Queer As Art issue 2 April-May-June 2017 | Page 28

LGBT rights, followed in 1970 by the Gay
Liberation Front. In France, it’s in 1971 that
t h e Fro n t H o m o s e x u e l d ’A c t i o n
Révolutionnaire presents itself as an
alternative over outdated and more
moderate groups. As for Germany, it’s in
1971 that the Homosexuelle Aktion
Westberlin appears in West Germany,
followed in 1974 by the Allgemeine
Homosexuelle Arbeitsgemeinschaft who is
heavily linked to the communist party.
And once more, the cultural
background tells another story entirely.
Starting from 1960, London becomes a
capital of pop culture, and all fields of art
are affected. More popular
neighborhoods benefit from this trend
and become places where people meet
and discuss political activism, based
around anti-nuclear movements and
sexual liberation. It’s in 1966 that the Times
magazine uses for the first time the
expression of “the swinging city” to refer
to London and it shapes the entire
decade. But most of the people involved
in this so-called popular revolution are
actually middle-class young people. It is
the same in France, where the people
involved in the events of May 1968 are
mostly parisian students, at a time when
90% of students are coming from middle
and higher-class, and mostly men. And
while the movement calls for a general
liberation of people and mentalities, and
obtains huge social changes, it doesn’t
really cater to LGBT rights.
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Again, things change more during
the 70s, when feminist movements
become more present and vocal, and the
development of contraception pushes
them upfront in public debates. Sexual
liberation allows sex to become a public
subject, not just a private one, and “non-
procreative sexualities” are seen in a new
light - but still a political one. Homosexual
acts become something to revendicate, as
a form of rebellion against the influence of
church in public affairs and the
reinforcement of the nuclear family by a
capitalist economy who wants to sell
household appliance. In 1971, the second
Pride sees marches happening in Paris,
London, West Berlin and Stockholm. In
1972 in France, the magazine Partisans
publishes an article about sexuality and
repression and for the first time, considers
heterosexuality and homosexuality
equally. And in 1979, Sweden is the first
european country to remove
homosexuality from the list of mental
illnesses.
EAST
The social context during the 1960s
and 1970s was vastly different in the
Eastern bloc than in the Western. While
the West was undergoing major social
changes, socialist-ruled states struggled to
maintain a strict social order despite
feeling the ripples of the West’s wave of
individualization and liberalization of
morals. Despite these two decades being
defining for lesbian, gay, bisexual and