History of LGBT Pride
20th Century (Pre Stonewall)

In the twentieth Century there was a 'line drawn in the sand' so to speak. Gone are the objective views of homosexuality and as it became clearer that a community of LGBTQ members was founding with support from more 'liberal' members of society. Many people chose a very traditional view that homosexuality was deemed wrong by the decree of god (although this view is given to us by the church... not necessarily the 'almighty') and this caused civil unrest throughout the modern world.

In New York on February 21, 1903, New York police conducted the first United States recorded raid on a gay bathhouse, the Ariston Hotel Baths. 26 men were arrested and 12 brought to trial on sodomy charges; 7 men received sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years in prison.

In 1920 the word Gay is used for the first time in reference to homosexuals in the Underground and in 1921 England's first attempt to make lesbianism illegal failed.

In 1923 the word fag is first used in print in reference to gays in Nels Anderson's The Hobo: "Fairies or Fags are men or boys who exploit sex for profit." and in May 14, 1928 the word faggot is first used in print in reference to gays in a vocabulary of criminal slang published in Portland, Oregon: "All the faggots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight".

In 1924 the first homosexual rights organization in America is founded in Chicago — The Society for Human Rights. This movement only existed for a few months before being ended by the police.

Meanwhile in Germany in 1930 the National Socialist German Workers Party bans homosexual groups and homosexuals are sent to concentration camps. Nazis burn the library of Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Research, and destroy the Institute.

In 1941 Transsexuality was first used in reference to homosexuality and bisexuality and in 1945 , upon the liberation of Nazi concentration camps by Allied forces, those interned for homosexuality are not freed, but required to serve out the full term of their sentences under Paragraph 175.

In 1950, 190 individuals in the United States are dismissed from government employment for their sexual orientation, commencing the Lavender scare. And on the 7th of June, 1954 Alan Turing died from cyanide poisoning, 18 months after being given libido-reducing hormone treatment for a year as a punishment for homosexuality. By the late 1950's psychologist Evelyn Hooker publishes a study showing that homosexual men are as well adjusted as non-homosexual men, which becomes a major factor in the American Psychiatric Association removing homosexuality from its handbook of disorders in 1973.

In 1961 the Vatican declare that anyone who is "affected by the perverse inclination" towards homosexuality should not be allowed to take religious vows or be ordained within the Roman Catholic Church, solidifying their view on the issue.

In 1967 the Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalised male homosexual behaviour in England and Wales. The book "Homosexual Behaviour Among Males" by Wainwright Churchill breaks ground as a scientific study approaching homosexuality as a fact of life and introduces the term "homoerotophobia", a possible precursor to "homophobia". The Oscar Wilde Bookshop, the world's first homosexual-oriented book store, opens in New York City.

Next Section (Stonewall)