The Australian arm of the Daughters of Bilitis was formed in Melbourne in 1969, and is considered Australia's first gay rights group. It was inspired by the American Daughters of Bilitis movement. After a few months, the group rejected the increasing radicalisation of its American counterpart, and renamed itself the Australasian Lesbian Movement.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) social movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Social movements may focus on equal rights, such as the 2000s movement for marriage equality, or they may focus on liberation, as in the gay liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Earlier movements focused on self-help and self-acceptance, such as the homophile movement of the 1950s. Although there is not a primary or an overarching central organization that represents all LGBT people and their interests, numerous LGBT rights organizations are active worldwide. The earliest organizations to support LGBT rights were formed in the early 20th century.
The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was one of the earliest LGBT organizations in the United States, probably second only to Chicago's Society for Human Rights. Communist and labor activist Harry Hay formed the group with a collection of male friends in Los Angeles to protect and improve the rights of gay men. Branches formed in other cities and by 1961 the Society had splintered into regional groups.
LGBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which was used to replace the term gay in reference to the LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s. Activists believed that the term gay community did not accurately represent all those to whom it referred.
Dorothy Louise Taliaferro "Del" Martin and Phyllis Ann Lyon were an American lesbian couple known as feminist and gay-rights activists.
The Daughters of Bilitis, also called the DOB or the Daughters, was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. The organization, formed in San Francisco in 1955, was conceived as a social alternative to lesbian bars, which were subject to raids and police harassment. As the DOB gained members, their focus shifted to providing support to women who were afraid to come out. The DOB educated them about their rights, and about gay history. The historian Lillian Faderman declared, "Its very establishment in the midst of witch-hunts and police harassment was an act of courage, since members always had to fear that they were under attack, not because of what they did, but merely because of who they were." The Daughters of Bilitis endured for 14 years, becoming an educational resource for lesbians, gay men, researchers and mental health professionals.
The words homophile and homophilia are dated terms for homosexuality. The use of the word began to disappear with the emergence of the gay liberation movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, replaced by a new set of terminology such as gay, lesbian, and bisexual.
One, Inc., or One Incorporated, was one of the first gay rights organizations in the United States, founded in 1952.
Queer nationalism is a phenomenon related both to the gay and lesbian liberation movement and nationalism. Adherents of this movement support the notion that the LGBT community forms a distinct people due to their unique culture and customs.
Society Five was a gay rights and social support organisation formed in Melbourne, Australia, in January 1971. Initially known as Campaign Against Moral Persecution, after the Sydney-based organisation that inspired it, the group was soon renamed Society Five. For a decade it campaigned on behalf of Melbourne's gay community, as well as offering a telephone counselling service. By 1977 it was matched in strength by the Homosexual Law Reform Coalition. By 1981 it had disbanded, following internal conflicts.
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the 1970s.
LGBT rights organizations are civil rights, health, and community organizations created and existing to further the civil and human rights and health of sexual minorities and to improve the LGBT community.
The Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (VGLRL) is the peak lobby group in Victoria, Australia for the attainment of equality, human rights and social justice for the entire Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (GLBTI) community.
The North American Conference of Homophile Organizations was an umbrella organization for a number of homophile organizations. Founded in 1966, the goal of NACHO was to expand coordination among homophile organizations throughout the Americas. Homophile activists were motivated in part by an increase in mainstream media attention to gay issues. Some feared that without a centralized organization, the movement would be hijacked, in the words of founding member Foster Gunnison, Jr., by "fringe elements, beatniks, and other professional non-conformists".
The Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives (ALGA) is a community-based non-profit organisation committed to the collection, preservation and celebration of material reflecting the lives and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex LGBTI Australians. It is located in Melbourne. The Archives was established as an initiative of the 4th National Homosexual Conference, Sydney, August 1978, drawing on the previous work of founding President Graham Carbery. Since its establishment the collection has grown to over 200,000 items, constituting the largest and most significant collection of material relating to LGBT Australians and the largest collection of LGBT material in Australia, and the most prominent research centre for gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and intersex history in Australia.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the United States have a long history, including vibrant subcultures and advocacy battles for social and religious acceptance and legal rights.
Ada C. Bello is a Cuban American LGBT rights activist and medical laboratory researcher. She was a founder of the Philadelphia Chapter of Daughters of Bilitis and the Homophile Action League. Bello led activism efforts for the LGBT community beginning in the late 1960s and continues to serve in advocacy roles including as a board member of the LGBT Elder Initiative.
