The Nebraska Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights, later called the Nebraska Coalition for LGBT Civil Rights, was an advocacy group in Nebraska that existed from 1981 to approximately 2002. It was based in Lincoln. The group advocated for LGBT civil rights. Its motto was "equality before the law", the same motto as the state of Nebraska. [1]
Its modern-day successor is OutNebraska.
The Nebraska Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights was founded in 1981 to support a proposed amendment to a Lincoln city ordinance. The amendment would have outlawed discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation and affectional orientation. Coalition spokesman Scott Stebelman said that about fifty people were working together in the new Coalition. [2]
Fierce opposition to the proposed amendment was led by University of Nebraska–Lincoln psychologist Paul Cameron. Coalition members refused to debate Cameron, saying "the coalition's feeling was we would debate any reasonable psychologist, but did not believe Paul Cameron fell into that class." [3]
At election time, the amendment was defeated by a 4-to-1 margin. The Coalition refocused on community advocacy instead of elections. [4]
The organization that Cameron founded to oppose the amendment would become the Family Research Institute, a nationally influential producer of pseudoscience against homosexuality. The Nebraska Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights argued against Cameron's publications conflating homosexuality with child abuse. [5] Their arguments contributed to Cameron's eventual expulsion from the American Psychological Association.
In 1983 the Coalition sponsored an event, the Great Plains Conference of Gay Men and Lesbians. Attendees from the plains states discussed recent failures to pass civil rights measures in the region. [6]
The Coalition distributed brochures on safe sex practices in the mid 1980s. The brochures sought to dispel the then-common myth that AIDS is spread by casual contact. [7]
The Coalition partnered with the Nebraska AIDS Project in 1986 to mail a survey to medical providers throughout Nebraska asking if providers would accept gay and lesbian patients or patients at risk for HIV. The responses were used to create a referral list of safe providers. [8]
In 1993 the Nebraska legislature considered a bill, LB 395, to ban employment discrimination against gays and lesbians. California-based Christian fundamentalist leader Lou Sheldon was brought to Lincoln by the Nebraska chapter of the Traditional Values Coalition to speak against LB 395. Sheldon claimed the bill was part of a nationwide anti-family "homosexual agenda". The Nebraska Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights coordinated a protest to counter Sheldon's statements. About fifty demonstrators appeared in front a local restaurant, the Green Gateau, chosen because of the belief that it had recently fired an employee for being gay. [9]
In the 1990s the Coalition sponsored poetry readings and dances that served as an alternative to socializing in gay bars. [10]
The Coalition opposed a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage in Nebraska. After the amendment passed in 2000, the Coalition protested the victory party of the Nebraska Family Council, the organization that had spearheaded the amendment. [11]
The Coalition staged a protest for marriage equality in 2002, forming a human chain of supporters around the Nebraska State Capitol. [12] It was the first time since World War II that a human chain was formed around the building. [13]
The organization also had social events in 2002 [14] but faded from existence shortly afterward. Same-sex marriage remained unlawful in Nebraska until the 2015 Waters v. Ricketts and Obergefell v. Hodges court rulings.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. 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 first organization to promote LGBT rights was the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, founded in 1897 in Berlin.
The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) was an American conservative Christian organization. It was founded in 1980 at Anaheim California by Rev. Louis P. Sheldon to oppose LGBT rights. Sheldon's daughter, Andrea Sheldon Lafferty, was initially the executive director and presently serves as president. TVC was influential in the 1980s and 1990s in lobbying for government policy based in Christian fundamentalism.
The Family Research Institute (FRI), originally known as the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality (ISIS), is an American socially conservative non-profit organization based in Colorado Springs, Colorado which states that it has "...one overriding mission: to generate empirical research on issues that threaten the traditional family, particularly homosexuality, AIDS, sexual social policy, and drug abuse". The FRI is part of a sociopolitical movement of socially conservative Christian organizations which seek to influence the political debate in the United States. They seek "...to restore a world where marriage is upheld and honored, where children are nurtured and protected, and where homosexuality is not taught and accepted, but instead is discouraged and rejected at every level." The Boston Globe reported that the FRI's 2005 budget was less than $200,000.
LGBT rights opposition indicates the opposition to legal rights, proposed or enacted, for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Laws that LGBT rights opponents may be opposed to include civil unions or partnerships, LGBT parenting and adoption, military service, access to assisted reproductive technology, and access to sex reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy for transgender individuals.
