The Issue of Lesbian Rights - Coursework Example

Describe a movement that mobilized around one of the following issues, discussing why the issue mobilized the movement briefly but concentrating on a) who organized b) how they organized c) what tactics they used to get public recognition for their cause. The issue of lesbian rights is the focus of this essay. By looking at the evolution of the lesbian rights movement from a historical perspective and by concentrating on the activists and their tactics, it is hoped that a thorough understanding of the subject would be attained. The essay attempts to deal with the history of lesbian rights movement in the United States of America and its implication for the rest of the world. The beginnings of the fight for recognition of gays and lesbians as legitimate relationships began in the early decades of the twentieth century, led by organizations such as the Mattachine Society, the Daughters of Bilitis, One, etc. Some of the founding members of these activist organizations were also regular contributors to The Journal of Homosexuality, founded by John P. DeCecco. The journal’s launch was a symbolic as well as a scientific step forward for the lesbian community and would prove to be powerful medium of voicing dissent (Boles, 2007). Moreover, by demystifying the distortions surrounding homosexuality through the written word, the journal gave the movement a quality of immortality and permanence. The tactic of publishing dissenting opinions and facts were also adopted in parallel by gay men of the day. Jack Nichols, who was a leading light for gays founded the first weekly newspaper for this segment of the demography called GAY in 1969. This just goes to show the effectiveness of printed publications in moving forward the movement’s agenda. It was at this crucial moment in the movement’s history that such women leaders as Phyllis Lyons and Del Martin started to make significant impact on public perceptions of lesbians. Their mode of protest was the most natural of the several tactics that we would see in the course of this essay. Lyons and Martin was a lesbian couple themselves. By openly flaunting their relationship for 52 years that they were together, they made a resounding statement on behalf of the gay and lesbian community. Their example made such an impact that in February of 2004, “when the mayor of San Francisco allowed same-sex couples to obtain a marriage license, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin were the first to be licensed and married and appeared on the front page of many newspapers throughout the U.S. and abroad” (Boles, 2007). As the lesbian rights movement gathered momentum, its activists organized more elaborate and bold exhibition of their cause. To take a recent example, the National Organization for Women (NOW), a preeminent women’s rights advocacy group in the United States, conducted a Lesbian Rights Summit right next to the Capitol Hill at the Hyatt hotel. The pomp and ceremony manifest in the event is a sign of the progress made by the lesbian rights movement over the last century. The key participants in the Summit and their presentations to the audience underline the seriousness of the event. Important political leaders, including Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin state Democrat, addressed the gathering with a passionate and memorable speech. Such public talks are one of the oldest and time-tested tactics employed by lesbian activists and its effectiveness has not waned in the first decade of the twenty first century dominated by digital technology. There were other factors surrounding this speech, which made it such as success. Rep. Tammy Baldwin is also the first lesbian woman to be elected to the House of Representatives (Boles, 2007). The organizers of the summit displayed a keen advertorial imagination when they arranged for a "fire-eating ceremony" by the Lesbian Avengers and music by "The Butchies"; both of them attracting mainstream media attention. The other tactic employed by NOW to give the event an air of official ceremony is awarding of “Women of Courage” badges and citations to veteran activists. The other events in the summit took the form of “roundtables and workshops on topics such as campus organizing, lesbians in the media and lesbian adoption and foster care…One of the busier exhibits showcases sex aids, including the newly FDA-approved "Glyde Dams" products, an oral sex prophylactic” (Agonito, 1977). The lesbian rights movement benefited significantly by some of the advancement in the fields of human psychology and social sciences. Earlier, the notion of sex was synonymous with that of gender. But as new discoveries in human microbiology and genetics revealed, these are two disparate concepts. This discovery was vital for the gay and lesbian activists, as they finally felt vindicated of their long held view that their way of life was as natural as that of heterosexuals. It also presented activists with an opportunity to tactically utilize the scientific facts to further their cause. Endorsements from eminent intellectuals of the time, including Michel Foucault, gave homosexuality authoritative support. Foucault’s seminal work The History of Sexuality was a definite step forward for homosexuality from the prejudiced and unpersuasive argumentation used by equally powerful scientists of the previous generations, including Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin (Agonito, 1977). As science was overlapping into the domain of anthropology and psychology, the feminists of the day made use of the same medium of discourse to dispel conventional views on gender/sex roles and individual identity. One of the earliest instances of scientific knowledge being used as a tool for perpetuating lesbian rights is seen in the polemical work written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a feminist, author, lecturer, and reformed Darwinist. While she agreed with the "Gynecocentric Theory", wherein a woman was designated the role of a worker and mother, while men were seen as warriors, she also countered many conventional myths surrounding the nature of women. In her major work Women and Economics, Gilman used “an evolutionary perspective to explore womens status within and outside the home. Throughout her famous tract, Gilman questioned social Darwinism, noting that womens "nature" or "essence" had been socially conditioned by Darwins and others espousal of evolution. While Gilman included the role of mother within her conception of woman, she did not limit a woman to that position, making room for homosexuality within the realm of nature” (DeLamotte, 1997). The scientific contribution to the lesbian rights movement and its utilization as a sound tactic to counter ill-informed traditional notions of sexuality took several shapes. The burgeoning sexology both reacted and contributed to the debate since the broader nature of a womans sexuality was the main focus. Sexology, the