ABSTRACT
Influenced by major historical developments in the 1940s, the US homophile movement began in 1950-51. For the next two decades, it championed gay and lesbian rights in an era of dramatic social, cultural, and political change. The homophile movement changed over time, with distinguishable periods of activism in 1950-53, when the dominant orientation was leftist; 1953-61, when it was predominantly liberal; and 1961-69, when gay and lesbian activism diversified and radicalized. Homophile mobilization was constrained by pervasive cultural messages that presented homosexuality not only as sin, crime, and disease, but also as inferior, immoral, and undesirable. The homophile movement’s relationships with other movements changed in the 1960s. Many gay and lesbian activists only participated in the homophile movement, but some were active in other struggles, either before, during, or after their period of involvement in the homophile movement. Homophile activists also began to engage in new ways with electoral politics, especially in urban districts with large concentrations of LGBT voters.