The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have varied over time. Today, LGB rights are considered to be advanced by international standards. However, the country has developed an increasingly negative reputation regarding the status of transgender rights.
In the Russian Federation, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people face significant challenges not experienced by others. Although sexual activity between same-sex couples is legal, homosexuality is disapproved of by most of the population, and same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are ineligible for the legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. Russia provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people and does not have a designation for hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Transgender people were allowed to change their legal gender without requiring gender-affirming surgery until 2023 and there are currently no laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity or expression, and recent laws could discriminate against transgender residents.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Australia have advanced over the latter half of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century to make Australia one of the most LGBT-accepting countries in the world, with opinion polls and the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey indicating widespread popular support for same-sex marriage. A 2013 Pew Research poll found that 79% of Australians agreed that homosexuality should be accepted by society, making it the fifth-most supportive country surveyed in the world. With its long history of LGBT activism and annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, Sydney has been named one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Georgia face significant challenges that non-LGBT people do not experience. Georgia is one of only a few countries in the former Soviet space that directly prohibits discrimination against all LGBT people in legislation, labor-related or otherwise. Since 2012, Georgian law has considered crimes committed on the grounds of one's sexual orientation or gender identity an aggravating factor in prosecution. The legaslative ban on discrimination has been enacted as a part of the Government efforts to bring the country closer to the European Union and make the country's human rights record in line with the demands of Georgia's European and Euro-Atlantic integration. Despite this, homosexuality is still considered a major deviation from the highly traditional Orthodox Christian values prevalent in the country, where public discussions of sexuality in general tend to be viewed in a highly negative light. Consequently, homosexuals are often targets of abuse and physical violence, often actively encouraged by religious leaders. The LGBT events regularly face significant opposition and are often cancelled in the face of violence. The LGBT rights activists were unable to hold their events due to violent opposition in 2012, 2013, 2021 and 2023. According to the 2021 International Social Survey Programme (ISSIP) study, 84% of the Georgian public thinks that sexual relations between two adults of the same sex are always wrong, which is the highest score in Europe.
Nebraska Initiative 416 was a 2000 ballot initiative that amended the Nebraska Constitution to make it unconstitutional for the state to recognize or perform same-sex marriage, same-sex civil unions or domestic partnerships. The referendum was approved on November 7, 2000, by 70% of the voters. The initiative has since been struck down in federal court and same-sex marriage is now legally recognized in the state of Nebraska.
The Nebraska AIDS Project (NAP) is a statewide AIDS Service Organization in Nebraska, which also serves parts of southwestern Iowa and eastern Wyoming. Founded in 1984, NAP is based in Omaha, with satellite offices throughout the state.
Woodhull Freedom Foundation, also known as Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, is an American non-profit organization founded in 2003 that advocates for sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. The organization is based in Washington, D.C., United States. Named after an influential member of the American woman's suffrage movement, Victoria Woodhull, its focus includes analyzing groups and individuals that seek to perpetuate a culture of sexual repression.
LGBT movements in the United States comprise an interwoven history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied movements in the United States of America, beginning in the early 20th century and influential in achieving social progress for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and transsexual people.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in North Macedonia face legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity have been legal in North Macedonia since 1996, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex married couples.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the U.S. state of Nebraska may face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Nebraska, and same-sex marriage has been recognized since June 2015 as a result of Obergefell v. Hodges. The state prohibits discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and housing following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County and a subsequent decision of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission. In addition, the state's largest city, Omaha, has enacted protections in public accommodations.
LGBT history in the United States spans the contributions and struggles of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, as well as the LGBT social movements they have built.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in South Africa.
Nebraska Family Alliance (NFA) is a fundamentalist Christian organization based in Lincoln, Nebraska. It is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1988. It most prominently lobbies against LGBT rights, such as same-sex marriage and LGBT adoption. The NFA also seeks legal restrictions on abortion, and to change change public policy on gambling and human trafficking. It advocates for traditional family structures and gender roles.
Lincoln Legion of Lesbians (LLL) was a lesbian feminist collective in Lincoln, Nebraska, that sought to destigmatize lesbianism and build lesbian community. The collective sponsored community events open exclusively to women and girls, advocating feminist separatism.
The Proseminar in Homophile Studies, one of the first courses in the United States about homosexuality, was held in the fall semester of 1970. It was taught at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln by professor Louis Crompton and others. The class was interdisciplinary, and used elements of the social sciences and the humanities.