stitched together as one community. The colours also have each a meaning: pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic, indigo for serenity, violet for spirit- pink and turquoise have later been removed for technical reasons( pink couldn’ t be properly rendered) and balance reasons( a pair numer seemed better). The flag becomes extremely popular after the murder of Harvey Milk in November 1978. As the decade closes, the first case of AIDS appears in the US, yet not registered as such.
WEST
Europe is a more complicated subject because it is a patchwork of countries and cultures. While some of them, like France, tend to be seen as very open minded, very soon, others like England have a more puritan reputation. But the cradle of the“ Swinging Sixties” deserves a more nuanced portrait.
From a political point of view, for example, things actually happen to contradict these assumptions entirely. Since 1942, France condemns homosexual relationships under the basis of protecting m i n o r s, b u t w h e n h e t e r o s e x u a l relationships are forbidden with a minor under 13, the legal age for homosexual relationships is 21- which is the age of majority at the time. This limitation is lowered in 1974 when the age of majority becomes 18 years old. On another note, starting 1960, indecent assault is punished twice as harshly if it’ s of homosexual nature. In England, the decade opens with the case of April Ashley, model and restaurant hostess, who is outed as a trans woman in 1961 and loses her job. She is the first known case of reassignment surgery. Meanwhile, homosexuality stops being criminalized in both England and Wales in 1967. In Germany, the political situation is complicated by the aftermath of the war. The law condemning homosexual acts, called paragraph 175, is a remnant of the german empire that had been enforced by the nazis, and it is kept by the newfound Democratic Republic of Germany until 1968, and by West Germany in 1969. In both cases, there is also a difference of legal age between homosexual relationships( 21) and heterosexulal ones( 14). In Italy, homosexuals acts have been allowed since the unification of the country in 1860, but Mussolini’ s regime still persecuted homosexual men, with public admonitions and confinement. As for A u s t r i a, t h e d e c r i m i n a l i z ation o f homosexual acts happens as late as 1970.
Activism happens late. Communist movements from all countries tend to be supportive of LGBT rights, but even leftist groups are tainted with homophobia, and the first LGBT organizations only start appearing at the end of the decade: in 1969 it’ s the Committee for Homosexual Equality in Manchester who becomes one of the first british organizations fighting for
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