Unlike the affiliate offices, the national ACLU took a very measured approach to LGBTQ issues until the 1960s, entering the fray mostly on First Amendment grounds in the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s.
Their involvement, while not always successful, opened the door to increased collaboration. Some affiliates also challenged local laws against LGBTQ bars, restaurants, and other meeting places. Some sent speakers to homophile meetings, which also featured a small number of psychologists, educators, politicians, and religious leaders. The local ACLU was one of them.Ī handful of affiliates were willing to meet with LGBTQ advocates in the 1950s and early 1960s. There were very few places to turn for assistance. Even the threat of arrest could cost them dearly, as it was not uncommon for gay men and lesbians - as well as gender non-conforming individuals or those assumed to be LGBTQ - to lose jobs, homes, or even custody of their children if they were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Many women and men pled guilty and paid a fine, not knowing that merely being in a gay bar was not against the law at that time. Both San Francisco law enforcement and agents with California’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control could and did raid gay bars and arrest patrons. He also acknowledged the vexing problem of the local police. He spoke to a small group of women on July 5, 1956, advising them to educate themselves about their rights. Within the first year of launching DOB, ACLU members Martin and Lyon invited Ernest Besig, the executive director of the ACLU’s Northern Calfornia affiliate, to a meeting in San Francisco. In doing so, she succinctly summoned forth for younger generations like mine the array of social, cultural, and legal institutions confronted by activists in the 1950s and 1960s. “We were fighting the church, the couch, and the courts,” legendary lesbian activist Del Martin often said when recalling the beginning of LGBTQ organizing. It was in San Francisco that I met and learned the histories of some of the earliest members of what was then called the “ homophile movement.” Their work was multifaceted. What is not generally known is that many early LGBTQ organizers were also ACLU members.Īs an organizer myself, the significance of the ACLU to the early efforts of LGBTQ activists became obvious during my years as staff for the Northern California affiliate from 1978 through the mid-1990s. Since the 1950s, organizers working in tandem with ACLU advocates have shaped the fight for justice and equality for LGBTQ communities as well as people living with HIV and AIDS. One of the most significant examples is the LGBTQ movement. social movements since its founding in 1920. The American Civil Liberties Union has influenced, and been influenced by, U.S.