AMERICA
The position in the Sixties slowly changes compared to the previous decade. The Vietnam war, started in 1954, c o m e s w i t h a r i s e o f p ro t e s t i n g movements. In the United States, the Beat Generation is the first cultural movement showing of the emergence of a counter culture rooted in anti capitalism, rejecting materialism in favour of spiritual quest( through the use of psychedelic drugs), personal exploration and sexual liberation. The“ Beatniks” are poets and some of t h e m w r i t e a b o u t h o m o s e x u a l experiences. Although this movement is very male-centered, because girl rebellion is faced with violent backlash, it brings homosexuality to the table for the first time in a positive light.
A few gay activist groups have started to appear in the 1950s. The Mattachine Society is one of them, heavily linked to the Communist Party and often focusing on the actions of police against gay people, which shows again how anticapitalist politics and lgbt activism go hand in hand. Five years later, in 1955, the group of the Daughters of Bilitis is formed, as an alternative to lesbian bars who were harassed more and more often by the police. This social group is asking for a better education about LGBT issues, as well as civil and political rights for LGBT people.
These are the two axes that start developing in the 60s. More and more groups appear, such as the East Coast Homophile Organization( ECHO) in 1963, and the National Transsexual’ s Counseling Unit in 1965, the world’ s first transgender organization; and these organizations reclaim and obtain civil rights, such as the decriminalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults( 1962 in Illinois, 1969 in Canada). The same year, Franck Kameny, teacher in the Astronomy Department of Georgetown University, is fired because of his perceived sexual orientation and enters a judicial procedure against the US government. He creates the Wa s h i n g t o n, D. C. b r a n c h o f t h e Mattachine Society and sides with the Daughters of Bilitis in a number of protests and picket lines in front of the White House, the Pentagon, the United Nations, and the United States Civil Service Commission. In 1966, endocrinologist and sexologist Harry Benjamin publishes The Transsexual Phenomenon; a Scientific Report on Transsexualism and Sex Conversion in the Human Male and Female, opening the door to the idea of sexual transition and advocating for a humane treatment of transsexual people. This is also the year of the founding of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit in San Francisco, which is the world’ s first transgender organization.
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