefs that constituted the sexual worlds of the small town were beginning to loosen. In the sexual arena the two most important liberal and secularist sexually related social movements that claimed a mass base were the women's movement and the gay liberation movement.
