How Legislation has affected LGBT families and marriages in the last 20 years - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages Although, there existed the term ‘bisexual’ and also the people who openly lived as bisexuals before the 1960’s, a properly patterned identification on the basis of this sexual orientation did not take its inception until after Stonewall was founded in 1989. According to Lillian Faderman, “lesbianism has no constants”, signifying the essential function it has played in the recent development of other-than-ordinary sexual orientation roles - of lesbianism - in the social world. (Faderman 1991) The bisexual movement, in turn, takes its roots from this feminism and lesbianism. (Beemyn et al 1996) The evolution of same-sex desires and the willingness to correlate with a person of the same gender largely links its roots to women rather than men. Although men have been closely linked to the bisexual liberation movement since its inception, most of the smaller bisexual groups have been in the past, and currently as well, led by women. These women also include those who were once identified as lesbian feminists. This difference signifies the way lesbianism was largely politicized within the feminist movement. Such politicization has not occurred in the gay male culture neither has male bisexuality been as politically problematic to gay men as female bisexuality has been to female homosexuals. The Growth of the LGBT Community Ten years after the famous Stonewall incident, in 1979, a coalition which was termed as the Moral Majority was formed by traditional and fundamentalist Christians, with their endeavors headed at the increasing popularity and growth of the LGBT community. The objective of setting up the coalition was to bring the religious beliefs of the constituent groups under a single political alliance. The essential and most significant point on the coalition’s agenda was to restrict the protection of rights of the bisexual, gay and lesbian community and families. Although the Moral majority dissolved in the fall of 1989, it resulted in many new political-religious groups and organizations being formed in the following two decades. American Family Association, American Centre for Law and Justice, the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family and the Traditional Values Coalition were the ones prominent among these. Gay men and lesbians worked together again during the AIDS crisis in late 1980’s and 1990’s when they endeavored to gain rights for the LGBT community and struggled to obtain federal recognition and financial support for HIV and AIDS. Many voluntary AIDS-specific organizations such as San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Gay Men’s Health Crisis were set up during that time. The continued endeavor resulted in the second national demonstrative walk in Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights on 11th October 1987. A memorial to the people who died of AIDS was displayed at the National Museum on the following weekend. It covered an area larger than a football pitch and included 1920 panels. Two days later, what followed was perhaps the “the largest civil disobedience ever held at the US Supreme Court”, when nearly 600 Lesbian, gay, Bisexual and Transgender individuals were detained by the police. As of July 2007, Massachusetts was the only state which did not prohibit same-sex marriage. Civil amalgamations were present in Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire and New Jersey whereas in California, the District of Columbia, Oregon, Maine, Washington, Hawaii and numerous towns ...Download file to see next pagesRead More