study "and classification of sexual behaviors, identities, and relations," emerged during the latter part of the nineteenth century "as part of a wider concern with the classification of bodies and populations, alongside other new sciences, such as anthropology, sociology, psychology, and criminology" (DeLamotte, 1997). The term sexology did not come into use until the early twentieth century, but the material it addressed influenced the culture and science of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. More importantly, it has had a crucial role in the progress of lesbian rights movement. Another significant step forward for lesbians in America occurred during the first two decades of the twentieth century. This was a time when same-sex relationships among women were becoming more common. The intimate relationship between two women was then referred to as Boston Marriages, as this phenomenon was more common in the North Eastern states of the United States. The conservative sections of society did not make a hue and cry over it, as it was almost always transitory and these women eventually married men. They were even encouraged, for they taught women about love and prepared them for a life of marriage. Most of these relationships “occurred on womens colleges as same-sex friendships which emulated in outward appearances and behaviors opposite-sex courting. Many women remained in these relationships after graduation because they encouraged professional and personal growth and fulfillment” (LeGates, 2001). These early feminists, enthused by the little success they had in defining their identity, read sexology books as they were published in unprecedented numbers. Their era is also marked by the vibrant interactions and communications the members of the lesbian community had. While their group discussions and debates were not collectively planned as a tactical maneuver, they nevertheless proved to be one. For instance, "the feminist readers of the pre-World War I journal The Freewoman exchanged texts and extracts among themselves, and held discussion groups on sexuality related topics. Reading and talking about sex challenged taboos placed on it by society and positioned women as autonomous agents of their own knowledge, both empirically and experientially acquired. As women learned more about their bodies, their desires, and their needs, many realized that a woman’s identity was ultimately a gender question that revitalized, divided, and confined women in assigning them their sphere”. (LeGates, 2001) Later day feminists, equipped with a more nuanced understanding of gender, even went so far as to say that the concept of gender is an artificial one and therefore “unnatural”. For these modern feminists, Androgyny represented their ultimate ideal as they continued to redefine and expand the scope and meaning of gender. Empowered by this radical new perspective on gender, the lesbians of the time discovered "the sexually neutral concepts of need and desire which seemed to promise more negotiating space for women, particularly for women who wished to move between sexual identities" (Fischer, 1992). It is the legacy of these modern feminists that lesbians, at the turn of the millennium, see self-sufficiency, autonomy and self-restraint as amounting to an erotic state of existence, while at the same time questioning the conventional gender constructions. Lesbians in America are constantly pushing the envelope for more concessions on the legal front. Strangely though, while the gay and lesbian rights movement’s epicenter was the United States, a few other countries have progressed further as of date. There is now a need for lesbian rights to be made part of the universal human rights as mandated by the United Nations. The legal disparities across national borders have already given the governing authorities a handful of headaches. Recently, a retired Coventry University academician made legal history when she and her lesbian partner raised a lawsuit against the government for not giving their marriage due recognition. The couple in question is Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger, aged 51 and 49 respectively, who have lived together for close to two decades got married in Vancouver, Canada, where homosexual marriages are legally valid. When the married couple returned home to Britain, they learnt that their nuptial knot does not hold here. This issue had raised a fair bit of controversy across the nation, with support from human rights organizations such as Outrage and Liberty, who are also sponsoring the legal recourse (LeGates, 2001). At a time when travel and tourism across the world is at a peak and when economic globalization has opened new avenues of cross-cultural interactions, a globally recognized legitimacy is needed for same-sex marriages. And the United States, as the self-proclaimed leader of the free world has to see its implementation as its responsibility to humanity at large. Homosexuality in general and lesbians in particular have now achieved general acceptance in the United States. This progress has to be complemented with advancements in legislative recognitions and protections of homosexual couple. The following passage, which succinctly captures the evolution of the lesbian rights movement in the United States from its modest beginnings to a potent political force within the span of a couple of centuries serves as a fitting conclusion to this essay: “Early nineteenth-century religious idealism and the market revolution of New England had given rise to the "cult of true womanhood," where the true woman was an expert in feminine domestic crafts and pious behavior toward church and family, intelligent and well-suited to a companionate, rather than hierarchical, marriage relationship. Drawing on white womens diaries and a range of intimate sources, Nancy Cott pointed out how the social practice of separate spheres created strong bonds and friendships between women, as well as a rich feminine culture in itself. By the turn of the twentieth century, the progressives’ notion of the New Woman that had emerged in Europe and English-speaking countries wished to break the separate spheres dichotomy and to be less restrained in spheres of citizenship and physical activities” (Fischer, 1992). Works Cited: Marlene LeGates, In Their Time: A History of Feminism in Western Society, Published by Routledge, 2001, ISBN 0415930987, 9780415930987, 406 pages Eugenia C. DeLamotte, Natania Meeker, Jean F. OBarr, Women Imagine Change: A Global Anthology of Womens Resistance from 600 B.C.E. to Present, Published by Routledge, 2007, 518 pages. Rosemary Agonito, History of Ideas on Woman: A Source Book (New York: Capricorn Books, 1977) Janet K. Boles, Historical Dictionary of Feminism (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, c.2006) Gayle V. Fischer, Journal of Woman’s History Guide to Periodical Literature, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992) Read More