LGBTQ Studies: 1940s-1950s

New York Times book review of Allan Berube's 1990 book, Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two.

Armed forces long prohibited gay people from service – but that only encouraged their communities and cause

University of Chicago interview with David K. Johnson, author of The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government.

By some estimates, as many as 100,000 service members were discharged for being gay between World War II and the 2011 repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

For decades, the agency purged gay and lesbian workers believing their sexual orientation made them security risks.

Organizations demanding respect and equal rights for people regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation emerged in the United States in the 1950s.

Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), one of the first lesbian organizations to be established.

Begun in 1950, the Mattachine Society was an early homosexual rights advocacy organization. It became the subject of an FBI internal security investigation between 1953 and 1956.

To address the discrimination they faced, gays and lesbians started organizing formally in the early 1950s. Called “homophile organizations," these pioneering groups worked to provide awareness, education, and unification of this oppressed minority.

Barbara Gittings interviewed by Jonathan Ned Katz in 1974 about her development as a Lesbian, and about the founding and early history of the New York Daughters of Bilitis.

The Mattachine Society was one of the first gay rights groups in the country. On April 21, 1966 they staged a "Sip-In": they went into a tavern, declared that they were gay, ordered a drink — and waited to be served, or turned away, in order to sue.

The late 1950s and the 1960s are best described as a period of transition leading up to the gay rights movement. It is during this time that the first gay rights organizations were formed.

James Baldwin was an essayist, playwright and novelist regarded as a highly insightful, iconic writer with works like The Fire Next Time and Another Country.

American gay rights activist, believed that gay people should see themselves as an oppressed minority entitled to equal rights.

During the 1950’s, Christine Jorgensen’s story brought the matter of sex change to the center stage of American public consciousness.

Early gay rights activist who coined the phrase "Gay is good" passed away in 2011.

Kinsey’s research led him to publish Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). These reports, based on 18,500 personal interviews, indicated a wide variation in behavior.